2059/2060 Season - October
Notable Performances
1 Oct: Opening Day and what a way to start the season! Richard Moore, touted as a SotY favourite in OotPB’s official preseason predictions, showed just why he was their pick, bashing 3HR to help Brisbane to a 7-5 victory over Christchurch. His 1st of the evening was a mammoth 452-foot fly over centre in the top of the 1st, scoring 2. He was at it again in the 3rd, this time with a solo shot over right. In the 7th he hit another 2-runner, again over right. And one could forgive him in the 9th as he stood and watched his fly to deep right-centre. It didn’t quite have the legs, getting caught at the warning track. 4 would have been nice, but 3 was quite all right!
1 Oct: Perth’s jam-packed offense got the season off on the right note with an 18-1 destruction of Kununurra. Joshua Angwin went 4-6 with a HR, double, 3 runs and 6RBI in the rout. Barry Dean threw a complete game, giving up just 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6. Kununurra’s only run came in the 1st.
2 Oct: 1 down, 2 to go. Angelo Spear started off 2058 with the 198th win of his career, throwing 7 below-average innings (9H, 6ER, 1BB, 3K). Perth’s offense got him off the hook, however, as the Heat prevailed 7-6 over Kununura.
4 Oct: Jay Saunderson went 5-5, with 5RBI, in Canberra’s 13-0 routing of Central Coast.
4 Oct: Auckland got up to squeak past Hobart 9-8, Caspar Purcell putting together a 4-4 night. However, as was so often the case, Ismael Aguirre was the talk of the after-match pressers. His 5th-inning solo HR was his 1st of the year, and the 627th of his career. He was now just 3HR shy of being #1 all-time.
6 Oct: The season’s first PotW award went to Christchurch’s Joshua Moore. He hit .556/.579/1.056, with 3 doubles and 2HR amongst his 10 hits.
9 Oct: Hobart’s slow start to the season continued, today’s 6-2 loss to Cairns putting them at 3-6 overall. The bright spot was Aguirre’s solo HR in the 9th, only the Prospects’ 3rd hit of the game. 628 career HRs and Alastair Mildren, who was in attendance at this game, said he “would keep coming until Izzy broke that record.”
10 Oct: Whangarei were just plain awful to begin 2059, today losing their 10th straight, going down 6-0 to Brisbane. While their pitching wasn’t great, their offense was much worse, ranked dead last in the league in almost every category through the 1st 2 series of the season.
10 Oct: Hobart cracked the whip and gave the Venom a 10-4 hiding. They may have got motivation from Aguirre’s 1st inning 2-run HR. It was number 629 and he now had an equal share of the top spot on the leaderboard.
11 Oct: And there it was.
The AUNZBL had a new career HR champion! Aguirre’s 2-run 1st-inning bomb was number 630, putting him alone atop that most coveted of all leaderboards. The shot also gave his side the early lead but they couldn’t hold on, going down 8-6 to Adelaide. No matter for Aguirre. There were fireworks and an after-game presentation helmed by Mildren, and an endless parade of journalists wanting interviews and pictures. In one interview, Aguirre said, “Y’know, I’m kinda glad this is all finally over. Chasing these records feels like it’s been on my mind for years, and now I’m just looking forward to going out there and bashing some cowhide for the fun of it again.”
12 Oct: The hapless Sluggers couldn’t buy a run - or a win - right now. Craig Fisher reduced them to just 4 hits and 3 walks to lead Brisbane to a 9-0 shutout victory. This was Whangarei’s 12th loss on the trot.
13 Oct: 24 y/o Croc Brent Dwyer snared PotW, hitting .393/.379/.929, 5 of his 11 hits of the HR variety.
13 Oct: Whangarei won one! They didn’t make it easy for themselves, blowing a 5 run lead against Brisbane across the last 2 innings before a Gareth Orpen 3-run HR walked them off in the 9th, the final score 11-8. Skipper Peter Massingham, not known for his emotion, nodded when asked after the game how the win felt. “Good,” he said, with no change in expression or pitch. “Better than the last 12 games, anyway.”
