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2051/2052 Season - October

Notable Performances

1 Oct: Baden Moore didn’t make Hobart’s Opening Day top 24, instead finding himself in AAA. He tried to present an optimistic front when media found him, saying, “It’s a long season, and if I play well here I’m sure I’ll get a chance to show my stuff in the bigs.”

1 Oct: Bob Davies had an as-close-to-perfect start to the season as you could get, shutting down Whangarei on the back of 5 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 3 and Sydney made their way to a 2-0 victory, thanks to a Gilbert Boyson 2-run HR in the 5th.

2 Oct: Matt Hanscombe lost 21 games pitching for Perth in 2050. “This year has a much better feel about it already,” he said after his 1st start of the season, wearing a huge grin, having just completed a 3-hit, 1-walk, 4-strikeout shutout of Cairns. Perth cruised to an 8-0 win.

3 Oct: Brad King had been promoted to Darwin’s big-league rotation midway through 2050 and most felt he’d been overmatched. He seemed a whole lot different in 2051 though, stopping Melbourne to the tune of 7-0 in his 1st start of the year. He still had some issues, giving up 5 walks to go with his 6 hits, but the 21 y/o had a great arsenal of pitches and the ability to keep the ball down in the zone. He struck out 5 in the win.

9 Oct: Teammate Sterling Bull said young Justin Auger made up one-half of the Thunder’s crazy-eyed duo. The other half was Sean Carr, though Bull said his crazy eyes were probably more a case of staying out too late for too many nights, while Auger looked “like he just might go unhinged at any moment.” Auger had rights to glare at Bull as much as he liked for the next 7 days, though, having won this season’s 1st PotW award. He hit .613/.613/1.290 over the last week, including an astonishing 3 triples (plus 3 doubles and 4HR) from 19 hits. He also scored 13 runs and stole 2 bases, and didn’t draw a single walk. The fans loved Auger’s new nickname, already turning up at games with bobble-eyes attached to their Thunder caps.

10 Oct: Craig Hardy spanked the Crocs today, going 5-5 in Sydney’s 7-3 win.

10 Oct: In all 10 games so far this season, Justin Auger had recorded at least 2 hits. His BA was .581. He would break the streak the following night with a 1-5 performance.

11 Oct: Sean ‘Music Man’ Carr might’ve been squinting a bit thanks to being seen out in the Central Coast nightspots at 3 a.m. this morning, but the late night certainly didn’t affect his hitting any. He went 5-5, including a HR and a double, to help Central Coast edge out Darwin 8-7. It was only Carr’s 2nd game back from an injury suffered during ST.

16 Oct: Antony Mansfield swiped PotW, even though he’d only played 2 games. Called up from AAA for Hobart, he was 6-7 from 8PA in those 2 games, going .857/.875/1.857. 3 of his hits were of the extra-base variety (2 doubles, 1HR). When notified he’d won the award, all the chunky SS could respond with was, “Huh?” A near-perfect echo of how most in the media felt, too.

22 Oct: Daniel Wise went 5-5, including 2 doubles, to help Newcastle rout the Thunder 10-2.

23 Oct: 35 y/o Adrian Walsh had won a single PotW back in 2046. Today he added another to his collection, thanks to a strong .522/.607/1.261 effort. His 12-23 included 5HR, one of those a Grand Slam.

24 Oct: Mike Wurfel was 39 y/o but, despite a career injury list as long as his arm, showed no signs of slowing down. He went 5-5 this day, including a 3-run jack and a double, in Darwin’s 16-0 slaughter of Kununurra. In other news from the same game, Brad ‘The Wizard’ King went to 4-0 with a scoreless 8 inning performance, striking out 10 and allowing just 4 hits. When asked if he felt he had enough in the tank to go for the shutout, he slowly replied, “Yeah, I reckon I did. But Skip said I threw 120-something pitches last start, so he wanted to save my arm. But yeah, I probably could’ve.”

30 Oct: Mike Wurfel was quoted during the week saying he saw no reason why he “couldn’t play until 45.” Winning PotW today(.522/.577/.783, 1HR) wouldn’t have dampened those aspirations any.

Notable Injuries

2 Oct: Burt Bargenquast would miss the next month of the season with a strained oblique.

7 Oct: The Roos were off to a 2-4 start to the season, and wouldn’t have enjoyed hearing that Bradley Courcha would be unavailable for 4-5 weeks while he recovered from a strained shoulder.

11 Oct: Wan-ling Tan (.360/.385/.440, 0HR) wouldn’t turn out for the Metros for at least 5-6 weeks after spraining his thumb.

24 Oct: Adelaide (6-17) would have to do without dependable 3B Norman Stone (.294/.326/.471, 3HR) for the next 4 weeks after he strained his PCL.

27 Oct: The Venom were dealt another blow today, with news that Benjamin Ziersch (.286/.327/.429, 5HR) had also strained his PCL and would be out of action for 5-6 weeks.

Notable Trades/Signings

25 Oct: 28 y/o Trent Allan’s career average dropped below .300 on the 24th, and the next day Sydney signed the CF to a 1-year extension. The deal had probably been in the works for some time, but Allan’s slow start to the year (.245/.315/.388, 1HR) wouldn’t have helped his bargaining power. He was in his 7th year in the majors and had played his entire career in a Sydney uniform.

