A brief history of the Australia-New Zealand Baseball League (AUNZBL, 2019-2119)

[Izz]

Offseason

2053 Notes

ERA stayed at 4.40, while BA jumped to .268.

BL Wrap-up

The Maracaido Magnates pulled off a stunning comeback in the Serie de Campeonato against the Asuncion Rebeldes, lifting themselves out of an 0-3 hole to win the series 4-3. The Magnates had snared the 2nd wildcard slot. It was their 1st Championship.

The BL’s top rookie was 32 y/o Bill Baxter, formerly of the Aces and Fury. He hit .352/.405/.527, with 10HR, in his inaugural season.

Jarra de Oro went to 31 y/o Arnold Dethridge, also a BL rookie, having played for 6 seasons for the Heat. He was 12-7, with a 2.87 ERA, 3.13 FIP, and 1.15 WHIP.

35 y/o Thomas Reilly was in his 4th season in the BL but his 1st year with Georgetown. He had a tremendous campaign, going .377/.464/.606, with 15HR, to win Bateador de Oro.

Notable Club Happenings

Adelaide: 7-year GM Tomas la Grange was given the boot. His tenure had been mediocre, with Adelaide making 2 postseasons, in 2049 and 2050.

Auckland: Neither Si Chin or Hal Dewar were fired, to the surprise of many in media circles.

Cairns: Jorge de Jesus spent 1 season as Cairns’ GM, seeing them into the playoffs for the 1st time since 2044, and then promptly retired. He had nothing to say to media about it, apparently already back in the Lower Americas before the Championship series wrapped up, and the chairperson of Cox Holdings, a stiff woman of obviously military background, only said, “He’s decided to pursue other opportunities back home. We wish him all the best.” It took all of five minutes post-presser for the conspiracy theories to start doing the rounds.

Central Coast: GM Mitchell Franks didn’t have his contract renewed. The Thunder had gone 79-83 to follow up their Championship-winning season, the 1st time they’d fallen below .500 since 2047, Franks’ 2nd year in the job.

Kununurra: Skipper Sebastian Main wasn’t fired, but he made it clear to media he would’ve stayed had a new contract been offered. He would be replaced in his role by BC Antony Lutz, a former minor league OF who’d made it as high as AA.

Sydney: The Blue Sox were on the lookout for a new GM, after deciding not to extend John Snow’s stay. Snow had been GM for 5 years, and while Sydney had made the playoffs his 1st 2 years, they hadn’t done so the last 3.

Notable Free Agent Signings/Player Contract Extensions

31 Mar: The day after their exit from the postseason, Cairns announced 26 y/o Tim Sverdloff (29-28, 4.19 ERA, 4.26 FIP, 1.40 WHIP) had agreed to a 4-year contract extension.

9 May: 40 y/o Ashley Snijders (.306/.404/.540, 570HR) extended his stay in Newcastle for another season.

9 May: 39 y/o Brock Wakely (.283/.392/.501, 548HR) would be a Bandit for another year.

9 May: 37 y/o Lindsay Colson (.287/.355/.490, 391HR) took the Fury’s offer of arbitration, so would suit up in Wellington colours in 2054. Fans were excited that he would likely reach the 400HR mark while with their team.

12 May: This year’s top 5 free agents, according to OotPB, were:

30 y/o 1B Marcos Lopez
30 y/o 1B Patrick Maggs
29 y/o RF Sean Carr
27 y/o SP Edwin Kerr
28 y/o 1B Ed Geoghegan

Some of the other players testing the open market this offseason were:

28 y/o SP Baden Henderson
34 y/o SP Jesus Rodriguez
29 y/o LF Rob Lane
35 y/o 1B Matt Panther
27 y/o SS Bradley Courcha
29 y/o RF Gareth Orpen
31 y/o C Bert Maggs
32 y/o C Jordan Blackford
28 y/o 2B Andre England
29 y/o C Sterling Brear
37 y/o SP Vicente Velez
30 y/o SP Wei-liang Chang
35 y/o CL Bailey Cleaver
31 y/o C Warren Danvers

The Fury were the biggest losers, shedding 12.4 WAR (8.3 of that number being Marcos Lopez). Newcastle lost 8.5 and Melbourne 7.5 to round out the top 3.

20 May: Christchurch made the first free agent signing splash this offseason, snaring Marcos Lopez (.323/.367/.532, 192HR) on a 5-year deal.



20 May: A few hours later, Newcastle got in on the action, announcing 2 big signings. The first was a new face for the franchise: Sean Carr (.320/.382/.487, 142HR), who was heading to the Roos on a 6-year agreement.



20 May: The second was a not-so-new face, Bradley Courcha (.274/.373/.396, 59HR), who’d been traded to Auckland during the 2051 season, having committed to a 7-year contract. Roos’ GM Norman Guao said they were still “chasing a couple more pieces, but these additions certainly make us Championship-calibre already.”

23 May: Darwin were adding some power to their lineup in 2054. They’d acquired former Slugger Patrick Maggs (.309/.380/.523, 225HR) in what was, reportedly, a heavily back-ended deal. He’d be in Darwin for 4 years. The move would see Maggs hook up once more with Alan Sneddon, who was all thumbs-up to the idea, saying, “I know Paddy didn’t want to leave Whangarei, but they’re a bit strapped right now, so he’s coming our way. Next season will be a fun ride, I can tell you that right now.”



29 May: Jordan Blackford (.254/.316/.432, 125HR) inked a deal with Darwin for 4 years. He’d be their backup catcher.

31 May: Veteran Vicente Velez (73-82, 4.46 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 1.37 WHIP) would be a Roo for the next 2 seasons. Newcastle would be his 4th AUNZBL team in 7 years.

1 Jun: Fan favourite but highly fragile Andre England (.326/.378/.417, 12HR) re-signed with Newcastle for 2 more campaigns.

1 Jun: Adelaide entered the free agent fray, grabbing Edwin Kerr (77-64, 3.78 ERA, 4.07 FIP, 1.22 WHIP) on a 5-year deal.



2 Jun: Jesus Rodriguez (127-112, 4.65 ERA, 4.18 FIP, 1.40 WHIP) would go around again with the Diggers, having re-signed with the club for 3 more years.

2 Jun: 32 y/o Rick Clohessy (.257/.286/.467, 272HR) had an unhappy 2053, Canberra trading him to the Thunder midway through the year. That act meant he missed out on a ring with the club he’d played all his ball with until that point, and that left a bitter taste in his mouth. While he acknowledged that the Cavalry had stuck by him during his PED suspension, he admitted the taint of that still hung heavy over him. So, for the above reasons and likely a few others, he was off to the BL, signing with Havana for 3 years. Apart from his suspension, Clohessy was only the 2nd person other than Alastair Mildren to bank 150+ RBI in a season, doing so in 2051.

7 Jun: The Roos moved to avoid meeting 28 y/o Marshall Tipping (.274/.357/.467, 71HR) at the arbitration table, signing him to a 4-year extension. With a little over 3 years ML service time under his belt, Tipping likely wouldn’t be filing for free agency until he had over 7 years’ service time.

13 Jun: 2-time SotY, 34 y/o Quentin Stennings (.295/.354/.488, 287HR), would suit up for Georgetown in the BL for the next 2 years.

17 Jun: Ed Geoghegan (.286/.367/.493, 181HR) was headed to Perth on a 4-year deal. He was confident the perennial battlers would be a “fighting force” in 2054.



20 Jun: 33 y/o Martin Valentin (.276/.322/.438, 237HR) said he was just happy to put the memory of Perth behind him, after the Fury announced the IF was returning home on a 4-year deal.

21 Jun: The Roos made another big signing move today, announcing that Baden Henderson (59-70, 4.62 ERA, 4.60 FIP, 1.42 WHIP), the 2nd-ranked pitching free agent this offseason, would be in Newcastle for the next 6 years. The 6’6” SP had played in Cairns until now, where he’d never had a winning season, but Newcastle were sure that with a good offense and defense behind him he would get results.

22 Jun: Bert Maggs (.268/.323/.429, 52HR) signed with the Heat for 2 years.

23 Jun: Perth were excited to announce that power merchant Gareth Orpen (.258/.338/.468, 161HR) had re-signed with the club, agreeing to terms on a 5-year contract.

24 Jun: Newcastle already had Robert Bywaters as closer, but today signed 29 y/o Rhett Thurley (43-38, 216 sv, 3.14 ERA, 3.63 FIP, 1.15 WHIP) to a 3-year deal. Early indications were Thurley would work out of the pen in a setup role.

3 Jul: Matt Panther (.278/.393/.446, 230HR) had peaked when he was 25 and hadn’t reached anywhere near those heights in the 10 years since. Still, he’d drawn 100+ walks each of the last 7 seasons and was good for 15-20 jacks a year, and Sydney decided they could use him in their lineup. He’d agreed to a 3-year deal.

7 Jul: Wei-liang Chang (59-54, 4.55 ERA, 4.39 FIP, 1.32 WHIP) was headed up to Darwin, having signed a 4-year contract. The southpaw would likely be their 5th starter.

12 Jul: Christchurch presented Warren Danvers (.292/.383/.464, 94HR) to media with the news he’d be a Cowboy for the next 4 years. Danvers hadn’t held down the everyday catching role since the 2049 season, but said all he needed was “an opportunity.”

20 Jul: 29 y/o Gordon Appleby (.277/.331/.476, 108HR) had picked up his fair share of injuries so far in his career. But Brisbane weren’t deterred, extending his contract by 2 years, citing the value he provided when fit. The 2nd year, however, was a vesting option based on PA. If he stayed fit, Brisbane had got themselves a real bargain.

27 Jul: 3-time All Star Bailey Cleaver (47-53, 137 sv, 3.41 ERA, 3.61 FIP, 1.33 WHIP) was headed to Adelaide, having signed a 3-year deal.

10 Aug: Rob Lane (.321/.389/.526, 145HR) was a tremendous talent, but a Ming vase rather than a steel sculpture. Last season he only played 41 games before suffering a season-ending broken elbow. The Cowboys were excited to sign him, though, drooling at the possibilities he and Marcos Lopez presented. He’d signed for 2 years.

11 Aug: No AUNZBL team appeared interested in Sterling Brear (.266/.313/.444, 83HR), though most agreed he was still good enough for the top level. He was off to the BL, signing a 3-year deal with the big-spending Georgetown Piratas.

