Introducing the Belgian Baseball Championship!

[pm129]

Following the sport’s explosion in popularity in Belgium in recent years, the decision has been taken to establish a 16 team professional league, supported by an AAA setup and a college feeder league. Negotiations between owners resulted in 2 leagues, split into a Flemish league (Divisie Vlaanderen) and a Walloon League (Ligue Wallonia) each split into an Eastern and Western division of 4 teams with all teams to be named to reflect they’re regional identity. In the interest of distancing the new BBC from the tensions between the Flemish and French speaking areas, it was agreed that the Capital, Brussels, would be represented by a team in each league. The teams for the new Belgian Baseball Championship were as follows

Ligue Wallonia

Eastern Division

Bastogne Generals
Bruxelles Red Devils
Liege Bulls
Seraing Macrales

Western Division

Chareloi Steelmen
Mons Battery
Namur Monks
Tournai Emperors

Divisie Vlaanderen

Eastern Division

Antwerp Diamonds
Brussels Capitols
Leuven Philosophers
Mechelen Maneblussers

Western Division

Bruges Swans
Gent Dragons
Kortrijk Golden Spurs
Oostend Mariners

Unsurprisingly, two of the biggest budgets were held by the two Brussels teams (approx $12m), however, the Tournai Emperors (bankrolled by mobile telecoms firm Telnet) were also surprisingly well funded to a value of approximately $16m). The small market teams were the Gent Dragons and Kortrijk Golden Spurs with budgets of the order of $5m.

With the league in its infancy and the nature of the market restricting the money available from TV and gate receipts, a minimum salary of $20,000 was set and the biggest contract resulting from the draft was valued at $2,000,000 dollars going to Tournai’s experienced Right Fielder Paul “Slug” Maillet.

The 16 teams will consent a 90 game schedule in the inaugural season with an amateur draft of only 6 rounds, to account for the lower level of talent available within a smaller market.

Updates from Season 1 to follow!

[pm129]

Belgian Baseball Championship

Ligue Walloon- Eastern Division Season 2013 Review


Following the draft, the frantic filling of rosters and Spring Training, the Eastern Division of the LW had stratified as predicted by the respective payrolls and budgets of the four participants. Pre Season predictions showed the following




Let’s see how the four teams performed as the season progressed!

Bastogne Generals
Bastogne (named for Generals Patton and McAuliffe’s roles in the town’s liberation) endured a difficult first season, emerging with a 36-40 record for a winning % of.400, which perhaps contributed to its coming last in the BBC’s attendance rankings, pulling only 314,162 fans through the gates for its 45 home games at the Stade Municipale de Bastogne.

The root of the Generals troubles is clear, with the team ranking last in all defensive rankings within the LW (Starter and Bullpen ERA, Defensive Efficiency and Runs Against). The brightspots on the field were chiefly the average (4th and 5th, respectively) rankings in Batting Av (.262) and OBP (.328). These mediocre performance metrics saw the Generals manage Season Series Victories over only 2 other LW sides (Charleroi and Namur).

Player-wise, the Generals Harry Breedvald led the League in at bats with 369, whilst right hander Gilles Matthieu gives the pitching staff hope for 2014 ranking 4th in strikeouts (108), 3rd in K/9IP (8.8). Jean Caron, traded in from Antwerp for a clutch of prospects, also pitched 2 complete games in the Generals service.



Bruxelles Red Devils

As would be expected of the team representing the French speaking majority of the capital city, the Red Devils (named for the affectionate nickname given to the national Football team) began the season from a position of strength with the league’s 2nd highest payroll and 2nd highest attendance across the season, the Toyota Stadium attracting 982,000 fans throughout the year.

On the field, the Red Devils rode league leading pitching and defense (starter ERA 3.51, Bullpen ERA 2.71, runs against 314), as well as a powerful offense (2nd in HR with 103) to a 58-32 record to win the division. This was driven by Kaspar Arnouts leading the league in AV. With .335 and the exploits of Erjan Kost on the mound with a 4.2 WAR series, posting a WHIP of 1.00



The Red Devils also managed to trade effectively, picking up power hitting shortstop (21 HR for the season) in a deal with cash-strapped Gent for highly rated pitching prospect Mourad Lasserre.

