2062/2063 Season - February
Notable Performances
2 Feb: On short rest, Ralston threw 5.0 innings for 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. That was good enough for the win as Christchurch pounded Wellington 10-3. 6 more to 200.
5 Feb: Tomas Zartuche hit .485/.514/.606, 16-33, to win PotW.
6 Feb: Gary Young continued his fine season with a 5-5 performance in Adelaide’s 10-0 pantsing of division rivals Cairns. This marked the 3rd instance that Young had hit 5 times in a major-league game. The win was centred around catcher Li Hayes’ Grand Slam in the 5th, part of a 7-run inning. Hayes had forced his way into Adelaide’s everyday catcher role during January, at least for now, relegating Norm Donaldson to a DH/bench role.
7 Feb: Brisbane had to be delighted with the short-term results of their trade to net Nick Aston. In just his 2nd start for his new club, Aston held Melbourne scoreless off the back of 6 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 5 in the 11-0 hammering, saying after the game, “I’m really enjoying this new environment, it’s been very welcoming. It’s really nice to have the lads trust me so quickly.”
8 Feb: Scouts said that while Zachary Quinn could throw 5 pitches, he was “a master of none.” Today, though, he was certainly master of Sydney, restricting the Blue Sox to just 4 hits, fanning 5, and leading Wellington to a 3-0 shutout. He only threw 95 pitches. The win was just his 6th of the year, to go with a league-leading (tied) 14 losses.
8 Feb: Darwin were searching for their 9th win on the trot, while Auckland were just looking for a way to keep their noses above .500 and arrest their second-half slide. Down 4-2 in the 5th, Auckland tied it up with good old-fashioned hustle. That was all the scoring through regulation innings. A dropped catch in RF in the top of the 11th gave Darwin a golden opportunity and one they wouldn’t miss. The error sparked a 2-out rally and before the Metros knew what had happened the Diggers had sent 3 runners safely across home-plate. In the bottom of the inning, the Metros’ first 2 hitters doubled and singled respectively, putting sentinels on each corner. An error by the 3B allowed a run to score, and an out later Downes singled home another. Comeback on the cards? Most definitely. Wiltshire’s RBI-single tied things up, and left runners at 2B and 3B, before another error, this time at SS, allowed Downes to score the winning run. Final score: 8-7 Metros.
11 Feb: Wiltshire was doing his best to inspire his teammates as the Metros, now 5 games behind in the division and 10 games behind in the wildcard, struggled to reignite their season. Wiltshire’s 3-5, including a HR and 4 ribbies, helped Auckland to an 8-5 victory over Melbourne. The winning runs came courtesy of a 5-run 9th, the Aces folding on 6 pitches in the bottom of the inning. Wiltshire, who earned PotG, could also celebrate a 20-game hit streak, the 1st of his major-league career.
11 Feb: The Diggers busted out against the Venom, crushing them by the score of 19-2 on the back of 20 hits and 8 walks. The biggest star of the night was 9-hitter Ruben Zumaya, who became the 3rd player of the season to hit for the cycle. Zumaya got all the hard stuff out of the way early, tripling in the 2nd, doubling in the 3rd, and homering in the 5th. After grounding out in the 7th, he singled in the 8th to record the feat. Zumaya also scored 4 runs and plated 4 runners.
11 Feb: Canberra led 6-2 heading into the 7th of their clash with Cairns before the Crocs looked certain to steal victory, scoring 2 each in the 7th, 8th, and 9th. Not to be deterred, however, Canberra took to Crocs’ closer Martin Silva, 2 singles leading off the bottom of the 9th followed by Matt Cusack bringing ‘em all home with a walk-off 3-run dinger. Catcher Cusask had slugged 22 homeruns in AAA this season before getting called back to the bigs (he’d appeared in 120 major-league games in 2061). This was his 3rd HR in the top-flight.
