2062/2063 Season - December
2062 #1 Draft Pick
Canberra had this year’s #1 overall pick, and they went with 21 y/o RHP Brendan ‘Dragoon’ Penfold. Penfold had posted an 8-2 college record from 14 starts, and threw a sinker, split-fingered fastball, curve and regulation change. At only 6’0” he didn’t intimidate off the mound but he had potential to use his wiry frame to generate good pace and was already breaking bats. A smart kid, he also had a strong desire to win and would be a good clubhouse presence. The Cavalry slotted him straight into AA.
A quick look at how the previous 4 #1 draft picks were doing:
2061, Axel Zhou: Made his major-league debut in March last season. Named the #7 overall prospect in the league prior to the season commencing and after 2 games at AAA was called up to the bigs again, where he hit .259/.344/.424, with 2HR, in 96PA before suffering a season-ending broken elbow.
2060, Richard Page: Darwin’s bench catcher while they waited for him to mature into the power his 6’4” 104kg frame promised. Hitting .341/.431/.545, 2HR, from 52PA.
2059, Domenic Cook: Looked overmatched in 405 big-league PA in 2061, but not so this season. .260/.308/.516, with 17HR from 64 hits and 263PA. Doing a fine defensive job for the Bandits at SS too.
2058, Callum McCabe: Claimed off waivers by Auckland from Adelaide at the beginning of the 2061 season after the Venom tried to remove him from their 40-man due to what one analyst called a “combination of offseason over-recruitment and arrogance.” His OPS+ in 444 major-league PAs for the Metros that year was 77, but this season it was at 142, his WAR 2.3. So far he was hitting .342/.403/.536, with 8 dingers, from 248PA. He was doing a good job patrolling the LF corridors too, and according to most scouts still had plenty of growth in respect to both the contact and power aspects of his hitting game.
Notable Performances
2 Dec: Auckland dropped their 5th straight, Darwin scoring 3 in the 8th to run out 3-2 winners. Liang kept his win and undefeated streak alive, though, throwing 7 scoreless innings for only 3 hits. He struck out 4. His performance was good enough to be called 2nd-best of the day by OotPB TV, but the accolade surely would’ve felt much better if the box-score had a win next to his name.
3 Dec: Aguirre went hitless the 1st 2 games of the month, but cashed in today, his 3-6 a valuable contribution as Hobart opened up on all cylinders to beat Canberra 14-7. 2 of Aguirre’s hits were doubles, the 1st coming in a 10-run 5th-inning, the 2nd in the 7th. That was the 730th double of Aguirre’s career and his 3700th hit. Aguirre was 885 hits clear of the next-highest active player, 38 y/o Marcos Lopez (2815). Regarding the gap between 1st and 2nd on the hits board, Aguirre had now surpassed Alastair Mildren by 478 hits. Aguirre was also the active career leader in sacrifice flies, with 111.
4 Dec: John Foreman slugged pitchers around to the tune of .524/.600/1.286 over the last week to win the weekly award. His 11 hits included 4 doubles and 4HR.
5 Dec: Umashankar Meenakshi put up a good showing for Cairns against former team Adelaide, throwing 7 innings for just 1 earned run - if only the rest of his season to-date had been as miserly - and when he left the mound the score was locked 1-1. It was still the same heading into the bottom of the 9th. Sterling Boston walked the first 2 hitters before getting the first out of the inning. Keiran Cooper was intentionally walked and the bases were jammed. Tomas Zartuche struck out flailing, and Boston was replaced by Alwin de Lange. Quentin Welch pulled the 1-1 pitch over right and over the fence. Walk-off Grand Slam! That was Welch’s only hit of the night and only his 2nd homerun of the season.
5 Dec: John Zglinicki had Perth’s number, allowing just 3 hits through 8 innings, while walking none and whiffing 5. With the Thunder up by 7 and Zglinicki having only thrown 90 pitches, he was odds-on to ease to career shutout number 8 and number 2 for the season. But Beau Paterson, leading off the 9th, had other ideas. Zglinicki’s 1st pitch of the inning was a rare mistake, a belt-high fastball over the heart of the plate. Paterson lofted it way back over right and into the seats. Shutout shattered. That was all Perth could manage in the inning, Zglinicki making short work of the remaining 3 hitters, but oh what could’ve been. Zglinicki had a sense of humour about it, at least, joking in the aftermatch presser, “Couldn’t he have just watched that one through? I mean, he’d swung at the first pitch of his other 2 at-bats and done nothing but foul them off to the backstop. Wasn’t it time for a change in approach?”