14 Oct: And today Whangarei lost again, in a 7-6 extra-innings heartbreaker to Brisbane. A bright spot in the loss was the performance of Peter Moy, who went 5-6 with a walk. Included amongst his hits were 2 doubles.
14 Oct: Slugger Edwin Hayes had a 2HR game against Melbourne. His 2nd HR was career dinger number 300. What made the occasion even sweeter was that it was the game-winner, a 2-run walk-off effort in the bottom of the 9th. “Wow,” Hayes said to the sideline reporter while his teammates celebrated in the background, “how about that?”
16 Oct: 35 y/o Rob Lane, who’d grown a moustache before this season to commemorate, in his words, “being one of the old fogies on the roster,” went 2-4 in Cairns’ 13-6 win over Sydney. His 2nd hit, an RBI-single in the 5th, was the 2000th hit of his career. Lane, who’d already spent a week on the DL this season, was known as a prodigious, yet fragile, talent. Teammate Gary Baker jokingly likened him to a “Ming vase,” but went on to say that Lane embodied the spirit of their ballclub and everybody just loved suiting up and playing next to him.
18 Oct: Ashley Collier led from the front for Brisbane as they disposed of Perth 7-3. He was 5-5, lifting his season BA from .148 to .281.
20 Oct: Lance Fookes won PotW. The Hobart acquisition was electric over the last 7 days, clubbing 6HR in a .391/.462/1.174 effort. He finished the week on a 4-game HR streak, including 2 dingers in yesterday’s 12-11 loss to Christchurch. He drove in 7 runners during the game, equaling Hobart’s regular season game record.
20 Oct: Home-run madness at Heat Ballpark. Perth shattered the Metros by the score of 17-4. 6 Heat players went the distance in the victory, while no Metros managed better than singles. 5 of the HR were 450 feet or better and while the wind was blowing out to centre, it was only a breeze. While 6HR in a game wasn’t especially unusual in this age of offense, Heat Ballpark was known as a pitcher’s park, with 24 percent less HR, on average, per season than the rest of the league’s parks (totals combined and divided by park, not compiled individually). Auckland skipper Alberto Castillo, known for his fiery press conferences, did his best to keep his cool after the game, but still suggested, less than half-jokingly, that all the Heat players should be drug-tested immediately. The total of HRs could’ve been even higher, with a couple of flies bouncing off the CF wall, which ran at a distance of between 438 and 446 feet from home-plate and was 9 feet high.
20 Oct: Lance Fookes was still in fence-clearing mode. He was responsible for both his side’s runs in their 8-2 loss to Sydney, his 2HR meaning he’d hit 7HR in his last 5 games and had a chance tomorrow to equal the all-time HR streak.
21 Oct: The miserable Sluggers succumbed 13-2 to Cairns. One of the chief architects of their demise was Dylan Glynn, who was 5-5, with 1 double, 3 runs, and 3RBI in a PotG performance.
21 Oct: Fookes went 2-4, but could only muster singles, his HR streak ending at 5. The Prospects lost 6-1 to Sydney to make matters worse.
21 Oct: Yesterday was a homerun derby, today Perth couldn’t get a hit if their life depended on it. Metros’ starter, 25 y/o Jeremy Hofmann, took a no-hitter into the 7th before Fei-hsien Chang doubled to break it up. That was the only hit the Heat could muster, Auckland going on to win 3-0. Hofmann threw 8 innings, conceding just that 1 hit and 4 walks. While very happy with the win, Castillo wondered aloud in the post-match presser if the Heat had purposely tanked after the drug accusations he’d made yesterday, so as “to appear less suspicious.”