12 Feb: Wiltshire took home PotW, hitting .500/.552/.846.
13 Feb: A 2-run Norm Blume HR in the top of the 9th broke the deadlock between Brisbane and Christchurch, helping the Bandits to a 7-5 victory. The dinger was Blume’s 2nd of the night, moving him to 32 for the season. Brisbane’s closer Rich Steedman allowed 1 hit but otherwise looked comfortable in recording the save, getting through the inning on just 8 pitches. The save was Steedman’s 30th of the season. He was yet to blow a save in 2062, though he had lost 4 games after coming on in tie situations.
14 Feb: Wiltshire’s hit streak came to a screeching halt at 22 games, the Cowboys not only keeping him hitless, but also demolishing the Metros 16-3. “They came at us quick and hard and never let up,” Wiltshire said after the game. “They rattled us and we didn’t respond well. That’s far more disappointing to me than my personal run coming to an end.” Auckland made 3 errors in the game - 1 by Wiltshire - which contributed to 3 unearned runs. Lance Fookes went deep twice for the Cowboys.
14 Feb: Roy Blake had thrown 9 innings his last start for Brisbane, allowing 13 hits and walking 2 in a 4-2 loss to Melbourne. He went all 9 again today, but the result was very different. This time he allowed just 5 hits and walked only 1 to lead the Bandits to a 6-0 shutout victory over Sydney. He struck out 3 in his 2nd whitewash of the season.
15 Feb: Neil Bellett became the 1st player to 40HR this season, his 8th-inning solo shot the go-ahead run in Canberra’s come-from-behind 6-5 victory over Adelaide. He was 3 homers clear of Mario Correa, who also went yard in the Crocs’ 4-2 win over Central Coast.
15 Feb: 25 y/o Gustavo Sosa had got a big-league cup of coffee in both 2059 and 2061 but this season had cemented himself at 3B for Darwin, starting 101 games so far. The Cuban demonstrated his chops today, going 5-5 with a double and HR, in Darwin’s 18-3 thrashing of Melbourne. He also scored 5 runs, equalling Darwin’s game record.
15 Feb: Sosa wasn’t the only player to do the 5-hit parade on this day. Axel Nankervis, who admitted last month he was “feeling a bit flat” this season, churned out 5 hits from 6 at-bats in Sydney’s 13-6 whipping of Brisbane. Nankervis, hitting .303 for the year, might be feeling a bit flat, but the 2 doubles he hit put him on 34 for the season, in a tie for 3rd in the league. He also slugged his 13th HR of the year, in which area he
was well off his typical pace.
16 Feb: Could Bellett get 50? He went deep in the 5th inning of a Canberra and Adelaide punch-up that ended with Adelaide coming from behind to win 18-13. 41 dingers for the season so far, putting him on track to hit 51. Tomas Zartuche also had a night to remember, going 5-6 for the Venom. All up, 7 homers were struck, as well as 10 doubles.
16 Feb: The last couple days were all about the batters. Whangarei’s Edgardo Rico became the latest to get 5 hits, going 5-6 to help the Sluggers pummel Kununurra 12-1. He hit a HR and a double, scored 3 runs and plated 2 runners in, as he described it, “a busy night.”
17 Feb: “Wow!” was all an exhausted Zartuche could manage immediately after his side’s 13-4 dust-up of the Cavalry. For the 2nd night in a row, Zartuche went 5-6. He scored 3 runs, same as yesterday, and drove in 1 runner, same as yesterday. However, instead of a double he hit a triple, and also stole his 37th base of the season. Skipper Luis Gonzalez was as full of praise as it was possible for him to be. With an expressionless face, he intoned, “When you’ve got a leadoff guy getting on-base as much as Zartuche has been the last couple days you’ll run up some big scores.”
19 Feb: Unsurprisingly, Zartuche won PotW. While he didn’t get 5 hits in yesterday’s 2-1 victory over Melbourne, he did go 3-5 with a double and a triple, to finish the week hitting .571/.579/.914, his 20-35 including 3 doubles, 3 triples and 1HR. He scored 11 runs too, only 1 less than he managed in the entire month of January (though he did miss the 1st week or so with injury).