Month Awards

Rookie of the Month: 23 y/o Cairns’ SS Paddy Shearer played AA in 2050, but found himself as the Crocs’ everyday SS to start 2051. He was in no way overawed by the jump, winning the season’s 1st RotM with a .377/.417/.688 performance. He was 29-77, with 14 runs, 7 doubles, 1 triple, 5HR, 19RBI, 5 walks, and 2SB.

Hurler of the Month: Kade Clark made the move to Melbourne in the offseason, where he was promised the closing role. And he was making a great fist of it so far, going 3-0, with 9 saves, in October. His ERA was 0.66, his FIP 2.32, and his WHIP 0.59. He’d struck out 9 in 13.2IP.

Slugger of the Month: This could only go to Crazy Eyes. Justin Auger had a mammoth opening month, going .416/.468/.788, 47-113, with 30 runs, 12 doubles, 3 triples, 8HR, 27RBI, 12BB and 2SB. The season leaderboards were all Auger. He had the league’s best BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA (.519), most hits, doubles, and runs, as well as the best ISO (.372), most XBH (23) and bases (89), and the best WAR (3.0). He was also tied for 2nd in the triples standings, 3rd in the HR race, and 3rd on the RBI chart.

Media Watch

Baden Moore: Had a good start to his AAA career as a hitter, though he admitted heading back to the minors was “a bit of a culture shock.” In October he hit .311/.393/.405, 23-74, with 14 runs, 4 doubles, 1HR, 4RBI, and 10BB. He’d played most of the month at 2B, where it was fair to say he’d struggled. He’d looked okay in the 3 games he’d spent at 3B.

Other Notes

30 Oct: The league decided to get tough after the 3rd all-in brawl of the month took place today in a game between division rivals Christchurch and Wellington. The 2 previous fracases had resulted in 2-game bans to each instigating player. However, for this fight, Wellington SS Rory Budd and Cowboys SP Carlo Avery both got 9 game suspensions, with the Commissioner’s office providing this soundbite: “While we understand that tensions can rise while playing this great game of ours, fighting is not something that we can, or will, tolerate. Our players inspire countless children to better themselves; we don’t better ourselves by resorting to violence.”

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Coastal Division: Darwin shot out to an early 6-game lead. The Crocs were in 2nd spot, 3 games below .500, with Perth a game behind, and preseason favourites Adelaide in dead last, though 11-18 looked a lot better than 2-12 did halfway through the month.

East-West Division: As predicted, this division was a slugfest, though Newcastle weren’t yet in it, down the bottom of the division, 3 games below .500. The Thunder held the early lead, ahead of Brisbane by 1 and Kununurra by 2.

NZ Division: Every NZ team was slow to start 2051. Christchurch and Wellington were tied at the top of the division to end the month, 1 game above .500 and 1 game ahead of Whangarei. Auckland had started the month strong (7-2 on the 9th) but went into freefall over the last two-thirds of the month to end it 3 games below .500.

Southern Division: Melbourne and Hobart were both hot to begin the season, jostling for the lead, with the Aces in front by 1 on the morning of November 1. Canberra was 4 games back, while Sydney were just plain awful, finishing the month 7-22.

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Auger was dominating the hitting boards, for sure, but teammate Manny Alou (.327/.427/636, 9HR) wasn’t going too bad either. He led the league in RBI (40) by 11, and was tied for the HR lead.

Alou was tied with new Bandit Brock Wakely (.297/.403/.614, 9HR), who’d hit 9 homers but only driven in 16 runners.

Fellow Bandit Norman Ladds (.243/.388/.364, 2HR) was finding hitting a bit more difficult this season, but his patience at the plate was better than ever. He’d drawn 25 walks, best in the league, and he’d also stolen the most bases, swiping 9 so far.

Alan Sneddon (.303/.439/.444, 1HR) was experiencing something new this season: being caught while stealing. So far this season he’d been caught 7 times, while only successfully stealing 5 times (in 2050 he’d stolen 52 bases and only been caught 16 times, a pattern matched in the rest of his career). While he didn’t even feature on the steals leaderboard, and was only 2nd in walks drawn (23), he did lead the league in triples, with 4.

Clint Aitcheson (3-2, 3.99 ERA, 2.78 FIP ,1.30 WHIP) currently had the league’s best FIP.

Kununurra’s Eddie Vance (1-1, 3.03 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 0.89 WHIP) led the league in WHIP.

Teammate Sterling Dunlop (2-1, 4.74 ERA, 4.15 FIP, 1.05 WHIP) led the league in strikeouts, having sent 46 batters back so far. He also led the league in K/9 (10.89) and K/BB (7.67).

Allan Spear (3-1, 2.01 ERA, 2.79 FIP, 0.91 WHIP) had thrown the most innings of any pitcher, 49.1. He also had the best pitcher’s WAR, with 1.7.

Brendan Sheppard (Canberra) and Vince Wilkins (Kununurra) were tied atop the saves board, with 10 each.

Standings, Nov 1