25 Sep: 39 y/o Luke Bodkin (195-162, 3.56 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 1.18 WHIP) said to media, “I guess I could stick around for a couple more seasons, hoping some organization’s AAA guys will sign me and then hope I get promoted to first-grade, then hope I get a chance working out of the pen to throw in some game-winning situations. But that’s a lot of hope and I’m an old, cynical guy, so I think I’d rather grab the money Memphis is offering me and let myself continue to think I’m king of the mound for a couple more years.” Bodkin had signed a 2-year deal with the Academics of the NABA and would be their marquee player. In a 16-year AUNZBL career Bodkin had won 2 Championships, both with the team he spent the most time with, Hobart. Bodkin left the league with the 4th-most wins of any pitcher, and at the head of the active wins board, and also didn’t make the top 10 in career losses, a feat few other pitchers in the top 10 career winners group could boast. His 2682 career strikeouts was the 2nd-best of any pitcher, and his 3167.2 IP the 6th-best. Surprisingly, he threw only 1 shutout in his entire career, though he did throw 12 complete games. He played in 6 All Star Games and won 1 HotY.



Notable Trades

21 Apr: With their futures assured, Metros GM Si Chin and skipper Hal Dewar got to work. Chin today finalized a trade with Kununurra which would see 25 y/o SP Brodie Tucker (18-18, 4.45 ERA, 4.67 FIP, 1.42 WHIP) heading to Auckland in return for 2 prospects. Tucker was coming off a 12-8 season, though his FIP more than a run higher than his ERA, and threw 4 pitches that jagged a bit. Chin saw him as being an integral part of Auckland’s rotation for the next few seasons.

5 May: Hobart and the Roos agreed to a trade which appeared extremely lopsided in Newcastle’s favour. Hobart got 25 y/o back-up SS Nick Bourke (.286/.341/.441, 13HR in 320 career PA over 3 seasons), and sent 37 y/o MR/CL Brendan Sheppard (45-49, 166 sv, 3.32 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 1.17 WHIP), a 1B prospect who projected to have plus power, and $3 million in cash.

14 May: Auckland wanted one of their favourite sons back. To that end, they traded 2 below average prospects to Kununurra, receiving 36 y/o Bill Makepeace (.254/.314/.408, 155HR). Makepeace had played his entire career until 2049 with Auckland before heading over to the BL for 3 seasons. He’d returned to the Pioneers on a cheap 3-year deal in 2053, and would suit up again in a Metros uniform in 2054.

3 Jun: The Thunder decided to make the most of 28 y/o Brayden Ziersch’s (.266/.343/.400, 44HR) standout 2053 season (.316/.383/.449, 9HR) by sending him and a minor leaguer to Wellington. In return they got 28 y/o SP Dan Pankhurst (49-59, 3.96 ERA, 4.36 FIP, 1.32 WHIP) and cash. Pankhurst was reportedly “very upset” to be sent on his way.

5 Jun: 34 y/o Carl Bristcoe (.264/.338/.486, 325HR) was becoming a bit of a journeyman in the 2nd half of his career. Newcastle were trading him to Melbourne, who would be his 4th team in 4 seasons. He was heading over with a prospect and a suitcase of cash, in return for 37 y/o SP Yue-jiu Chin (176-167, 4.40 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 1.36 WHIP) who would be a free agent at the end of the 2054 season. According to the game’s analysts, Newcastle were in a big ‘win it all this year’ push.

5 Jun: The Thunder acquired 32 y/o Greg Bricknell (.263/.325/.446, 153HR), who’d been Christchurch’s backup catcher last season, and a pitching prospect, from the Cowboys in return for 28 y/o LF Sterling Bull (.295/.347/.480, 80HR) and a little bit of cash.

30 Jun: Whangarei acquired 25 y/o southpaw SP Rory Durney (24-25, 4.23 ERA, 4.63 FIP, 1.42 WHIP - 14-10 last season in his first full year in the rotation) and a chunk of cash from Hobart in return for 2 decent 20 year-olds.

Notable Injuries

18 May: 31 y/o Nathan Beckett found himself embroiled in a domestic violence scandal after news leaked out that he’d hurt his hand in a fight with his partner. The Cowboys were quick to release a statement that Beckett’s injury had not been a result of any physical abuse of his partner, but did admit the injury had occurred during the argument. Charges were filed, Beckett pleaded guilty and was discharged without conviction as it was his first offense, and because he had signed up to anger management and relationship counseling courses. Domestic abuse groups were outraged at what they called the ‘wet bus ticket treatment.’

12 Sep: Cowboys’ marquee recruit Rob Lane could miss up to 6 weeks of the season after suffering a hamstring strain.

13 Sep: In gutting news for Trent Allan and the Blue Sox, the star CF today learnt he wouldn’t play any part in Sydney’s season. He’d fractured his elbow, and was expected to be out of commission 8-9 months.

15 Sep: The Blue Sox received more bad injury news today, with closer Bryan White set to be out of the game until February thanks to a torn labrum.

24 Sep: Young-tae Lee could miss up to a month of Canberra’s campaign with a bone spur in his elbow.

NABA Wrap-up

The NABA regular season came down to the final day, with the Evansville Peacemakers and the Canon City Convicts all tied up at the top of the standings.

The Peacemakers were up against the Sioux City Rampage, and down by 1 heading into the top of the 9th. A 2-out single drove the runner at 2nd home to tie the game up, and while the Rampage got 2 runners on base they couldn’t score the winning run and into extra time the game went. In the 12th the Peacemakers busted out with 4 2-out runs to take the game out of reach, the final score 10-6. Meanwhile, the Convicts were totally outclassed by the Memphis Academics, who thrashed them 13-1, which saw the Peacemakers win their 1st regular season title after finishing runners up in 2053.

The NABA Cup was a different story, however. Evansville won the 1st game 5-2 to go 1-up in the best of three series. But Canon City came roaring back in the 2nd game, disrupting Evansville’s peace with an 8-3 victory. In the decider, Canon City scored 3 in the 1st and held onto the lead through the rest of the game, adding 2 more in the top of the 9th to eventually win 5-2, giving them their 1st Cup win. Evansville had been the losing side in both Cup encounters so far.

This season’s North Cascades Award was won by 32 y/o Yang-cheng Liang of the Olympia Shockwave, recently emigrated from the AUNZBL, where he’d played for the Aces and Fury between 2043 and 2052. Never an everyday player in the majors, here Liang was in his element, hitting .325/.388/.480, with 8HR, and leading the league in OPS.

Norm Mawby snared the Yosemite Award, beating all comers with an 11-2, 2.72 ERA, 4.23 FIP, and 1.13 WHIP season. The Midland Warriors’ ace, who’d made it as high as AAA in the AUNZBL, threw a no-hitter this season against eventual Cup champions Canon City.

Another player who hailed from the Antipodes but had never made it into the majors, 29 y/o Patrick Wells, won the Yellowstone Award. The Carmel General had first moved across to the NABA in 2050, playing 3 seasons with the Warwick Reds before heading back to the AUNZBL for another go. But after a season where he primarily warmed the AAA bench he winged his way back to the Upper Americas, signing with the Midland Warriors for the 2053 season, and then with Carmel for the 2054 season. He hit .290/.354/.485, with 12HR, on his way to winning the Yellowstone. He finished the season leading the league in SLG, ISO, XBH, TB, and WAR.

Other Notes

Newcastle turned their 8.5 WAR loss into a 12.6 WAR gain, while Christchurch ended the offseason with an 8.2 WAR gain. Wellington headed into the regular season down 8.8 WAR, the biggest loss of any AUNZBL team.

[Izz]

2054 Preseason Predictions

Coastal Division: Despite adding more power to their lineup (or perhaps because of it), Darwin would slide out of contention this season, unable to play their usual high standard of 'hustle-ball.' The division would be between the Venom and Crocs, with Adelaide eventually winning it. Perth would lose 100+ games once again.

East-West Division: This would continue to be the hottest division in baseball. Even though their rotation lacked depth this season relative to other seasons, Brisbane's offense would still carry them to 100+ wins, while Newcastle and Central Coast would each win 95+ games. Brisbane had unearthed another slugger, 24 y/o RF John Foreman, a 2049 18th-round draft pick. He hit 6 ST homers, with Brisbane's scouts saying he'd contribute 30+ this year.

NZ Division: Wellington would be the only team in NZ to post a better than .500 season, though they wouldn't reach last year's giddy heights in taking home the pennant. Christchurch's big spending wouldn't benefit them, as they'd finish dead last.

Southern Division: Canberra would march to a 100+ win season, giving themselves a great chance of defending their title. Nobody else would rise above .500.

Wildcard: This was Newcastle and Central Coast's to lose.

Slugger of the Year: Aguirre would make it 4 SotY crowns, though Adelaide's Gary Young would give him a run for his money as well as hit the most HRs. Melbourne's Will Glasson was picked to have a breakout season.

Hurler of the Year: This would be contested by Canberra and Brisbane pitchers, with the Cavalry's Eddie Rayner the preseason pick. Lance Ralston, if he stayed healthy, would have another podium finish, but would again miss out on the big prize, while Clint Aitcheson, Angelo Spear and Blair Wurfel would all be in the mix, too.

What would the actual season bring? It was time to find out!

[Izz]

2054/2055 Season - October

Notable Performances

3 Oct: Newcastle’s Brock Casey carried a perfect game into the 7th against Adelaide before he plunked Gary Young. That would be the only baserunner the southpaw would allowed as he went on to register himself a no-no. It was his first career shutout, and his first career complete game. He struck out 6, Newcastle cruising to a 5-0 win.

7 Oct: Brad King allowed only 1 run in 8.0 innings in his 1st start of the season, but today went even better, restricting Hobart to naught while allowing just 3 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 8 and Darwin romped to a 9-run victory.

9 Oct: Marcos Gallo equaled the 2nd-most strikeouts any AUNZBL pitcher had recorded in the majors, sending 17 hitters back on strikes in 8 innings of Brisbane’s 3-2 victory over the Fury. The last time 17 had been struck out in a game was all the way back in 2025 by the one and only Tyler Silk. The game record was 18 Ks, also held by Silk. Gallo said afterwards, “It was a bit like a dream, really. An adrenaline-filled, awesome dream.” Surprisingly, he only retired the side on strikes in 2 innings, the 1st and the 6th.

12 Oct: The season’s first PotW went to Thunder 2B Bert Arnott, thanks to his .484/.515/.903 stat-line. His 15-31 included 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 3HR. He also stole 3 bases.

12 Oct: In a high-scoring affair, the Metros scored all their 15 runs in the first 3 innings, but only just held on to beat Melbourne 15-14. In amongst the carnage, Aces’ 1B Barry Nunn went 5-6, including a HR.