23 Oct: Just 1 win away! Spear was sensational today in a low-scoring game to record win #199. He nearly had a shutout, but loaded the bases in the top of the 9th and allowed Auckland their 1st run off a sac-fly. Buffey replaced him and, although he gave up a single to the 1st hitter he faced, got the final out and secured the W for his teammate. 36 y/o Spear gave up 7 hits and 1 walk, striking out 4, on the way to the win and said after the game, “Just happy we held on, to be honest. I made it tough for Buff but he loves the pressure, or so he says.”
24 Oct: The 5-fors just kept on coming. Canberra’s Elijah Lutz paced his team to a 7-5 victory over the Metros with a 5-5 performance. He also scored twice and joked after the game, “Hey, anybody wants to do a drug test, here I am!”
27 Oct: Jorge Diaz went .467/.500/.800 over the last week. He hit 3HR. It was the 10th time he’d won PotW.
27 Oct: Ashley Okolita of the Aces’ (not Marty of the Sluggers) role this season in Melbourne’s pen was long relief and spot starting. He did better than chew up a few innings today, though, blanking Newcastle on the back of 5 hits and a walk, fanning 6. Melbourne eased to a 6-0 win. Was that outing good enough to earn Okolita a spot in the rotation? Skipper Ling-lai Tsao shrugged and said, “Maybe, maybe not.”
29 Oct: Would today be the day? No, it wouldn’t. Spear got routed for 8 hits in 4.0 innings, giving up all 5 runs in Perth’s 5-1 loss to Hobart.
Notable Injuries
1 Oct: Darwin ace Zachariah Pond didn’t even record an out this season before heading off injured. He had biceps tendinitis, and would be gone about a month.
8 Oct: Christchurch SP Jose Ramos (1-0, 2.70 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 1.35 WHIP) would miss up to 3 months of the season with ulnar nerve irritation.
9 Oct: Adelaide’s new CF, Rory Delaney (.188/.316/.250, 0HR), was looking at 6-7 weeks on the DL with a strained MCL.
11 Oct: Newcastle’s Mitchell Cox (.280/.419/.320, 0HR) had a sprained ankle which would take 6-7 weeks to heal.
13 Oct: Bad news for the Aces, with closer Craig Lewis gone for the season. He needed surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow.
13 Oct: Ed Geoghegan (.392/.400/.608, 2HR) had started off hot for his new team, but he and Adelaide would have to hope 6 weeks on the DL with a fractured thumb wouldn’t cool him off too much.
15 Oct: The Diggers would have to do without Alan Sneddon (.297/.490/.351, 0HR) for the next 5 weeks, as he had a strained groin muscle.
17 Oct: Carlos Aguilar (.391/.440/.638, 4HR) had been phenomenal to start the season. He led the league in WAR (1.4) and hits (27), tearing up the basepaths along with the rest of his Heat teammates. Now, though, he’d strained a hamstring and faced 4-5 weeks on the sidelines, admitting it “was never easy” watching on but unable to play.
26 Oct: Whangarei’s Peter Moy (.368/.427/.528, 2HR) was a great player... when he got on the field. He’d played all of 21 games last season thanks to injury and now looked set to miss at least 5 weeks of this season because of a torn quad.
Notable Trades/Signings
2 Oct: 43 y/o Young-tae Lee (.281/.392/.437, 330HR) signed a minor-league deal with the Bandits. He was realistic about his chances of playing in the bigs again. “Probably not high,” he said, “but you never know. Baseball’s a funny ole game.” Last season Lee suited up for the Esmeraldas in the BL, where he hit .249/.413/.354, with 6HR, leading the league in walks, garnering 95 from 451 plate appearances. Lee remained the only player to win 10 Championships, as well as being the only player to win Championships with 5 different teams.
3 Oct: 35 y/o Rex Herbert (56-58, 368 sv, 3.12 ERA, 3.56 FIP, 1.27 WHIP) had made plenty of headlines during the latter part of the offseason regarding which team he might play for in 2059. When the season started and he hadn’t signed, speculation turned to which overseas league he’d head to. Turned out he was staying put in Australia, today signing a 2-year deal with the Cowboys. He needed 32 more saves to reach 400 and was confident he’d get a chance to do so, even though Arthur Fingleson was ahead of him at closer at the moment.
