OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - A brief history of the Australia-New Zealand Baseball League (AUNZBL, 2019-2119)

Izz · 10-28-2017, 06:35 PM

2063/2064 Season - January

Hall of Fame

3 players were on the ballot for the first time, while 3 players returned for another crack.

Typically, inductions took place on the first Tuesday of January, which in 2064 happened to fall on the 1st of January, the same day as the All Star Game. The AUNZBL decided, if any new players were to be inducted, to combine the 2 events, with the induction ceremony to be held in the afternoon at the venue of the All Star Game, with the game itself to be held in the evening. This decision was reached some time before the current controversy surrounding the All Star Game began.

Results

For the second year in a row the Hall had a first-ballot entry. Young-tae Lee was elected with 83.6% of the vote. There had been some conjecture as to whether Lee (.281/.392/.437, 330HR) would get into the Hall at all but the voters had spoken in overwhelming fashion and the 10-time Championship winner was in. 47 y/o Lee had only retired from pro-ball after the 2060 season, having finished his career in AAA at 44 years of age. However, he’d last played in the majors in 2057, hitting .257/.405/.322 in 385PA for Auckland. Lee was inducted in a Newcastle uniform.

Of course, Lee is very well known today, 55+ years later, but not primarily because of his tremendous career. Instead, he is known as the ‘first non-Australasian elected to the Hall.’ That, of course, isn’t a bad thing. However, it became a sticking point at the time because instead of focusing on his achievements, the Commissioner’s Office decided to make a big deal of his race in a bid to try to prove that there was no bias or discrimination in their systems. In fact, the Commissioner laboured the point so much in his speech prior to inviting Lee to the stage that the typically unflappable 10-time All Star felt compelled to say in response, “I’d like to think I got here solely because of what I achieved as a player, not just because I had a twenty-year career in the bigs but was born in another land.”

Sadly, the debate as to whether Lee belongs in the Hall on his own merits still rages today among some fans when it should never have been an issue in the first place.

Almost lost among the uproar was the fact that Mike Wurfel dropped from 77.8% on last year’s ballot all the way to 33.9% this year.

These were the full voting results:

[b]3B Young-tae Lee - 83.6
_________

2B Mike Wurfel - 33.9
2B Bill Bransington - 18.9
LF Lindsay Colson - 10.7
_________

RF Keiran Pickford - 1.4
SP Adrian Duggan - 1.4

Notable Performances

1 Jan: In front of a crowd of less than 35000 the NZ & Overseas All Stars thumped the Australian All Stars 11-4. Australian All Star Axel Nankervis said after the game, “Look, the concept needs to change, for sure. And that’s without even considering any race-based aspect - and I hope the fans remember that this wasn’t anything to do with the players; it was solely an administration issue.”

It was reported after the match that several players from both teams had considered a boycott but after a joint consideration decided to ‘play on for the love of the game and for the fans who’d travelled to watch.’

3 Jan: Cairns went berserker on Wellington, bashing the Fury senseless 20-3. The Crocs smashed 9 homeruns, including 4 in a 10-run 7th. 4 players - Jarod Boxsell, Mario Correa, Ronald Aitken, Javier Rodriguez - had 2-homer games. Wellington were scoreless through 8 before finally getting on the board in the 9th via a 3-run Temaki Hokualohi four-bagger. The 26 y/o rookie said after the game, “Look, I hope I hit plenty more homers across a long major-league career, and I know I’ve only hit 5 so far but I’m pretty sure that’ll be one of the sadder ones I’ll ever hit.”

4 Jan: Gu Luo had mostly flown under the radar this season playing for the Diggers. His name was back on everybody’s lips today though, after he homered in his 5th straight game, cracking a solo shot in the 6th inning of Darwin’s 7-1 win over Hobart.

5 Jan: Darwin overcame Hobart 7-4 but Luo wasn’t able to extend his HR streak, his solitary hit from 5 at-bats a single.

5 Jan: Barry Dean was perfect through 7 and headed into the top of the 9th having conceded just 1 single. He got the first out of the inning on 2 pitches. Danny Caporn then doubled into space in CF. Jorge Perez struck out swinging, Dean’s 8th victim of the night. Jai Rowe singled into shallow left and Caporn didn’t slow rounding 3B. He dived home unopposed and the shutout was broken up. The final score was 8-1 Perth, Dean getting the final out of the game on the next pitch. “One of those things,” he said with a shrug in the locker rooms later, his upbeat smile betrayed by his eyes. “Just one of those things.”

5 Jan: Lance Fookes stroked a 3-run dinger in the bottom of the 10th to see Christchurch walk off 6-3 winners over division rivals Auckland. The Cowboys scored 2 in the 8th to tie the game up before their extra-innings heroics.

6 Jan: Rich Steedman racked up an easy save in Brisbane’s 4-1 defeat of Kununurra. 58 in a row, putting him equal with Backhouse. He needed another 13 saves to reach the top rung on that ladder. Terence Tunnicliffe started the best all-time streak in 2024 and carried it into 2026, saving 71 games without blowing one.

7 Jan: Ronald Aitken snared his first-ever PotW award. The mild-mannered 1B hit .533/.652/1.267 in 5 games, his 8-15 including 2 doubles and 3HR.

8 Jan: 27 y/o 1B Todd Fisher went undrafted in 2057 before signing a deal with Newcastle’s rookie league affiliate. By 2061 he’d made his big-league debut and was now their everyday 1B. He led from the front in today’s 10-7 victory over Central Coast, going 5-5 with a double, HR and 3RBI.

8 Jan: Pedro Montanez went 9 innings, allowing only 3 hits and no earned runs, while striking out 6. The thing that stopped him notching up a third big-league shutout came in the bottom of the 7th. Angel Rivera hit a regulation fly out to right but Rowan Reardon took his eyes off the ball for a fraction of a second and it bounced off the heel of his glove. 2 outs later Rivera stole 2B and charged home 2 pitches after that off William Fenton’s single. Still, the blooper didn’t derail Christchurch’s victory. They won 6-1. Reardon didn’t have a game to remember in the field or at the plate, going 0-4 while collecting a trifecta of strikeouts.

10 Jan: Steedman made things difficult for himself in Brisbane’s 3-2 victory over Newcastle. He struggled to locate his pitches against the first 2 batters, hitting both of them. A sacrifice bunt then moved the runners forward a base. Steedman upped the volume to fan the next hitter but Guillermo Julio patiently drew a walk to load the bases with 2 out. Nathan Kapuna made good contact on a 2-2 fastball but his linedrive was plucked out of the air by a quick-reacting Rod Pugsley at short. Consecutive save #59 for Steedman, who’d thrown 4 of the last 5 days, picking up a win and 2 saves in the process. He now stood alone with the second-longest save streak in AUNZBL history.

11 Jan: Beau Snell had a bonza day at #2 in the lineup in a Cairns’ 12-7 thrashing of Hobart. He went 5-5 with a walk, bashing two 3-run homeruns. He also scored 5 runs, tying the Cairns game record. This was the 5th time Snell had collected 5 hits in a game.

11 Jan: It’s not often a team scores 12 runs in a single frame, and even rarer for them to do so without clearing the fences. That’s what Brisbane did today against Newcastle in the top of the 3rd on the way to a 15-4 demolition. They batted around twice, sending 18 hitters to the plate, and scored the runs off the back of 6 singles, 3 doubles, 1 triple and 5 walks. Newcastle used 3 pitchers in the inning, and skipper Andre Allan, in his debut season at the helm, said afterwards, “Yeah, that pretty much broke us. Yeah, we got 3 back in the bottom of the inning but it was plain to see we didn’t put up much of a fight offensively for the rest of the game.”

12 Jan: Steedman once again made things difficult for himself, allowing 2 runners aboard in the bottom of the 9th against Newcastle. He got out of the jam, though, seeing Brisbane to a 6-4 victory. His save streak had now reached 60!

14 Jan: Norm Blume hit .560/.667/.960 over the last 7 games on his way to PotW.

15 Jan: Gary Young took centre-stage in Adelaide’s 9-2 defeat of Central Coast. In the 6th inning he hit a solo HR. In the 8th he struck another, this one a 3-run effort. The second was especially noteworthy because it was the 400th of his career. 36 y/o Young became the 18th AUNZBL player to reach that mark.