Liege Bulls

The Bulls were named for the logo of stadium sponsor Jupiler beer, also adopting the angry red of the company’s trademark as the team colours. They were expected to play .500 ball in the league’s debut year and, in reality, fell short of this mark by 10 wins finishing 40-50 or .444. The team attracted a disappointing 355,000 fans through the turnstiles in contrast to its 6th placed payroll of $8.7m

The team was anchored by the leagues OBP champion (.476), Ian Leurink who’s full line read .333/.476/.921, earning his nickname “Stupendous”, he also lead the league in Stolen Bases with 35. Liege coupled this offensive onslaught, however, with poor pitching notching a starters and bullpen ERA of 4.40 and 4.95 respectively.




Seraing Macrales

For their name, Seraing drew upon local folklore taking the name of the witches that are said to haunt the forests around the Ardennes city. Their park is Crelan Field, sponsored by Belgium’s largest agricultural bank, attracted just over half a million spectators in the teams first season to witness an offensively exciting team place 3rd in the LW for Home runs with 92 and tie for first in stolen bases with 58.

Finishing the season 46-45, 12 ½ games behind the all conquering Red Devils, Seraing qualified for the playoffs via the Wildcard.
The outstanding performer of the Macrales season was SP Antoine Mernier, who lead the LW in ERA (1.97) and was 2nd in K/9IP with 11.2.



Below are the final standings in the LW East for 2013... Join us next time when we look back on the LW West’s season!

[pm129]

Belgian Baseball Championship

Ligue Walloon- Western Division Season 2013 Review


Following the draft, the frantic filling of rosters and Spring Training, the Western Division of the LW had stratified as predicted by the respective payrolls and budgets of the four participants. Pre Season predictions showed the following



Let’s see how the four teams performed as the season progressed!

Charleroi Steelmen

The Steelmen took their name from the coal and steel industry that defined the town in the 20th Century and who’s decline hit so hard. The hope of the club is bring the region something to cheer and the 600.000 fans who paid their money in 2013 were at least, despite the Steelmen’s 44-46 record, treated to 138 Home Runs for 1st place in the LW. This was reflected by the team’s best performer being Govaart Martens who led the league in Slugging (.601), OBPS (.997) and Home Runs (29).

That the Steelmen’s poor pitching cost them a winning record, the team ranked 7th in the LW for Starters ERA and last in Bullpen ERA, will be doubly painful as they were blessed with the league’s 4th highest payroll, largely thanks to a lucrative sponsorship deal with local transport giant Areva.



Mons Battery

The Mons side were named after the cannon works which made the town famous during the middle ages. Mons attracted 540,000 paying fans across the season, watching the Battery go 47-43 to make the playoffs via the Wildcard route.

This run was largely powered by the 2nd ranked Defence in the LW, giving up 338 runs, 62 fewer than 3rd place Seraing. Pick of the Mons pitchers was rookie Starter Frenk Stapel who ended the season with a 2.94 ERA and 36 walks across 125 Innings pitched.



The Mons pitching was, however, let down by an anaemic offence which came up with 25 runs less than the LW average on a near exact match with the league baseline for hits.


Namur Monks

The Namur Monks (named for the numerous Trappist abbeys in the surrounding area) were predicted a season record of 42-48. The team are one of the more modestly funded sides in the BBC with an overall budget of $7.1m. The Monks were one of the sides who lived up to their pre season billing, returning a 41-49 record.

The team was in the LW’s bottom 3 for both Offence and Defence, with 102 runs and 61 hits under league average and 33 hits and 41 runs allowed over LW league averages. In the midst of this gloom, however, Eric Zijm placed in the top 5 for Av (.317), OBP (.434) and runs (61).



Tournai Emporers

The Tournai Emperors (named for the brief period the Holy Roman Emperor had his seat in the city) are, as mentioned earlier, the most lavishly funded side in the BBC largely due to the wealth of owner Elwiin Koudstal and the largesse of stadium sponsor Telnet. The side were predicted to post a record of 52-38, eventually going 49-41 to win the LW West. As predicted by their budget and funding routes, the Emperors topped the BBC in all financial metrics as well as attendance being the only team to break the million mark for fans.

Amongst such a wildly successful season, it is difficult to pick standout performances,, however the offence led yet another leaderboard with the major contributors being RF Waldo Mouwen (.286/.345/.783 63 RBI) and Pascal Robert (.308/.440/.938) for a WAR of 3.9.





Below are the final standings in the LW West for 2013... Join us next time when we look back on the DV East’s season!