3 Oct: 30 y/o Ryan Digby (21-34, 159 sv, 3.11 ERA, 3.70 FIP, 1.14 WHIP) signed with the Blue Sox for the 2059 season. He was immediately slotted into their closer role.
10 Oct: 27 y/o Vincent Howell (.154/.267/.231, 0HR) upped sticks and headed from Adelaide to Central Coast in an offseason trade. Today, the Thunder announced he’d agreed to a 4-year extension. While he hadn’t started off the season in great form, new Thunder GM Balamitra Mukundan obviously liked the cut of his jib. Mukundan, of Indian descent, had never worked in the AUNZBL or any of its sponsored leagues before this season. He’d been a part-time GM in one of Indonesia’s bigger semi-pro leagues, running an upholstery business as well, when Thunder owner Brock Cresswell called him up. “Surprised?” said Mukundan. “You could say that. But he’s got confidence in me, and I’ve got confidence in me too, so the fans can expect this team to continue winning.”
18 Oct: The Fury and 32 y/o SP Randy Smith (1-0, 2.18 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 0.68 WHIP) agreed to a 3-year extension. For his career, Smith was 56-63, with a 4.69 FIP, but while he’d never performed up to expectations, Fury management liked what he brought to the club.
Month Awards
Rookie of the Month: 29 y/o Bert Allan’s signing had met with a mixed reception amongst Kununurra fans. He had a whale of a first month, though, to win the season’s first RotM and endear himself to the local faithful. Allan was .309/.345/.700 through October, his 34-110 including 13 doubles and 10HR. He also scored 19 runs and drove in 18 runners. Heading into November he led the league in SLG, wOBA (.433), ISO (.391), and extra-base hits (23) and was 2nd on the WAR ladder, with a 1.7 mark.
Hurler of the Month: Barry Dean returned from his 2058 postseason injury with no ill effects, accumulating a 5-0 record in October. His ERA was 3.00, his FIP 2.61, and his WHIP 1.09. He threw 45 innings in 6 starts, fanning 41. Included were 2 complete games, in 1 of which he conceded 11 hits but only 3ER. He led the league in FIP and WAR (1.8), as well as being tied for most wins.
Slugger of the Month: Richard Moore might’ve lost the HR lead by the end of the month, but there was no denying the Bandits’ 1B for this award. He hit .325/.397/.649, 37-114, with 4 doubles and 11HR. He scored 21 runs, drew 11 walks, and drove in a whopping 32 runners. Moore topped all qualified hitters in OPS and RBI.
Media Watch
Ismael Aguirre: While Aguirre had overtaken nearly all the players he could hope to overtake (he was still 107RBI shy of Mildren on the career RBI leaderboard, as well as being 7th on the singles list, and around 21WAR short of Brock Wakely’s career mark of 113.70), and was perhaps justified in his desire to just play baseball for the fun of it again without the media charting his every move, that was not how it was working out. While the attention was certainly less, now everybody wanted to see just how much he would accomplish with the remainder of his career, and how far ahead of everybody else he would be when he retired.
In October, after that initial flurry of 4HR to get him to top spot, he went through a rough patch, his BA slipping as low as .241 on the 20th. It was trending upwards by the end of the month, though, his stat-line .301/.341/.520 heading into November. He hit safely 37 times, with 10 doubles, 1 triple, and 5HR. His 5th homer didn’t come until the 31st of the month, a 20-day drought. He finished October 49 hits ahead of Mildren, and 2HR clear. His 632 doubles were 32 more than anybody else had ever hit.
Other Notes
Coastal Division: The entire division started out hot, though a couple teams were dipping back towards .500 at month end. Adelaide had rocketed out to a 3-game lead over Cairns, with Darwin and Perth a further game back.
East-West Division: Brisbane were the early surprise package, tied at the top with the predictably excellent Thunder.