19 Feb: 26 y/o Chuk-yan Lung was spotted by a Kununurra scout in October plying his trade in a NSW ‘bush’ league (that was the fashionable term at the time for a semi-pro operating in either of Queensland, NSW or Victoria). A mediocre defender in the outfield corners or at 1B, the 6’3” Lung immediately caught the scout’s eye when he came to the plate. “Fluid swing, good plate coverage, decent pitch awareness,” the report said. “Far better than his competition. In fact, probably ready for the bigs right now.”
Minimum wage in the majors was like hitting the jackpot for Lung, who signed that evening with the Pioneers. He was given 113PA in AAA, where he hit .359/.460/.587, with 6 home runs, before being called up to the majors in mid-December as a bench bat. A joy to interview, the wide-eyed Lung was already a journalist favourite to talk to while a game was in progress, his catchphrase of ‘Sheiks and Beaks,’ uttered whenever anything exciting happened on the field, already appropriated by several baseball show anchors.
He wasn’t interviewed during the game today, however, getting a rare start at RF instead, but was still the star of the show. He went 2-4, slugging 2 homers, his 2-run effort in the bottom of the 9th getting the Pioneers within a whisker of Perth. The final score was 6-5 Heat, but it was Lung who did a lap around the field postgame, signing autographs and posing for photos with the home fans. “What are your goals?” a reporter asked him. Lung shrugged and smiled. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. One game at a time, for me.”
20 Feb: Darwin and Christchurch battled for 14 innings before Jesus Vega gave the Cowboys a walk-off victory via a 2-run HR, his only hit of the night. Rod Bacon, 2nd in the league with 37 saves, blew his 9th save of the year in the bottom of the 9th to see Christchurch tie it up. The Cowboys only scored in the 2nd, 9th, and 14th innings but managed to sneak out 5-3 victors.
21 Feb: Darwin couldn’t quite get up over Christchurch, going down 7-6. 1B Dustin Bacon went 2-4, slugging a HR for the 3rd game in a row. He also scored a run, having now done so for 15 games on the trot. He led the league in runs scored, with 101. His run streak would end after the off day.
23 Feb: Gao Chin led the way for Newcastle as they defeated Canberra 9-3. He was 5-5, with a double and HR to go with 2 runs scored and 3 driven in.
23 Feb: Isaac Canavan became the 1st pitcher to 40 saves for the season, helping Central Coast hold off Adelaide 4-3.
24 Feb: Whangarei and Auckland duelled for 9 scoreless innings, both starters going 8, Auckland’s Nelson Casey only allowing 3 hits. The drought was broken in the top of the 10th when Glen Donovan led off with a solo HR. Whangarei scrambled home another run and Rodney Ducat picked up his 25th save of the season with a wily 6-pitch effort in the bottom of the inning.
25 Feb: January HotM Willem Throsby brought up his 11th straight win in style, allowing just 6 hits and 2 walks in a 6-strikeout shutout against Sydney. Darwin didn’t win the game until the bottom of the 9th, new trade recruit William Fenton fighting his way to a 12-pitch walk and advancing to 3B on Angel Rivera’s double. Kent Okolita whiffed and Dustin Bacon was intentionally walked. With the bases loaded Wes Blenkhorn threw too far inside to Ed Geoghegan, who had a habit of crowding the plate. He took the pitch on his arm and the winning run strolled safely home.
26 Feb: Damian Krajancic clobbered 5HR over the past week, hitting an overall .520/.552/1.200, to take out PotW.
26 Feb: Christchurch’s Jeremy Hofmann had a right to look furious at the conclusion of his side’s 5-2 loss to the Aces. He’d thrown 7.2 innings of no-hit baseball (6 walks included) before coming from the mound with his team up 2-0. They still held that lead heading into the bottom of the 9th and Melbourne were still yet to register a hit. Everything then changed very quickly. Noel Dickson led off the inning with a single, breaking up the combined no-hitter. That led to a pitching change and Carl Rowlands quickly got Tu-fu Ang to pop out to CF. Vern Bull didn’t swing his bat once in earning a 5-pitch walk. Sebastian Horton hit a 1st-pitch single and the bases were loaded, the winning run at 1B. Caspar Purcell popped out to the catcher. Jose Villegas walked a run in on 4 pitches. Luis Cuesta watched 2 cutters miss the plate. The 3rd cutter was waist-high and he pulled it over LF. Over and into the stands. Walk-off Grand Slam, and Hofmann’s immediate response was to hurl a rolled-up towel at the dugout wall and storm off to the changing sheds. Melbourne scored 5 runs off only 3 hits, and got away with committing 4 errors - 3 of them by catcher Bull.