16 Jan: Central Coast toppled Adelaide 17-4. Yoshihito Morimoto went 4-7 at leadoff, driving in 5 runs, while Alan Sneddon was 2-3 with 3 walks, legging out a triple in the process. It was his second triple of the season. When asked how it felt, he replied, “Like running on soft sand. Third base seemed like it was getting further and further away with every stride instead of closer.”

[b]17 Jan:[b/] Christchurch had Beau Hauer to thank for their 6-3 win over Cairns. The talented 2B got scoring underway in the top of the 1st with a solo HR. He teed off again in the 5th with a 2-run shot, part of a 3-run inning that gave the Cowboys the lead. And he went deep again in the 7th with another solo shot to give him 3 dingers for the game.

17 Jan: The Venom were determined not to let yesterday’s 17-4, 20 base-hit thumping happen again today. They started off with 6 runs in the bottom of the 1st and didn’t let up despite a spirited effort by the Thunder, eventually winning 12-9. Moore homered twice in the game, in the 1st and the 2nd. That latter shot was his 40th homerun of the season, leaving him well on track to smash the existing HR record.

17 Jan: After 9 innings Newcastle and Wellington couldn’t be separated, the scores knotted at 4, the Fury the last to get across home-plate safely, putting 3 on the board in the 7th to tie the game up. Both sides had opportunities in the 10th to 14th but it wasn’t until the bottom of the 15th that the tie was broken. 26 y/o Gary Woods was once again the man for the Fury, slugging a 2-out walk-off HR. He’d subbed into the game in the 9th and finished up 2-3 on the night.

21 Jan: 26 y/o Kununurra RF Philip Akhurst played 2 big-league games in October but had spent the rest of the season before January 4th in AAA. Called back up again then after the Pioneers traded away Lindner and Young, Akhurst had started 14 games and was hitting .475/.522/1.342 for the year, with 5HR. Such were his efforts over the last week that he took out the weekly award, his stat-line .565/.615/1.000. Of his 13-23, he hit 4 doubles and 2HR.

21 Jan: Zachariah Pond shut down Adelaide to get his Diggers back on level pegging with them at the top of the Coastal. He allowed 7 hits, walked none and struck out 4. Pond was having a turbulent season, his ERA 5.08 and FIP 4.22, but this was his second shutout of the season so far.

21 Jan: 25 y/o Reginald Puckeridge was Auckland’s backup catcher. He started today’s game, going 1-2 with a HR, 2 runs, 2RBI and a BB in a 6-4 victory over Canberra to win PotG.

What many didn’t know about Puckeridge was that he was the son of Russell Puckeridge, who’d famously made the switch from big-league pitcher to hitter in 2036, winning the HR crown in that very first year. Reginald was born in 2038 in Gisborne, while Russell was playing for Wellington and by all accounts not enjoying his baseball very much. While Reginald admitted he never really knew his dad growing up (“It wasn’t, y’know, a proper, uh, relationship with my mum, and then the next year he went off to Melbourne and then, uh, all I saw of him while I was a young fellah were the child support payments”) he did take on his last name and wanted to emulate his baseball accomplishments, even learning the same position his father had played.

Reginald was drafted out of high school by Kununurra in 2057 and got his first taste of the big leagues that same year, starting 1 game for the Pioneers where he went 2-4 with a double and RBI. He surprisingly didn’t play any minor league ball that season but did spend all of 2058 at rookie league level. In 2059 he was traded to Auckland and languished on their rookie league team, only playing 3 games (“I might’ve, uh, got a bit lippy to my skipper a couple times”). 2060 was a whole different story. He won the major-league backup catching role after spring training and that was where he’d stayed. Much like his father, Reginald was a slugger, though he still had some ways to go to get to his father’s level of power.

22 Jan: Cairns put Melbourne to the sword, routing them 17-5. Michael Baker and Claudio Lara both collected 4 hits, Baker’s including 2 doubles and a HR for 5RBI. Mario Correa went 3-5 with 2HR for 4 runs and 5 ribbies.

25 Jan: Jason Brewster and the Hobart Prospects came out on top in a pitchers’ duel against Newcastle. Dean Ambrose slumped to his 13th loss of the season despite going 8 innings for just 5 hits, 2 walks and 1 earned run. Brewster didn’t start the game off so well, plunking the first batter he faced, but he quickly settled into a rhythm, retiring the next 14 hitters in order. He gave up 2 singles to begin the 6th before getting the next 3 outs on 3 pitches. In the 8th he surrendered a 1-out walk but no damage came of it. He did the same thing in the 9th but gallantly fought his way to the last 2 outs of the game. 2-hit, 2-walk shutout! He fanned 8 and threw just 103 pitches.

25 Jan: It was a day for pitching duels. Adelaide and Brisbane duked it out for 13 innings before Adelaide manufactured a 2-1 walk-off win. Greg Ahern threw 8 innings for the victors, conceding 1 run off 4 hits and 2 walks while fanning 9. For the Bandits, Roy Blake went 9 innings, allowing 8 hits and 2 walks for 1 run, punching out 7.

26 Jan: Moore went 2-3 with a homer and 4RBI in Adelaide’s 5-3 win over Brisbane. The 4 ribbies pushed him to 101 for the season, making him the first hitter past 100 in 2063. Mario Correa was hot on his heels, with 98.

28 Jan: Ronald Aitken took home his second PotW of the month, hitting .480/.563/.960, with 3 doubles and 3HR.

28 Jan: Brisbane scored 2 insurance runs in the 8th to set up a comfortable 5-2 win over Wellington. Steedman got the easy save, though he did manage to load the bases with 2 outs. His streak had now hit 65!

29 Jan: Cody Watts wasn’t having a great season, 4-11 before this game against Auckland. The Sydney ace improved that to 5-11 today thanks to a 5-hit, 0-walk shutout. He only fanned 2 but 79 of his 92 pitches were in and around the zone, forcing hitters to play him aggressively. Sydney won 3-0.

29 Jan: Perth and Central Coast fought it out in a dour extra-innings contest. Perth scored first, in the 5th via a solo Glen Blake homer. Alan Sneddon’s RBI double in the 6th equalized things and that was all the scoring until the top of the 12th when Perth got a rally on and scored 4 thanks to a pair of 2-run dingers from Hal Boxsell and Sterling O’Connell. Final score: 5-1 Heat, who’d pulled themselves to within 2 games of .500.

29 Jan: Hobart closer Isaac Graham held Whangarei off to see his side to a 7-5 win. That was Graham’s 27th save of the season and his 35th without blowing one.

31 Jan: Wellington and Brisbane marked the last day of January with a helter-skelter slug-fest. With the scores tied at 12 in the bottom of the 9th, Brisbane’s Sam Richards, who’d already homered in the 1st, came up with 2 men aboard. He pulled the first pitch he saw into the RF bleachers. Walk-off 3-run HR for Richards, who was 3-5 in the game with 2 runs and 4RBI. The next morning, in a twist, the 24 y/o found himself cruising back to AAA. John Foreman hit his 32nd homer of the season in the 7th, and Norm Blume his 27th. Both players would enter February on 4-game HR streaks. Also notable was Armando ‘Get The Tape’ Santos, who’d been up and down between AAA and the bigs a few times in March, who hit his first major-league homer of the season. Santos had played 6 first-grade games, starting 4 of them at SS, where he’d already managed to put up a -2.2 ZR. Steedman picked up his 6th win of the season.

31 Jan: Adelaide gave Canberra a 15-6 hiding. They only hit safely 15 times but also drew 8 walks. Not that the Venom pitchers did that much better finding the plate, giving up 9 free passes but only 8 hits. Moore hit HR #42 for the season in the 2nd, while Canberra’s best performer was 9-holer Danny Caporn, who was 2-3 with a walk, both his hits homeruns. He scored 2 and drove in 4. Adelaide's Tomas Zartuch equaled the AUNZBL game record for steals, with 4. He was also the last player to achieve this feat, doing so in the 2060 season.

31 Jan: Cairns and Darwin were at each other’s throats for exactly 5 hours. Cairns had a 3-0 lead after 5 but Darwin ate away at it, tying the game in the bottom of the 9th. Both teams had regular baserunners from the 10th-15th but couldn’t do anything with them, Cairns’ Jarod Boxsell left stranded at 3B in the 15th after a 1-out triple. Claudio Lara led off the top of the 16th with a single and an out later took on the RF after a deep fly-out, diving in safely at 2B. Chi-seong Lee then singled and Lara scampered home to put Cairns ahead 4-3. William Fenton drew a 2-out walk in the bottom of the inning but that was all she wrote, Cairns grinding their way to an important victory to pull level second with their division rivals.