12 Oct: Christos Hutchinson hit 5 singles in 5 at-bats to help Darwin overcome Whangarei 5-2.

17 Oct: Jesus Rodriguez kept getting himself out of jams, shutting out Sydney 7-0. The Darwin veteran SP allowed 8 hits and 1 walk, striking out 6, in the win.

19 Oct: Edwin Hayes slaughtered pitchers over the last week, going .522/.560/1.087, with 4HR, to earn PotW honours.

19 Oct: Angelo Spear allowed 7 hits, no walks and no runs, fanning 9, to see Canberra thrash Newcastle 15-0.

21 Oct: 23 y/o Eddie Rayner recorded the 4th shutout of his young career, snuffing the Metros out on the back of 2 hits, 0 walks, and 7 strikeouts. He needed only 79 pitches to complete the game, Canberra easing to a 6-0 victory. Cavalry skipper Vic Hutchinson said after the game, “Boy, that kid can just pick his spots and make the ball dance, can’t he? And he doesn’t even throw a fastball.” Rayner threw 5 pitches: a sinker, curve, slider, change, and fork. This season so far 66% of Rayner’s pitches in play travelled along the ground.

26 Oct: Brisbane’s young revelation John Foreman whacked his way to a .429/.433/.821 stat-line over the last 7 days, with 3HR, to win PotW.

26 Oct: Damian Krajancic couldn’t miss today, going 5-5 to help Sydney beat up on the Sluggers 8-2.

31 Oct: Aguirre helped Canberra flatten the Pioneers 12-2 by going 5-6, including a 2-run HR.

Notable Injuries

3 Oct: Carl Bristcoe injured himself diving for a ball on Opening Day. The diagnosis came in today: 3 months on the DL with a torn meniscus.

7 Oct: Whangarei’s everyday catcher, Jerry Skuse (.190/.370/.286, 0HR) would miss up to a month with a herniated disc in his back.

12 Oct: 28 y/o Sydney SP Marcello Nolan (1-1, 2.25 ERA, 4.12 FIP, 0.83 WHIP) had been unable to nail down a regular spot in the Blue Sox rotation before this season, but felt “this year was the year” after being named as Sydney’s 5th starter prior to Opening Day. He was a bit less upbeat today, however, having just been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation, meaning he’d have to give away his spot in the rotation for at least 3 months.

15 Oct: Brock Wakely (.310/.420/.595, 3HR) had a strained groin. He’d be on the DL 4-5 weeks.

15 Oct: Central Coast would be without Manual Salinas (.205/.352/.250, 0HR) for 7 weeks after he strained his PCL.

19 Oct: Hobart 3B Rick Roughley (.357/.438/.661, 4HR) might be on the DL as long as 7 weeks with a strained hammy.

23 Oct: Ted Heathcote (1-2, 5.40 ERA, 5.52 FIP, 1.48 WHIP) didn’t want to face media today. He’d just received news he needed Tommy John surgery. Best estimates were 10 months on the DL.

23 Oct: Kununurra’s Edwin Hayes (.367/.432/.772, 8HR) had recurring back spasms and expected to be out of action at least 6 weeks.

28 Oct: Russell Watters (.346/.373/.577, 2HR) had started hard and fast for Whangarei this year, but he’d have to cool his jets for a fair while, having torn a muscle in his rib cage. Best medical estimates were a 3-month recovery.

Notable Trades/Signings

13 Oct: Central Coast extended 29 y/o Rory Budd (.216/.273/.373, 1HR so far this season) for 3 years, buying out the rest of his arbitration time.

20 Oct: 28 y/o Vince Hudswell (.269/.355/.448, 3HR) would be showing off his guns in Brisbane for another year, having agreed to an extension. He’d been a Bandit for the 1st 8 years of his ML career so far.

23 Oct: 33 y/o Jacob Blanksby (.354/.429/.582, 4HR) was a fan of that winning feeling. He’d re-upped with Canberra for 2 more years, meaning he’d come off contract at the same time as Aguirre. Reports suggested Blanksby had taken a significant pay cut to remain a Cavalryman.

Month Awards



Rookie of the Month: 24 y/o John Foreman was leading the Brisbane team like a seasoned pro rather than a kid who’d been a March call-up the last 2 seasons. He was .373/.425/.706 in October, 38-102, with 20 runs, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 9HR, 18RBI, and 9BB, to win the season’s first RotM.

Hurler of the Month: Edwin Kerr was enjoying his new home in Adelaide, winning HotM with a 5-0 performance. His ERA was 1.64, his FIP 3.27 and his WHIP 0.98. He struck out 43 in 44.0 IP.

Slugger of the Month: The player dominating the baseball airwaves through the first month of the season was 25 y/o Melbourne catcher Vern Bull. The primary questions were: ‘Who is this guy?’ and ‘Where did he come from?’ Bull had been Melbourne’s backup catcher last season, playing behind Gary Baker, who was no slouch with bat in hand. But this season Bull had grabbed the everyday role, posting a .353/.477/.788 stat-line to win SotM. He was 30-85 in 25 games, scoring 23 runs, hitting 4 doubles and 11HR, driving in 32 runners, and drawing 21 walks. He led the league in HR, SLG, OPS, wOBA (.508), RBI, and ISO (.435), and was just 1 point behind the leader in WAR, with a 2.1 mark.

His backstory made for interesting reading. He went undrafted in 2048, signing a minor league contract a few weeks later with Melbourne. He started 3 games that season in their rookie league, but the Aces saw enough to keep him on their books. In 2049 he started again in rookie ball and finished in short-A. Short-A and long-A awaited in 2050, and in 2051 he started in AA and got a late call-up to the bigs, where he posted a .455 OBP in 11PA. He played the majority of 2052 in AAA, where he hardly excelled, but once again spent a few games in the majors. In 2053 he started off in AAA once more, showing remarkable patience at the plate even if he wasn’t hitting for average. Partway through the big league season he was promoted to the majors, where he started 55 games as Baker’s backup, hitting 10HR in 252PA, and drawing 42 walks.

Then came this season. Was his start a flash in the pan? The experts didn’t think so, saying the muscle he’d packed on during the offseason was paying off, not just in power but also in making his swing more fluid. Coupled with his already remarkable eye he would be a force to be reckoned with for a while to come, most thought. There were a few fans (and perhaps some in the media, though nobody said anything) who thought he was juicing, but so far, according to the AUNZBL’s drug unit, all his test results had returned negative.

Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Now 41 y/o, was Snijders still good enough to be an everyday player in 2054? So far, yes. Hitting 6 in the lineup, and still fielding 1B, Snijders was .307/.375/.485, with 5HR, having appeared in every game of Newcastle’s campaign so far. He needed 16 more hits to become the 2nd player ever to reach 3000, and 25 more HR to become the 2nd player ever to reach 600.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: On the 13th of October, Darwin were 11-2. At the end of the month they’d slipped to 18-11, with the Venom only 2 games back.

East-West Division: The Roos were the best team in baseball in October, by 1 game, and held a 2-game lead over the impressive Pioneers, who were held together so far, not by their hitters, who had the worst BA in the league (though who had hit the most HR), but by their pitchers, especially their strong pen. Brisbane were a further 2 games back, having recovered after an awful start, with the Thunder a game below .500.

NZ Division: Christchurch were doing the early running in this one, with everybody else pretty awful. Wellington were floundering at the bottom of the division.

Southern Division: Canberra, predictably, held the lead here, their hitters posting a .320 BA over the month. The Aces were 3 games in arrears.

#

On the 26th of the month, Aces’ 1B Barry Nunn (.443/.476/.619, 3HR) was hitting .500, having been well above that mark for most of the month. Nunn had slipped since then, only managing a hit a game in the last 4 games of the month, but still comfortably led the league in BA.

Martin Boston (.393/.450/.496, 1HR), 2nd in the BA stakes, recorded 46 hits in the month to lead the league. He also led the league in WAR, with 2.2.

Justin Auger (.292/.415/.594, 7HR) had scored 30 runs, 5 more than anyone else, doing so despite hitting cleanup.

Eddie Rayner (6-0, 2.89 ERA, 4.10 FIP, 0.88 WHIP) somewhat controversially missed out on HotM, even though he led the league in wins, having not lost a single start.

Kununurra’s Damian Flemming (4-1, 2.72 ERA, 2.70 FIP, 1.27 WHIP) had the league’s best FIP. He was also tied with 3 other pitchers for best WAR, with 1.4.

Clint Aitcheson (2-2, 3.22 ERA, 3.02 FIP, 1.12 WHIP), Marcos Gallo (5-0, 2.41 ERA, 2.86 FIP, 1.07 WHIP), and Lance Ralston (4-2, 1.63 ERA, 2.76 FIP, 1.24 WHIP) were the 3 other pitchers. Ralston also led the league in ERA and HR/9 (0.23).

Brock Casey (4-1, 3.03 ERA, 3.51 FIP, 0.87 WHIP) only conceded earned runs in 2 of his 6 starts, though both those times he got beat up a bit. At any rate, he had the league’s best WHIP.

Brad King (4-1, 2.70 ERA, 3.52 FIP, 1.02 WHIP) had racked up 48 Ks so far, more than any other pitcher. He also had a league-best K/9 (9.97), H/9 (6.23), and OAVG (.195).

Melbourne’s Alastair Butcher, Auckland’s Reginald Kelly, and Kununurra’s Bronson Rees were all tied atop the saves board, with 9 each.

Standings, Nov 1

[Izz]

2054/2055 Season - November

Notable Performances

2 Nov: Elliot Cleaver went .450/.476/1.100, with 4HR, in the last week to win PotW.

5 Nov: The Cavalry routed the Cowboys 22-2 today. A big contributor was Tommy Hillson, who went 5-5, including 2HRs. The first HR was a 3-run effort, and the 2nd a Grand Slam. Hillson also scored 5 runs, along with Jacob Blanksby, both of them tying the Canberra regular season game record.

5 Nov: Lindsay Colson joined the 400HR club, doing so in Wellington’s 5-3 win over Sydney. He hit HR number 399 in the 2nd inning, a monster shot that travelled into the upper rightfield deck. Number 400 came in the 6th, a 3-run shot that broke the 2-2 deadlock. This one was an opposite field affair, a line drive over left that just had enough legs to get over the fence. Colson was the 10th player to reach the 400 threshold.