[pm129]

Belgian Baseball Championship

Divisie Vlaanderen- Eastern Division Season 2013 Review


Following the draft, the frantic filling of rosters and Spring Training, the pundits took a long look at the rosters and fixtures of each of the 4 teams in the DV East and compiled the following pre season predictions. The division encompasses, in Antwerp, Leuven and Brussels, 3 corners of the “Flemish Diamond”, the powerhouse of the Belgian economy. Oddly, three of the divisions 4 teams found themselves in the bottom 5 of the Championship’s payroll rankings.



Let’s see how the four teams performed as the season progressed!

Antwerp Diamonds

The Diamonds represent the sophisticated and prosperous port city of Antwerp and are named for the jewellery industry in the city, the centre of the European diamond trade. The team plays its home fixtures at the Maersk Line stadium, sponsored by one of the large shipping companies headquartered in the city.

The Diamonds were predicted a record of 51-39, however the first season of the new championship was not kind to Antwerp who finished on 33-57, the worst record in the BBC. This disappointing record was coupled with poor attendance, with the Diamonds attracting 387,000 fans across the season, and in spite of a budget of $15m, 4th in the Championship.
In analysing the Diamonds season, we can see that the team had the worst pitching ratings in the DV, giving up 476 runs and 5.3 runs per game, against a league average of 399 and 4.4 respectively. If these can improve next season, the Diamonds ought to be in good shape. Their offense was productive, ranking 4th in the DV, ranking 3rd for runs scored and first for home runs with 103. The lead protagonist in the Diamonds offence was Jaak Dorst who batted .287/.374/.924 with 22 HRs and 60 RBIs.



Brussels Capitols

The Capitols, whose name probably requires no explanation, were predicted a record of 49-41 preseason, supported by the BBC’s 6th highest budget of approximately $11.7m. The season defied expectations, with the Capitols going 52-39 to make the playoffs as winners of the Eastern Division, also pulling in the highest attendance in the DV, at 849,000.
Brussels march to playoffs was fuelled by the League’s top ranked pitching, giving up 60 runs fewer than the league average and 247 walks against a league average of 320. The outstanding performer in this was SP Jacques Jouve who posted an ERA of 1.63 on 104 IP, giving up a 77 hits and 16 walks (in 14 starts) for a WHIP of 0.89.



That the Capitols won the Eastern Division as convincingly as they did is testament to the importance of good defence, their offence was ranked 7th in the DV with 30 runs produced less than the league average.


Leuven Philosphers

The Philosophers took their name from the esteemed university that occupies a place at the centre of the small, walled city and its tradition of radicalism. They were predicted a record of 48-42 in the DV East. Fans at the Stella Artois Stadium were treated to a 50-40 season with Leuven qualifying for the playoffs via the Wildcard after a single game tie breaker.

Key to the Philosophers playoff qualification was the Divisie Vlaanderen’s top ranked offence, putting up 413 runs against a league average of 383 and 129 stolen bases against a league average of 56. League Batting Champion Servaas Van Maaren’s 40 SBs would have placed him ahead of both Bruges and Mechelen. In addition to his prowess on the base paths, Van Maaren also hit .340/.469/.959 with 70 walks in 300 ABs for a 3.9 WAR season.




Mechelen Maneblussers

The side from the exclusive university town of Mechelen were named for the townspeoples nickname which translates as “Moon Blockers” and stems from the tale of the townsfolk’s heroic attempt to fight the fire high up in the Cathedral of Saint-Rumbold's Tower, where the gothic windows had shown the flaring of only the moon between clouds in 1687. Mechelen were predicted a record of 37-53. However, somehow, the 6th placed offence and defence in the league managed to produce a record of 46-44, and later overcame Gent in a one off playoff to qualify for the wildcard, sending 3 sides from the DV East to the playoffs. This nail biting climax to the season was just reward for the 648,000 fans who came through the turnstiles of Duvel Park, ranking the small market team 7th in the BBC.

Amongst the morass of the Maneblusser’s play, Julien LeRoy mustered a .339/.401/.969 for a 3.8 WAR season.



Below are the final standings in the DV East for 2013... Join us next time when we look back on the DV West’s season!

[Westheim]

Good luck with creating a stable European setting. I tried and failed miserably.

You may want to delete the massive white parts of the pics before posting, though.

[pm129]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Good luck with creating a stable European setting. I tried and failed miserably.

You may want to delete the massive white parts of the pics before posting, though.

As soon as I figure out how... They annoy me too.

