2062/2063 Season - November
Notable Performances
5 Nov: 41 y/o Jayden Pye was the oldest player in the majors and in a renaissance of sorts, having started 28 of Wellington’s 34 games so far. He really shone in today’s game against Adelaide, going 5-7 in the 15-inning 4-3 loss. His solo HR in the 9th tied the game up but he and his teammates weren’t able to get it done, Adelaide hustling home the winning run in the top of the 15th. Pye got his 5th hit of the night in the bottom of the inning via a 2-out single, but was left stranded. This was the 1st time in Pye’s 16+ year career in the majors that he’d successfully hit 5 times in a game, and no records could be immediately found of a player his age doing so. “Yeah,” he said, scratching his head, “it sure is nice, and I guess it shows that if you plug away and keep working at your game you can still have moments like these, even when you've got a zimmer-frame.”
5 Nov: Hobart went down 3-2 to Melbourne, managing just 5 hits. One of those hits came in the 2nd, off Aguirre’s bat. He jumped on a first-pitch fastball and deposited it over the left-centre fence for his 3rd HR of the season. Just 7 more to 700!
6 Nov: Sebastian Horton seemed to be adjusting to the AUNZBL. He picked up PotW with a .370/.452/.852 effort, including 4 homers.
6 Nov: Carlos Aguilar had spent most of last season injured but was looking back in fine fettle this year. Today he took it to his former club, the Perth Heat, going 5-8 in Wellington’s 12-8 victory. The win came in 13 innings. All of Aguilar’s hits were singles and this was the 4th time he’d put together a 5-hit game in the majors.
6 Nov: Arthur Hammer put together the 7th shutout of his career, blanking Whangarei on the back of 4 hits and no walks. Impressively, he struck out 11, his first 10+ strikeout game since the beginning of the 2058 season. Adelaide cruised to a 6-0 victory. Hammer was yet to be defeated this season, with a 4-0 record from 8 starts.
11 Nov: Hobart found some offense but lacked defense, sinking 9-8 to Sydney. Aguirre bludgeoned his 4th dinger of the season in the 8th, a 438-foot effort, in a 2-4 night. 694 career home runs!
12 Nov: Christchurch’s Edward Vance didn’t throw with particular virulence but he mixed his pitches up well and got them to drop like fruit from a tree when he was on. Today was an ‘on’ day, Cairns managing just 3 hits and 3 walks as Vance whizzed his way to a 7-0 shutout. He struck out 2 and got 16 flyball outs.
13 Nov: Canberra SS Nathaniel Bowden hit .464/.500/.857, his 13-28 full of 5 doubles and 2HR, on his way to PotW.
14 Nov: Plenty of teams were streaky in 2062. Sydney joined the streak club, on the plus side, winning their 10th in a row against the hapless Prospects by the score of 2-1. Rowan Reardon’s walk-off triple in the bottom of the 9th drove home the winner. This was only Reardon’s 4th game back in the majors after recovering from a broken kneecap. Sydney’s tear would end the next day.
15 Nov: Hobart dropped their 7th straight, losing to Whangarei 5-4 in the opening game of their series. Aguirre couldn’t be faulted in the loss, however, driving in all of the Prospects’ runs in a 2-4 outing. What was more, both his hits were of the fence-clearing variety. His 1st homer of the night came in the 2nd over leftfield and his 2nd came in the bottom of the 9th, a booming linedrive that hit the leftfield upper deck. Just 4 more to go!
15 Nov: In the ABC, Si-xun Qiao was setting a torrid home run pace. He homered in his 5th straight game today, equalling the ABC record. That dinger was his 20th of the season, putting him on track to smash 75. He was only 4 ahead of the pack however, with Gavin Howell chasing hard on 16, and 26 y/o Vern Whiskin, who cracked 43 in 2061, on 14. League ERA was at an unprecedented 4.14, with league average at .263. Last season had seen new records set in both columns, with a final ERA of 3.80 and BA of .259.
18 Nov: Christchurch might’ve lost 10-9 to Canberra in a rock ‘em sock ‘em affair, but Kelvin Pickhills could still hold his head high. Hitting clean-up he had a 5-5 night, blasting a 3-run HR in the 5th as part of 5RBI.