NZ Division: Wellington already had themselves a strong grip on this division, with the next best record Auckland’s 12-17. Whangarei recovered slightly from their horror start, but it remained a long way back for them.
Southern Division: Sydney shot out early, while Hobart sputtered. By the end of the month, though, just 1 game separated them, with Melbourne and Canberra below .500.
Wildcard: Too early to pay attention to.
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Cain Donaldson (.365/.479/.504, 2HR) was the other ABC import surprising all and sundry. While he’d had decent wraps upon moving over, nobody quite expected this kind of production. He led the league in OBP, runs (28), SB (20), BB (23), was tied for the lead in triples (4), and topped all comers in WAR (1.9). Could he keep this frenetic pace (he was on track to steal 112 bases), or would he fade? Fading was the obvious answer, but the fans were hoping it wouldn't be by too much.
Kununurra weren’t winning many, but Allan and Rowan Kimpton (.336/.363/.664, 12HR) were doing their best to keep them competitive. Kimpton had cracked the most HRs, and rounded the most bases (79). Probably one of the reasons the Pioneers were losing so much had to do with their defensive lineup. They had no specialist 2B on their active roster, and were playing a defensively-poor 1B in that vital channel.
Stephane Lecomte’s (.344/.370/.466, 2HR) 45 hits was 1 better than Melbourne’s bargain buy Yoshihito Morimoto (.355/.396/.444, 0HR).
Unheralded Darwin SP Marcello Nolan (4-0, 1.45 ERA, 4.22 FIP, 1.03 WHIP) led all qualified pitchers in ERA.
Randy Smith (2-1, 3.62 ERA, 4.97 FIP, 0.80 WHIP) led the league in WHIP, H/9 (6.03), and OAVG (.185). Teammate and 2058 HotY Clint Kline (4-2, 4.54 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 1.12 WHIP) had the best BB/9 (0.76) and K/BB (11.00) marks.
Greg Ahern (4-0, 4.02 ERA, 5.41 FIP, 1.19 WHIP) and Dean were tied for the league lead in strikeouts, both with 41. Ahern’s K/9 rate of 9.15 was currently best amongst qualified pitchers. Ahern currently had a 12-game win streak going together with an 18-start undefeated streak. One more undefeated start and he would be tied for 5th all-time.
Adelaide’s Bailey Naylor recorded 9 saves to lead the league. Worringly, he also already had 3 losses and an ERA of 6.14.
ABC Wrap-up
Gold Coast held a 4-game advantage in the Northern, Sydney a 2-game break in the Southern, while 3 teams - Broome, Kalgoorlie, Perth - were tied with a 13-16 record in the Western. Hamilton led the Overseas Division, last year’s champions, Jakarta, 6 games back with an 11-18 start to the season.
Dunedin’s Rowan Reardon (.398/.475/.718, 9HR) won Batter of the Month, while Sydney SP Bernie Massingham (5-0, 1.04 ERA, 2.42 FIP, 0.78 WHIP) took home Pitcher of the Month.
Sydney 1B Bob Crawford (.376/.409/.504, 2HR) was 2nd in the batting race and the dictionary definition of journeyman. 33 y/o Crawford wasn’t a typical power-heavy 1B, which might’ve been why he struggled to carve out a career in the AUNZBL, appearing across 3 seasons (2051-2053) with Perth after spending 5 years in the minors. After a couple more years in AAA he headed across to the NABA, there for 3 seasons. He tried to make a comeback to the AUNZBL in 2058, signing for Central Coast, but was once again stuck at AAA. He headed back across to the NABA on a short-term contract, playing 6 games for Jamestown before the season ended, and then signed with the Highlife on a minor-league deal on Opening Day. Across all the teams he’d played on, the consensus was the same: he was a guy committed to being the best he could, and committed to helping those around him be the best they could. How did he feel about the ABC? "I feel like I've finally found my home," he said, "and I hope I can play out the rest of my career here."
AUNZBL Standings, Nov 1