28 Feb: It wasn’t one of his better outings, but Barry Dean did enough both to get his 13th win of the season and to break through the 200 strikeout barrier. He gave up 11 hits and 2 walks for 4 runs in 6.0 innings of Perth’s 12-10 win over Auckland, and also struck out 5, putting him on 204 punch-outs for the season. Interestingly, the stats-heads’ aftermatch analysis was of the opinion that Perth’s defence let Dean down bigtime.
28 Feb: Angel Rivera managed just 1 hit from 5 at-bats in Darwin’s 6-3 victory over Whangarei. That was good enough, however, to give him a 20-game hit streak.
28 Feb: Roy Blake took a 1-hit start into the 9th inning of Brisbane’s game against Hobart. 2nd batter of the inning, Adrian Stuart, recorded Hobart’s 2nd hit of the game and at the same time broke up Blake’s shutout attempt. Stuart’s fly only just had enough legs to clear the LF fence, but clear the fence it did. The final score was 6-1 Brisbane.
28 Feb: 3 runs in the 4th were enough for Christchurch to get up over Adelaide 3-2. The winning pitcher was Lance Ralston, who threw 6.2 innings for 5 hits, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts and 2 earned runs. “Yeah, I was spraying it a bit in the 7th, wasn’t I?” he said. “But we somehow got out of it only 1 run worse off.” 4 of Ralston’s walks, and 1 of his hits, came in that inning. He moved to 195 career wins.
Notable Injuries
6 Feb: Central Coast’s everyday 1B for 2062, Adam Cox (.274/.315/.396, 11HR) would be out with a hamstring strain for the next month or so. 26 y/o Cox had been with Melbourne but wasn’t offered arbitration at the end of last season after spending 2 years playing in a back-up role. Central Coast signed him on the cheap, as was their wont, and had started him in 112 games so far. While he wasn’t setting the world on fire, he was playing the role asked of him, especially defensively, where he’d put up a +9.2 ZR and a 1.116 efficiency.
11 Feb: Alan Sneddon’s (.246/.390/.329, 3HR) frustrating season continued. After leaving a game on the 7th injured he found out today that the hamstring was torn rather than strained and that he might be struggling to make it back before the end of the regular season.
11 Feb: Newcastle catcher Yen-nien Liu (.254/.333/.369, 9HR) wasn’t expected to be back this season thanks to a sports hernia.
12 Feb: Metros’ fans could be heard groaning all over the city after receiving news that Callum McCabe (.321/.397/.473, 10HR) was unlikely to play any further part in the regular season after spraining his ankle.
14 Feb: Marty Okolita (12-7, 3.99 ERA, 3.62 FIP, 1.13 WHIP) was done for the campaign thanks to biceps tendinitis. The 33 y/o Sluggers’ K-machine had 179 strikeouts at a rate of 10.07 every 9 innings.
14 Feb: Canberra’s Matt Cusack (.268/.354/.375, 3HR in 130PA) was also finished for 2062. He had sprained his knee.
16 Feb: Guillermo Julio (.344/.408/.565, 13HR from 346PA) would head to the DL with a fracture for the 2nd time this season. This time it was a fractured foot, and he was looking at a month out.
17 Feb: It was likely Brisbane's Glen Casey (.338/.386/.457, 4HR) would recover from his strained ribcage muscle in time to return for the last few games of the season.
21 Feb: Vic Collins (.286/.356/.428, 8HR from 335PA) had swung his last bat for the season thanks to an oblique strain.
26 Feb: Rookie Hobart 2B Ethan Rafferty (.271/.330/.340, 3HR, +17.7 ZR) was unlikely to be back this season after being diagnosed with an intercostal strain.