18 Nov: Sydney and Cairns exchanged noughts across 8 innings, Blue Sox starter Cody Watts conceding just 4 hits heading into the bottom of the 9th. The first 2 outs were flyballs, Watts having thrown 109 pitches and a bit down on velocity. Still, he wasn’t ready to come from the mound, he told reporters after the game, and backed himself to take this thing into extra innings. Ronald Aitken arrived at the plate and fought his way to a 2-2 count before sending the 8th pitch of the at-bat opposite field. It carried just over the glove of despairing leftfielder Martin Boston and into the stands for a walk-off home run. 1-0 Cairns, Aitken typically self-effacing post-match. “I think the breeze might’ve caught it a little bit. Any other day and ‘Dinky’ would’ve caught it at the warning track.” For the record, the wind was blowing in from centre at a healthy 14 km/h and Aitken’s winning blast was the only extra-base hit of the game.
20 Nov: Kelvin Pickhills took home PotW, hitting .464/.531/.857, 13-28, with 2 doubles, 3HR, and 11 ribbies.
20 Nov: ‘What on earth were Melbourne doing, continuing to put Angelo Spear on the mound start after start?’ Those were the sentiments of a great deal of the Aces’ fan-base, and certainly not unwarranted. 39 y/o Spear had trotted out to start 9 games in 2062, and so far was 0-5, with a 6.70 ERA, 6.55 FIP, and 1.62 WHIP. With a career ERA now over 4.00, there were even some beginning to wonder if the 221-game winner would deserve entry into the Hall post-retirement. With Dan Holz and Ethan Humphries on the DL for quite some time yet, Melbourne didn’t have a ton of options for the rotation, though rumour had it that Spear also had a clause in his contract guaranteeing that he be a starting pitcher.
Whatever the case, Spear had looked pretty awful since coming to Melbourne in 2060, and while being in a hitter’s park didn’t help, age was the real contributing factor.
It seemed Spear had realized that, for today he fronted media to announce he’d retire at the end of the season. “I’ve tried to ignore the signs because acknowledging them means I’ll have to stop playing the game I love, but it’s getting to the point now where I can see I have no choice. It’s amazing, really, that I’ve lasted as long as I have with all the shoulder injuries I’ve suffered. But you know what, I’d do it all again tomorrow. I’ve been part of 4 Championship-winning teams, won the most games of any pitcher in history, been to 8 All Star Games, and won a Hurler of the Year. That’s a pretty complete career, if I do say so myself. Now I just want to put together some good performances for the fans so I can end this thing on a high.”
20 Nov: Hobart and Perth took 4 hours and 45 minutes to complete their game, Perth eventually scraping home the winner in the bottom of the 16th for a 3-2 victory. Beau Paterson, starting only his 5th big-league game of the season, hit the walk-off single, going 2-7 on the night. Hobart held the lead from the 2nd until the 8th before Fei-hsien Chang levelled things up with a solo HR. All up, the Prospects used 8 pitchers, the Heat ‘just’ 6, Cameron Worsfold throwing 4.2 innings of hitless relief. Aguirre went 1-5, with 2 walks, for the losers.
22 Nov: Jai Rowe, who one commentator ungraciously declared had a “face like an evil log,” was the starring turn in Canberra’s 10-8 disposal of division rivals Sydney. He went 5-5, with 2 doubles, the 2nd time he’d posted 5 hits in the majors, and the 4th time in his pro career.
26 Nov: Adelaide made it tense, scoring 2 in the bottom of the 9th via a 2-out Richard Moore single to pull within 1, but couldn’t sneak the win, Hobart prevailing 10-9. Aguirre had 3 of the Prospects’ 15 hits, and his 3-run HR in the 5th was 1 of 4 team dingers. 697 career homers!
27 Nov: 24 y/o Noel Dickson was a defensive wizard, able to play any infield position with aplomb. He’d even filled in for 4 innings at CF for the Aces this season, pulling off a couple diving catches in the process. But it was his offense that had caught the eye over the past week, his .600/.619/.850 stat-line landing him PotW.
27 Nov: Song Liang just couldn’t lose. Riding the tsunami that were the Metros, he today threw 7.0 innings for 8 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 1 walk and 7 strikeouts to lead Auckland to a 7-2 win over Brisbane. That win was his 10th of the season, 3 more than any other pitcher, and his 10th without conceding a loss. He had an 11-game undefeated streak going. Teammate Rich Downes went 2-4 to nudge his BA back above .400, to .401. He’d first hit the .400 mark on the 14th, then dropped into the .390s until the 18th, and in the 8 games since then had pushed as high as .404 and dropped as low as .396.