7 Nov: John Foreman crushed his 1st career Grand Slam on the 6th, his 8th inning blast putting the game out of reach for Auckland. Today he didn’t get a hit until the bottom of the 14th, with Auckland and Brisbane locked at 3. Ladds led off the inning with a single, Appleby reached on an error by the shortstop, Lance Fookes advanced both runners via a 5-3 ground out, and Hudswell was intentionally walked. Up came Foreman, 0-6 to this point. New pitcher Caspar Fletcher’s first pitch was a fastball high in the zone and Foreman didn’t miss, standing to watch it sail over left-centre and into the bleachers for a walk-off Grand Slam. It was Foreman’s 15th HR of the year, putting him 2 ahead of Vern Bull.

8 Nov: Nathan Beckett hit a batter in the 2nd and gave up a double in the 7th but that was it, the Christchurch ace putting an emphatic stamp on the night by striking out the side in the top of the 9th. The final score was Cowboys 4, Thunder 0. Beckett struck out 13 in a masterful performance, garnering a game score of 98.

9 Nov: PotW Ismael Aguirre earned the honour by hitting .414/.469/1.034. Of his 12-29, 3 hits were doubles and 5 were HR.

9 Nov: Perennial battlers Perth had a happy day today, 26 y/o Quentin Rodgers allowing just 3 hits, walking none to help the Heat shutout Hobart 3-0. Rodgers struck out 4.

9 Nov: Hitting at the top of the lineup was a new experience for Kununurra’s Arthur Lee, but he was definitely enjoying it. Today he was 5-5 as the Pioneers accounted for the Roos 7-1.

16 Nov: Yong-jun Chu hit .591/.600/.818 over the last 7 days to win PotW.

16 Nov: Christos Hutchinson joined the 2000 hit brigade, doing so with a 9th-inning single in the Diggers 4-2 loss to Newcastle. For his career to-date, Hutchinson was hitting .315/.373/.402, and was the career leader in triples, with 109 so far.

19 Nov: The Metros defeated Darwin 2-1, marking their 10th straight win. They’d hauled themselves to 3 games above .500 and 1 game back in the NZ. The streak would be snapped the following night, Darwin reversing the previous game’s score, scoring the winner in the top of the 9th.

20 Nov: Adrian Stuart had the nickname ‘Tracer’ and certainly all his singles today were tracer bullets wide of the infielders. He was 5-5, but unfortunately his Prospects lost to the Roos 13-7.

22 Nov: Today was the day! 41 y/o Ashley Snijders, who’d been having a slow November, had taken a moment in the 4th to watch a flyball he thought might make it out of the park. It didn’t, the RF making a running catch and snagging the ball near the warning track. In the 6th Snijders didn’t have time to watch, his line drive hitting grass in shallow centre. His single drove in a runner but, more importantly, it marked his 3000th career hit! Snijders did a fist pump and thumped his chest a couple times, overcome to have finally made it. The normally super-confident kiwi was a little more circumspect than usual after the game when asked if overhauling Mildren’s mark of 3222 hits was still a driving force. “Another 223 hits,” Snijders said, scratching his eyebrow, “that’s quite a few, isn’t it? I think I’ll just take it one hit at a time for the moment.” 600HRs was definitely still a driving force, even though Snijders had only lofted 6 over the fence so far this season. He needed another 24 to reach the magic 600.

23 Nov: Austin Allan terrorized opposition pitching over the last week, posting a .481/.500/.963 stat-line, with 4HRs, to win PotW.

30 Nov: Young Venom CF Vern Roneberg got called up from AAA at the end of last week. This week he won PotW, doing so by hitting .458/.458/.917, 3 of his 11 hits HR.

Notable Injuries

1 Nov: Fury fans had plenty to mourn today. They’d started the season poorly, and had just yesterday lost young up-and-coming SP Cody Watts for 4 months with an inflamed shoulder. And now ace Jay Cummins (1-4, 6.81 ERA, 4.96 FIP, 1.64 WHIP) would sit out a good chunk of the season with a strained forearm. He’d be back in 3 months, Fury medical staff thought. The positive, such as it was? The start Cummins got injured in, on the 29th of October, was his first win of the year.

8 Nov: The Bandits were dealt a blow today, with news that Norman Ladds (.248/.337/.497, 10HR) would miss 3-4 weeks with a bruised bone in his wrist.

8 Nov: Young Diggers revelation Arturo Medina (.341/.399/.659, 12HR) would miss 6 weeks with a hamstring strain.

19 Nov: Gary Young (.317/.390/.705, 15HR) wouldn’t be turning out again for Adelaide this season. He had a torn PCL, and could expect to be fully fit no earlier than August next year.

22 Nov: Adelaide were struck another blow today, learning that CF Ben Dalley (.298/.306/.425, 3HR) had a partially torn labrum. He was tentatively slated for a late February return.

23 Nov: Manny Gallo (.203/.225/.312, 6HR) was struggling this season in a lineup that gave him little protection. He wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore this season though, his attention now firmly on rest and rehab. He’d ruptured his MCL and was no chance of being back this season.

24 Nov: Things just kept getting worse for Adelaide, with another star, Keiran Pickford (.296/.348/.480, 6HR), facing a lengthy stint on the DL. His fractured finger would keep him out of the game at least 2 months.

30 Nov: Cavalry LF Nicholas Ahernfeld (.314/.383/.535, 8HR) would be out for a month with a fractured thumb.

30 Nov: Noah Blenkhorn (.282/.358/.463, 8HR) would be out of Darwin’s lineup for at least 4 weeks thanks to a torn meniscus.

Notable Trades/Signings

3 Nov: 32 y/o Nathan Beckett (5-1, 2.56 ERA, 3.12 FIP, 1.01 WHIP) was off to a hot start this season along with the rest of the Cowboys, and was excited to extend his career in Christchurch for another 2 seasons.

28 Nov: Canberra moved to lock up rising young superstar Eddie Rayner (10-0, 2.53 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 0.96 WHIP), signing him to a 5-year extension. Rayner would have close to 3 years major league service time at the finish of this season. So far he had won all but 1 of his starts, and at the time of signing his extension the 24 y/o led the league in wins and WHIP.

29 Nov: Wellington sent 26 y/o fringe-MLer Randall Butcher (.295/.337/.474, 4HR in 87PA) plus a minor leaguer across to Cairns, receiving 26 y/o Arthur Fingleson (.277/.326/.526, 12HR), 2nd-runner up in last year’s RotY standings, in return.

29 Nov: Hobart acquired 25 y/o catcher Declan Craft, whose major league career totaled 5 appearances as a pinch-hitter this season, and 10 games as a March call-up last season, from Kununurra. In return they parted with 2053 All Star, 26 y/o Mitchell Swan, who’d just finished a rehab assignment in AAA after coming back from a ruptured MCL, and a big wad of cash. It certainly looked like the Pioneers were the big winners in this deal.

Month Awards



Rookie of the Month: John Foreman continued to look like a seasoned veteran rather than a wide-eyed rookie, even if his November numbers were a bit down on those of October. He hit .304/.395/.618, 31-102, with 21 runs, 4 doubles, 2 triples, 8HR, 26RBI and 13BB. For the season, Foreman led the league in slugging (.662) and isolated power (.324).

Hurler of the Month: Nathan Beckett continued his superb start to the season this month, going 4-0 from 6 starts, with a 1.89 ERA, 2.76 FIP, and 0.90 WHIP. He fanned 50 from 47.2 innings, his 89 Ks for the season best in the league. His season WHIP of 0.95 was also top of the league.

Slugger of the Month: Ismael Aguirre often started the season in the middle of the pack and then surged out ahead in the second-half. This season, though, he was going strong from the outset, winning the November SotM with a .373/.423/.703 stat-line. His 44-118 included 9 doubles and 10HR. He scored 23 runs and drove in 26, earning 11 free passes. For the season Aguirre led the league in HR (19), wOBA (.449), XBH (32), TB (152), and was tied for the league-lead in WAR, with a 3.7 mark.

Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Snijders slumped in November, hitting only .216/.315/.299, with 21 hits and a solitary HR. While he’d reached the 3000 hit milestone, he still needed 24HR to make it to 600, with some commentators doubting he had the power left to get there.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: Darwin (16-12) extended their lead over an injury-plagued Venom (15-13) by 1, Adelaide still fighting gamely.

East-West Division: This was a fascinating division, with Kununurra (15-13) proving to be a real unexpected fly in the ointment. At month’s end they’d fought their way into a tie for 1st, jousting with Newcastle (13-15), while Brisbane (15-13) trailed 2 games behind. Central Coast (14-14) climbed above .500 a couple times during the month, and were still only 4 games back.

NZ Division: The Metros (18-10) fired up in November, wiping out their 6-game deficit to finish the month tied with Christchurch (12-16) at the top of the division. Wellington (16-12) finished the month 3 games below .500 and 3 games off the division pace.

Southern Division: This was all Canberra (18-10), nobody else currently within cooee. Melbourne (12-16) dropped below .500 and to 9 games back.

Wildcard: Either Kununurra or Newcastle held one slot, with the Venom 1 game back in the other. 1 game behind them were Brisbane and either Auckland or Christchurch.

#

Martin Boston (.362/.411/.491, 2HR) had moved into the BA lead. He also led the league in hits (84), and was tied for the lead with Aguirre in WAR (3.7), and also tied for the league lead with 2 others for triples (4). He was doing an astonishing job in RF so far this season, too, with nothing seemingly out of his reach, his ZR already +14.5.

Alan Sneddon (.284/.460/.360, 1HR) was back hitting leadoff and drawing walks like only he could. His OBP was a league-best, as were his 62 walks. He was only 3rd-equal in steals (16), though that could easily change in the course of a few weeks.

The league-leader in steals was wiry 19 y/o Carlos Aguilar (.288/.340/.356, 1HR). The Heat speedster had 21 stolen bags to his name.

Vern Bull (.325/.452/.633, 15HR) mightn’t have lit the league up quite as much in November as he had in October, but he still had the league’s best OPS.

Lance Ralston (8-2, 1.32 ERA, 2.61 FIP, 1.04 WHIP) picked up a triceps strain near the end of the month which would keep him out of commission for around 3 weeks. He would be hoping the layoff wouldn’t affect his fine form. He led the league in ERA, FIP, H/9 (6.60), OAVG (.199), and WAR (2.8).

Eddie Rayner (10-0, 2.51 ERA, 3.89 FIP, 0.96 WHIP) had the most wins of any pitcher, and had thrown the most innings (93.1).

Brad King (6-3, 3.15 ERA, 3.64 FIP, 1.10 WHIP) didn’t lead the league in Ks, but did have the best K/9 rate, fanning 10.17 hitters every 9 innings.

Bronson Rees and Darwin’s Rupert Mansfield were the 2 best closers currently, having each recorded 17 saves.

