[FuzzyRussianHat]

Pitcher Wisnu Dharmayuman was the lone inductee in 1990 to the Austronesia Professional Baseball Hall of Fame, getting a 96.0% first ballot nod. 1B Francis Pung barely missed the 66% threshold with 65.7% in his debut. SP Kai Diaz also had a strong showing, but missed out with 61.4% on his fifth attempt. Also above 50% were SP Ary Mustofa at 55.9% on his second attempt and 1B Po-Yu Shao at 51.0% for his third attempt.



Dropped after ten failed ballots was SP Ryan Aguinaldo, who was hurt by having his APB career begin at age 31. Still, in a decade he posted 61.7 WAR, a 150-136 record, 2.46 ERA, 2758.2 innings, and 2290 strikeouts. If he had all of his 20s, Aguinaldo probably has plenty of accumulations. But his tallies were too low and he didn’t have any big awards. He got as high as 54.5% on his seventh try, but ended at a low of 33.4%.

Another pitcher was dropped in Muljadi Suwandi, who also had lower accumulations from a debut at age 28. In a decade with four teams, he won Pitcher of the Year in 1968 and had a 138-93 record, 2.11 ERA, 2154 innings, 2637 strikeouts, and 68.4 WAR. Suwandi bounced in the 30-40% range his whole time on the ballot with a peak of 49.0% in 1987 and a finish of 33.1%.



Wisnu Dharmayuman – Starting Pitcher – Manila Manatees – 96.0% First Ballot

Wisnu Dharmayuman was a 6’2’’, 200 pound right-handed pitcher from Lahat, a city of around 110,000 within Indonesia’s South Sumatra province. Dharmayuman had electric stuff with 99-101 mph peak velocity on his fastball mixed with a great slider, good sinker, and occasional changeup. He had good control in his prime, although his movement was generally considered below average. Dharmayuman had very good stamina when healthy, leading the Taiwan-Philippine Association twice in both complete games and innings pitched.

Dharmayuman was discovered as a teenage amateur by a scout from Manila, who signed him in the spring of 1965. He played his entire pro career with the Manatees, making his debut with a few appearances in 1969 at age 20. Dharmayuman emerged as a very solid starter in his second and third seasons. In 1970, Manila made it to the Austronesia Championship, falling in the final to Jakarta. Dharmayuman had a solid showing with a 2.31 ERA in 23.1 playoff innings, establishing himself as an ace.

1971 saw a no-hitter against Zamboanaga on May 16 with 13 strikeouts. He would suffer major injury setbacks though with a stretch elbow ligament after his second start of the 1972 season, putting him out ten months. Dharmayuman came back with an excellent 9.0 in his 1973 return, which led to Manila giving him a seven-year, $1,254,000 contract extension. They had another scare though as Dharmayuman suffered a torn flexor tendon in his elbow in the early summer of 1974.

Dharmayuman bounced back from that with the best season of his career, leading in ERA for the only time (1.57) and WAR (10.9). In 1975, hetied the single-game record in APB with a 21 strikeout game. This earned him second in Pitcher of the Year voting. It also started a streak of four seasons as the strikeout leader, peaking with 408 in 1978. In 1977, he threw his second no-hitter, fanning 12 against Davao. Dharmayuman was second again in Pitcher of the Year in 1976 and third in 1978. He also pitched from 1972-83 with Indonesia in the World Baseball Championship, posting a 4.01 ERA over 146 innings with 231 strikeouts and 2.6 WAR.

In 1980, Dharmayuman finally won Pitcher of the Year despite it being his worst WAR in a full season It was his second time though with a sub-two ERA and had a TPA-best 0.80 WHIP. This was Dharmayuman ‘s final great season thanks to a torn flexor tendon in June 1981. Despite his efforts, Manila missed the playoffs 12 straight years from 1971-82. They would finally get back in 1983, falling to Taoyuan in the Association Championship. Various injuries in these final years kept him from reaching 100 innings in any of last three seasons. He opted to retire after the 1984 campaign at age 36. The Manatees retired his #31 uniform that winter.

Dharmayuman’s final stats: 175-134 record, 2.29 ERA, 2995.1 innings, 4094 strikeouts, 264/351 quality starts, 185 complete games, 65 FIP-, and 89.8 WAR. He was the first APB pitcher to 4000 career strikeouts, although he’d get passed on the leaderboards by 23 other pitchers over the years in APB. Dharmayuman wasn’t appreciated perhaps as much as he should’ve been in his time being on middling Manila teams and injuries cost him the big accumulations. Still, he was firmly recognized still as one of the finest pitchers of his era, earning 96.0% as a first ballot Hall of Famer and the lone member of the 1990 APB class.