8 Dec: Song Liang needed to be on-song to help a faltering Metros avoid 10 straight losses. He was. Up against a Melbourne lineup that boasted 6 starters with 10+ HR, Liang breezed through 8, giving up just 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 and allowing no batters safely across home stripe. In fact, the shakiest he looked was in the top of the 1st when he allowed runners to reach 1B and 2B with only 1 out. The Metros’ problem over the last couple weeks had been their relief pitching, but new closer Connor Auty got through the 9th with 2 strikeouts, though he did give up a single and threw a wild pitch. 3-0 Auckland and their slide was arrested, temporarily, at least. Liang now had an 11-game win streak going, to go with a string of 13 undefeated starts.
9 Dec: Only able to manage 4 hits, it was surprising Hobart stayed as close to the Thunder as they did, in the end only losing by a solitary run in a 4-3 finish. Aguirre contributed 1 of those runs in the 7th, driving one just deep enough over left to get him 4 bags instead of 2. 9th HR for the season and 699th for the career.
10 Dec: “Whatta stoush!” Auckland pitcher Sam Beamish declared. He’d just thrown 5.2 innings of scoreless relief to help Auckland overcome Melbourne 7-6 in a 16-inning epic. It was a draining game for both teams, clocking in at just over 5 hours, but especially so for the Metros, who lost SP Ferry Schalk to a shoulder strain after just 1 inning. They used 5 more pitchers, holding onto a 6-5 lead heading into the top of the 9th. Connor Auty, however, could only crane his neck as Glen Walsh hit a game-tying solo HR. Then came the jousting, neither team able to break the deadlock for the next 7 innings. Then, bottom of the 16th, Rich Downes bullied a Rod Rowe changeup into the RF bleachers. Walk-off HR, and Downes finished with match stats of 3-8, a double, HR, 2 runs and 2RBI included.
11 Dec: Calvin Hodnett won only the 2nd PotW award of his career. He hit .455/.520/1.000, 10-22, with 1 double, 1 triple, 3HR, 6 runs, 11RBI and 3 walks.
12 Dec: At 26-41, Newcastle had the 2nd-worst record of the league behind Hobart (25-42), who’d just beaten them 3-2 yesterday in their series opener. Last season the Roos finished at 68-94 and hadn’t featured in the postseason since 2055, having last finished above .500 in 2057. Manager Zhang-sung Sun had been at the helm since 2060, having been hired from AA in the ABC because he was a strong disciplinarian, which GM Mitchell Franks felt was needed to get the team working together rather than as individuals. Apparently his tune had now changed, for today Sun was given his marching orders, much to the relief of some anonymous players, one who said, “Sun’s leadership approach is to yell louder than anybody else, and especially at anyone who might have a different opinion to him.” There was no word on who his replacement would be, only that it wouldn’t be 62 y/o BC Augusto Ortega, a personable chap who’d been in the role as long as Sun had been at the club, but who Franks didn’t feel was “quite ready to lead a ball club.” Another anonymous player said in response, “If Augusto isn’t ready now, at 62 years old, then when will he ever be ready?”
14 Dec: Newcastle hired 42 y/o Nathan Woodger to see out the rest of the season. Woodger, who’d touched AA in 2044 as a catcher and then retired in 2046 after nobody offered him another contract, had no experience as a coach of any description in either the AUNZBL, ABC, BL or NABA systems. He’d worked most recently as a skipper in a Western Australia semi-pro. His contract was only for the remainder of the season, but if he did well, Franks said, “There’ll certainly be discussions about a longer deal.” While it was hard to know what sort of managerial tendencies Woodger had, looking at available footage from his last semi-pro team seemed to indicate that he’d try a lot of different strategies, but that many of them would be reactive rather than proactive or based on player analysis. He did resemble former skipper Zhang-sung Sun in one key aspect, if his former players were to be believed: he was a hothead and not afraid to vent his feelings.