27 Nov: Hobart were in the middle of a mini-resurgence, winning their 3rd in a row by defeating the vaunted Venom 14-9 in 10 innings. It was a come-from-behind victory. They scored 2 in the 9th to go ahead, but Adelaide equalized in the bottom of the inning. They then piled on 5 in the 10th to put the game to bed. Ignacio Maldonado led from the top, going 5-7. Aguirre also played a starring turn, his 2-4 driving in 4 runners. In the 10th he blasted a 2-run homer over left to put Hobart back in front. He needed just 2 more four-baggers now to get to 700, and only 6 more hits to reach 3700.
28 Nov: Perth and Canberra duked it out for 10 innings, with the Heat claiming a 16-15 walk-off victory. Both teams made 4 errors, while Canberra claimed 20 hits to Perth’s 17. The Cavalry pitchers (6 of them) gave up 7 walks, while the 5 used by Perth allowed 9. Of the 18 starting hitters, 6 recorded 3 or more hits, Baryai Venugopalan notching up 4-6, with 2HR and 5RBI. Perth skipper Jose Mendez was happy to take the win, but admitted the game “was a black mark in the book of defence.” He continued, “Really, it was a farce out there. A Greek baseball tragedy maybe. It was like everybody was wearing somebody else’s gloves or something.”
29 Nov: Malcolm Pickhills was creating craters in the bleachers. He went the distance in the 6th inning of Adelaide’s 7-2 win over Auckland with a 3-run blast, his 6th HR in the past 4 games. He’d go hitless the following night to end the streak.
Notable Injuries
1 Nov: Brock Lawless (1-5, 7.96 ERA, 6.35 FIP, 1.58 WHIP) would have around a month to reflect on why he’d started off the season throwing so badly. The Prospects’ ace had a strained oblique.
4 Nov: Perth catcher Tadakuni Sasaki (.284/.366/.580, 6HR) would be gone 2-3 months with a broken hand.
4 Nov: 2061’s #1 overall draft pick, Axel Zhou (.259/.344/.424, 2HR), who’d got his major-league debut in March last year and looked to be making a decent fist of things so far at CF for the Metros, had a very early end to his season. He had a broken bone in his elbow, and it would be at least 6 months before he could swing a bat in a game-day situation.
7 Nov: Hal Boxsell (.285/.343/.454, 4HR) faced a long haul of rest and recovery. He had a torn PCL and certainly wouldn’t be returning this season.
7 Nov: Kununurra closer Allen Jiang (4-1, 3 sv, 0.66 ERA, 1.78 FIP, 0.73 WHIP) would be on the DL at least 2 months with a strained hammy. “A big blow,” his skipper said. “He’s been in the form of his life so far this season.”
9 Nov: Cowboys’ LF Bryan McMullen (.289/.317/.463, 4HR) had an oblique strain that was expected to keep him out of the lineup for around 6 weeks.
9 Nov: Robin Seyler (.342/.436/.482, 4HR) had been punching way above his weight so far for Brisbane. He’d have to hope the hot streak continued after his return from an oblique strain. Medical staff figured he’d need about a month on the DL.
17 Nov: Melbourne would sorely miss Ethan Humphries (3-1, 3.29 ERA, 3.44 FIP, 1.13 WHIP) while he recovered from an inflamed shoulder. He wouldn’t likely be back until the end of February.
23 Nov: Announcing his retirement seemed to have rejuvenated Spear, who turned back the clock yesterday for Melbourne against Newcastle. After 5.1 innings he’d conceded just 3 hits, 2 walks and, more importantly, no runs, while striking out 2. Then... tragedy. He came from the mound clutching his elbow and this morning the verdict arrived: a strain, probably a minimum of 3 months on the DL. “At least I got the W,” he said later, putting on a brave face, “but I was hoping for a longer retirement lap, if I can be honest about it.” The Aces romped to an 11-0 win.
23 Nov: Wayne Roneberg (.333/.413/.517, 4HR) had a fractured hand. 7 weeks, minimum, before the Thunder LF would be back in action.
26 Nov: At only 31 y/o, Peter Moy (.292/.369/.396, 1HR) had a career injury tally longer than his arm. This time it was a partially torn labrum, which Fury medical staff figured would keep him sidelined for around 5 weeks.