[pm129]

Belgian Baseball Championship

Divisie Vlaanderen- Western Division Season 2013 Review


Following the draft, the frantic filling of rosters and Spring Training, the pundits took a long look at the rosters and fixtures of each of the 4 teams in the DV West and compiled the following pre season predictions. The division includes, In Bruges and Gent two of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe as well as the historic city of Kortrijk and the coastal town of Oostend.



Let’s see how the four teams performed as the season progressed!

Bruges Swans

The Bruges Swans were named for the famous swans which cruise Bruges even more famous canals. The famous walled city fielded a team with a preseason prediction of 49-41 and with a budget of $8.4m who managed to attract 622,000 fans to Swans Stadium. In the event, the team did not quite live up to their pre-season billing, going 46-44, but a playoff against the Gent Dragons was enough to win the DV West, which emerged as an extremely closely contested division.

Underpinning the Swans late run to the playoffs was a solid (ranked 4th) offence along with the 2nd ranked defense in the DV, led by Short Stop Valke Melman with the bat (.319/.436/.916) and Jacques Muller off the mound who posted a WHIP of 1.17 on 122 IP giving up 106 hits.



Gent Dragons

The Dragons (named after the enormous, golden dragon weather vane on top of the Gent Cathedral’s belfry) are blessed with an abnormally loyal fanbase who’s attendance ranked 5th in the BBC (682,000) despite their team having the smallest budget in the Championship at just $4.9m. Preseason Predictions had them pegged for a record of 46-44, which was exactly where they finished the regular season. Agonisingly, their poor form down the stretch (losing 7 out of their last 9 games) carried over firstly into their tie breaker for the division title, which they lost to Bruges and then to another one off tie breaker to decide the DV’s second wildcard against Mechelen.

The root of the Dragon’s problems was their poor offence which ranked last in the DV putting up 0.5 run per game less than the average and 13 fewer homers than the average of 69. Pitching-wise, their staff kept them in the hunt all season long, ranking 2nd in the League as their 3 aces, Aminie Metivier, Tade Krijtenberg and Delano Venema each had hot spells throughout the season. Metivier finishing with a WHIP of 1.01, an ERA of 2.12 and just 96 hits on 123 innings pitched.



Kortrijk Golden Spurs

In a league blessed with many weird, wonderful and symbolic names, the Golden Spurs have the most evocative, taking their moniker from the 1302 battle against the French that the Flemish look back on with such reverence that it’s date is a bank holiday every year. The team were predicted a league worst mark of 31-49. Whilst it wasn’t as bad as all that, the team still failed to crack .500, going 42-48 in their first season.

Key to the Spur’s struggles was a weak defence, which put up the 2nd worst mark in the DV for runs against with 433, despite the efforts of Noa Vaillant (12-4/2.27/ WHIP 1.01). With the bats, Kortrijk were a different proposition, going 2nd in runs scored with 412 and watching Dennie Coster hit .332/.376/.885.



Oostend Mariners

The Mariners took their name, needless to say from the maritime history of the coastal town they base themselves in. The team was predicted a pre season mark of 42-48 and held a respectable payroll of $9.2m to begin the season. Attracting some 667,000 fans to Oostend Fields, the Mariners managed a 45-46 season, falling to Mechelen in the first of the tie break games.

The high spots of their season were the 2nd best defense in the league and the power hitting of Erik Lecomte with 17 HRs on his way to an average of .317 and an OBPS of .904





Below are the final standings in the LW East for 2013... now we have reviewed all the divisions and competing teams, our next instalment will look at the pennant races and Championship series!

[pm129]

Divisional Playoffs

LW





DV

[pm129]

League Championship Series 2013

LW




DV

[pm129]

Championship Series 2013



End of Season Awards

Ligue Walloonia

Best Pitcher: Antoine Meunier (Seraing): 10-3/ 1.97/ 0.97
Best Hitter: Govert Mertens (Cherleroi): .275/.396.997
Best Rookie: Kees Peters (Mons): .324/.402/1.035

Divisie Vlaanderen

Best Pitcher: Jacques Jouve (Brussels): 12-2/1.63/0.89
Best Hitter: Servaas Van Maren (Leuven): .340/.469/.959
Best Rookie: Noa Vaillant (Kortrijk): 12-4/2.27/1.01

[Simmo13]

Good idea for a dynasty PM....my partner and I visit Belgium quite often, we spent a very pleasant few days in Namur recently so I'll be rooting for the Monks.......I trust the concession stands will be selling Westmalle, Kwak......

