[Izz]

2049/2050 Season - March

Notable Performances

1 Mar: Mildren brought up career hit #3200 in style against the Thunder, slamming a line drive 441 feet over straightaway centre for a 2-run HR. He even managed a wink at the cameras as he rounded 3rd. Newcastle went on to lose the game 5-4.

3 Mar: Alan Sneddon’s remarkable season continued. Today he collected 5 hits for the 2nd time in his major-league career, going 5-6 with 2 doubles in Whangarei’s 9-2 win over Central Coast. He also stole bag #61 for the year, putting him equal top on the AUNZBL season record board.

4 Mar: The Sluggers went down 5-1 to the Thunder, but in the process Sneddon stole a base, his 62nd of the season. He now owned the single season stolen bases record.

4 Mar: Rob Lane went 5-5, with 3 doubles and a HR, to see Melbourne beat the Cowboys 9-5. He scored 4 runs and drove in 3 runners.

7 Mar: Ismael Aguirre won PotW. His stats: .424/.444/.788, 14-33, 7 runs, 3 doubles, 3HR, 10RBI, 2BB.

11 Mar: Kununurra weren’t doing so good, today dropping their 10th straight. They would break the slump the following night.

12 Mar: The Blue Sox beat Melbourne 10-2 to clinch the Southern Division. In the win, Juan Hernandez went 5-5, including a triple.

13 Mar: The Venom handed Whangarei an 11-6 hiding, and in so doing claimed the Coastal Division pennant.

13 Mar: Angelo Spear had won his last 5 starts. Today he went 6.2 innings, giving up 7 hits, 3 walks and 2 earned runs. He fanned 8, and the Thunder whipped Brisbane 13-2, giving Spear his 6th consecutive win and 20th of the season.

14 Mar: Sean Carr went .560/.645/1.080 over the last 7 days on his way to PotW. His 14-25 included 2 doubles, 1 triple and 3HR. He scored 8 runs, drove in 8 and walked 4 times.

14 Mar: Zach Barlow became the latest member of the March 5-hit club, going 5-5 against the Prospects. One of those hits was a triple. Canberra cantered to a 13-6 victory.

17 Mar: Manny Gallo had made a habit of late charges up the HR leaderboard and this year was no exception. On the 16th he hit 2HRs to take the outright lead and today hit another to be the 1st player to 40 in 2049.

21 Mar: Keiran Pickford won the season’s last PotW award with a strong .522/.586/.739 showing. 12-23, 4 runs, 5 doubles, 4RBI, and 4BB.

21 Mar: The Sluggers beat Brisbane 6-2 to claim the NZ, and to add to the celebrations Alan Sneddon scored 2 runs, giving him 137 for the season, a new record. He also stole 2 bases and drew 2 walks.

21 Mar: Carlo Gadsden went 5-6 in Hobart’s 4-3 extra-inning loss to Melbourne.

22 Mar: Brisbane and Wellington both secured wildcard berths with victories today. The Bandits were still in with a shot at the East-West pennant, only 1 game back from the Thunder with 2 games to play.

24 Mar: It took until the last day of the regular season for the Thunder to win the East-West, but win it they did, defeating Perth 4-2.

Notable Injuries

6 Mar: Beau Riseley (.282/.336/.468, 22HR) wouldn’t be back this season. He’d fractured a rib diving into 2nd for his 34th double of the year.

8 Mar: The Thunder, 1 game behind Brisbane in the East-West, would be without 1B Vic Gerlach (.307/.396/.470, 15HR) for the rest of this season, all the offseason, and probably most of spring training after he ruptured an MCL.

17 Mar: Rob Lane’s (.339/.399/.587, 25HR) season was over thanks to an oblique strain.

Other Notes

18 Mar: In massive news, Canberra’s Rick Clohessy (.295/.322/.524, 38HR), currently 3rd in the HR race, was today found guilty of failing a drug test. He would begin an immediate 80-game suspension. The 28 y/o was not available for comment and Canberra management didn’t have much to say either, though the word ‘disappointed’ was thrown around a fair bit.

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Zachary Woollett (.366/.445/.618, 35HR) won the batting crown, and finished the season also leading the league in SLG, OPS, and wOBA (.444).

Manny Gallo (.308/.350/.553, 43HR), also of Cairns, ended up running away with the HR crown, finishing the season 4 ahead of the field, and the only player to hit more than 40.

Ismael Aguirre (.354/.419/.615, 39HR) finished 2nd to Gallo in the HR standings, but ended up with the most XBH (86), and the most bases (398). He also finished tied for most doubles (42), and recorded 10.0 WAR, 1.1 higher than Woollett. Aguirre was 3rd on the BA board, had 4th-best OBP, 2nd-best SLG, OPS, and wOBA (.419), 2nd-most hits (229), 3rd-most RBI (129), 5th-most runs (106), and 3rd-best ISO (.261). He was the early favourite for SotY.

5 players recorded over 200 hits. Brendon Stennings (.357/.398/.570, 29HR) was top of that list with 233, good enough for the 2nd-best season total of all time. Ismael Aguirre was 2nd (his 229 the 3rd-best season total of all time). Manny Gallo recorded 209, while Wellington duo Christos Hutchinson (.345/.409/.433, 3HR) and Marcos Lopez (.318/.368/.540, 33HR) both recorded 201.

2 players reached the runs-walks double-double. The 1st of those was Alan Sneddon (.325/.481/.444, 5HR), who finished the season with an incredible 165 walks (from 153 games) and 137 runs, both season records. His OBP was also a new season record, eclipsing Young-tae Lee’s 2041 mark. Sneddon ended up with 67 stolen bases, and was only caught stealing 27 times. Amazingly, he only struck out 63 times during the season.

The other player to get the runs-walks double-double was Young-tae Lee (.263/.396/.435, 21HR), who scored exactly 100 runs and walked 113 times. It was the 3rd time in his career he’d achieved the feat and the 1st time since 2041.

Angelo Spear (20-6, 3.61 ERA, 3.95 FIP, 1.12 WHIP) was the only player to record 20 wins. He also threw 252.0 innings, more than any other pitcher.

Jay Cummins (19-12, 3.00 ERA, 3.80 FIP, 1.09 WHIP) lost his last 2 starts to fall agonizingly short of 20 wins, but he was the early pick for HotY. His ERA was 2nd-best, WHIP 3rd-best, H/9 (7.77) 5th-best, IP (249.0) 2nd-best, and WAR (4.8) 2nd-best.

Sterling Dunlop (14-7, 2.59 ERA, 3.16 FIP, 1.04 WHIP) was the statistician’s favourite, but his lack of wins would probably count against him. He did, however, lead the league in ERA, FIP, WHIP, K/9 (8.42), K/BB (5.21), and WAR (6.6). He was 3rd in BB/9 (1.62), and 2nd in strikeouts (198).

The only player to reach 200 Ks, hitting the mark exactly, was Walter Anglesey (18-7, 3.95 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 1.37 WHIP).

Wally Barlow finished the season with 39 saves, best in the league.

Standings, EORS