29 Nov: Ignacio Maldonado (.222/.279/.338, 4HR) liked to crowd the plate and sometimes wore one for his efforts. Usually he’d grimace and dust himself off and head to 1B. Not today, however. Today he left the field clutching his thumb and quickly learned it was fractured. 4 weeks on the DL for Maldonado!
Notable Trades/Signings
10 Nov: Christchurch moved to buy out the remainder of 24 y/o Seinosuke Nakashima’s (.290/.377/.398, 1HR) arbitration, giving him a 3-year contract.
12 Nov: League heavyweights Adelaide and Central Coast engaged in a trade, the Venom sending 27 y/o Miguel Ibanez (.236/.305/.466, 8HR) to Thunder-town in exchange for 27 y/o reliever Phillip Hammond (0-1, 6.00 ERA) and gun 22 y/o pitching prospect Mei-shan Jiang.
22 Nov: It was certainly a trade 36 y/o Rowan Reardon (.262/.340/.429, 1HR in 47PA upon return from injury) didn’t expect. But unexpected or not, ‘Beast’ needed to pack his bags because the Blue Sox had just sent him to Christchurch in return for 31 y/o backup catcher Jose Ojeda (.207/.258/.207, 0HR from 32PA). Ojeda, a good defensive catcher with some power but a pretty poor swing otherwise, was going to be Sydney’s everyday catcher for the near future, with Patrick Wigmore (.215/.313/.326, 3HR) losing favour and getting demoted to AAA, and Tyler Pratly (.289/.327/.467, 2HR from 49PA) regarded as a decent bench bat but no longer with the physical attributes to play catcher every day. The Cowboys would plunk Reardon into the middle of their lineup. He was remarkably philosophical about the move: “Hey, at least I’m still getting paid. There was lots of times in the semi-pros when a team would just die with no warning and all us guys would spend the next week sitting in the pub hoping someone would buy us drinks. That sucked, let me tell you!”
Month Awards
Rookie of the Month: 30 y/o Sebastian Horton got off to a slow start in October, but looked good and comfortable at the plate during November. He hit .340/.391/.642, 36-106, scoring 19 runs, hitting 5 doubles and 9 homers, driving in 24 runners, walking 9 times, and stealing 2 bases.
Hurler of the Month: Two in a row for Song Liang. He started 6 games, won 5 and lost none, for a 1.64 ERA, 3.92 FIP, and 0.98 WHIP. He struck out 30 in 44.0 innings and while a fair few in the media felt the bubble had to burst sometime, Liang was full to the brim with confidence. “Amazing bunch of young lads we’ve got here,” he said upon hearing of his HotM win. “We’re all playing for each other and scrapping hard and getting it done. I really think we can go all the way this year.” For the season Liang was 10-1 with a 1.80 ERA, 3.75 FIP, and 0.95 WHIP. He led the AUNZBL in ERA, wins, and WHIP.
Slugger of the Month: The way he was mashing pitching at the tail-end of November certainly helped Malcolm Pickhills take out SotM. He hit .304/.392/.725 for the month, his 31-102 including 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 12 bleacher bombs. He also scored 24 runs, drove in 32 runners, and walked 12 times. For the season Pickhills was hitting .268/.373/.571, his 17HRs giving him a share of a 4-way tie at the head of that race.
Media Watch
Ismael Aguirre: Perhaps the chill of the spring mornings in October had slowed Aguirre down some, because he looked much better in the warmer weather of November. Not vintage, of course, but certainly someone who could still ask questions of any pitcher he faced. He hit .290/.339/.523 during the month, accumulating 31 hits while stroking 6 home runs. 3 more hits and he’d have 3700, 2 more homers and he’d be at 700. He also scored 13 runs during November. Another 25 and he’d become the 1st AUNZBL player to touch home plate safely 2000 times.
Other Notes
Coastal Division: Adelaide (17-11) had caught up with Cairns (15-13) by month's end, both teams 9 games clear of 3rd-placed Darwin (12-16).
East-West Division: Central Coast (15-13) were cruising, 8 games ahead of Newcastle (14-14), while Kununurra (9-19) ended the month on a 6-game skid, 9 games behind the Thunder and 9 games below .500.
NZ Division: Auckland (17-11) continued the fairytale, though a 3-game losing streak to finish the month was a bit worrisome. Whangarei (13-15) dropped below .500 but still held 2nd spot, while Wellington (16-12) climbed into 3rd place, nipping at the Sluggers’ heels.