Notable Injuries

7 Jan: Melbourne’s Rory Delaney (.320/.348/.423, 6HR) got jammed up and couldn’t drop his hands fast enough in today’s 11-8 loss versus Auckland. The result was a fractured thumb and at least 5 weeks on the DL.

8 Jan: Russell Smith (.287/.345/.491, 14HR) tore the meniscus in his knee and would be out of Brisbane’s lineup for a month.

11 Jan: Central Coast’s biggest offseason acquisition, and a rumoured source of tension in the clubhouse, Marty Okolita (7-7, 4.66 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 1.23 WHIP) was done for the season. He’d torn his labrum and was likely to be on the DL until sometime in October. Okolita had been fanning hitters at a 9.78 rate per 9 innings in 2063, 1.4 better than next-best Greg Ahern.

16 Jan: All Star Jacob Sheppard (.285/.361/.482, 11HR) sprained an elbow and would be out of Whangarei’s lineup for around a month.

17 Jan: Brisbane, 6 games back in the East-West and 3 games out of a wildcard, would be missing Domenic Cook (.298/.359/.601, 32HR) for about 4 weeks after he fractured his thumb. A cruel blow for a young team punching above their weight.

21 Jan: Brisbane lost another to injury. This time it was SP Sebastian Woodger (8-5, 4.78 ERA, 4.28 FIP, 1.46 WHIP). His injury, a strained forearm, was most likely season-ending.

27 Jan: Fei-hsien Chang’s (.200/.273/.404, 11HR from 253PA) season was struck another blow, this time a season-ending one. He had torn a muscle in his back while diving in the outfield. He wouldn’t be back taking batting practice for at least 4 months. In a 10+ year major-league career Chang had only reached the 502PA threshold 5 times.

Notable Trades/Signings

4 Jan: Hobart acquired 25 y/o 1B Bob Lindner (.243/.360/.414, 14HR) from Kununurra in exchange for 26 y/o fringe big-leaguer Bagaskoro Maryadi (.303/.342/.450, 3HR from 118PA) and a decent 19 y/o infield prospect.

4 Jan: The Pioneers engaged in another deal, this time with Auckland. The Pioneers wrangled 25 y/o All Star Tim Waymouth (4-6, 4.14 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 1.33 WHIP), who was under club control for another 4 seasons, in return for 27 y/o Chuk-yan Lung (.309/.358/.495, 7HR from 204PA). Lung was also under club control for another 4+ seasons.

4 Jan: The Metros announced their second deal of the day, having offloaded another starting pitcher, 32 y/o Nick Aston (6-8, 5.40 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 1.61 WHIP), plus cash to Adelaide. The Venom sent 27 y/o Cong Pi (.239/.320/.363, 5HR) and a 24 y/o SS who didn’t look like he’d ever play higher than A-ball across to the Metros. Why were Auckland shedding starting pitchers? To make way for some prospects who they felt were ready for action out of a major-league bullpen.

11 Jan: Apparently this was a trade a long time in the making but was still one that nobody saw coming. 29 y/o Brent Dwyer (.306/.363/.513, 15HR) was thought of as an integral part of the Crocs’ lineup and a capable outfielder (even if some coaches privately spoke of his less than stellar attitude to training). He’d been drafted by the Crocs in 2055 and been a big-league regular since 2056. Now he was headed to the team making the most moves at the trade table this season, Auckland. In return, Cairns would get 32 y/o RF Alan Willey (.263/.318/.363, 5HR), who was headed for free agency at season’s end, and an excellent 21 y/o pitching prospect.

Dwyer could not be reached for comment but Willey, who’d started his career with Cairns in 2054, said, “Yep, stoked actually. Especially as I’d been playing reserve grade the last week as well. I’ve already spoken to management here in Cairns and they say I’ll fit straight into their starting lineup, for the time being at least.”

The Crocs were 1 game back in the Coastal, behind both Adelaide and Darwin, while Auckland had fallen to 8 games behind in the NZ, as well as 3 games below .500, with many fans of the opinion that skipper Antonio Altagracia was to blame for their slump.

14 Jan: Cairns engaged in another deal, acquiring 30 y/o pitcher Claudio Banda (1-4, 1 sv, 4.11 ERA from 34 games) from Hobart in exchange for 2 prospects. ‘Band-Aid’ would move into the bottom of the Crocs’ rotation.

17 Jan: Newcastle sent 28 y/o CF Mitchell Cox (.291/.340/.398, 6HR) to Canberra in return for a solitary prospect.

23 Jan: 25 y/o Jayden Roneberg (.260/.308/.384, 2HR from 79PA) fractured his finger in October and was 1 game back into a rehab assignment. With the moves Auckland had made in his absence he was now surplus to requirements so they traded him to division rivals, and division leaders, Christchurch, getting a sweet 19 y/o pitching prospect in return. Takanori Komatsu was signed by the Cowboys as an international amateur free agent at the beginning of 2062, and was promoted straight out of their international complex to A-ball this season. He projected to be a solid upper-middle rotation guy and Auckland were excited to get him. The Cowboys were just as happy to have Gold Glove-calibre Roneberg on their team and immediately made him their starting CF, sending 38 y/o veteran RF Rowan Reardon (.234/.306/.395, 10HR) and 30 y/o OF Bryan McMullen (.298/.352/.404, 2HR) to AAA.

29 Jan: His excellent 2-hit shutout last month notwithstanding, 29 y/o Dylan Durrington (5-9, 4.77 ERA, 4.46 FIP, 1.42 WHIP) had been down in the dumps most of the season. Still, the Diggers liked what he had and today signed him to a 3-year extension.

29 Jan: Whangarei had slipped well off the pace in the NZ, 12 games behind the Cowboys and with Auckland also in front of them. They were also 7 games below .500 and had apparently called time on their season, today trading away 2 of their better players. First, they sent 26 y/o 1B David Anderton (.263/.371/.528, 26HR) to Darwin in exchange for 24 y/o 1B Marco Auty, who’d hit .199 in AAA this season, plus 25 y/o pitcher Orlando Martinez, who’d also toiled away at AAA for a 7-8, 4.86 ERA record. Both players would feature in Whangarei’s big-league squad, Auty at DH and Martinez out of the pen. Auty had a great eye and was showing glimpses of impressive power but wasn’t, in the eyes of most analysts, ready for the bigs yet.

29 Jan: The second trade involved 6’11” Matt Mulholland (6-7, 3.42 ERA, 3.80 FIP, 1.23 WHIP), the 26 y/o discovered by Whangarei scouts during the 2062 season while playing in a NSW bush league. Mulholland was off to Brisbane who, just 3 games back in the East-West, were prepared to fight all the way home. Mulholland would strengthen a weak rotation. In return Whangarei got 34 y/o soon-to-be free agent John Roberts (.220/.317/.383, 13HR) and a good-looking 23 y/o pitching prospect.

Month Awards

Rookie of the Month: Jay Watts grabbed his third RotM award and fully deserved to do so. He hit .337/.408/.620, 31-92, scoring 15 runs, hitting 8 doubles and 6HR, driving in 11 runners, and earning 9 free passes. For the season he was hitting .339, third-best in the league.

Hurler of the Month: 28 y/o Karl Blackwell was having the season Melbourne fans and management had been hoping for since he arrived on the scene as a 21 y/o. The southpaw won all 6 of his starts during the month, posting a 1.37 ERA, 4.06 FIP, and 1.22 WHIP. He sent down 46.0 innings, striking out 31. For the season he had an ERA of 2.66, currently best among qualified AUNZBL pitchers. This was his first HotM.

Slugger of the Month: Norm Blume had burst onto the scene in 2061 when, in his first year as an everyday player, he hit 40 doubles and 30HR, driving in a league-leading 135 runners. He’d impressed last season also, again leading the league in RBI with 149, as well as sharing the HR crown with a bunch of other players, hitting 42. This year the 26 y/o had already put up a higher WAR (4.9) than last season and had 34 doubles and 27HR to his name with 2 months to play. He won SotM, hitting .423/.500/.802 across January, his 47-111 including 9 doubles and 11 jacks. He also scored 25 runs, plated 35 runners and walked 15 times. Blume had 61XBH for the season to lead the league.