14 Dec: Going, going, going... gone! Aguirre’s 9th-inning flyball had just enough legs to carry over the leftfield fence.
Number 700!!!. Hobart lost 4-3 to Newcastle, and that was Aguirre’s only hit of the night, but nobody would talk about anything else after the game. Aguirre, who was hitting just .160 in December, was reflective, saying, “What a journey. 5 different teams, a run of 6 Championships in 7 years, some bitter disappointments along the way. Y’know, I think I’m getting to the stage where I can look back on it objectively, too. These last few seasons have been a bit of a struggle, but I’m still enjoying my baseball, even if it feels like I’m swinging a lead bat sometimes. I’m just trying to goad these old bones along, taking it day by day, trying to do the best I can for the team.”
Newcastle’s new skipper, Nathan Woodger, who’d won his 1st game in charge, demonstrated his fiery tongue, growling out the following in the aftermatch presser, “Look, we won today, but you wouldn’t think so listening to all you chirpers. My first game in charge, too. Let’s focus on those things, shall we, not Ismael Aguirre reaching yet another milestone. Look, the guy can barely even hold the bat up to his shoulder now. I think he closes his eyes when he swings. Yeah, 700’s nice and all, but did he win the game for his team? No, he didn’t. A few years ago he might’ve, but not now. So why are you all focusing on a player in decline, when we should be focusing on a team that’s about to start a climb, the Newcastle Roos?”
The very next question? After a pause, a cheeky reporter said, “So, describe how it felt watching Aguirre’s home run from the dugout railing, especially knowing that it brought Hobart within 1 of your guys, with 2 outs up their sleeve.” Woodger was out of his seat halfway through the question, and out the door as it finished.
15 Dec: Sydney were quite chuffed with the results of the trade that had sent Rowan Reardon to Christchurch. Jose Ojeda, received in return, today hit in his 20th straight game, reaching the milestone with a 3-run HR in the 4th inning of an eventual 7-5 victory over the Metros. In 19 games since coming across to the Blue Sox Ojeda had contributed .390/.507/.780, with 6 doubles, 1 triple and 5HR scattered amongst 23 hits.
15 Dec: Mario Correa went 1-4 in the Crocs 12-4 victory over Newcastle. That solitary hit, a 3-run bomb in the bottom of the 1st, gave him a 5-game HR streak.
17 Dec: Song Liang continued his super season. Last start he’d thrown 7.2 innings for 2 runs (1 earned) before his bullpen blew his lead. Today he made sure of things, going the distance against Sydney, allowing just 3 hits while walking none and fanning 3, to lead Auckland to a 7-0 shutout victory. 12-game winning streak and 15-game undefeated streak. To sweeten matters even further, he brought Ojeda’s hitting streak to a crashing halt at 21 games, the catcher going 0-3 in the loss. Liang’s ERA for the season dropped to 1.39.
17 Dec: Cairns gave Mario Correa the day off on the 16th, many fans worrying at the possibility that the break in playing would put him off his homerun stride. They needn’t have worried. Correa went 1-3, that hit a solo HR in the 6th. Now with a 6-game HR streak going, Correa had equaled the AUNZBL record, a mark not reached since 2055 when Lance Fookes did so. “Yeah, it’s a bit of pressure, isn’t it?” Correa admitted after the game. “But if I just do what I’ve been doing, then if a pitch comes along that I can crush I’m sure I won’t miss out.”
18 Dec: Gary Young put together a stat-line of .467/.529/.867 to win PotW. He hit 3 doubles and 3HR.
18 Dec: Whether it was pressure or whether there were no pitches he could launch nobody would ever know. Whatever the case, Correa failed to go yard in Cairns’ 3-2 win over Newcastle, chilling his HR streak at 6. He was 1-4 on the night, that hit a single to lead off the bottom of the 2nd. Cairns won the game via a walk-off single to Ronald Aitken, the 2nd game in a row they’d won walk-off styles, much to the obvious ire of Newcastle skipper Woodger.