[le receveur]

Originally Posted by Simmo13

Good idea for a dynasty PM....my partner and I visit Belgium quite often, we spent a very pleasant few days in Namur recently so I'll be rooting for the Monks.......I trust the concession stands will be selling Westmalle, Kwak......

Kwak would be an issue to sell, as the spectator would be throwing the stand to the ump once finished... maybe some Mort Subite....


I'll then cheer for Bruges... Actually curious, why you used the French spelling not the Flemish Brugge?

NOTE: you have 2 teams using BRU as abbreviation...

[pm129]

Originally Posted by le receveur

Kwak would be an issue to sell, as the spectator would be throwing the stand to the ump once finished... maybe some Mort Subite....


I'll then cheer for Bruges... Actually curious, why you used the French spelling not the Flemish Brugge?

NOTE: you have 2 teams using BRU as abbreviation...

I literally just noticed that 20 minutes ago. I think I got bogged down in the detail! The spelling is the one that was provided by the game, that I clearly missed... Will amend that too.

The motivation for the league was my moving to Gent in a few weeks (from the UK), so I used my local knowledge a bit. Following on the beer theme... Gent play at Gulden Draak Park, Mechelen at Duvel Stadium, Liege at the Jupiler Stadium and Leuven at the Stella Artois!

[pm129]

An interview with Antwerp Diamonds GM Fabio Noordevliet

Being the General Manager of a professional Baseball team is, in Belgium at least, a new profession. There is only a union of 16 at any one moment. Unsurprisingly, there is, within such a unique profession, a lot of learning on the job and different approaches to achieve the same end... Winning.

As I walk into the office of Fabio Noordervliet, General Manager of the Antwerp Diamonds, I’m expecting to see some reflection of this, a man grappling with trying to turn a team from one that won 3 games less than anybody else in the BBC last year into the contender that its location, it’s new stadium and it’s hefty sponsorship deals suggest it can be. Maybe he’ll be haranguing another GM on the phone, browbeating him into a lopsided trade. Maybe he’ll be telling a young gun from the Club’s AAA setup in Rixensart, south of Brussels, that he’s earned his big chance to help in pulling the team’s fortunes around. Instead, I find an unshaven 41 year old man trying to bounce a baseball off his desk and into a coffee mug.

Let’s take a look at the story of the Antwerp Diamonds so far. When the concept of the Belgian Baseball Championship was briefed to the media last winter, Antwerp was one of the key markets that the league wanted to exploit. It’s one of Flanders’ biggest and most populous cities, it is well off and it’s close to the Dutch border giving it a reach that few other teams can boast. Owner Ijs Dalerop managed not only to get the team a 14,000 capacity stadium, but managed to leverage its position on the seafront, far from the elegant city centre into part funding from shipping company Maersk Line. This was a position of strength, one from which the Diamonds could challenge the league’s expected top teams. Further to their advantage, they were given the league’s 4th largest operating budget ($13.58m), this was clearly an investment that the notoriously stringent Dalerop was taking seriously.

So what went wrong? How did the Diamonds take advantages in location, market size and finance and turn them into a team that won barely a 3rd of its 90 games, gave up 77 runs more than the Divisie Vlaanderen average and fired it’s GM and Manager after just one season?

“I wish it was as simple as going to Meneer Dalerop and getting $7m to sign Jacques Jouve (DV Best Pitcher 2013 and free agent over the break) for 4 years over the winter!” Laughs Noordervielt. “But the reality is, there are a lot of complex problems here that need to be addressed properly. Some of these could be foreseen and acted upon by the previous management, but some are just freak events that you can only weather by being in that good shape to begin with, these are the real test. 3 teams from 4 of our division made the playoffs last year! How can you account for a division that is so competitive? Slipping up, starting badly in a race like that, as we did, is fatal. Every game means something, you can’t, especially in a 90 game season like we have, hope to pick up wins against sides with nothing to play for who take their eyes off the ball.” Here I interject, you don’t give up that many runs (5.3 per game!), you don’t give up an extra half a hit every game or 53 walks over average to the rest of the league because the division is competitive.

