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2049/2050 Season - November

Notable Performances

1 Nov: Player of the Week went to Martin Valentin. He’d been tremendous for Perth across the last 7 days, hitting .536/.536/.750, his 15-28 including 4 doubles and a triple.

1 Nov: Cameron Worsfold was dominant against Darwin, allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 8, to see Wellington ease to a 9-0 victory. It was Worsfold’s 1st win of the season.

1 Nov: Keiran Pickford thought life was pretty good on the 31st of October, cracking a Grand Slam in an 8-1 Adelaide defeat of Melbourne. Today, though, things got even better for the 27 y/o, as he went yard 3 times. Each HR was a solo affair, but his leadoff dinger in the 9th tied the game up and set the stage for teammate Reginald Litchfield to hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th.

2 Nov: Sam Ross’s hit streak came to an end at 22 games.

5 Nov: Canberra’s Brad Baker went 5-5 to help the Cavalry trample the Prospects 15-8. He scored 3 runs and drove in 1.

6 Nov: The Sluggers had come to life at the back end of October, and today won their 10th straight, downing the Pioneers 14-9. They were now only 2 games back in the NZ and at the top of the wildcard stakes. They would lose the following night.

8 Nov: 24 y/o Metros’ rookie Roland Beckett took out this PotW with a .412/.429/.1.059 effort. What made the week extraordinary wasn’t the 14-34 at the plate, and it definitely wasn’t the 1 double hit or the 1 walk drawn. It was the 7 jacks he hit, including three 2HR games. He also had a 13-game hit streak going.

12 Nov: It took him a while but he finally got there. Bill Bransington hit his 399th HR on the 5th of October and subsequently struggled his way into November, hitting less than .200 for the year. However, today would’ve been sweet. In the bottom of the 1st he hit a 2-run shot, marking #400. The game went to extra innings but a walk-off Travis Vader single in the bottom of the 13th saw Canberra eke out an 8-7 win over Sydney. Bransington was the 7th player to make it to the 400HR mark.

15 Nov: PotW was awarded to Martin Brewster of the Crocs. He went .560/.571/.720, 14-25, with 1 double and 1HR.

16 Nov: Steven Hardy, signed by the Cowboys at the beginning of November as depth, found himself in the bigs and loving it. This day he cracked 5-5, with 2 doubles and a triple, scoring 3 runs in the process to help Christchurch sneak past Sydney 8-7 in extra innings. He scored the eventual winning run, hitting a 1-out triple in the top of the 11th, and coming home off a sac fly.

17 Nov: Alan Sneddon equaled the AUNZBL game record for steals, swiping 4 bases in Whangarei’s 5-2 win over Wellington. In the 5th he walked, stole 2nd on the next pitch, then stole 3rd on the following pitch before heading home on a sac fly. In the 9th he did exactly the same thing before scoring off a single past 2nd. At the conclusion of the game, Sneddon led the league in stolen bases (16), walks (46), and on-base percentage (.477).

18 Nov: Allan Spear gave the Fury goose eggs, conceding just 3 hits in the 6-0 win. He struck out 4 and only took 94 pitches to get through the game.

18 Nov: Roland Beckett had his 5th multi-homer game of the season, slugging 2HR in Auckland’s 9-8 extra-innings win over Hobart. The rookie had 14HR, 2nd in the league behind Benjamin Ziersch (17).

19 Nov: Brendon Stennings hit in his 20th consecutive game.

19 Nov: Gareth Orpen went 5-6 to help the Heat squeeze past the Sluggers 7-6 in 13 innings. The young Perth power-hitter’s night included a solo HR and a triple.

19 Nov: Vic Gerlach of the Thunder also collected 5 hits today, going 5-5 as the Central Coast lost 2-1 in 12 innings to the Cowboys.

22 Nov: Brendon Stennings took home PotW with a .500/.515/1.033 stat-line. His 15-30 included 1 double and 5HR.

26 Nov: Brendon Stennings extended his hit streak to 25 games.

27 Nov: Carl Bristcoe became the latest player to hit 3HR in a game in 2049, going deep thrice in Adelaide’s 11-10 victory over the Prospects. His scored 4 runs in the game and drove in 7 of the Venom’s 11 runs.

28 Nov: Stennings’ streak got busted at 26 games.

29 Nov: PotW this week was Christchurch’s Ed Geoghegan. He went .500/.517/1.036, 14-28, with 3 doubles and 4HR.

30 Nov: Whangarei started the month strong, then slumped a little in the middle, but they finished like they’d started, and today rattled off their 2nd 10-game winning streak of the season, pulling off a 3-2 victory over the Cowboys in 12 innings to get there.