Southern Division: Canberra (16-12) and Sydney (16-12) still couldn’t be separated, with Melbourne (19-9) surging to within 2 games. Hobart (10-18) boasted the worst record in the league, at 20-37.
Wildcard: While this part of the postseason race wouldn’t get much attention until the tail end of December, either Adelaide or Cairns held 1 slot firmly in their grasp, while one of Canberra and Sydney had a 2-game buffer in the other slot. Melbourne were the team 2 games back, with Whangarei a further game in arrears.
#
Rich Downes (.395/.439/.677, 14HR) now dominated the leaderboards. He sat atop the BA, SLG, OPS, wOBA (.472), hits (88), total bases (151), and WAR (3.1) lists.
On the WAR board, he was ahead of Mitchell Cox (.368/.448/.574, 8HR) by a few decimal places.
The 3 players tied with Pickhills in the HR race were:
Justin Auger (.321/.419/.617, 17HR)
Neil Bellett (.290/.390/.580, 17HR)
Norm Blume (.346/.409/.649, 17HR)
Blume also topped the league in RBI (63), and XBH (35).
Bellett had scored 51 runs, 3 more than next-best Cox and Downes.
Yin-ti Zhuo (.302/.467/.459, 4HR) was relishing playing every day for Wellington after doing a lot of bench-warming in Perth. He led the league in OBP.
Ronald Aitken (.310/.455/.563, 12HR) had garnered the most walks, with 51 so far.
Teammate Stephane Lecomte (.302/.375/.374, 1HR) led the league in steals, with 20.
Cain Donaldson (.314/.408/.450, 2HR) was 2nd on the steals ladder (18), and also led the league in triples, having hit 6 to-date.
Norm Donaldson (.328/.417/.633, 14HR) had the best isolated power of any qualified hitter, with a mark of .306.
Barry Dean (7-3, 3.60 ERA, 3.16 FIP, 1.15 WHIP) continued to lead the league in FIP, strikeouts (93), IP (95.0), games started (13), and WAR (2.9).
Victor Doubleday (6-4, 4.04 ERA, 3.40 FIP, 1.20 WHIP) was fanning hitters at a rate of 9.99 per 9 innings.
Christchurch’s Jeremy Hofmann (4-4, 3.84 ERA, 3.31 FIP, 1.43 WHIP) had only given up 1HR in 58.2 innings. Unsurprisingly, he led the league in HR/9 (0.15).
Austin Ya (6-3, 3.86 ERA, 5.24 FIP, 1.16 WHIP) was riding his luck to lead the league in H/9 (6.04), and OAVG (.190).
Moeaktola Liao had 18 saves, 1 more than any other closer.
ABC Wrap-up
Brisbane had overtaken the Opals at the top of the Northern, though with only a 1/2 game difference they might as well have been tied.
The Victory led the Highlife by 2 games in the Southern, with Canberra dropping off the pace slightly to be 3 games back.
Broome and Perth continued to be poor in the Western, both 7 games below .500. They were tied for the division lead, however, Kalgoorlie 2 1/2 games back.
Port Moresby had caught up to Jakarta, both teams at the top of the Overseas. Hamilton was 2 1/2 games back.
Si-xun Qiao (.295/.377/.652, 23HR) was still on pace for 60+ homers, ahead of Gavin Howell (.247/.343/.586, 19HR) by 4. He took out the monthly hitting award.
Marty Palmer (8-1, 2.33 ERA, 3.34 FIP, 1.02 WHIP) couldn’t believe how much better it was to be a pitcher in the ABC rather than the AUNZBL. “That lowered mound, wow,” he said. “It gives me the intimidation factor back.” He went 6-0 in November on his way to Golden Arm of the Month.
What of the rumours that had the AUNZBL trying to entice ABC teams to desert their brethren? They died down some during the month, but they refused to go away, with Port Moresby officials calling an unusual press conference on the 15th to “strongly deny” they’d received an approach from the AUNZBL, even though no media outlet had reported anything of the sort. The AUNZBL weren’t exactly denying things either, saying only that “factoring in the logistics of something like that would be quite an undertaking.” The ABC Commissioner would only say stonily when asked, “Contracts are contracts, and ours are ironclad and all of our member teams have signed them.” He wouldn't comment on how long these contracts were for, and no ABC team owner would do so either.
AUNZBL Standings, Dec 1