Notable Trades/Signings
24 Feb: Division rivals Darwin and Adelaide snuck through a waiver wire trade, Adelaide parting ways with 27 y/o OF William Fenton (.252/.379/.416, 14HR), while Darwin sent 28 y/o LF Andrew Benbow (.269/.355/.378, 11HR) south. It was an interesting move for both teams, with Adelaide’s lead over Darwin only 6 games (the Crocs were sandwiched in between), and it looking certain both would feature in the postseason.
27 Feb: Cairns signed 32 y/o C Gary ‘Dusty’ Baker to a 2-year extension. Baker was hitting .288/.352/.466, with 15HR, in 2062, and .295/.362/.486, with 232HR, lifetime. He admitted he’d taken a bit of a pay cut to stay a Croc, but that it “was completely worth it” to be part of a team environment he loved.
Month Awards
Rookie of the Month: 25 y/o Gustavo Sosa complemented his 5-hit effort in the middle of the month with the season’s last RotM award. He hit .307/.381/.495, 31-101, with 23 runs, 7 doubles, 3 triples, 2HR, 19RBI, 11BB, and 7 stolen bases.
Hurler of the Month: Willem Throsby made it 2 months in a row with a 4-0 effort from 5 starts. His ERA was 2.55, his FIP 4.11, and his WHIP 1.25. He sent down 35.1 innings, striking out 27 along the way. Throsby had an 11-game win streak going together with a 15-game undefeated streak.
Slugger of the Month: To cap off a Diggers’ trifecta, Darwin catcher Kent Okolita took home his 1st ever SotM. The 29 y/o hit .384/.525/.808 in February, going 28-73, with 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 8HR. He also scored a whopping 27 runs, plated 28 runners, and walked 23 times.
Media Watch
Marcos Lopez: Lopez turned 39 on the 24th of February, and finished the month 88 hits short of 3000. If he were to reach the mark he’d be only the 5th player to do so in the history of the league, and the 3rd with a career BA over .300. Lopez had a poor February, only hitting .238/.288/.426 for 24 hits, but was having a good season overall, with a stat-line of .296/.348/.498, alongside 168 hits and 26HR.
Duarte Vasche: 45 y/o Vasche, who’d played 3 major-league seasons for the Aces from 2045-2047, was named in Darwin’s extended roster on March 1st after putting together a 2-1, 3.29 ERA record from 63.0 innings across 36 relief appearances at AAA. As a 23 y/o, Vasche had been a member of the 2041 San Jose Gobernadores, and therefore one of the founding players of the BL. As well as having played 1 season in the NABA (2059), Vasche had played 17 seasons in the BL across different stints. He was overjoyed at the opportunity to pull on a big-league jumper again, even though he realistically admitted it was unlikely he’d actually take the field.
Jayden Pye: Vasche made 41 y/o Pye the 2nd-oldest player on a major-league roster this season. Unlike Vasche, however, Pye had played in 110 big-league games in 2062, racking up 473PA so far for the Fury. He didn’t look overmatched at the plate, either, hitting .286/.387/.494 so far, with 17 doubles and 22HR gracing his 114 hits. His OPS+ was 129. In the field he looked okay during the 36 games he’d played 1B, but not so during the 45 games he’d started at LF. While he’d only made 2 errors, his ZR of -12.2 and EFF of .829 showed that age had at least caught up to his outfield legs. Amazingly, for someone with nearly 17 years of major-league service time under his belt, Pye was still 96 hits short of 2000.
Other Notes
Coastal Division: This division was by far the most interesting in 2062. Adelaide (15-11) couldn’t separate themselves from Cairns (15-11), who remained just 1 game shy of the lead. Charging up on them both were Darwin (19-7), who headed into the home straight only 3 games back.
East-West Division: Central Coast (18-8) looked set to be the 1st team to clinch a division in 2062, their magic number just 5, no other team in the division closer than 18 games back.
NZ Division: Christchurch (15-11) did enough to extend their lead over the dying Metros (10-16) to 6 games.
Southern Division: Sydney (11-15) stumbled in February, but it didn’t matter, as the rest of the division was so far in arrears it would take something miraculous if any of them were to overtake the Blue Sox.