18 Dec: The Thunder and the Cavalry battled for 14 innings before Justin Auger cracked his 20th HR of the year to push the Central Coast just far enough ahead. A tired Cavalry lineup retired in order in the bottom of the inning and that was all she wrote, 7-6 Central Coast. Canberra had come from behind to level it in the 7th. The Thunder jumped 2 ahead in the 11th but Canberra pulled level again as quick as you please. Thunder skipper Reginald Reddick had his happy face on after the game. “Great display by the lads, showcasing the fighting spirit we prize so highly.” Central Coast were 6-1 in extra-innings games this season.
20 Dec: Correa might’ve missed out on hitting HRs in 7 straight games, but he found his stroke again after the off-day. He was responsible for all 3 of Cairns’ runs in their 3-2 victory over Wellington, courtesy of 2 homers. That put him on 23 for the season, tied at the top of that ladder with Neil Bellett. Cairns only managed 4 hits in the match, and 3 of those came from Correa’s bat.
23 Dec: Liang’s winning and undefeated streaks came to an end after Whangarei tagged him for 8 hits and a walk in 2.2 innings, leading to 7 runs. Auckland would go on to lose the game 8-3.
25 Dec: Andre Wiltshire was living up to the hype. Over the last week he hit .481/.500/.815, his 13-27 including 3 homers. Auckland’s regular 3-6 hitters were all averaging over .320.
29 Dec: Victor Doubleday was definitely grinning after today’s performance. He was too hot for the Bandits to handle, allowing only 4 hits and 1 walk in a 6-K shutout. Cairns waltzed to a 7-0 victory. Doubleday threw exactly 100 pitches for a game score of 84.
29 Dec: In a low-scoring affair, Central Coast pushed past Wellington 4-3 in 15 innings. The Thunder managed 15 hits and 4 walks, while the Fury put together 13 hits and 4 walks, but both teams struggled to capitalize on their chances. Aaron Gilleland’s solo HR in the 15th was the difference-maker, and 1 of only 2 homeruns in the game, the other coming off the bat of Will Glasson in the 1st.
29 Dec: “It’s raining goose feathers!” was the exclamation of the OotPB TV commentator at the startling conclusion of the game between the Roos and Venom. Up 5-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th, the Roos kept starter Nick Aston on the mound, happy at the opportunity to rest bullpen arms, especially as the Venom offense had never got going.
Richard Moore singled and Gary Young walked to start the inning, and Aston was replaced by newly-named All Star Alec Holz. Malcolm Pickhills singled to load the bases. Norm Donaldson then singled home Moore. 5-2 with 3 outs still left and the bases drunk. The commentary team began wondering if the Venom might be able to pilfer the win. Quentin ‘Goose’ Welch strolled to the plate, one analyst observing that Welch already had a walk-off Grand Slam this month, back on the 5th versus Cairns. “That won’t happen tonight, though,” he continued, “that’d be like getting hit by lightning twice.”
Welch watched the 1st pitch miss the zone high. He fouled the 2nd pitch to the backstop. The 3rd was a fastball in the bottom half of the zone. He made good contact over right. The RF tracked back to the wall but this one wasn’t coming down in the yard. Walk-off Grand Slam for the 2nd time in the month! Welch only had 5 homers for the season, but when they came, they sure came in style. Final score: 6-5 Adelaide.
Roos’ manager Woodger, only 15 games into his tenure and already with a reputation for snarly press conferences, didn’t even bother turning up to this one, instead sending a dejected Holz out to deal with the media. The presser was, unsurprisingly, short and sad, a couple of soft-hearted journalists even trying to cheer the pitcher up by shifting topic to the upcoming All Star Game but to no avail.
30 Dec: Called up on the 25th to cover injuries in the rotation, 36 y/o Wesley Blackford, who’d played for the Victory in the ABC from 2058-2060 before signing with Adelaide and getting 1 appearance out of the bullpen in 2061, wasn’t an intimidating pitcher. He threw a fastball topping out at around 145 km/h, along with a slider, a rarely seen changeup and a splitter. He’d been lit up on that 25th December start, conceding 10 hits for 7 earned runs in an 8-4 loss to Christchurch. It was a different story today, however. He showed plenty of the guile that often comes with age, allowing Newcastle only 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. He got better as the game wore on, too, 5 of his strikeouts coming from the 5th onward. First AUNZBL shutout, Adelaide slithering to a 7-0 win.