Media Watch

Ismael Aguirre: Aguirre found himself back down in AAA on February 1st but that was his first trip there since November. He played in 14 games in January, hitting .235/.304/.294 and scoring 6 runs. He needed 4 more runs to reach 2000.

Marcos Lopez: Hitting .268/.320/.418, with 11HR for the season. He finished the month with 106 hits for the season and 3044 for his career. 36 more and he’d pass Brock Wakely (3079) for 4th-best all-time.

Last Year’s Top Players Watch

2062’s Top Rookies

2062 Rookie of the Year, Sebastian Horton: The 31 y/o was hitting .264/.317/.428, 111-421, 457PA, with 88 runs, 17 doubles, 2 triples, 16HR, 55RBI, 25 walks, and 2SB. His OPS+ of 95 gave further proof that he was having an AUNZBL sophomore slump. Still, on the defensive end the 3B was sharp, with a ZR of +6.7. He had a WAR of 2.1.

Cain Whalley: A sprained knee suffered early in ST kept Whalley out of the big league lineup until the latter half of October. Struggling in his second full season. .248/.284/.336, 79-318, 38 runs, 7 doubles, 3 triples, 5HR, 34RBI, 14BB, 13SB, 338PA. OPS+ of 64, WAR of -0.2.

Li Hayes: No sophomore slump for Hayes. .305/.363/.545, 98-321, 49 runs, 21 doubles, 1 triple, 18HR, 71RBI, 28BB, 355PA. Apart from starting 63 games at catcher, Hayes had also played 93.0 innings at 3B without committing a single error as well as putting up a 1.1ZR. OPS+ 136, WAR 3.8.

2062’s Top Pitchers

2062 Brodie Backhouse Award winner, Rod Bacon: Giving a pretty good account of himself. 5-2, 24 sv from 40 games, 1.48 ERA, 2.60 FIP, 0.84 WHIP, 48 strikeouts in 42.2 innings pitched. 308 ERA+, 1.1 WAR, 57 FIP-.

2062 Hurler of the Year, Clint Kline: As well as really only throwing 2 types of fastball, Kline’s velocity had dropped sharply this season. Still, his control was as good as ever, his 1.20 BB/9 second-best among starting pitchers. 11-7 from 23 starts, 4.37 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 1.25 WHIP, 83 strikeouts from 142.0 innings. 104 ERA+, 2.5 WAR, 92 FIP-.

Barry Dean: Had looked somewhat tired his last few starts, perhaps a result of carrying the entire Heat organization on his back. 11-7 from 24 starts, 2.78 ERA, 2.45 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 167 Ks from 181.1 IP. 164 ERA+, 7.4 WAR, 54 FIP-. Led the league in FIP, WHIP, Ks, IP, HR/9 (0.45), K/BB (5.39), and WAR. Was on track to break his own WAR record of 9.11, set in 2061. If so, he would remain the only pitcher to record a 9+ WAR season, and would have done so 3 times. He was currently projecting to put up a WAR of 10.4. He was also the only qualified starter with an FIP under 3.00.

Greg Ahern: One of only 2 Adelaide players to make the 2063 All Stars. 12-7 from 24 starts, 4.02 ERA, 3.45 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, 155 Ks from 163.1 IP. 113 ERA+, 4.4 WAR, 75 FIP-.

2062’s Top Hitters

2062, Jorge Diaz Award Winner, Richard Moore: The other Adelaide All Star representative, Moore was tearing it up in 2063. .341/.452/.671, 144-422, 93 runs, 11 doubles, 1 triple, 42HR, 105RBI, 85BB, 513PA. 192 OPS+, 6.7 WAR. Topped the charts in OBP, SLG, OPS, HR, RBI, wOBA (.460), ISO (.329), total bases (283), and WAR. His BA was second-best, meaning he had a real chance at recording only the 2nd hitting Triple Crown in the league’s history. He was also on track to hit 60 homeruns but wasn’t even thinking about those achievements, if his comments after hitting homer #42 were to be believed: “Nah mate, not even a blip on my thought radar, and certainly not when I’m at the plate. My process is the same every at-bat, whether we’re up by 10 or down by 3 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th. Focus on my breathing, on the pitcher, on the ball in the pitcher’s hand, and let all the stuff I’ve trained to be instinctual kick in when the ball starts its journey to the plate. I do anything more complicated than that and I’m just going to screw things up.”

Mario Correa: Still liable to swing at stuff nowhere near the plate and just as liable to send that stuff somewhere back in the stands. Missed 3 weeks in October-November with a sore shoulder. .326/.362/.558, 124-380, 60 runs, 15 doubles, 2 triples, 23HR, 100RBI, 24BB, 2SB, 412PA. 139 OPS+, 3.8 WAR.

Neil Bellett: Missed the end of November and most of December with a separated shoulder. Had recently grown sideburns which might or might not be affecting his power output. .277/.425/.513, 86-310, 64 runs, 13 doubles, 20HR, 56RBI, 73BB, 393PA. 147 OPS+, 2.6 WAR.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: Adelaide (18-10) pushed ahead, their lead over Cairns (16-12) and Darwin (15-13) 3 games heading into Killer Feb.

East-West Division: Kununurra (14-14) were only par in January, and spent the 22nd-28th on a 6-game skid. Central Coast (17-11) had pulled to within 2 games while Brisbane (17-11) lurked just 3 back.

NZ Division: Christchurch (19-9) all the way, with both Auckland (10-18) and Whangarei (7-21) having awful months to plummet below .500.

Southern Division: Melbourne (16-12) poked their noses above .500, the Prospects (16-12) 2 games back. Sydney (12-16) followed on from their poor December to finish the month 4 games in arrears.

Wildcard: Cairns and Darwin held both slots currently, with Central Coast 2 games back and Brisbane 3.

#

Callum McCabe (.351/.429/.519, 7HR) held the BA lead but only barely thanks to hitting just .259 in the month.

Yoshihito Morimoto (.325/.354/.355, 0HR) continued to lead the league in hits, with 162. He also had the most steals (34). Last year’s steal king (51) and season record-holder (74 in 2060), Stephane Lecomte (.295/.358/.399, 1HR) seemed to have been put off after his fractured rib, having only swiped 14 bags from 17 attempts so far.

Ronald Aitken (.318/.433/.543, 22HR) had scored more runs than anybody, touching home-plate safely 94 times.

Retiring superstar Alan Sneddon (.242/.391/.304, 1HR) had 92 walks, best in the AUNZBL by 3. His swing might be diminishing but his plate eye certainly wasn’t. If he reached 100 walks in 2063 it would be the 13th time he’d done so in his major-league career. Since 2046, his first full season in the majors, he’d never walked less than 93 times.

Edward Vance (16-3, 3.19 ERA, 4.05 FIP, 1.21 WHIP) was on track to easily better his 18-5 record from last season. He had 3 more wins than any other pitcher, and finished February with a 12-game undefeated and 10-game win streak.

Jason Brewster (12-8, 3.24 ERA, 4.63 FIP, 1.08 WHIP) was making the most of Hobart’s league-topping defensive efficiency (.701). He had the best H/9 (7.32) and OAVG (.221) amongst qualified pitchers.

Ted Heathcote (11-7, 3.48 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 1.11 WHIP) was only walking 1 batter every 9 innings, a league-best.

Isaac Canavan (Central Coast) had a slender lead on the saves board. His 31 efforts were 1 better than Rich Hodgson (Kununurra), who was somehow getting away with a 1.60 WHIP.

ABC Wrap-up

Brisbane (72-38) had a down month but were still acres in front of next-best Alice Springs (59-52) in the Northern.

Canberra (73-37) smashed it in January, jumping out to a 5 1/2 game lead over Melbourne (68-43) in the Southern, with Sydney (64-47) dropping to 9 1/2 back.

In the Western, Perth (58-53) continued to idle, with Kalgoorlie (57-54) pulling to within 1 game.

Dunedin (64-47) were cruising in the Overseas.

35 y/o Will Glasson (.299/.385/.484, 18HR) won both the Golden Rookie and Golden Bat monthly awards.

Satya Susanti (13-5, 2.82 ERA, 2.37 FIP, 1.03 WHIP) was rattling up strikeouts at a 10.38 rate per 9 innings. His 173 Ks was 32 better than next best. He also led the league in K/BB (5.77), FIP, and WAR (5.7).