“Of course! The factors I outlined there are not to say that Antwerp did everything perfectly, shrug our shoulders and move on as before! Look at our draft performance in the inaugural draft. We managed to take the 4th highest budget in the league and translate it into the 8th highest payroll! There’s something to be said for being smart and finding players that are overlooked, but what Antwerp did in that draft was a case of not exploiting their strengths. I think also, there was a certain edginess about the new stadium which affected the balance of the team that was drafted... The desire to have a team that people would come and see led to a lot of veteran, well known power hitters being taken and paid a lot. Now, that strategy wasn’t a complete failure. Jaak Dorst at Catcher had a great year with the bat (.287/.374/.924), but there was no attention paid to how defense or how these guys would play together. It was a collection of individuals. You can see also, that this strategy failed not only in terms of results. This park was only just over 50% full over the season. That’s unacceptable.”

So what did the Diamonds do differently for 2014 to address these issues? Noordevielt has long advocated a “defense first” approach and he’s keen to show me the workouts and drills that the new field manager, Mortiz Phillipe, has put together to this end.

“That was a quick win. Before we even looked at personnel, we simply started working on Defense. On respecting it.” The results are impressive, Antwerp are, after a 3rd of the 2014 season, top of the DV for Defensive Efficiency at .719. They’ve also recruited well to bring their bullpen ERA to 4th in the league at 2.77, although the starter ERA of 4.76 must still concern the management. Most tellingly from a distant last, the Diamond’s runs against column has climbed to 4th in the DV.

So what were the key moves in shoring up the soft belly of the side and maintaining its prowess with the bat?

“You can see from our stats that we’ve tried to move away from the power side. Whilst i’m not crazy about our team batting average dropping to .214 in the 30 games we’ve played so far, I think an OBP of .340 across the board is a step in the right direction. We’re not there yet. 14-16 isn’t the record we want at this point, but it’s better than 10-20. On the pitching side, Herve Guerin, who we signed from Kortrijk has really stepped up and he’s dragged our existing pitching staff with him. Look at Santiago Barron, his WHIP has dropped from 1.64 last year to 1.15 this. Now, he’s the only Cuban in the league, so maybe last year was a difficult period for him... but Herve is a great guy to have around when he’s throwing well. He’s infectious.”

We’ve talked for a while about the Diamonds and their travails, and slowly the conversation shifts into more of a state-of-the-nation chat about the BBC, what it’s done well, what it hasn’t done well and where Noordervielt thinks it need to go in the future.

“The format we’ve got serves our purpose beautifully, it’s a huge plus to trying to grow the sport professionally. In a country where baseball isn’t the culture, for fans to be able to see that every team plays every other team home and away is easily understandable. Revenue sharing (which is currently at 20%) is important also, although I think more could be done to ensure that the biggest spender doesn’t win every year. On the negative side, I think we need to look at the way the amateur draft and lower leagues work... The 6 round draft may serve the teams purpose, but there are 16 college teams and however many amateurs all producing talent. At the moment the opportunity to progress into the pros is almost random. A longer draft list and maybe even an expanded minor league setup would help on that front”

With that, it’s time for me to take my leave. Fabio has to go and sit with his AAA managers to review the progress of his prospects and see if any of them are ready to aid Antwerp’s push for a winning record. At least that what he tells me, as I walk out, I think I hear a baseball bouncing off a desk.

[pm129]

The Season in Detail- Liege Bulls

The first thing a lot of people notice about the Liege Bulls is the seats at Jupiler Stadium. There are 2 reasons for this, the first is that they are the same angry red colour as their sponsors logo and the team’s uniforms, the second is that on any given night of the 2013 season you could see at least 3,000 of them during a game. Liege is, in Belgian terms, a big town. It has one of Belgium’s top soccer teams, it has a population approaching 200,000 and the surrounding area has many smaller cities and towns that are in easy reach of the park, but still, the Bulls only manage to attract roughly 7,000 fans a night to their games.

In our post-season roundup at the end of last year (in which Liege went 40-50), we remarked that the Bulls biggest challenges were the aforementioned attendance and the woeful pitching that placed 2nd last in the LW and was as bad as the offence, powered by on base machine Ian Leurink and the 66 RBIs of Frits Maeyer, was good. So how have the Bulls effected the turnaround that sees them firmly in the playoff hunt with two thirds of the season played out?