31 Dec: Overlooked for All Star selection, 28 y/o Brisbane DH Glen Casey responded in the best possible way, by continuing to get on-base, a lot. Yesterday he was 4-5 with a double and HR, today he went 3-5, with a double, and brought up a 20-game hit streak. Casey, who could really only play DH or 1B, wasn’t a typical first-baseman. He had very little homerun power, but was good at hitting the gaps and relatively difficult to strike-out, even if he swung at plenty of pitches. He finished the month leading the league in BA (see Other Notes, below, for more details).
Notable Injuries
1 Dec: Burt Trewartha (.278/.310/.417, 4HR from 117PA), the only player ever to hit 7 times in a single game, had started off the season at AAA before getting called up to the bigs as injury cover. He’d appeared in 33 games, though twice had been sent back to AAA for what turned out to be only 1-game stints. Now he was set for some time on the DL with an elbow strain. 6 weeks, give or take, according to Sluggers’ medical staff.
5 Dec: Beau Snell (.371/.422/.457, 1HR from 169PA) was done for the season thanks to torn ankle ligaments.
12 Dec: This morning their skipper got fired. This evening Roos’ star Guillermo Julio (.351/.412/.580, 12HR) fractured a hand whilst colliding with the leftfield wall. Prognosis: 6-7 weeks on the DL.
13 Dec: To add further insult, Newcastle SP Dean Ambrose (4-6, 4.37 ERA, 4.33 FIP, 1.43 WHIP), who’d left a game on the 8th with back pain, was today diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back. He wouldn’t be back until mid-February, at the earliest.
15 Dec: Miguel Ibanez (.245/.312/.469, 12HR) would be out for around 7 weeks with a partially torn labrum.
20 Dec: “I’m just glad I got to 700,” Aguirre (.237/.292/.410, 10HR) said when talking to press after news filtered out that he’d ruptured his Achilles and would take no further part in the season. When asked about his playing future, Aguirre was sober. “I don’t know, to be honest. Doc says 7-8 months for this, so if there are no setbacks I should be ready for next season, provided a team wants me. Even so, I have to seriously weigh things up. But it’s definitely way too raw for me to do that now. In a few months maybe. Right now I plan to be at every Prospects’ game for the rest of the season, cheering them along.”
Notable Trades/Signings
5 Dec: Auckland might’ve just dropped their 7th in a row the night before, Moeaktola Liao (3-4, 18 sv) blowing a 2-run lead in the bottom of the 9th to see them lose 6-5 to Darwin, but they still led the NZ by 5 games with a 36-25 record. And while the trade had surely been in the works for a while prior to its announcement today, it certainly seemed as if Liao was bearing the brunt of that loss. Auckland sent him over to Newcastle, tied with Kununurra at the bottom of the East-West, in return for 2 below-average prospects. Confusing? Yep, but a lot the Metros did was. Liao was certainly unprepared, putting up brave ‘no comments’ while bearing a bewildered expression when cornered at the airport. What effect his being moved on would have on the rest of the playing group remained to be seen.
6 Dec: Perth shipped off 27 y/o Aaron Gilleland (.270/.372/.395, 6HR) to the Thunder in return for a 21 y/o pitching prospect and a 24 y/o LF who didn’t look like he’d ever progress higher than single-A.
2062 All Stars
The NZ & Overseas All Stars submitted a pitching staff that included only 1 closer due to a lack of qualifying players in the role. The debate as to whether the AUNZBL All Star format was working had popped up in years past, but not with much fervour. However, after the announcement of this year’s All Star squads, that topic dominated fan and analyst discussion right up until All Star Day.
One former player turned pundit had the following, widely echoed opinion: “While the idea of this All Star format was an interesting one, and one that at inception was popular with the fans, it’s now time to put it aside and return to a format where each side has an equal pool of players to choose from. At any rate, the attempt to create a rivalry between players born outside of the Australian continent and those born on it is both antiquated and flawed, especially as New Zealand is no longer a separate nation, but a much-valued part of the Republic of Australia.
“Consider, too, the difference between the AUNZBL All Star Day and the ABC All Star Weekend. While the talent gulf between the two leagues is still all too apparent, the ABC certainly is doing the All Star thing much better. Not only do both sides have an equal number of players to choose from (not necessarily equal talent, but an equal number of players does more often than not mean a more equal spread of talent), but making a weekend of the occasion rather than cramming it in on a public holiday gives everything a much more genuine feel. Apart from that, a weekend gives time for a Home Run Derby, a Legends Game, and much more to keep the fans interested and excited.