AUNZBL Standings, Feb 1

10-28-2017, 06:35 PM	#729
Izz Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 2,469	2063/2064 Season - January 2063/2064 Season - January Hall of Fame 3 players were on the ballot for the first time, while 3 players returned for another crack. Typically, inductions took place on the first Tuesday of January, which in 2064 happened to fall on the 1st of January, the same day as the All Star Game. The AUNZBL decided, if any new players were to be inducted, to combine the 2 events, with the induction ceremony to be held in the afternoon at the venue of the All Star Game, with the game itself to be held in the evening. This decision was reached some time before the current controversy surrounding the All Star Game began. Results For the second year in a row the Hall had a first-ballot entry. Young-tae Lee was elected with 83.6% of the vote. There had been some conjecture as to whether Lee (.281/.392/.437, 330HR) would get into the Hall at all but the voters had spoken in overwhelming fashion and the 10-time Championship winner was in. 47 y/o Lee had only retired from pro-ball after the 2060 season, having finished his career in AAA at 44 years of age. However, he’d last played in the majors in 2057, hitting .257/.405/.322 in 385PA for Auckland. Lee was inducted in a Newcastle uniform. Of course, Lee is very well known today, 55+ years later, but not primarily because of his tremendous career. Instead, he is known as the ‘first non-Australasian elected to the Hall.’ That, of course, isn’t a bad thing. However, it became a sticking point at the time because instead of focusing on his achievements, the Commissioner’s Office decided to make a big deal of his race in a bid to try to prove that there was no bias or discrimination in their systems. In fact, the Commissioner laboured the point so much in his speech prior to inviting Lee to the stage that the typically unflappable 10-time All Star felt compelled to say in response, “I’d like to think I got here solely because of what I achieved as a player, not just because I had a twenty-year career in the bigs but was born in another land.” Sadly, the debate as to whether Lee belongs in the Hall on his own merits still rages today among some fans when it should never have been an issue in the first place. Almost lost among the uproar was the fact that Mike Wurfel dropped from 77.8% on last year’s ballot all the way to 33.9% this year. These were the full voting results: [b]3B Young-tae Lee - 83.6 _________ 2B Mike Wurfel - 33.9 2B Bill Bransington - 18.9 LF Lindsay Colson - 10.7 _________ RF Keiran Pickford - 1.4 SP Adrian Duggan - 1.4 Notable Performances 1 Jan: In front of a crowd of less than 35000 the NZ & Overseas All Stars thumped the Australian All Stars 11-4. Australian All Star Axel Nankervis said after the game, “Look, the concept needs to change, for sure. And that’s without even considering any race-based aspect - and I hope the fans remember that this wasn’t anything to do with the players; it was solely an administration issue.” It was reported after the match that several players from both teams had considered a boycott but after a joint consideration decided to ‘play on for the love of the game and for the fans who’d travelled to watch.’ 3 Jan: Cairns went berserker on Wellington, bashing the Fury senseless 20-3. The Crocs smashed 9 homeruns, including 4 in a 10-run 7th. 4 players - Jarod Boxsell, Mario Correa, Ronald Aitken, Javier Rodriguez - had 2-homer games. Wellington were scoreless through 8 before finally getting on the board in the 9th via a 3-run Temaki Hokualohi four-bagger. The 26 y/o rookie said after the game, “Look, I hope I hit plenty more homers across a long major-league career, and I know I’ve only hit 5 so far but I’m pretty sure that’ll be one of the sadder ones I’ll ever hit.” 4 Jan: Gu Luo had mostly flown under the radar this season playing for the Diggers. His name was back on everybody’s lips today though, after he homered in his 5th straight game, cracking a solo shot in the 6th inning of Darwin’s 7-1 win over Hobart. 5 Jan: Darwin overcame Hobart 7-4 but Luo wasn’t able to extend his HR streak, his solitary hit from 5 at-bats a single. 5 Jan: Barry Dean was perfect through 7 and headed into the top of the 9th having conceded just 1 single. He got the first out of the inning on 2 pitches. Danny Caporn then doubled into space in CF. Jorge Perez struck out swinging, Dean’s 8th victim of the night. Jai Rowe singled into shallow left and Caporn didn’t slow rounding 3B. He dived home unopposed and the shutout was broken up. The final score was 8-1 Perth, Dean getting the final out of the game on the next pitch. “One of those things,” he said with a shrug in the locker rooms later, his upbeat smile betrayed by his eyes. “Just one of those things.” 5 Jan: Lance Fookes stroked a 3-run dinger in the bottom of the 10th to see Christchurch walk off 6-3 winners over division rivals Auckland. The Cowboys scored 2 in the 8th to tie the game up before their extra-innings heroics. 6 Jan: Rich Steedman racked up an easy save in Brisbane’s 4-1 defeat of Kununurra. 58 in a row, putting him equal with Backhouse. He needed another 13 saves to reach the top rung on that ladder. Terence Tunnicliffe started the best all-time streak in 2024 and carried it into 2026, saving 71 games without blowing one. 7 Jan: Ronald Aitken snared his first-ever PotW award. The mild-mannered 1B hit .533/.652/1.267 in 5 games, his 8-15 including 2 doubles and 3HR. 8 Jan: 27 y/o 1B Todd Fisher went undrafted in 2057 before signing a deal with Newcastle’s rookie league affiliate. By 2061 he’d made his big-league debut and was now their everyday 1B. He led from the front in today’s 10-7 victory over Central Coast, going 5-5 with a double, HR and 3RBI. 8 Jan: Pedro Montanez went 9 innings, allowing only 3 hits and no earned runs, while striking out 6. The thing that stopped him notching up a third big-league shutout came in the bottom of the 7th. Angel Rivera hit a regulation fly out to right but Rowan Reardon took his eyes off the ball for a fraction of a second and it bounced off the heel of his glove. 2 outs later Rivera stole 2B and charged home 2 pitches after that off William Fenton’s single. Still, the blooper didn’t derail Christchurch’s victory. They won 6-1. Reardon didn’t have a game to remember in the field or at the plate, going 0-4 while collecting a trifecta of strikeouts. 10 Jan: Steedman made things difficult for himself in Brisbane’s 3-2 victory over Newcastle. He struggled to locate his pitches against the first 2 batters, hitting both of them. A sacrifice bunt then moved the runners forward a base. Steedman upped the volume to fan the next hitter but Guillermo Julio patiently drew a walk to load the bases with 2 out. Nathan Kapuna made good contact on a 2-2 fastball but his linedrive was plucked out of the air by a quick-reacting Rod Pugsley at short. Consecutive save #59 for Steedman, who’d thrown 4 of the last 5 days, picking up a win and 2 saves in the process. He now stood alone with the second-longest save streak in AUNZBL history. 11 Jan: Beau Snell had a bonza day at #2 in the lineup in a Cairns’ 12-7 thrashing of Hobart. He went 5-5 with a walk, bashing two 3-run homeruns. He also scored 5 runs, tying the Cairns game record. This was the 5th time Snell had collected 5 hits in a game. 11 Jan: It’s not often a team scores 12 runs in a single frame, and even rarer for them to do so without clearing the fences. That’s what Brisbane did today against Newcastle in the top of the 3rd on the way to a 15-4 demolition. They batted around twice, sending 18 hitters to the plate, and scored the runs off the back of 6 singles, 3 doubles, 1 triple and 5 walks. Newcastle used 3 pitchers in the inning, and skipper Andre Allan, in his debut season at the helm, said afterwards, “Yeah, that pretty much broke us. Yeah, we got 3 back in the bottom of the inning but it was plain to see we didn’t put up much of a fight offensively for the rest of the game.” 12 Jan: Steedman once again made things difficult for himself, allowing 2 runners aboard in the bottom of the 9th against Newcastle. He got out of the jam, though, seeing Brisbane to a 6-4 victory. His save streak had now reached 60! 