On the surface, not much has changed... The team is still in the upper reaches for runs produced with 300, projecting out at 450, against last season’s total of 458, on base percentage has improved somewhat to .349 compared to last years’ .336 and the loss of last year’s champion in that category has been mitigated by the emergence of Erwold Baggerman (.301/.369/.866) from triple A and the improvement of Laurent Bernard who’s line has climbed from last years .321/.348/.799 to the heady heights of .336/.373/.855. The next highest BBC average on the team is .286, but in terms of OBP, the Bulls have a great supporting cast with Klaas Bosman (2B) notching .414 and Edouard Gabriel (1B) at .378. The upshot of these metrics is that the team leads the LW East in AV, OBP and hits and is sitting 2 games back from the division leading Seraing Mecrales.
These stats, however, only tell half a story. If a team is leading it’s division in runs, hits average and OBS, why is it currently in a 3 way fight with the Red Devils and Meracles for the division lead with only 2 games separating them all after 60 games? The answer to that lies in the pitching problems that Liege’s great offence masks.

Last year, only the Bastogne Generals ranked worst for defensive metrics than the Bulls in the LW and that was a close run thing. The teams tied in giving away an average of 5 runs per game, Liege may have allowed 14 fewer hits than Bastogne, but they also gave up 22 more home runs and struck out 60 fewer batters. Their best pitching performers were Stuart Duhamel and Raphael Auger, both of whom had ERAs over 3.60, not top of the rotation numbers in a pitching heavy league.

Fast forward to 60 games played in 2014 and Liege are on course to give up just over 450 runs against last years’ mark of 448, they project to give up 5 more home runs even than the 112 they surrendered in their 2013 campaign and they look set to strike out 605 batters against last years 698. Their top pitchers for ERA are Gray Wirenga and Yves Jean with 4.63 and 4.82 respectively against a league average of all teams of 4.18 and a divisional average of 4.30. This is a disaster. If any other team sees it’s near league worst pitching drop off a cliff in this manner whilst paying its players around the league average (Liege ranks 9th in payroll for 2014), an angry mob is descending on the crowd and the GM is being run out of town on a rail. Now, I know that you have two questions to all this. Firstly, can the city of Liege credibly produce enough fans to constitute a mob and secondly, how the heck did their team get to a winning record at this point in the season?
The answer is not, as you may suspect, defense. And yes, I know that a lot of what we log as pitching is actually defence, but in the infield, the Bulls haven’t really done anything different this year. 2013 saw them produce 65 errors, a fielding rating of .981 and fielding efficiency of .684, taking the final metric as our benchmark, that turned out 5th in the LW ahead of the Generals, the Monks and perhaps most surprisingly the Emperors. This year, they haven’t really done anything different, they project 3 fewer errors, a .983 rating and a .694 fielding efficiency rating. To rate 3rd in the LW against a climbing average.

In short, the Bulls turnaround this season has been built upon getting guys on base and driving home runs (265 so far, 12 more than Bruxelles and 1st in the LW East). Can this last in the face of a weak and, by the looks of things, still declining rotation with nothing special in the field to back it up? Especially now last year’s OBP Champion has traded to Gent for a prospect Closer? Not if there’s any justice.

[BelgianBomber]

Where do I sign up for season tickets????

Baseball in Belgium, sweet!!!!!!!!

Very nice idea to create this league. Keep up the good work.

[pm129]

Belgian Baseball Championship

Ligue Walloon- Eastern Division Season 2014 Review

Bastogne Generals

Following the disappointment of a .400 record in the Championship’s inaugural season, Bastogne looked to leverage the 5th highest payroll into a winning campaign. Whilst the Generals did improve on 2013’s 36 wins, the 38-52 mark (and last in the LW East, again) cannot have been the improvement owner Henning Asseldonk was hoping for and, indeed, it is rumoured changes are afoot in the Generals’ front office. Attendance has grown for the Generals, however with an increase of 19% pushing them of the bottom of the attendance league, at least.

Bastogne adopted a Defence-First approach to this years’ campaign that they hope will form the bedrock of an ongoing process of improvement. From last in the LW for Defensive Efficiency in 2013, the Generals have climbed to 4th improving from last place, largely as a result of 4 players posting rankings above 1.000 inlcuding Brazilian free-agent Geraldo Torka and Leuven import Henk Ijenzdoorn. Unfortunately, the season also saw a decline in the Generals already replacement level offense seeing them slump into the LW’s last 2 for runs scored, OBP and home runs. The only offensive stat in which the Generals bucked the sorry trend was AVG, in which they managed the giddy heights of 6th in the LW with a mark of .250.