Standings, Dec 1

[Izz]

2054/2055 Season - December

2054 #1 Draft Pick

Auckland had this year’s number 1 draft pick, and they went with 19 y/o pitcher Ethan ‘Boot’ Quine. Quine projected to have a plus fastball, a good slider and a decent changeup, all of which he’d throw with good control and with fizz. The high schooler was said to have a good work ethic, above-average intelligence, but wasn’t an outspoken guy in the clubhouse. His high school coaches said he was the type who’d leave straight after practice, and only stuck around in the sheds after a game long enough to have a shower. The Metros assigned him to their rookie-ball team.

A quick look at how the previous 4 #1 draft picks were doing:

2053, Calvin Hodnett: Played most of 2053 in Perth’s A-ball team, hitting .286/.325/.400, with 4HR. Started 2054 in AA-ball, where he seemed to struggle, but had just been moved up to AAA.

2052, Quentin Welch: Number 1 in Perth’s rotation, which said more about Perth than Welch’s current abilities. He still had plenty of development to go, and a few of the game’s analysts wondered if getting regularly shelled in the majors was good for him or not. So far this year he was 2-8, with a 4.80 ERA, 5.09 FIP, and 1.49 WHIP, having struck out 46 in 84.1IP, while walking 34.

2051, Josh Gladstone: Had a decent season in the bigs last year, and was doing even better so far this season, hitting .303/.402/.517, with 6HR, from 44 games. Perth were playing him in CF, where he was plain awful, his ZR -12.5 so far, but the Heat didn’t have many other options.

2050, Zachariah Pond: Won the AAA HotY award in 2053, going 21-6 on the season, with a 2.70 ERA, 3.65 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP. Looked likely to make the Darwin pen in ST before suffering a partially torn labrum. He was due back soon, though probably a rehab stint, at least, awaited.

Notable Performances

2 Dec: Kununurra continued to charge ahead in 2054. Today it was 24 y/o Blair Norris leading the way. 2052’s 2nd-overall draft pick allowed just 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6, to help the Pioneers beat up on Hobart 7-0.

4 Dec: Christos Goddard was a guy most teams would have coming out of the bullpen. He possessed a very good fastball and slider and a poor changeup that he really could only get away with throwing every couple of innings. He also had trouble finding the zone sometimes, but Perth lacked depth and Goddard found himself as their #3 starter this season. Today he repaid the Heat’s faith in him, conceding just 6 hits and walking only 1 as Perth shutout Cairns 2-0. Goddard fanned 4 for his 6th win of the year.

7 Dec: Jorge Diaz snared PotW, hitting .370/.393/.963, with 5HR.

7 Dec: Dean Brewster went 5-6, 2 doubles included, to help Sydney get up over Brisbane 9-6.

10 Dec: Wei-liang Chang had his best stuff on show, allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk to help Darwin shut out Cairns 4-0.

12 Dec: Vince Hudswell always promised lots of power. All the scouts drooled over his swing, but even though he’d hit at least 22HRs each of his last 4 seasons, topping out at 31, that wasn’t nearly the amount of times he should be clearing the fence. He had a good day today, though, going yard 3 times versus the Fury, all of them solo affairs. His second shot was one of the biggest HRs the AUNZBL had ever seen, traveling a massive 538 feet, landing on the roof of a shop across the road from the stadium!

13 Dec: Canberra got themselves 20 base hits, but only beat Cairns by 5 runs, 9-4. However, amongst that, 2 hitters recorded 5 hits. The first was Willem Baldwin, who hit 2 doubles and a HR in 5-6 night...

13 Dec: ...The second was Mike Pickford, who was 5-5, all singles.

14 Dec: Ismael Aguirre grabbed another PotW with a .500/.556/1.031 performance. He had 5 doubles and 4HRs in his 16 hits, scoring 11 runs, driving in 16 runners and drawing 4 walks.

17 Dec: Jose Aguilar tamed the Crocs today, giving up just 4 hits and walking none. Hobart won 4-0, Aguilar fanning 5 in the shutout.

18 Dec: Jacob Blanksby was very much playing in Aguirre’s shadows nowadays, rather than getting most of the headlines as he had before. But he didn’t mind at all, saying he actually preferred not to be in the limelight. Today he hit in his 20th straight game, going 2-4 in a 7-5 victory over Central Coast. This was the first time Blanksby had recorded a 20-game hit streak.

21 Dec: Andre England was yet to be sidelined by injury this season, and even said he “was trying to be a little less reckless when fielding” his position. He picked up PotW with a gargantuan .640/.655/.920 effort, 7 doubles in his 16-25.

21 Dec: Blanksby’s hit streak ended at 21 games.

22 Dec: Lindsay Colson had already bashed his 400th homer this season, and today he made it to 2500 hits in Wellington’s 9-1 thrashing of Christchurch. He was 3-4 on the night, hit 2499 a 2-run jack, hit 3000 an rbi-single.

26 Dec: Jorge Diaz crushed 2 out of the park today, giving him 24 for the year. More significantly, this marked the 5th consecutive game he’d homered, and all eyes were on him to see if he could equal the all-time streak of 6 games.

27 Dec: Diaz collected 3 hits in tonight’s game, but all singles. However, the next morning he was awarded PotW, having hit .500/.545/1.133 over the last 7 days, including 6HRs.

Notable Injuries

4 Dec: Sydney’s cleanup man Stefan Lock (.254/.288/.480, 14HR), 3rd in the league in RBI (54), wouldn’t play until at least March. He’d torn his hamstring.

19 Dec: Bert Arnott (.298/.371/.436, 6HR) had a sprained thumb, and would be MIA from Central Coast’s lineup for a month, if not more.

31 Dec: Larry Nelms (.278/.311/.389, 3HR) gave everybody at today’s presser a big thumbs-down. On the eve of the All Star Game, Nelms tore a ligament in his thumb and would have to sit out tomorrow’s festivities. He’d have to sit out a fair few of Hobart's games too, and likely wouldn’t be back until the end of January.

Notable Trades/Signings

2054 All Stars

The NZ & Overseas All Stars had an embarrassment of riches at 1B, with Willem Baldwin and Patrick Maggs unlucky to miss out, and there being no place for milestone man Ashley Snijders. They also had a shortage of talent in the closing role this year, with only 1 closer deemed good enough to make the cut.

Australian All Stars

SP Eddie Rayner - CAN - 13-1, 2.52 ERA, 3.90 FIP, 0.97 WHIP
SP Lance Ralston - BRI - 9-2, 1.38 ERA, 2.75 FIP, 1.08 WHIP
SP Nathan Beckett - CHR - 11-3, 2.91 ERA, 2.99 FIP, 1.12 WHIP
SP Blair Wurfel - CAN - 6-2, 3.34 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 1.24 WHIP
SP Angelo Farriss - CHR - 8-5, 3.42 ERA, 3.90 FIP, 1.16 WHIP
SP Brad King - DAR - 8-5, 3.07 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 1.13 WHIP
SP Matt Juhl - CEN - 8-3, 3.48 ERA, 4.07 FIP, 1.33 WHIP
MR Logan Bowlby - NEW - 4-0, 3 sv, 1.23 ERA, 2.09 FIP, 1.14 WHIP
MR Axel Frawley - SYD - 2-1, 2.04 ERA, 3.17 FIP, 0.99 WHIP
CL Caspar Buffey - CEN - 3-2, 25 sv, 1.34 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 0.82 WHIP
CL Robert Bywaters - NEW - 3-2, 17 sv, 2.25 ERA, 2.20 FIP, 0.94 WHIP
CL Alastair Butcher - MEL - 2-2, 21 sv, 2.39 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 1.09 WHIP
C Jacob Blanksby - CAN - .330/.425/.535, 11HR
C Zachary Woollett - SYD - .313/.389/.566, 15HR
1B Kane Pond - AUC - .336/.387/.596, 21HR
1B Joshua Angwin - CAI - .301/.331/.534, 21HR
1B Justin Auger - CEN - .280/.373/.482, 15HR
2B Vince Hudswell - BRI - .293/.364/.556, 20HR
2B Rhett Vader - CAN - .313/.467/.419, 3HR
3B Vinnie Webber - SYD - .316/.398/.395, 0HR
3B Andre England - NEW - .311/.372/.376, 1HR
SS Aaron Kay - WEL - .271/.337/.405, 8HR
LF John Foreman - BRI - .328/.396/.624, 22HR
LF Alan Sneddon - DAR - .286/.458/.369, 2HR
CF Sean Carr - NEW - .350/.392/.526, 9HR
CF Damon Liao - CAI - .328/.379/.479, 9HR
RF Martin Boston - CAN - .362/.405/.476, 2HR
RF Arthur Lee - KUN - .281/.346/.551, 25HR

NZ & Overseas All Stars

SP Edwin Kerr - ADE - 10-1, 2.15 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 1.02 WHIP
SP Bruno Budd - DAR - 10-4, 3.36 ERA, 3.67 FIP, 1.08 WHIP
SP Dan Pankhurst - CEN - 8-4, 3.69 ERA, 3.55 FIP, 1.20 WHIP
SP Marcos Gallo - BRI - 9-5, 4.21 ERA, 3.29 FIP, 1.25 WHIP
SP Tim Sverdloff - CAI - 5-7, 3.88 ERA, 3.39 FIP, 1.42 WHIP
SP Damian Flemming - KUN - 6-5, 4.55 ERA, 3.33 FIP, 1.42 WHIP
SP Clint Aitcheson - BRI - 5-6, 3.22 ERA, 3.43 FIP, 1.14 WHIP
SP Vicente Velez - NEW - 5-8, 5.72 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 1.54 WHIP
MR Jorge Valdez - KUN - 2-2, 2 sv, 3.33 ERA, 3.55 FIP, 1.25 WHIP
MR Baden Vanderven - CHR - 3-1, 2 sv, 1.74 ERA, 3.01 FIP, 1.14 WHIP
MR Jim Wills - DAR - 2-0, 2 sv, 1.42 ERA, 3.11 FIP, 1.11 WHIP
CL Rupert Mansfield - DAR - 3-2, 18 sv, 2.27 ERA, 3.76 FIP, 0.84 WHIP
C Vern Bull - MEL - .295/.425/.549, 18HR
C Yin-ti Zhuo - KUN - .258/.395/.419, 7HR
1B Ismael Aguirre - CAN - .358/.420/.676, 29HR
1B Marcos Lopez - CHR - .330/.390/.530, 15HR
1B Arthur Fingleson - WEL - .290/.348/.558, 20HR
1B Jorge Diaz - KUN - .300/.341/.548, 24HR
2B Yong-jun Chu - WHA - .309/.338/.452, 9HR
3B Martin Valentin - WEL - .298/.356/.464, 13HR
3B Tommy Hillson - CAN - .266/.337/.457, 12HR
SS Carlos Aguilar - .261/.315/.322, 1HR
LF Jayden Pye - CHR - .304/.400/.554, 16HR
LF Angelo Wells - CAI - .302/.324/.428, 7HR
CF Hal Burrows - DAR - .279/.357/.449, 6HR
CF Jean-Louis Villard - WEL - .273/.337/.450, 13HR
RF Manuel Alou - CEN - .295/.364/.483, 15HR
RF Larry Nelms - HOB - .284/.319/.399, 3HR

Month Awards



Rookie of the Month: 24 y/o Adrian Stuart broke up John Foreman’s winning run, snaring the 3rd RotM award. He hit .346/.378/.519 over the month, going 36-104, with 19 runs, 2 doubles, 2 triples, 4HR, 20RBI, 5BB, and 8SB.