14 Jan: Norm Blume hit .560/.667/.960 over the last 7 games on his way to PotW. 15 Jan: Gary Young took centre-stage in Adelaide’s 9-2 defeat of Central Coast. In the 6th inning he hit a solo HR. In the 8th he struck another, this one a 3-run effort. The second was especially noteworthy because it was the 400th of his career. 36 y/o Young became the 18th AUNZBL player to reach that mark. 16 Jan: Central Coast toppled Adelaide 17-4. Yoshihito Morimoto went 4-7 at leadoff, driving in 5 runs, while Alan Sneddon was 2-3 with 3 walks, legging out a triple in the process. It was his second triple of the season. When asked how it felt, he replied, “Like running on soft sand. Third base seemed like it was getting further and further away with every stride instead of closer.” [b]17 Jan:[b/] Christchurch had Beau Hauer to thank for their 6-3 win over Cairns. The talented 2B got scoring underway in the top of the 1st with a solo HR. He teed off again in the 5th with a 2-run shot, part of a 3-run inning that gave the Cowboys the lead. And he went deep again in the 7th with another solo shot to give him 3 dingers for the game. 17 Jan: The Venom were determined not to let yesterday’s 17-4, 20 base-hit thumping happen again today. They started off with 6 runs in the bottom of the 1st and didn’t let up despite a spirited effort by the Thunder, eventually winning 12-9. Moore homered twice in the game, in the 1st and the 2nd. That latter shot was his 40th homerun of the season, leaving him well on track to smash the existing HR record. 17 Jan: After 9 innings Newcastle and Wellington couldn’t be separated, the scores knotted at 4, the Fury the last to get across home-plate safely, putting 3 on the board in the 7th to tie the game up. Both sides had opportunities in the 10th to 14th but it wasn’t until the bottom of the 15th that the tie was broken. 26 y/o Gary Woods was once again the man for the Fury, slugging a 2-out walk-off HR. He’d subbed into the game in the 9th and finished up 2-3 on the night. 21 Jan: 26 y/o Kununurra RF Philip Akhurst played 2 big-league games in October but had spent the rest of the season before January 4th in AAA. Called back up again then after the Pioneers traded away Lindner and Young, Akhurst had started 14 games and was hitting .475/.522/1.342 for the year, with 5HR. Such were his efforts over the last week that he took out the weekly award, his stat-line .565/.615/1.000. Of his 13-23, he hit 4 doubles and 2HR. 21 Jan: Zachariah Pond shut down Adelaide to get his Diggers back on level pegging with them at the top of the Coastal. He allowed 7 hits, walked none and struck out 4. Pond was having a turbulent season, his ERA 5.08 and FIP 4.22, but this was his second shutout of the season so far. 21 Jan: 25 y/o Reginald Puckeridge was Auckland’s backup catcher. He started today’s game, going 1-2 with a HR, 2 runs, 2RBI and a BB in a 6-4 victory over Canberra to win PotG. What many didn’t know about Puckeridge was that he was the son of Russell Puckeridge, who’d famously made the switch from big-league pitcher to hitter in 2036, winning the HR crown in that very first year. Reginald was born in 2038 in Gisborne, while Russell was playing for Wellington and by all accounts not enjoying his baseball very much. While Reginald admitted he never really knew his dad growing up (“It wasn’t, y’know, a proper, uh, relationship with my mum, and then the next year he went off to Melbourne and then, uh, all I saw of him while I was a young fellah were the child support payments”) he did take on his last name and wanted to emulate his baseball accomplishments, even learning the same position his father had played. Reginald was drafted out of high school by Kununurra in 2057 and got his first taste of the big leagues that same year, starting 1 game for the Pioneers where he went 2-4 with a double and RBI. He surprisingly didn’t play any minor league ball that season but did spend all of 2058 at rookie league level. In 2059 he was traded to Auckland and languished on their rookie league team, only playing 3 games (“I might’ve, uh, got a bit lippy to my skipper a couple times”). 2060 was a whole different story. He won the major-league backup catching role after spring training and that was where he’d stayed. Much like his father, Reginald was a slugger, though he still had some ways to go to get to his father’s level of power. 22 Jan: Cairns put Melbourne to the sword, routing them 17-5. Michael Baker and Claudio Lara both collected 4 hits, Baker’s including 2 doubles and a HR for 5RBI. Mario Correa went 3-5 with 2HR for 4 runs and 5 ribbies. 25 Jan: Jason Brewster and the Hobart Prospects came out on top in a pitchers’ duel against Newcastle. Dean Ambrose slumped to his 13th loss of the season despite going 8 innings for just 5 hits, 2 walks and 1 earned run. Brewster didn’t start the game off so well, plunking the first batter he faced, but he quickly settled into a rhythm, retiring the next 14 hitters in order. He gave up 2 singles to begin the 6th before getting the next 3 outs on 3 pitches. In the 8th he surrendered a 1-out walk but no damage came of it. He did the same thing in the 9th but gallantly fought his way to the last 2 outs of the game. 2-hit, 2-walk shutout! He fanned 8 and threw just 103 pitches. 25 Jan: It was a day for pitching duels. Adelaide and Brisbane duked it out for 13 innings before Adelaide manufactured a 2-1 walk-off win. Greg Ahern threw 8 innings for the victors, conceding 1 run off 4 hits and 2 walks while fanning 9. For the Bandits, Roy Blake went 9 innings, allowing 8 hits and 2 walks for 1 run, punching out 7. 26 Jan: Moore went 2-3 with a homer and 4RBI in Adelaide’s 5-3 win over Brisbane. The 4 ribbies pushed him to 101 for the season, making him the first hitter past 100 in 2063. Mario Correa was hot on his heels, with 98. 28 Jan: Ronald Aitken took home his second PotW of the month, hitting .480/.563/.960, with 3 doubles and 3HR. 28 Jan: Brisbane scored 2 insurance runs in the 8th to set up a comfortable 5-2 win over Wellington. Steedman got the easy save, though he did manage to load the bases with 2 outs. His streak had now hit 65! 29 Jan: Cody Watts wasn’t having a great season, 4-11 before this game against Auckland. The Sydney ace improved that to 5-11 today thanks to a 5-hit, 0-walk shutout. He only fanned 2 but 79 of his 92 pitches were in and around the zone, forcing hitters to play him aggressively. Sydney won 3-0. 29 Jan: Perth and Central Coast fought it out in a dour extra-innings contest. Perth scored first, in the 5th via a solo Glen Blake homer. Alan Sneddon’s RBI double in the 6th equalized things and that was all the scoring until the top of the 12th when Perth got a rally on and scored 4 thanks to a pair of 2-run dingers from Hal Boxsell and Sterling O’Connell. Final score: 5-1 Heat, who’d pulled themselves to within 2 games of .500. 29 Jan: Hobart closer Isaac Graham held Whangarei off to see his side to a 7-5 win. That was Graham’s 27th save of the season and his 35th without blowing one. 31 Jan: Wellington and Brisbane marked the last day of January with a helter-skelter slug-fest. With the scores tied at 12 in the bottom of the 9th, Brisbane’s Sam Richards, who’d already homered in the 1st, came up with 2 men aboard. He pulled the first pitch he saw into the RF bleachers. Walk-off 3-run HR for Richards, who was 3-5 in the game with 2 runs and 4RBI. The next morning, in a twist, the 24 y/o found himself cruising back to AAA. John Foreman hit his 32nd homer of the season in the 7th, and Norm Blume his 27th. Both players would enter February on 4-game HR streaks. Also notable was Armando ‘Get The Tape’ Santos, who’d been up and down between AAA and the bigs a few times in March, who hit his first major-league homer of the season. Santos had played 6 first-grade games, starting 4 of them at SS, where he’d already managed to put up a -2.2 ZR. Steedman picked up his 6th win of the season. 31 Jan: Adelaide gave Canberra a 15-6 hiding. They only hit safely 15 times but also drew 8 walks. Not that the Venom pitchers did that much better finding the plate, giving up 9 free passes but only 8 hits. Moore hit HR #42 for the season in the 2nd, while Canberra’s best performer was 9-holer Danny Caporn, who was 2-3 with a walk, both his hits homeruns. He scored 2 and drove in 4. Adelaide's Tomas Zartuch equaled the AUNZBL game record for steals, with 4. He was also the last player to achieve this feat, doing so in the 2060 season. 