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2051/2052 Season - November
2051/2052 Season - November
Notable Performances
1 Nov: Keiran Pickford recorded his 2nd career 20-game hit streak today, going 2-4 as the Venom paralyzed the Blue Sox 12-5. The streak would be snapped the following night.
2 Nov: The Roos were outclassed 4-0 by the Pioneers, only managing 4 base hits. One of those 4, however, was a milestone. Ashley Snijders’ 1st-inning single was career hit 2500, putting him in elite company, as 1 of only 3 players to so far achieve the 2500 hit-400HR double-double.
6 Nov: 25 y/o Venom utility Owen Wall took out PotW with a .600/.667/1.467 effort. He was 9-15, with 1 double and 4HR.
6 Nov: Brody Cheadle busted out with 5 hits in Newcastle’s 12-6 defeat of Whangarei. His 5-5 included a HR.
6 Nov: Marcos Lopez was the main man in Wellington’s 7-1 victory over Canberra, slugging 3HR. He started with a solo HR in the 1st, followed that up with a 2-run shot in the 3rd, and finished up with another 2-run blast in the 8th.
6 Nov: Poor Perth. Melbourne came from behind to win 7-5, thus seeing the Heat lose their 10th straight.
9 Nov: Sean Carr picked up his 2nd 5-hit game of the season, doing so with a 5-5 effort in Central Coast’s 11-8 win over Kununurra.
11 Nov: Marcos Lopez made it 20 consecutive games with a hit.
12 Nov: The hapless Heat lost their 15th in a row, going down 8-5 to Newcastle.
13 Nov: Keiran Pickford won PotW with a .462/.462/.962 effort. His 12 hits included 4 doubles and 3HR.
13 Nov: Lopez’s hit streak ended at 21 games.
16 Nov: Kununurra’s Arthur Lee became the 1st player in 10 years, and only the 2nd major-leaguer ever, to drive in 9 runners in a game. He did so in the Pioneers’ 18-6 whipping of Brisbane, going 4-5 on the night, with 1 double and 2HR. His 1st homer of the night, in the 4th, was a Grand Slam.
17 Nov: The Heat finally won one, defeating the Thunder 6-1. All Perth’s runs came in the 7th inning. Having already set a record for the longest ever losing streak, Perth’s management and players were just happy to get the W, though 1B Matt Panther added, “19 is pretty bad, but 20 would’ve been unbearable.” To put the 19-game losing streak in an even broader perspective, today’s win was Perth’s 1st of the month, and 1st since 26th October. Still, bad as they’d been, they were only 1 win behind the next-worst team in the league, the Blue Sox, who’d staggered to a 14-31 record.
20 Nov: Young-tae Lee scooped PotW. He hit .524/.667/1.143, with 1 double, 4HR and 8BB.
21 Nov: Crazy Eyes went nuts today against the Blue Sox, going 5-5 in the 15-11 Thunder victory. Auger hit a double and a HR, and scored 4 runs. 2 of his singles came in the 4th inning, when Central Coast piled on 11 runs and 16 hitters came to the plate. The 5-hit night pushed his BA back up towards the .400 mark, to .399.
27 Nov: Auger picked up his 2nd PotW award of the season. In the last 7 days he hit .480/.567/.800, with 2 doubles and 2HR.
27 Nov: Rick Clohessy, one of the most disliked players in the league amongst fans thanks to the 80-game PED suspension handed down to him at the end of the 2049 season, homered in his 5th consecutive game. He was 1 game shy of equaling the AUNZBL record. Unfortunately, while he did get a hit the following night, it wasn’t of the home run variety. The last player to hit a HR 6 games in a row was Carl Bristcoe, back in 2048.
27 Nov: Adrian Walsh went 5-5, including a double and a HR, but couldn’t do enough to stop his Cowboys falling 8-7 in 10 innings to Melbourne.
Notable Injuries
2 Nov: Kununurra and Ignacio Guzman (3-0, 2.97 ERA, 4.61 FIP, 1.29 WHIP) received bad news today. The SP had a torn triceps. Recovery time was estimated at 3-4 months.
7 Nov: Ismael Aguirre (.297/.358/.497, 5HR) suffered the 1st notable injury of his pro career: a concussion when he collided with the SS while diving into 2nd to complete a double. He would likely be on the DL 3 weeks.
12 Nov: Andre England (.295/.364/.369, 0HR) would miss the next 5 weeks with an oblique strain.
Month Awards
Rookie of the Month: 23 y/o Aces’ RF Will Glasson won November’s RotM. He hit .274/.328/.340, 29-106, with 13 runs, 4 doubles, 1HR, 13RBI, 8BB, and 2SB.