Hurler of the Month: There was no room in the NZ & Overseas All Stars squad for December’s HotM winner. Angelo Spear went 5-0 for Canberra, conceding a 2.63 ERA, 4.18 FIP, and 0.98 WHIP. He struck out 26 in 41.0 innings and the general consensus among the stats heads was that his offense was making him (and the rest of the Canberra rotation) look pretty good.

Slugger of the Month: Ismael Aguirre just kept on rolling on. He was even better in December than November, hitting .386/.432/.724, 49-127, with 28 runs, 13 doubles, 10HR, 31RBI, and 11 walks. The leaderboards were plastered with Aguirre’s image, the league’s favourite import at the head of the following categories: BA, HR, RBI (82), SLG, OPS, wOBA (.485), hits (131), runs (76), ISO (.312), XBH (55), TB (244), and WAR (6.3). Could he keep up this pace and earn the league’s first batter's Triple Crown? If anybody had the all-round hitting skills to do so, it was Aguirre.


Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Snijders was a bit better in December than he had been in November. He hit .245/.333/.434, with 5HRs, meaning he ‘only’ needed another 19HR to make it to 600.

Allan Spear: Spear had made the Blue Sox rotation as their #5 starter, and while he was having a pretty awful year (5-10, 6.51 ERA, 4.40 FIP, 1.61 WHIP), it was fair to say he wasn’t getting a lot of support from his defense. Even so, the 5 wins he’d notched up had taken him to 198 career Ws, meaning he only needed 2 more to become the 2nd pitcher ever to 200 wins. With a career ERA and FIP both over 4, the talkback lines were hot and heavy with folks arguing whether, if he made 200, he deserved to get into the Hall. When asked about that himself during the month, Spear quipped, “Do they even allow pitchers in?” Of the 9 inductees so far, Phil McLaren (207 wins) was the only pitcher.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: Despite their injury woes the Venom (18-11) gritted their way through the month, driving past the Diggers (13-16) to hold a 2-game advantage heading into the 2nd half of the season.

East-west Division: Kununurra (15-14) held their heads above water in a division where nobody quite seemed able to pull away, and at the end of the month were 3 games ahead of Newcastle (12-17) and Central Coast (16-13). Brisbane (11-18) had the 2nd-most HRs of any team, but only the 12th-best BA and a bullpen that seemed to explode at almost every opportunity, meaning the usual powerhouse was struggling at the bottom of the division, 6 games back from the leaders and 4 games below .500.

NZ Division: The Fury (20-9) continued their climb, finishing the month at the top of the division. Auckland (14-15) settled 3 games back, while Whangarei (18-11) forged their way to .500, 4 games behind. Meanwhile, Christchurch (10-19), who’d jointly led the division at the beginning of the month, slumped badly, finishing December 6 games below .500 and 7 games off the pace.

Southern Division: Canberra (18-11) had the best record in baseball, nobody else in their division above .500.

Wildcard: Darwin had a comfortable 3-game lead in the top wildcard slot, with Auckland, Central Coast and Newcastle all locked up in the 2nd slot. Whangarei was a further game back.

#

Canberra’s Rhett Vader (.309/.464/.412, 3HR) had the OBP lead, even though he’d only managed 267PA.

Alan Sneddon (.290/.460/.380, 3HR from 397PA) had an extra 130PA and was just 4 points back on the OBP ladder. He’d drawn 91 walks so far, way more than anybody else, and 4 more than he had hits. He’d also surged into the steals lead, with 32, 7 more than 2nd-place.

Central Coast’s Rory Budd (.283/.356/.483, 10HR) didn’t make the All Star Game, though he led the league in doubles, with 27.

Christos Hutchinson (.299/.348/.375, 0HR) also didn’t make the All Star Game. He had hit the most triples of anybody, with 6 so far. The 112 career triples Hutchinson had placed him atop the career triples board, 37 ahead of the next best active player.

Eddie Rayner (14-1, 2.44 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 0.98 WHIP) joked to reporters during the month, “I could throw underarm out there and my offense would probably still score enough to get me wins.” While that wasn’t entirely true, Rayner was jagging some wins he probably wouldn’t if he was on another team. He led the league in that category, and also in WHIP and innings pitched (140.1).

Nathan Beckett (11-3, 2.91 ERA, 2.99 FIP, 1.12 WHIP) struck out 11 batters on 2 separate occasions in December, ensuring he held the strikeout lead come the end of the month. He’d fanned 127. He also had the best pitcher’s WAR, with 3.5.

Lance Ralston (9-2, 1.57 ERA, 2.98 FIP, 1.07 WHIP) had the best ERA, FIP, H/9 (6.84), and OAVG (.210) of all qualified pitchers.

Caspar Buffey’s 25 saves saw him atop that category.

Standings, Jan 1

[Izz]

2054/2055 Season - January

Notable Performances

1 Jan: The NZ & Overseas All Stars ran away with this year’s game, 11-4 winners.

2 Jan: Nathan Beckett sparkled today, throwing his 2nd shutout of the season, this time allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk, while punching out 8. His opponents were the Heat and Christchurch cruised to a 9-0 victory.

3 Jan: Sean Carr whacked out 5 hits from 6 at-bats, including a HR and 2 doubles, in Newcastle’s 20-7 pasting of Auckland.

4 Jan: Allan Spear threw 8 innings today, allowing 8 hits and 1 walk for 2 earned runs. He struck out 4 and the Blue Sox did enough to win 4-2, giving him win number 6 for the year and number 199 for his career.

6 Jan: Jean-Louis Villard made it 20 consecutive games with a hit. He was 1-1, leaving the game with an injury in the 3rd. No diagnosis was immediately forthcoming from Wellington medical staff.

11 Jan: Zachary Woollett was .500/.538/.958, with 3HR, over the past 7 days on his way to PotW.

15 Jan: Aguirre hit a 2-run HR in Canberra’s 10-1 dismantling of Hobart, but it was teammate Tommy Hillson providing all the pyrotechnics. Hillson went deep 3 times, driving in 4. All of his HRs travelled 400+ feet.

18 Jan: PotW Edwin Hayes won the award with a .462/.462/.846 performance, including 3HR.

18 Jan: Sydney trounced Melbourne 11-4. Allan Spear threw 7.2 innings of the victory, allowing 9 hits and 1 walk, fanning 2. He got the W, meaning he had reached 200 career wins, only the 2nd pitcher to ever do so! His career record was 200-176, and his stat-line 4.25 ERA, 4.22 FIP, 1.27 WHIP. He’d struck out 2103 hitters in 3218.1 innings pitched. Certainly not a dominating pitcher, but one who’d managed to stick around without suffering significant injuries, while never giving up his starting spot. Today’s game was his 500th career start, 3rd all-time. He’d also allowed the most HRs of any pitcher, 419 so far, a record he probably wouldn’t be pointing out to many people.

19 Jan: Ryan Monck kept the Fury guessing and scoreless, allowing just 3 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4 as the Aces won 4-0.

24 Jan: Andre England boosted it to a 20-game hit streak today, going 3-5 in Newcastle’s 5-2 victory over Hobart. This marked his 4th career 20+ game hit streak.

25 Jan: Brisbane might be struggling to get off the bottom of the East-West ladder, but they still had plenty of hitting firepower. This week’s PotW was Bandits’ 1B Lance Fookes, who was .375/.394/.719, with 3HR.

25 Jan: Will Glasson went 5-5 to help the Aces beat the Venom 9-6. His hits included 2 doubles.

26 Jan: Charles Holland went 5-5, including a double and a 2-run HR for Cairns, but unfortunately wasn’t enough to get the Crocs over the line, Kununurra pulling off an 8-5 victory.

28 Jan: 27 y/o Li Loetzsch, who most felt wasn't making the most use of his talents, today shut down Cairns on the back of 5 hits, 0 walks, and 3 strikeouts. The 5-pitch SP helped Melbourne to a 6-0 win.

30 Jan: Jose Ramos restricted Adelaide to 4 hits and 2 walks to help Perth romp to a 10-0 victory. The 24 y/o struck out just 1.

30 Jan: Andre England kept on hitting. Today he went 1-4 to extend his streak to 25 games. His streak would come to a crashing halt the following night.

Notable Injuries

3 Jan: Arthur Fingleson (.284/.347/.547, 21HR) would be out at least 4 weeks with a hip strain.

9 Jan: It’d be a while before Jean-Louis Villard (.281/.344/.470, 15HR) would get to see if he could extend his 20-game hit streak. His fractured finger would take approximately a month to heal.

9 Jan: Kununurra’s All Star catcher Yin-ti Zhuo (.278/.410/.437, 8HR) would be on the DL 4-5 weeks with a fractured foot.

13 Jan: Manuel Alou (.306/.373/.510, 19HR) could expect to miss 8 weeks with an ankle sprain.

22 Jan: Martin Valentin (.287/.343/.472, 20HR) had torn his quad and would be on the DL at least 6 weeks.

23 Jan: Canberra would be without top of the lineup maestro Martin Boston (.361/.406/.470, 3HR) for the next 5 weeks while he recovered from a fractured hand.

24 Jan: The league leader in saves, Central Coast’s Caspar Buffey (30 sv), wouldn’t be back this season, thanks to a herniated disc in his back.

Notable Trades/Signings

2 Jan: January was typically trade month, and Canberra and Adelaide kicked off the month’s action in a trade that raised plenty of eyebrows. Canberra sent 31 y/o DH Willem Baldwin (.309/.359/.510, 17HR), who’d been a near thing for All Star selection, to the Venom, getting 35 y/o and fast-declining reliever Bailey Cleaver (3-0, 1 sv), a pitching prospect, and a little bit of cash.