Too, a full weekend means moving the game from park to park each year is something the host city can really get behind and has actual meaning, rather than just being a fleeting visit where the stars rush in on the morning of the game and rush back to wherever their team is playing as soon as the game finishes.”
In response to the hue and cry, the AUNZBL Commissioner responded by saying, “We are always open to ideas for the improvement of our great game and league. Certainly, we will take the viewpoints of our fans into consideration and will investigate whether the All Star Game can be improved during the offseason.”
Australian All Stars
SP Song Liang - AUC - 12-2, 1.89 ERA, 3.47 FIP, 0.91 WHIP
SP Marty Okolita - WHA - 9-4, 3.49 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 1.13 WHIP
SP Arthur Hammer - ADE - 8-2, 3.49 ERA, 3.46 FIP, 1.22 WHIP
SP Cody Watts - SYD - 5-3, 2.90 ERA, 3.47 FIP, 1.11 WHIP
SP Raymond Eykelbosch - SYD - 8-4, 3.84 ERA, 3.82 FIP, 1.24 WHIP
SP Eddie Rayner - KUN - 4-4, 3.01 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 1.22 WHIP
SP Victor Doubleday - CAI - 7-6, 4.29 ERA, 4.06 FIP, 1.23 WHIP
RP Alec Holz - NEW - 1-1, 10 sv, 0.53 ERA, 3.02 FIP, 0.98 WHIP
RP Adrian Lynch - CAN - 0-0, 0 sv, 13 hld, 1.20 ERA, 1.39 FIP, 0.73 WHIP
CL Rod Bacon - DAR - 6-3, 25 sv, 2.86 ERA, 3.06 FIP, 1.30 WHIP
CL Oliwa Lomu - MEL - 6-5, 17 sv, 2.70 ERA, 3.26 FIP, 1.30 WHIP
CL Bailey Naylor - ADE - 3-6, 20 sv, 3.29 ERA, 3.55 FIP, 1.15 WHIP
C Norm Donaldson - ADE - .320/.411/.616, 19HR
C Tommy Worsfold - AUC - .332/.414/.531, 12HR
1B Rich Downes - AUC - .351/.401/.585, 17HR
1B Norm Blume - BRI - .334/.404/.599, 22HR
1B Ronald Aitken - CAI - .320/.443/.578, 18HR
1B Justin Auger - CEN - .318/.405/.586, 21HR
2B Gary Young - ADE - .310/.382/.597, 17HR
2B Andre Wiltshire - AUC - .337/.394/.521, 13HR
3B Malcolm Pickhills - ADE - .264/.366/.549, 23HR
3B Sebastian Horton - MEL - .308/.364/.581, 23HR
SS Noel Dickson - MEL - .311/.356/.424, 3HR
LF Callum McCabe - AUC - .344/.417/.526, 10HR
LF Kelvin Pickhills - .321/.393/.560, 11HR
CF Mitchell Cox - NEW - .341/.422/.524, 11HR
CF Jayden Roneberg - AUC - .335/.400/.472, 4HR
RF Nick Ahern - KUN - .309/.419/.509, 10HR
NZ & Overseas All Stars
41 y/o Jayden Pye earned his 4th All Star jumper, and his 1st since 2054. He joked, “I seem to be getting better with age. Lock me in for the Jorge Diaz Award when I’m 50.”
