2064 Preseason Predictions
Coastal: Despite failing in their Championship defence last season, Adelaide were predicted to still be far too strong for the rest of the Coastal, even with two of their rotation (Ahern, Hurlson) not due back until the second half of the season. Darwin and Cairns would also be good but wouldn’t challenge for the division title.
East-West: Nobody would break the .500 mark in 2064, at least according to the experts. Brisbane would be the best of a sorry bunch to win the division while the once vaunted Central Coast would continue their downward slide under GM Andrew Backhouse.
NZ: Christchurch would tower above this division, cantering to the pennant. The rest of the teams would be poor, including the Metros, who boasted some of the best young talent in the league.
Southern: The surprise package of the 2064 season would be Hobart. Their offseason moves put them on target for a 100-win season, the stats-heads of the opinion that while the Prospects lacked superstars they had crafted an offensive lineup that would produce from 1 through 9. Melbourne would also have a good season but would be left battling for a wildcard.
Wildcard: Darwin would grab one slot, with Cairns the favourite to earn the other, though Melbourne would challenge the entire way.
Jorge Diaz Award: Richard Moore was a possibility to win his fourth in a row but the majority preseason pick was Brisbane’s Norm Blume. Beau Hauer, Glen Walsh and Ronald Aitken would also be in the frame.
Hurler of the Year: Zglinicki and Dean would battle it out, as the preseason pickers always picked. Adelaide’s Teddy Wigley would have another great season, while 27 y/o Canberra southpaw Brendan Southey would surprise in a coming of age campaign.
Prospect Watch: Of the rookies on big-league squads to begin 2064, there was a lot of buzz around the 2062 #1 overall pick, Brendan Penfold. He’d thrown 17.1 innings out of Canberra’s bullpen last season and had won a spot in the starting rotation this year after a good spring. The 23 y/o still had room to mature as a pitcher but most felt he’d make that progress pretty quickly. OotPB TV ranked him as their #5 prospect in baseball to start the season.
24 y/o Virgin Islander Tim Firth earned a March call-up to the Sluggers last season, hitting .257/.274/.386, with 2HR, from 18 starts. This season he’d fought off all-comers to be named Whangarei’s everyday catcher, and would hit at 5 in their opening day lineup. Firth was ranked 9th overall on the OotPB TV top prospect list.
ABC: Brisbane would snare the Northern, while both Townsville and Gold Coast would lose 100+ games. Sydney would not be denied in the Southern this season, with both Canberra and Melbourne posting impressive records but missing out on the playoffs. Adelaide would do enough to win the Western, while Jakarta would storm back after a poor 2063 to dominate the Overseas Division.
26 y/o Jakarta 1B Ted Blume would win Golden Bat, besting the locomotive that was Si-xun Qiao. Brisbane’s Jadili Majogo and Canberra’s Christos Spargo would also challenge.
Golden Arm would go to Sydney’s Randall Tilton, who’d fight off opposition from teammates Austin Ya and Bradley Boston to win. Both Blume and Tilton were products of the ABC draft, coming up through the ABC-affiliated high school and university leagues.