10 Jan: Whangarei sent 35 y/o Matt Davidson (.293/.400/.402, 6HR), who was in the midst of the best season of his career, and a prospect to Cairns, receiving their backup 1B, 29 y/o Stephen Tipping (.322/.388/.513, 4HR in 129PA) in return.

12 Jan: 37 y/o Lindsay Colson (.272/.361/.497, 15HR) was back where it all began, and none too happy about it, either. Wellington had traded him and a big wad of cash to Cairns in return for 30 y/o SP Bob Blondell (3-10, 5.25 ERA, 4.48 FIP, 1.49 WHIP). A morose Colson said to reporters, “This is what I seem to be: trade fodder. And never to a contender, either. Always from a contender. And it’s not like I’m not helping that team contend, either. But I guess that having value is sometimes the problem with being valuable.” In his 15-and-a-half year career Colson had won 1 Championship, with Whangarei in 2048, and had played in 6 postseasons.

16 Jan: Adelaide looked to strengthen their rotation, acquiring 32 y/o SP Chong-yee Zhou (7-8, 3.66 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 1.30 WHIP) from Hobart in return for 25 y/o LF Jai Chesney (.252/.320/.442, 13HR).

23 Jan: Kununurra wanted another reliable arm in their rotation as they continued to fight for a first-ever postseason. They got one, in the form of 29 y/o Vince Delaney (5-7, 3.88 ERA, 4.70 FIP, 1.32 WHIP), along with cash, from Hobart. In return they had to give up 2 prospects.

24 Jan: In a move that could only be described as a ‘headscratcher,’ Central Coast, home of the league’s best pitching staff and only 4 games back in the division and wildcard races, traded 28 y/o Connor Chapman (7-8, 3.48 ERA, 4.16 FIP, 1.13 WHIP) to perennial cellar dwellers Perth in exchange for 30 y/o slugger Gareth Orpen (.210/.289/.407, 13HR from 271PA) and a pitching prospect who’d probably be a good middle-of-the-rotation guy in a couple of years.

28 Jan: The Darwin Diggers and Canberra Cavalry consummated a trade today. Darwin, 4 games clear in the 2nd wildcard slot, sent 35 y/o SP Jesus Rodriguez (8-9, 4.97 ERA, 4.82 FIP, 1.55 WHIP) and cash to the Southern-division leading Cavalry, getting 25 y/o SS Jarod Newbold (.187/.210/.310, 4HR in 195PA) and a 21 y/o pitching prospect currently suspended for fighting.

29 Jan: Kununurra pulled the trigger on a big trade today, sending 36 y/o fan favourite Esteban Madrigal (.253/.318/.429, 18HR) over to Cairns, receiving 26 y/o up-and-coming SP Tim Sverdloff (8-9, 3.74 ERA, 3.38 FIP, 1.31 WHIP) and 29 y/o MR Stewart Sweeny (0-1) in return. A couple rival GMs gave anonymous quotes saying they felt this was a “sham trade” between two government-affiliated franchises, saying an aging and declining Madrigal was in no “way shape or form” worth a highly-rated young SP and a decent reliever. Their opinion was that this was the baseball equivalent of “insider trading” in the hope of “ensuring the government would be aptly represented come playoff time.” The AUNZBL made no comment other than to say the trade had passed through all the usual channels before being approved.

Month Awards



Rookie of the Month: 23 y/o Venom SS Malcolm Pickhills was a long way off fully-developed, according to Venom management, but even so, he was powerful in January to win RotM. He hit .330/.417/.606, going 31-94, with 7 doubles, 2 triples, 5HR, 18 runs, 14RBI, and 14BB.

Hurler of the Month: 35 y/o Cavalry pitcher Rory Lowe didn’t throw hard, his fastball topping out at 145 km/h, and his curveball didn’t curve dramatically and neither did his slider slide all that much, but he had pinpoint control, supplementing his below-average arsenal with above-average intelligence, inducing a lot of weak contact. In January he went 5-0, with a 2.33 ERA, 4.39 FIP, and 1.22 WHIP, striking out 16 in 38.2 IP.

Slugger of the Month: Tommy Hillson looked an unlikely SotM winner at first glance. His stat-line read .309/.404/.734. He was 29-109, with 22 runs, 2 doubles, 1 triple and a whopping 12HR. He drove in 31 runners and earned 15 free passes.

Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Snijders was hitting at #8 in Newcastle’s lineup by the end of January, even though his numbers for the month weren’t too bad. He hit .270/.382/.472, with 5HR. Those 5 gave him 586 career jacks, leaving him 14 to reach 600.

Last Year’s Top Players Watch

2053’s Top Rookies

2053 Rookie of the Year, Jorge Diaz: The kid was going great guns his second season, with a .305/.347/.548 stat-line. 143-469, with 66 runs, 18 doubles, 32HR, 86RBI, and 24BB from 499PA. He was 2nd in the HR standings and had the 4th-most RBI.

Peter Moy: Had to learn to look at a few more pitches. .251/.286/.433, 112-446, 67 runs, 17 doubles, 5 triples, 18HR, 62RBI, 22BB, 6SB from 472PA.

Arthur Fingleson: A trade to the Fury hadn’t stopped him earning his first All Star cap, though his January had been disrupted by injury. 86-307, 53 runs, 13 doubles, 1 triple, 21HR, 55RBI, 30BB, 1SB, 341PA.

2053’s Top Pitchers

2053 Hurler of the Year, Jay Cummins: A forearm strain in October had curtailed his pitching so far this season; he was only just back in action in the majors. 3-5 from 9 starts, 5.37 ERA, 4.47 FIP, 1.41 WHIP, 40 strikeouts from 63.2 IP.

Marcos Gallo: The Bandits were down the bottom of their division, but it was no fault of Gallo’s. 12-8 from 22 starts, 3.84 ERA, 3.04 FIP, 1.16 WHIP, 124 Ks from 145.1 IP. Led the league in FIP and K/BB (5.39).

Lance Ralston: What had been said about Gallo could be said about Ralston. 10-4 from 20 starts, 2.07 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 1.22 WHIP, 132 Ks from 135.0 IP. On top of the ERA and HR/9 (0.47) boards.

2053’s Top Hitters

2053 Slugger of the Year, Ismael Aguirre: Making a good effort to go back-to-back. .358/.422/.659, 34HR, 169-472, 101 runs, 34 doubles, 3 triples, 34HR, 104RBI, 54BB, 531PA. Best in the league in the following: SLG, OPS, wOBA (.448), hits, HR, RBI, runs, ISO (.301), XBH, TB, and WAR (8.0).

Marcos Lopez: Fighting hard in a Cowboys team that started the year well but had steadily slipped since then. .306/.368/.491, 136-444, 61 runs, 26 doubles, 1 triple, 18HR, 65RBI, 41BB, 494PA.

Gary Young: Injured in November and wouldn’t be back this season. .317/.390/.705, 44-139, 23 runs, 7 doubles, 1 triple, 15HR, 41RBI, 15BB, 2SB, 159PA.

Other Notes

19 Jan: It appeared most fans thought that because Manuel Salinas and Ismael Aguirre had both appeared in Australia as amateur free agents at the same time, and both were extremely talented and popular with the fans that they were fast friends. Apparently that wasn’t the case, at least according to Manuel Salinas.

Salinas, having a frustrating season so far with the Thunder (.264/.388/.305, 0HR), was quoted in an online gossip mag as saying, “We’re not mates. I wish people would stop thinking we are. I never talk to the guy. In fact, if we’re in the same room and sometimes we have to be, league and sponsors’ obligations and the like, I’ll make sure I’m on the opposite side to him.”

There was no qualification in the article as to why Salinas felt this way, but Aguirre’s success (4 Championship rings, 3 SotY awards, 10 All Star Games, 3 Gold Gloves so far) relative to his own (0 rings, 0 SotY awards, 6 All Star Games, 1 Gold Glove so far) might’ve had something to do with it. There was a strong rumour, though backed up with no evidence, that Salinas was especially unhappy at the conclusion of last season as Aguirre won a ring with the Cavalry, the team Salinas had played his 1st 9 seasons with, and with whom he’d made only 1 postseason. That same rumour source said Salinas felt Canberra had “jettisoned” him “like so much excess baggage” so they could afford Aguirre.

The article didn’t approach Aguirre for his feelings but a few days later a reporter broached the question in a post-match press conference. Aguirre just shrugged and said, “Lots of guys play baseball. Doesn’t mean we’re all friends. He’s got lots of friends, I’ve got lots of friends. I’m sure we’ll both be okay.”

26 Jan: 38 y/o Brodie Backhouse (56-51, 428 sv, 2.95 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 1.12 WHIP career) announced he would retire at season’s end. A shadow of his former self, the all-time AUNZBL saves leader was being used in a mop-up role by Christchurch this season, his ERA over 7.

#

Coastal Division: The Venom (16-12) extended their lead over Darwin (13-15) to 5 games.

East-West Division: Newcastle (20-8) bounced their way ahead of Kununurra (15-13), finishing the month with a 2-game advantage. Central Coast (13-15) were 7 games behind, while battling Brisbane (15-13) were now just 2 games below .500.

NZ Division: Wellington and Auckland (both 14-14) jostled during the month but the Metros couldn’t eat into Wellington’s 3-game lead, and the Fury couldn’t extend it.

Southern Division: Canberra (17-11) continued to be just too good, while Melbourne (15-13) found themselves nearly playing .500 ball and not too far back in the wildcard.

Wildcard: The Pioneers had a 4-game buffer in the top slot, with Darwin 2 games ahead of Auckland, 3 ahead of Central Coast and 4 ahead of Brisbane and Melbourne.

#

Alan Sneddon (.276/.439/.368, 4HR) didn’t have a great January, but continued to head the walks (113) and steals (40) leaderboards, and now also had the best OBP of any qualified hitter. He’d scored 83 runs so far, meaning he’d probably complete the runs-walks double-double in February.

Rory Budd (.293/.361/.482, 12HR) was 3 clear of Aguirre on the doubles leaderboard, having hit 37.

Sydney’s Vince Webber's (.307/.389/.379, 0HR) 8 triples topped the league.

Eddie Rayner (15-3, 2.63 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 1.03 WHIP) continued to lead the league in wins, and also did so in WHIP.

Nathan Beckett (13-5, 3.16 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 1.19 WHIP) had 162 strikeouts, topping that category.