Hurler of the Month: Young Wellington SP Dan Pankhurst. While he was 4-2 from 6 starts in November, he had an excellent 2.47 ERA, 3.68 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. He recorded 26 Ks in 43.2 IP. It is important to note at this juncture that league-wide ERA was up to 4.50 for the season which, if sustained, would be a new season record.
Slugger of the Month: It had never been a better time to be a hitter, and Alastair Chapman was certainly thankful for that. This month’s SotM had a sturdy .388/.440/.689 offering, 40-103, with 26 runs, 10 doubles, 7HR, 29RBI, 11BB and a stolen base. Chapman was hitting .350 on the year, putting him at 3rd on the BA leaderboard.
Media Watch
Baden Moore: Moore’s strong AAA-form saw him get the call-up to the bigs partway through November. He was doing well so far, having started 13 games and appeared in 15, with a stat-line of .305/.359/.508, his 18-59 including 4 doubles, 1 triple and 2HR. Speaking to a reporter on the 25th, after going 3-6 in Hobart’s extra-innings 9-8 win over Newcastle - and having been intentionally walked in the bottom of the 12th - Moore said, “Y’know, I really wish this was a switch I’d made years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’m stoked I have at all, but I can’t help but think about what I might’ve accomplished had I switched at, say, 27 instead of 30.”
With the Prospects riding high in the Southern, Moore was asked if he’d given much thought to the possibility of becoming the 1st player to win a ring as both a pitcher and a hitter (he’d won a Championship in 2046 with the Blue Sox). Moore gave the reporter a shocked look. “Hell, isn’t it too early in the season for talk like that? I think I’ll just concentrate on holding my spot on the roster, thank you very much.”
Other Notes
Coastal Division: Darwin (18-10) continued to hold sway at the top of the Coastal. Their closest rivals were Cairns (13-15), 11 games back. Perth had an astonishingly bad month, going 4-24.
East-West Division: Central Coast (15-13) still had a 1-game advantage over Brisbane (15-13), with Newcastle (17-11) moving to just 3 games back. Kununurra (8-20) had a dreadful month to drop to their expected position, at the rear of the pack.
NZ Division: The Sluggers (17-11) had risen to the top of the NZ, their lead a slim 1 game over the Cowboys (15-13), and 2 games above Wellington (14-14). The Metros (15-13) had clawed their way back to be just 1 game below .500.
Southern Division: Hobart (17-11) took the lead in the Southern, the Aces (13-15) dropping to 3 games back.
Wildcard: Brisbane and Melbourne held these slots for now, with the Cowboys and Roos 1 game back from the Aces, and the Fury 2 games back. Auckland and Canberra were both 1 game below .500 but only 3 games out of the wildcard race.
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Auger (.378/.443/.684, 14HR) was still dominating most of the major leaderboards, best in the league in BA, SLG, OPS, wOBA (.470), hits (85), doubles (21), runs (50), ISO (.307), XBH (38), TB (154), and WAR (5.0).
Rick Clohessy (.235/.256/.500, 19HR) was 3 clear atop the HR board, but was pretty terrible if he wasn’t clearing the fence.
Alan Sneddon (.314/.454/.505, 4HR) had been moving from the top of Whangarei’s lineup to the middle and back so far this season to cover injuries (primarily to 1B Patrick Maggs - .327/.394/.522, 5HR from 127PA). Sneddon was beginning to find his groove though, now leading the league in OBP, BB (48), and triples (7).
The pitching leaderboards were a lot more varied. Ashley Barry (5-5, 2.46 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 1.10 WHIP) led the league in ERA, BB/9 (1.01), and K/BB (5.67).
Young Brad King (6-4, 3.12 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 1.37 WHIP) had jumped to the top of the strikeout board, registering 85 so far this season. Unsurprisingly, he also had the best K/9, at 10.20.
Wilson Lara (6-1, 2.78 ERA, 3.31 FIP, 1.17 WHIP) had the best FIP, and was tied with 4 pitchers atop the WAR board, with a 2.0 mark.
Allan Spear (5-3, 2.83 ERA, 3.61 FIP, 0.97 WHIP) was 1 of those players with 2 WAR. He also had the best WHIP among qualified pitchers.
3 players were grouped at the top of the saves leaderboard: Jose Diaz (DAR - 3-3, 17 sv), Rex Herbert (CAI - 0-1, 17 sv), and Randall Zorn (CHR - 2-4, 17 sv).
Standings, Dec 1
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