Wildcard: Cairns and Darwin were near certainties to occupy the 2 wild card slots, with Auckland the closest chasing team, 13 games back from the Diggers. It was highly likely that whoever took out wildcard slot number 1 would earn an opening playoff round bye.
#
Neil Bellett (.304/.408/.605, 42HR) remained atop the SLG, OPS, HR, wOBA (.425), ISO (.302), and WAR (5.7) boards.
Jayden Downes (.356/.377/.431, 3HR) led the BA race.
Richard Moore (.331/.427/.519, 25HR) found himself with the best OBP among qualified hitters.
Angel Rivera (.338/.368/.498, 12HR) was 1 hit shy of 200, and also led the league in runs, with 105. He was tied for the lead in doubles with Fei-hsien Chang (.270/.318/.505, 29HR), both players with 40. Chang’s 71 XBH was also a league-best.
Tomas Zartuche (.347/.388/.480, 8HR) had 14 triples to his name, 4 more than any other player.
Norm Blume (.299/.368/.542, 35HR) was 11RBI clear of all other hitters, with 131.
Ronald Aitken (.300/.425/.534, 30HR) had not only reached his personal season HR best with 22 games to spare, he was also the only hitter with more than 100 walks, with 105 so far.
Stephane Lecomte (.287/.353/.376, 4HR) had 46 steals, and projected to the only player to reach 50 this season.
Rich Downes (.338/.395/.566, 29HR) had rounded the most bases, with a tally of 317 thus far.
Song Liang (16-7, 3.54 ERA, 4.02 FIP, 1.18 WHIP) and Clint Kline (16-3, 3.09 ERA, 3.65 FIP, 1.15 WHIP) were tied for the league lead in wins.
Midseason trade acquisition Carlos Yanez (7-5, 2.89 ERA, 3.95 FIP, 1.05 WHIP) was turning out just peachy for the Thunder. He led the AUNZBL in ERA, WHIP, H/9 (6.67), and OAVG (.207).
Barry Dean (13-8, 3.75 ERA, 2.94 FIP, 1.24 WHIP) was soldiering on despite the inadequacies of the team around him. He led all qualified pitchers in FIP, strikeouts (204), IP (213.2), and WAR (7.4).
Isaac Canavan had 41 saves to his name, 3 more than Rod Bacon.
League BA was up to .273 heading into March, with ERA matching last season’s 4.66 effort.
ABC Wrap-up
Brisbane had pulled 3 games clear of Alice Springs in the Northern.
Melbourne were now just 1 game ahead of Sydney in the Southern, with Canberra only 2 games behind. It looked extremely likely that the teams with the 2nd- and 3rd-best records in the league would miss out on the postseason.
If Perth (64-73) could hold onto their 5-game advantage in the Western they would appear in their 2nd consecutive postseason. They’d made it with a sub .500 record last year, too.
Jakarta saw Dunedin suddenly appear in their rearview mirror in the Overseas, the Outlaws putting together a 23-4 run in February to pull within 2 1/2 games.
23 y/o Mike Lundgren (.288/.364/.508, 20HR) took home both the monthly Rookie Award and Hitter Award. He also got involved in a vicious brawl on the 27th, which saw 40 y/o Marshall Whiffin knocked out. Both players were suspended for 9 games, with Whiffin completely unbelieving of the result. “I took a right hook to the jaw and could’ve been trampled and suffered serious injury, and I get suspended for the same amount of time as the guy who decked me. Decked me for absolutely no reason, I might add, too.” Lundgren was half-apologetic when fronting media the next morning, saying, “Maybe I misread the situation. But when a pitch zeroes in on your head like that straight after a home run’s been hit, it’s an easy thing to do. If I could go back in time I might react differently, yeah, but at the same time I might not.”
Satya Susanti only managed 1 win during February to sit on 19 wins heading into March.
Si-xun Qiao (.273/.364/.573, 43HR) hadn’t been able to keep up his frantic homerun pace, managing just 3 in February. He was still tracking to reach 50, but not many more.
AUNZBL Standings, Mar 1