31 Jan: Cairns and Darwin were at each other’s throats for exactly 5 hours. Cairns had a 3-0 lead after 5 but Darwin ate away at it, tying the game in the bottom of the 9th. Both teams had regular baserunners from the 10th-15th but couldn’t do anything with them, Cairns’ Jarod Boxsell left stranded at 3B in the 15th after a 1-out triple. Claudio Lara led off the top of the 16th with a single and an out later took on the RF after a deep fly-out, diving in safely at 2B. Chi-seong Lee then singled and Lara scampered home to put Cairns ahead 4-3. William Fenton drew a 2-out walk in the bottom of the inning but that was all she wrote, Cairns grinding their way to an important victory to pull level second with their division rivals. Notable Injuries 7 Jan: Melbourne’s Rory Delaney (.320/.348/.423, 6HR) got jammed up and couldn’t drop his hands fast enough in today’s 11-8 loss versus Auckland. The result was a fractured thumb and at least 5 weeks on the DL. 8 Jan: Russell Smith (.287/.345/.491, 14HR) tore the meniscus in his knee and would be out of Brisbane’s lineup for a month. 11 Jan: Central Coast’s biggest offseason acquisition, and a rumoured source of tension in the clubhouse, Marty Okolita (7-7, 4.66 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 1.23 WHIP) was done for the season. He’d torn his labrum and was likely to be on the DL until sometime in October. Okolita had been fanning hitters at a 9.78 rate per 9 innings in 2063, 1.4 better than next-best Greg Ahern. 16 Jan: All Star Jacob Sheppard (.285/.361/.482, 11HR) sprained an elbow and would be out of Whangarei’s lineup for around a month. 17 Jan: Brisbane, 6 games back in the East-West and 3 games out of a wildcard, would be missing Domenic Cook (.298/.359/.601, 32HR) for about 4 weeks after he fractured his thumb. A cruel blow for a young team punching above their weight. 21 Jan: Brisbane lost another to injury. This time it was SP Sebastian Woodger (8-5, 4.78 ERA, 4.28 FIP, 1.46 WHIP). His injury, a strained forearm, was most likely season-ending. 27 Jan: Fei-hsien Chang’s (.200/.273/.404, 11HR from 253PA) season was struck another blow, this time a season-ending one. He had torn a muscle in his back while diving in the outfield. He wouldn’t be back taking batting practice for at least 4 months. In a 10+ year major-league career Chang had only reached the 502PA threshold 5 times. Notable Trades/Signings 4 Jan: Hobart acquired 25 y/o 1B Bob Lindner (.243/.360/.414, 14HR) from Kununurra in exchange for 26 y/o fringe big-leaguer Bagaskoro Maryadi (.303/.342/.450, 3HR from 118PA) and a decent 19 y/o infield prospect. 4 Jan: The Pioneers engaged in another deal, this time with Auckland. The Pioneers wrangled 25 y/o All Star Tim Waymouth (4-6, 4.14 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 1.33 WHIP), who was under club control for another 4 seasons, in return for 27 y/o Chuk-yan Lung (.309/.358/.495, 7HR from 204PA). Lung was also under club control for another 4+ seasons. 4 Jan: The Metros announced their second deal of the day, having offloaded another starting pitcher, 32 y/o Nick Aston (6-8, 5.40 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 1.61 WHIP), plus cash to Adelaide. The Venom sent 27 y/o Cong Pi (.239/.320/.363, 5HR) and a 24 y/o SS who didn’t look like he’d ever play higher than A-ball across to the Metros. Why were Auckland shedding starting pitchers? To make way for some prospects who they felt were ready for action out of a major-league bullpen. 11 Jan: Apparently this was a trade a long time in the making but was still one that nobody saw coming. 29 y/o Brent Dwyer (.306/.363/.513, 15HR) was thought of as an integral part of the Crocs’ lineup and a capable outfielder (even if some coaches privately spoke of his less than stellar attitude to training). He’d been drafted by the Crocs in 2055 and been a big-league regular since 2056. Now he was headed to the team making the most moves at the trade table this season, Auckland. In return, Cairns would get 32 y/o RF Alan Willey (.263/.318/.363, 5HR), who was headed for free agency at season’s end, and an excellent 21 y/o pitching prospect. Dwyer could not be reached for comment but Willey, who’d started his career with Cairns in 2054, said, “Yep, stoked actually. Especially as I’d been playing reserve grade the last week as well. I’ve already spoken to management here in Cairns and they say I’ll fit straight into their starting lineup, for the time being at least.” The Crocs were 1 game back in the Coastal, behind both Adelaide and Darwin, while Auckland had fallen to 8 games behind in the NZ, as well as 3 games below .500, with many fans of the opinion that skipper Antonio Altagracia was to blame for their slump. 14 Jan: Cairns engaged in another deal, acquiring 30 y/o pitcher Claudio Banda (1-4, 1 sv, 4.11 ERA from 34 games) from Hobart in exchange for 2 prospects. ‘Band-Aid’ would move into the bottom of the Crocs’ rotation. 17 Jan: Newcastle sent 28 y/o CF Mitchell Cox (.291/.340/.398, 6HR) to Canberra in return for a solitary prospect. 23 Jan: 25 y/o Jayden Roneberg (.260/.308/.384, 2HR from 79PA) fractured his finger in October and was 1 game back into a rehab assignment. With the moves Auckland had made in his absence he was now surplus to requirements so they traded him to division rivals, and division leaders, Christchurch, getting a sweet 19 y/o pitching prospect in return. Takanori Komatsu was signed by the Cowboys as an international amateur free agent at the beginning of 2062, and was promoted straight out of their international complex to A-ball this season. He projected to be a solid upper-middle rotation guy and Auckland were excited to get him. The Cowboys were just as happy to have Gold Glove-calibre Roneberg on their team and immediately made him their starting CF, sending 38 y/o veteran RF Rowan Reardon (.234/.306/.395, 10HR) and 30 y/o OF Bryan McMullen (.298/.352/.404, 2HR) to AAA. 29 Jan: His excellent 2-hit shutout last month notwithstanding, 29 y/o Dylan Durrington (5-9, 4.77 ERA, 4.46 FIP, 1.42 WHIP) had been down in the dumps most of the season. Still, the Diggers liked what he had and today signed him to a 3-year extension. 29 Jan: Whangarei had slipped well off the pace in the NZ, 12 games behind the Cowboys and with Auckland also in front of them. They were also 7 games below .500 and had apparently called time on their season, today trading away 2 of their better players. First, they sent 26 y/o 1B David Anderton (.263/.371/.528, 26HR) to Darwin in exchange for 24 y/o 1B Marco Auty, who’d hit .199 in AAA this season, plus 25 y/o pitcher Orlando Martinez, who’d also toiled away at AAA for a 7-8, 4.86 ERA record. Both players would feature in Whangarei’s big-league squad, Auty at DH and Martinez out of the pen. Auty had a great eye and was showing glimpses of impressive power but wasn’t, in the eyes of most analysts, ready for the bigs yet. 29 Jan: The second trade involved 6’11” Matt Mulholland (6-7, 3.42 ERA, 3.80 FIP, 1.23 WHIP), the 26 y/o discovered by Whangarei scouts during the 2062 season while playing in a NSW bush league. Mulholland was off to Brisbane who, just 3 games back in the East-West, were prepared to fight all the way home. Mulholland would strengthen a weak rotation. In return Whangarei got 34 y/o soon-to-be free agent John Roberts (.220/.317/.383, 13HR) and a good-looking 23 y/o pitching prospect. Month Awards Rookie of the Month: Jay Watts grabbed his third RotM award and fully deserved to do so. He hit .337/.408/.620, 31-92, scoring 15 runs, hitting 8 doubles and 6HR, driving in 11 runners, and earning 9 free passes. For the season he was hitting .339, third-best in the league. Hurler of the Month: 28 y/o Karl Blackwell was having the season Melbourne fans and management had been hoping for since he arrived on the scene as a 21 y/o. The southpaw won all 6 of his starts during the month, posting a 1.37 ERA, 4.06 FIP, and 1.22 WHIP. He sent down 46.0 innings, striking out 31. For the season he had an ERA of 2.66, currently best among qualified AUNZBL pitchers. This was his first HotM. Slugger of the Month: Norm Blume had burst onto the scene in 2061 when, in his first year as an everyday player, he hit 40 doubles and 30HR, driving in a league-leading 135 runners. He’d impressed last season also, again leading the league in RBI with 149, as well as sharing the HR crown with a bunch of other players, hitting 42. This year the 26 y/o had already put up a higher WAR (4.9) than last season and had 34 doubles and 27HR to his name with 2 months to play. He won SotM, hitting .423/.500/.802 across January, his 47-111 including 9 doubles and 11 jacks. He also scored 25 runs, plated 35 runners and walked 15 times. Blume had 61XBH for the season to lead the league. Media Watch Ismael Aguirre: Aguirre found himself back down in AAA on February 1st but that was his first trip there since November. He played in 14 games in January, hitting .235/.304/.294 and scoring 6 runs. He needed 4 more runs to reach 2000. Marcos Lopez: Hitting .268/.320/.418, with 11HR for the season. He finished the month with 106 hits for the season and 3044 for his career. 