SP Barry Dean - PER - 9-5, 3.80 ERA, 3.21 FIP, 1.23 WHIP
SP Damian Flemming - CAI - 4-2, 3.11 ERA, 3.46 FIP, 1.46 WHIP
SP Clint Kline - CAI - 8-2, 3.71 ERA, 3.81 FIP, 1.35 WHIP
SP Karl Blackwell - MEL - 6-5, 3.29 ERA, 3.98 FIP, 1.13 WHIP
SP Jeremy Hofmann - CHR - 5-6, 4.46 ERA, 3.41 FIP, 1.36 WHIP
SP Roderick Beresford - NEW - 4-6, 5.29 ERA, 3.76 FIP, 1.45 WHIP
SP Ted Heathcote - CHR - 6-3, 3.67 ERA, 4.11 FIP, 1.27 WHIP
RP Alwin de Lange - CAI - 3-1, 2 sv, 1.85 ERA, 1.90 FIP, 0.90 WHIP
RP Sterling Boston - CAI - 2-1, 1 sv, 2.79 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 1.00 WHIP
RP Cameron Dickinson - SYD - 6-2, 4 sv, 2.11 ERA, 2.79 FIP, 1.38 WHIP
RP Alec Albury - WEL - 0-1, 4 sv, 1.05 ERA, 3.81 FIP, 1.13 WHIP
CL Martin Silva - CAI - 5-2, 20 sv, 3.38 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 1.33 WHIP
C Yin-ti Zhuo - WEL - .302/.455/.488, 7HR
C Rupert Bethune - BRI - .306/.337/.452, 8HR
1B Richard Moore - ADE - .311/.410/.494, 15HR
1B Marcos Lopez - SYD - .312/.373/.517, 14HR
1B Baryai Venugopalan - CAN - .289/.332/.483, 16HR
2B Luis Cuesta - MEL - .273/.316/.508, 18HR
2B Beau Hauer - CHR - .281/.360/.498, 13HR
2B Angel Rivera - DAR - .303/.331/.472, 8HR
3B Mario Correa - CAI - .308/.350/.582, 24HR
3B Yoshihito Morimoto - CEN - .290/.333/.354, 1HR
SS Stephane Lecomte - CAI - .282/.352/.365, 3HR
SS Bailey Kinnear - SYD - .288/.391/.434, 6HR
LF James Bacosa - WHA - .317/.364/.474, 7HR
LF Jayden Pye - WEL - .283/.375/.472, 12HR
CF Edgardo Rico - WHA - .336/.382/.449, 3HR
RF Neil Bellett - CAN - .294/.391/.587, 25HR
Month Awards
Rookie of the Month: 2 months in a row for Sebastian Horton. The 3B hit .313/.379/.652 in December, his 35-112 including 6 doubles, 1 triple and 10HR. He also scored 23 runs, walked 10 times and stole 1 base.
Hurler of the Month: 25 y/o Darwin closer Rod Bacon sizzled in December, appearing in 16 games for 5 wins, 0 losses and 10 saves. He had an ERA of 2.70, an FIP of 2.59, and a WHIP of 1.08. In 16.2 innings he struck out 18 and allowed only 5 earned runs. For the season Bacon was 6-3, with 27 saves, putting him 3 clear of all other closers.
Slugger of the Month: Andre ‘Otter’ Wiltshire, another of the young Metros’ crowd, took SotM out. He hit .400/.457/.696, 46-115, with 25 runs, 4 doubles, 10HR, 32RBI, 12BB, and 4SB. For the season he was hitting .334/.390/.522, with 14HR. Sadly, however, he left a game injured on the 30th and found out on All Star morning that he had a fractured shoulder blade and wouldn’t play for at least a month.
Media Watch
Lance Ralston: The 38 y/o ‘Missing Piece’ was 1 start into a rehab assignment with Christhcurch’s AAA-affiliate, the Balclutha Spiders. He’d gotten through 6 innings of work, allowing 2 earned runs while whiffing 4. All his pitches looked down on, as one commentator liked to put it, ‘zip,’ with Ralston primarily throwing splitters and circle-changes with the occasional curveball, but he seemed to be getting as much movement as ever, and how much could one tell from the 1st start of a rehab stint? Could he get 9 wins in the 2nd half of the season? It’d be a tall order in a patchy Cowboys’ team, but if anybody could do it, Ralston could.
Other Notes
Coastal Division: The Venom and Crocs (both 17-12) couldn’t be separated after another hard fought month, with Darwin (20-9) leaping above .500 to be only 6 games back.
East-west Division: Central Coast (17-12) remained the only team playing better than .500 in the division, their lead over their rivals extended by 2, to 10 games.
NZ Division: Auckland (12-17) stumbled through December, Christchurch (18-11) rising from the bottom of the division ladder to pull within 5 games.