Notable Injuries

8 Nov: Veteran Connor Rowling (.250/.348/.500, 6HR) only played 41 games in 2048 due to injury. He was set to miss at least 5-6 weeks of this season, too, this time with a sore shoulder.

8 Nov: On the back of Rowling’s injury news, Perth received another, bigger blow, learning that Ian Wiltshire (5-1, 3.46 ERA, 4.83 FIP, 1.61 WHIP) would be gone at least 14 months. He needed an elbow ligament reconstruction.

11 Nov: Pioneers’ closer Simeao Cndido (1-2, 8 sv) would be on the DL for the next month with shoulder soreness.

13 Nov: Rowan Belgrove (3-2, 1 sv) was out of the contest to be Sydney’s closer. He also needed an elbow ligament reconstruction, and was facing at least a year on the DL.

23 Nov: Wellington would have to do without hot SP Gavin Harris (6-0, 2.81 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 1.06 WHIP) for the rest of the season after he tore a rotator cuff.

25 Nov: Craig Hardy (.361/.439/.463, 0HR from 123PA) found himself on the DL again, this time with a sprained ankle. He would likely be out 3-4 weeks.

Month Awards

Rookie of the Month: Roland Beckett capped off an impressive November by taking home RotM. He hit .323/.341/.723 over the month, his 42-130 including a massive 15HR, as well as 5 doubles and 1 triple. He finished the month 3rd on the HR board, with 17.

Hurler of the Month: Paul ‘Wild Card’ Colenutt, who spent all of 2048 sidelined with injury, was 5-0 in November to take out HotM. He had an ERA of 1.40, an FIP of 4.47, and a WHIP of 0.82. He struck out 23 in 45.0 IP.

Slugger of the Month: In a month when so many hitters were teeing off, it was a quiet achiever who won SotM. Patrick Maggs hit .382/.477/.755, his 42-110 including 8 doubles and 11HR. He scored 21 runs, batted in 33 runners, and drew 18 walks.

Media Watch

Alastair Mildren: With all the talk in media circles of player longevity, attention focused once more on Mildren, who was again playing in a poor Newcastle side. And while he was no longer the destructive force he had once been, he was still leading the Roos in HR and holding down 6th spot in the lineup. For the year he was .269/.374/.488, 54-201, his 10HR putting him on 616 for his career. He looked set to break the 3200 hit mark this season, and was even a possibility to be the 1st player to reach 2000 RBI. In a surprising piece of stattage, he was now 3rd on the all-time walks list, and less than 100 behind Maurice Downes, who sat atop the pile with 1557 free passes.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: The Venom (14-14) were only par in November, but that was still enough to extend their advantage over all division rivals by 2. The Crocs (14-14) climbed off the bottom of the division into 2nd place, but at 7 games below .500 it already felt like they, as well as Perth and Darwin, were out of the race.

East-West Division: Things began to separate a little in the East-West. The Thunder (16-12) finished the month 3 games ahead of the Bandits (14-14), and 4 ahead of the Pioneers (13-15).

NZ Division: The Metros (16-12) continued to hold sway, though Whangarei’s (19-9) charge saw them just 1 game back. Wellington (15-13) dropped a game to 4 back, while Christchurch (13-15) dropped further below .500.

Southern Division: The Blue Sox (19-9) jumped into the lead as the Aces (10-18) struggled, starting December 8 games behind.

Wildcard: Whangarei had 1 slot all to themselves, while Brisbane and Wellington were tied up for the 2nd slot, only 1 game ahead of Kununurra.

#

Brendon Stennings (.403/.439/.672, 14HR) managed to stay above .400 going into December. He also led the league in wOBA (.471), hits (96), XBH (33), TB (160), and WAR (3.8). He was tied for the league lead in RBI with 50.

Alan Sneddon (.316/.486/.422, 2HR) seemed to be seeing the ball in slow motion. He led the league in OBP, having already drawn a massive 61 walks. His 23 stolen bases was also a league best, as were his 50 runs scored.

Terence Bansfield (.345/.417/.749, 19HR) shot to the HR lead courtesy of back-to-back 2HR games to finish the month. He also led the league in SLG, OPS, and ISO (.404). His 50RBI saw him tied with teammate Stennings at the top of that board.

Rob Lane (.294/.363/.550, 9HR) hit 8 triples through the 1st 2 months of the season, 2 more than next-best Manuel Salinas (.337/.443/.490, 3HR).

Roger Mangan (8-4, 2.04 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 1.07 WHIP) continued to lead the league in ERA and FIP, as well as WAR (2.7).

Jay Cummins (8-4, 2.34 ERA, 3.21 FIP, 0.95 WHIP) had the league’s best WHIP, and had thrown the most innings (92.1).

Pancho Aguilera was letting a few runs in but had converted 17 save opportunities, continuing to lead the league in that category.

Standings, Dec 1