36 more and he’d pass Brock Wakely (3079) for 4th-best all-time. Last Year’s Top Players Watch 2062’s Top Rookies 2062 Rookie of the Year, Sebastian Horton: The 31 y/o was hitting .264/.317/.428, 111-421, 457PA, with 88 runs, 17 doubles, 2 triples, 16HR, 55RBI, 25 walks, and 2SB. His OPS+ of 95 gave further proof that he was having an AUNZBL sophomore slump. Still, on the defensive end the 3B was sharp, with a ZR of +6.7. He had a WAR of 2.1. Cain Whalley: A sprained knee suffered early in ST kept Whalley out of the big league lineup until the latter half of October. Struggling in his second full season. .248/.284/.336, 79-318, 38 runs, 7 doubles, 3 triples, 5HR, 34RBI, 14BB, 13SB, 338PA. OPS+ of 64, WAR of -0.2. Li Hayes: No sophomore slump for Hayes. .305/.363/.545, 98-321, 49 runs, 21 doubles, 1 triple, 18HR, 71RBI, 28BB, 355PA. Apart from starting 63 games at catcher, Hayes had also played 93.0 innings at 3B without committing a single error as well as putting up a 1.1ZR. OPS+ 136, WAR 3.8. 2062’s Top Pitchers 2062 Brodie Backhouse Award winner, Rod Bacon: Giving a pretty good account of himself. 5-2, 24 sv from 40 games, 1.48 ERA, 2.60 FIP, 0.84 WHIP, 48 strikeouts in 42.2 innings pitched. 308 ERA+, 1.1 WAR, 57 FIP-. 2062 Hurler of the Year, Clint Kline: As well as really only throwing 2 types of fastball, Kline’s velocity had dropped sharply this season. Still, his control was as good as ever, his 1.20 BB/9 second-best among starting pitchers. 11-7 from 23 starts, 4.37 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 1.25 WHIP, 83 strikeouts from 142.0 innings. 104 ERA+, 2.5 WAR, 92 FIP-. Barry Dean: Had looked somewhat tired his last few starts, perhaps a result of carrying the entire Heat organization on his back. 11-7 from 24 starts, 2.78 ERA, 2.45 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 167 Ks from 181.1 IP. 164 ERA+, 7.4 WAR, 54 FIP-. Led the league in FIP, WHIP, Ks, IP, HR/9 (0.45), K/BB (5.39), and WAR. Was on track to break his own WAR record of 9.11, set in 2061. If so, he would remain the only pitcher to record a 9+ WAR season, and would have done so 3 times. He was currently projecting to put up a WAR of 10.4. He was also the only qualified starter with an FIP under 3.00. Greg Ahern: One of only 2 Adelaide players to make the 2063 All Stars. 12-7 from 24 starts, 4.02 ERA, 3.45 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, 155 Ks from 163.1 IP. 113 ERA+, 4.4 WAR, 75 FIP-. 2062’s Top Hitters 2062, Jorge Diaz Award Winner, Richard Moore: The other Adelaide All Star representative, Moore was tearing it up in 2063. .341/.452/.671, 144-422, 93 runs, 11 doubles, 1 triple, 42HR, 105RBI, 85BB, 513PA. 192 OPS+, 6.7 WAR. Topped the charts in OBP, SLG, OPS, HR, RBI, wOBA (.460), ISO (.329), total bases (283), and WAR. His BA was second-best, meaning he had a real chance at recording only the 2nd hitting Triple Crown in the league’s history. He was also on track to hit 60 homeruns but wasn’t even thinking about those achievements, if his comments after hitting homer #42 were to be believed: “Nah mate, not even a blip on my thought radar, and certainly not when I’m at the plate. My process is the same every at-bat, whether we’re up by 10 or down by 3 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th. Focus on my breathing, on the pitcher, on the ball in the pitcher’s hand, and let all the stuff I’ve trained to be instinctual kick in when the ball starts its journey to the plate. I do anything more complicated than that and I’m just going to screw things up.” Mario Correa: Still liable to swing at stuff nowhere near the plate and just as liable to send that stuff somewhere back in the stands. Missed 3 weeks in October-November with a sore shoulder. .326/.362/.558, 124-380, 60 runs, 15 doubles, 2 triples, 23HR, 100RBI, 24BB, 2SB, 412PA. 139 OPS+, 3.8 WAR. Neil Bellett: Missed the end of November and most of December with a separated shoulder. Had recently grown sideburns which might or might not be affecting his power output. .277/.425/.513, 86-310, 64 runs, 13 doubles, 20HR, 56RBI, 73BB, 393PA. 147 OPS+, 2.6 WAR. Other Notes Coastal Division: Adelaide (18-10) pushed ahead, their lead over Cairns (16-12) and Darwin (15-13) 3 games heading into Killer Feb. East-West Division: Kununurra (14-14) were only par in January, and spent the 22nd-28th on a 6-game skid. Central Coast (17-11) had pulled to within 2 games while Brisbane (17-11) lurked just 3 back. NZ Division: Christchurch (19-9) all the way, with both Auckland (10-18) and Whangarei (7-21) having awful months to plummet below .500. Southern Division: Melbourne (16-12) poked their noses above .500, the Prospects (16-12) 2 games back. Sydney (12-16) followed on from their poor December to finish the month 4 games in arrears. Wildcard: Cairns and Darwin held both slots currently, with Central Coast 2 games back and Brisbane 3. # Callum McCabe (.351/.429/.519, 7HR) held the BA lead but only barely thanks to hitting just .259 in the month. Yoshihito Morimoto (.325/.354/.355, 0HR) continued to lead the league in hits, with 162. He also had the most steals (34). Last year’s steal king (51) and season record-holder (74 in 2060), Stephane Lecomte (.295/.358/.399, 1HR) seemed to have been put off after his fractured rib, having only swiped 14 bags from 17 attempts so far. Ronald Aitken (.318/.433/.543, 22HR) had scored more runs than anybody, touching home-plate safely 94 times. Retiring superstar Alan Sneddon (.242/.391/.304, 1HR) had 92 walks, best in the AUNZBL by 3. His swing might be diminishing but his plate eye certainly wasn’t. If he reached 100 walks in 2063 it would be the 13th time he’d done so in his major-league career. Since 2046, his first full season in the majors, he’d never walked less than 93 times. Edward Vance (16-3, 3.19 ERA, 4.05 FIP, 1.21 WHIP) was on track to easily better his 18-5 record from last season. He had 3 more wins than any other pitcher, and finished February with a 12-game undefeated and 10-game win streak. Jason Brewster (12-8, 3.24 ERA, 4.63 FIP, 1.08 WHIP) was making the most of Hobart’s league-topping defensive efficiency (.701). He had the best H/9 (7.32) and OAVG (.221) amongst qualified pitchers. Ted Heathcote (11-7, 3.48 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 1.11 WHIP) was only walking 1 batter every 9 innings, a league-best. Isaac Canavan (Central Coast) had a slender lead on the saves board. His 31 efforts were 1 better than Rich Hodgson (Kununurra), who was somehow getting away with a 1.60 WHIP. ABC Wrap-up Brisbane (72-38) had a down month but were still acres in front of next-best Alice Springs (59-52) in the Northern. Canberra (73-37) smashed it in January, jumping out to a 5 1/2 game lead over Melbourne (68-43) in the Southern, with Sydney (64-47) dropping to 9 1/2 back. In the Western, Perth (58-53) continued to idle, with Kalgoorlie (57-54) pulling to within 1 game. Dunedin (64-47) were cruising in the Overseas. 35 y/o Will Glasson (.299/.385/.484, 18HR) won both the Golden Rookie and Golden Bat monthly awards. Satya Susanti (13-5, 2.82 ERA, 2.37 FIP, 1.03 WHIP) was rattling up strikeouts at a 10.38 rate per 9 innings. His 173 Ks was 32 better than next best. He also led the league in K/BB (5.77), FIP, and WAR (5.7). AUNZBL Standings, Feb 1 Attached Images __________________ Not only do I play OOTP but I also write science-fiction: My Website A brief history of the Australia-New Zealand Baseball League (AUNZBL 2019-2119)--A Dynasty Report The National Penterham Four-Bases Association--A Dynasty Report Last edited by Izz; 10-29-2017 at 03:52 AM.