Southern Division: Canberra (10-19) had a banana-skin month, slipping from 5 games above .500 to 4 games below. Sydney (19-10), on the other hand, surged ahead, finishing December 9 games clear. Melbourne (8-21) were awful, 12 games under .500 at month’s end.
Wildcard: Either Adelaide or Cairns had a 6-game buffer in slot 1, with Darwin holding onto the 2nd spot, 4 games ahead of Christchurch, and 6 games clear of Canberra, Wellington and Whangarei.
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Rich Downes (.349/.398/.590, 19HR) only hit .264 in December, and therefore slipped off most of the top leaderboard spots he’d held at the beginning of the month. He still led the league in hits, though, with 120 to his name.
The new BA leader was Glen Casey (.369/.421/.515, 4HR).
Neil Bellett (.295/.390/.597, 27HR) was 1 clear at the top of the HR board.
Norm Donaldson (.323/.416/.612, 19HR) found himself back atop the SLG and wOBA (.429) boards.
Norm Blume (.338/.406/.610, 24HR) led all qualified hitters in RBI (89), XBH (46), and total bases (211).
Yin-ti Zhuo (.294/.448/.473, 7HR) had an OBP to die for, while Alan Sneddon (.269/.413/.364, 2HR) led the league in walks, with 70.
Another prolific walker, Ronald Aitken (.321/.445/.588, 20HR), topped the OPS charts.
Cain Donaldson (.301/.406/.413, 3HR) had scored the most runs (72), while Stephane Lecomte (.291/.357/.376, 3HR) had nicked the most bags, with 29.
Malcolm Pickhills (.266/.371/.568, 26HR), skinny goatee and all, led the league in WAR by a whisker, with a 4.1 mark. Zhuo and Norm Donaldson were a few decimal places behind him. Pickhills was also fractionally ahead of Bellett in the ISO stakes, with .302.
Song Liang (12-2, 2.28 ERA, 3.71 FIP, 0.96 WHIP) got beat up a bit his last 2 starts, only managing 5.2 innings across both of them. Still, he continued to lead the league in wins, ERA, WHIP, H/9 (6.77), and OAVG (.206).
Marty Okolita (9-4, 3.40 ERA, 3.17 FIP, 1.08 WHIP) was putting in a big push as he headed towards free agency. He now was at the head of the FIP and K/9 (9.28) boards.
Barry Dean (9-5, 3.87 ERA, 3.20 FIP, 1.23 WHIP) soldiered on in another mediocre Perth team. He’d struck out 130 so far, started 19 games, thrown 137.1 innings, and reached 4.2 WAR, all league bests. A couple of analysts were worried he was being overused and might suffer the consequences 2 or 3 seasons down the track.
At the halfway point, league ERA was sitting at 4.61, and league BA at .272.
ABC Wrap-up
Alice Springs had regained the advantage in the Northern, Brisbane stomping at their heels just 1 game back.
Melbourne continued to lead the Southern, with Canberra in their slipstream, 1 game in arrears. Sydney had dropped to 3 games back. All 3 teams were playing better than .600 ball.
Perth, 7 games below .500, now held the outright lead in the Western, Adelaide 4 games behind. Broome went 7-19 for the month to drop to 6 games off the pace and below .400 for the season.
Jakarta surged ahead in the Overseas, leading Port Moresby by 6. Hamilton were a further 1/2 game back.
30 y/o Hamilton Hawks' LF Luke Maggs took out ABC rookie award for December. Sick of playing a platoon role in the AUNZBL (he’d done so for 3 teams from 2058-2061), Maggs had signed a 4-year deal with Hamilton and was loving getting the opportunity to once again play every day. He hit .320/.386/.510 during the month.
Another new recruit took out the month’s Golden Arm award. Harrison Mitchinson was 5-0 in December, with a 0.70 era, allowing just 3 earned runs in 38.2 innings. Last season for Cairns in the AUNZBL, Mitchinson had gone 8-14 with a 5.76 ERA and 4.67 FIP. He’d also signed a 4-year deal, with the Canberra Capitals.
Si-xun Qiao, the overwhelming biggest vote-getter amongst position players of both teams for the ABC All Star Game, had 32 home runs at the halfway mark. Gavin Howell was 4 back on 28, while Joshua Angwin slugged 10 during the month to have 25, good enough for 3rd.
AUNZBL Standings, Jan 1