Player-wise it’s tough to pick the outstanding performers from the morass of the Generals season, their best pitcher was Jean Caron who had an W-L/ERA/WHIP record of 7-9/3.07/1.08 which would earn him a place at the top of most BBC rotations in a defence which mustered up an era of 4.17 and gave up 435 runs for 7th in the LW. With the bat, Harrie Breedveld ranked 5th in the LW for RBI with 64.



Bruxelles Red Devils

For the 2nd year running, the Red Devils ranked 2nd in the BBC for payroll and attendance. To continue the Rule of 2s, they also won the LW East for the 2nd year running. Their record saw them lose 5 more games than last year, for a record of 53-37, as well as a consistent output in their offensive stats with runs scored dropping from 452 to 443, remaining 2nd in the LW and AVG and OBP holding steady at .263/.341 vs .265/.339 in 2013.

Defensively, the team looked to build on the top ranked LW Defence of 2013, but saw their output slide a little. Runs against climbed from a league leading 314 to 390 and Starters ERA leapt from 3.21 in 2013 to 4.24 for 2014. A rough year for Peter Noussen seemed to encapsulate their problems on the mound. He saw a league leading Winning % of .929 drop to .500 with ERA spiking from 3.15 to 4.98.

Given the team still won the LW East, however, they must have been doing something right. A look at their bats reveals Kasper Arnouts as, once again, the pick of the litter. He ranked 5th in the LW for OBP with .413 and an OBPS of .921. He also led the team in AVG (.302) and posted a WAR of 3.1, which represented a decline on the previous years’ outstanding 4.3
The Red Devils will look to build on last season’s playoff campaign that saw them beaten in 6 by Tournai in the LW Championship Series.



Liege Bulls
The Bulls the subject of our “The Season in Detail” report earlier in the year, which showed them projecting a playoff place based on getting guys on base and batting them around in the face of poor pitching. In the final analysis Liege finished 47-43, 5 games back from the Wildcard spots. Whilst still disappointing, given the club’s size and financial strength, this represented an improvement of 7 wins (or roughly 8%) on the previous season .The club’s disappointing attendance figures were improved upon somewhat also with 8,387 fans coming through the Turnstiles of the Juplier stadium each night, compared to just over 7,000 in 2013.

The “In Detail” piece projected that Liege would produce 450 runs, but in actuality the team only managed 381, offensive production dipping steeply after Ian Leurink’s trade to Gent. OBP dropped off to 3.18 from 3.45 at 60 games played, as a result of this trade too. The main thesis of the piece was that good offence from the Generals masked a terrible pitching squad and the Leurink inspired decline that saw the team miss the playoffs from a seemingly strong position has borne this out.
In Detail projected that the Bulls would surrender in excess of 450 runs, give up 117 long bombs and strike out 605 batters, for the full 90 games we can see figures of 435, 99 and 600. Now the first of these two are a marked improvement on 2013 with the strikeout figure significantly lower. Perhaps, combined with a 4th in the league DEF rating, there is hope for a balanced side in Liege yet.

Player-wise, the undoubted bright sport for the Bulls was Laurent Bernard, 2nd in the LW for AVG (.337) and Gray Wirenga, who’s 96 strikeouts accounted for 16% of the Bulls season total.




Seraing Macrales


For the 2nd year running, Seraing managed to qualify for the playoffs via the wildcard, finishing 2nd in the LW East behind Brussels. The distinction this year was that they managed to win 7 more games for a 52-38 finish and lose out to the Red Devils by only 1 game, rather than the 12/12 of 2013. The Macrales also improved their attendance by about 700 per home game to around the 11,800 mark meaning Crelan Field was 94% full on the season.
The driver for this improvement on a strong debut season was defense. The team ranked first in the LW for Runs Against, Starters ERA and Defensive Efficiency (370,3.63,.720). Whilst Seraing’s bats were a bit player in their success, ranking 7th in AVG and dead last in the LW in OBP, they did manage 2nd in the Home Run charts with a total of 122. In short, a ticket to Crelan Field guarantees a great pitching performance and a home run.

The outstanding performer for the Macrales was, as last year, Antoine Meunier, the LW’s outstanding pitcher this year. His line read 13-2/1.83/0.88 and putting up a 6.1 WAR season. Meunier won the Triple Crown in the LW for 2014 leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts with 187 in 142.1 IP, including 2 games where he struck out 15 batters against Tournai and Bastogne.



Below are the final standings in the LW East for 2014... Join us next time when we look back on the LW West’s season!