Kununurra’s new acquisition, Tim Sverdloff (8-9, 3.85 ERA, 3.34 FIP, 1.32 WHIP), led the league in WAR, with 4.8.

Bronson Rees had 31 saves, most of all closers.

Standings, Feb 1

[Izz]

2054/2055 Season - February

Notable Performances

1 Feb: Jorge Diaz scooped another PotW with a .483/.483/.897 performance, including 3HR.

1 Feb: Sean Carr put together a 5-6 night, including a walk-off rbi-single in the bottom of the 10th, to help Newcastle fight their way past Sydney 7-6. It was the 6th time Carr had recorded 5 hits in a game, and the 2nd time this season.

4 Feb: Jean-Louis Villard managed to keep his hit streak alive in his first game back from injury, but could go no further, the Thunder taming him today. Villard’s streak lasted 21 games.

4 Feb: As 1 streak ended, another continued. Manuel Salinas went 2-5, marking 20 consecutive games with a hit.

5 Feb: Nathan Beckett recorded his 3rd shutout of the season in what was turning into a remarkable turnaround from last year, when he led the league in losses. The southpaw strikeout machine gunned down Darwin, allowing only 4 hits while walking none. He struck out 7, Christchurch winning 2-0 to give them a 7-game win streak, though they were still 5 games below .500 (but only 4 back in the division).

6 Feb: Hitters were the guys dominating the highlight reels today. First, Mitchell Swan dominated Hobart, going 5-5, including a double and a HR, to help Kununurra smash their opposition 16-7. Swan scored 3 runs and drove in 6.

6 Feb: In that same game Jose Diaz hit a HR, making it 4 consecutive games he’d done so. Today’s blast moved him level with Ismael Aguirre at the top of this season’s HR tree, both players with 36.

6 Feb: Whangarei’s Tom Doig also collected 5 hits, and his 5-5 too included a HR and double. His performance helped Whangarei beat up on Brisbane 14-5.

8 Feb: Marcos Lopez hadn’t been in the spotlight all that much this season as new team Christchurch sputtered along. He couldn’t be ignored over the past week, though, his .517/.548/1.034 performance, including 4 doubles, 1 triple and 3HR, netting him PotW.

8 Feb: Salinas was held hitless by the Venom, ending his streak at 23 games.

8 Feb: Diaz didn’t homer yesterday, but cleared the fences today in a 3-3 night, putting him ahead in the HR race.

12 Feb: Rob Lane recorded his 5th career 5-hit game, going 5-5 against Hobart as Christchurch shot their way to an 11-2 victory.

15 Feb: Jacob Blanksby topped off a remarkable week (.750/.778/1.250) by winning PotW.

16 Feb: Ismael Aguirre’s walk-off solo HR in the bottom of the 14th in Canberra’s 5-4 victory over Cairns gave him 38HR for the year, moving him back into a tie for first-place with Diaz.

18 Feb: 38 y/o Young-tae Lee went 1-4 in Canberra’s narrow 5-4 loss to Central Coast. Lee wasn’t too upset after the game, though. His 1 hit, a solo HR in the 8th that kick-started Canberra’s scoring, was career hit number 2500. Lee, who had an amazing 8 Championship rings, modestly said after the game, “I’m surprised I lasted long enough to get there, to be honest.”

19 Feb: 35 y/o Matt Panther reached a significant milestone today. The burly American-born 1B went 2-5 to help Sydney best Christchurch 11-7. His first hit, a single in the 3rd, marked career hit 2000.

21 Feb: Aguirre bashed Canberra’s only run in their 5-1 loss to Central Coast. The solo HR was his 39th jack of the year, putting him ahead of Diaz by 1.

22 Feb: 22 y/o Aces’ rookie Terence Guyatt, who’d been in the majors less than 2 months, was .467/.515/.900 over the last week, his 14-30 including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 3HR. Unsurprisingly, his performance netted him PotW.

23 Feb: Jay Cummins’ season had been a struggling, injury-interrupted affair so far. He would’ve felt good after today’s game though, as he went the distance, conceding just 3 hits and 2 walks, punching out 4 to help Wellington squeeze past Christchurch 2-0. This was Cummins’ 9th career shutout, moving him into a tie for 5th on the all-time ladder. He was only 2 behind all-time shutout leader Keiran Tennant.

26 Feb: Elijah Deas held Whangarei to 5 hits and walked none, helping Hobart to a 4-0 shutout victory. He struck out 4.

27 Feb: 33 y/o Robert Bywaters became the 8th AUNZBL pitcher to 300 saves, reaching the mark today in Newcastle’s 7-4 win over Central Coast.

Notable Injuries

12 Feb: Damon Liao (.316/.372/.472, 16HR) had a strained oblique. Cairns’ medical staff were hopeful the CF would make it back in time for the end of the season.

16 Feb: The Crocs lost another player today, Lindsay Colson (.274/.370/.484, 18HR) fracturing his finger, and gone for at least 6 weeks.

19 Feb: Christchurch were unlikely to get Sterling Bull (.308/.356/.452, 10HR) back this season after he was diagnosed with recurring back spasms.

21 Feb: Wellington, in a tight tussle with Auckland in the NZ, would be without Jean-Louis Villard (.271/.332/.448, 17HR) for the rest of the regular season, and possibly some of the postseason, were they to make it, thanks to shoulder tendinitis.

25 Feb: Ed Geoghegan (.296/.367/.495, 25HR) had fractured his finger and was off on holiday. “Japan, Indonesia, Philippines,” he told reporters, “and maybe finish up in Samoa or Fiji.”

Notable Trades/Signings

4 Feb: Wellington and Hobart slipped through a waiver-wire trade today, with Wellington sending 32 y/o CF Isaac Blythe (.270/.351/.402, 5HR) to Tasmania, getting 27 y/o corner outfielder Larry Nelms (.266/.304/.373, 3HR) and a good-looking OF prospect in return.

Month Awards



Rookie of the Month: 25 y/o Hobart catcher Declan Kraft. Acquired by Hobart in a trade with Kununurra earlier in the season, Kraft was .360/.366/.640 in February, 32-89, with 10 runs, 7 doubles, 6HR, 25RBI and 2BB.

Hurler of the Month: Edwin Kerr won this for the second time this season. He was 4-1 from 5 starts, with a 0.90 ERA, 2.60 FIP, and 0.57 WHIP. He struck out 36 in 40.0 IP. For the season he was 18-3, with a 2.45 ERA, 3.43 FIP, and 0.98 WHIP, leading the league in wins, WHIP, H/9 (6.85), and OAVG (.208). His 184 Ks had him equal-second in that category.

Slugger of the Month: Aguirre might’ve had a bit of a down month, by his lofty standards, but that was no matter, as Jacob Blanksby picked up the slack, winning SotM on the back of a .376/.438/.710 stat-line. 35-93, with 20 runs, 7 doubles, 8HR, 24RBI, and 10BB.

Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Snijders had an awful February, finding himself on the bench by the end of the month. His stat-line was .173/.333/.267, and he managed only 1HR. For the year, Snijders was .246/.348/.397, with 17HR. He needed 13 more to get to 600 but certainly wouldn’t get there this season.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: The Venom (13-13) saw their lead over Darwin (14-12) reduced by 1 game.

East-West Division: Killer February did nothing to sort this division out. By the end of the month, it was tighter than ever, with Newcastle (11-15) somehow managing to remain at the top, with Kununurra (12-14) 1 game behind, Central Coast (14-12) another 3 games back, and Brisbane (14-12) only 5 games in arrears, having also lost their last 5. The whole division was .500 or better.

NZ Division: Auckland (15-11) held the division lead for a good portion of the month, but Wellington (13-13) snuck back ahead come month end, heading into March 1 game ahead of the highly-unfancied Metros. Reports were Auckland was operating with the 2nd-lowest payroll in the league, and had already turned around the massive debt they had at the beginning of the season into a tidy profit.

Southern Division: The only division that wasn’t really that interesting. Canberra (16-10) had a magic number of 3 heading into March, leading all their division opponents by at least 20 games.

Wildcard: This promised to go down to the wire, as most of the division battles did. Darwin and Kununurra held both spots at the moment, their records identical. Auckland was 1 game back, Central Coast 3, and late chargers Brisbane 4.

#

Aguirre (.346/.405/.628, 39HR) might’ve had a slow month, but he hadn’t surrendered his lead on any of the season ladders. He continued to lead the league in SLG, OPS, HR, RBI (124), wOBA (.429), hits (202), runs (121), ISO (.283), XBH (84), TB (367), and had moved into a tie for the doubles lead, with 42. If he kept up his run-scoring rate he was set to break Alan Sneddon's 2049 record of 137. He also only needed to safely touch 41 more bases to break Mildren’s 2039 record of 407.

Sean Carr (.364/.422/.551, 20HR) had moved into the BA lead.

Vern Bull (.297/.440/.531, 27HR) had patiently taken the OBP lead.

Alan Sneddon (.285/.437/.372, 5HR) continued to top the league in walks (127) and stolen bases (48).

Kununurra hitters held the 2nd-4th spots on the HR ladder heading into the final month of the season. Jorge Diaz (.310/.352/.553, 38HR) and Arthur Lee (.253/.320/.518, 38HR) were tied for 2nd, while Edwin Hayes (.329/.394/.685, 36HR) was in a tie for 4th, though he’d be unlikely to get the batting PA necessary to qualify for most other leaderboard spots. Lee had also struck out more than any other hitter, getting punched out 163 times so far.

Lance Ralston (11-6, 2.31 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 1.21 WHIP) continued to have the best ERA of all qualified pitchers, and the best HR/9 (0.48).

Teammate Marcos Gallo (16-10, 3.73 ERA, 3.02 FIP, 1.13 WHIP) led the league in FIP, BB/9 (1.29), K/BB (5.89), and WAR (5.9).

Nathan Beckett (15-8, 3.21 ERA, 3.33 FIP, 1.20 WHIP) had 189 strikeouts, 5 more than next-best, but it continued to be Brad King (15-9, 3.90 ERA, 4.48 FIP, 1.30 WHIP) who had the best K/9 rate, striking out 9.57 hitters every 9 innings pitched.

Melbourne’s Alastair Butcher had moved into the saves lead, with 35.

Standings, Mar 1

[Izz]

2054/2055 Season - March

Notable Performances

1 Mar: Darwin catcher Mitch Donahue was having a whale of a season, winning PotW on the back of a .500/.538/1.125 effort. His 12-24 included 3 doubles and 4HR.

1 Mar: Aguirre cracked HR #40 in today’s 7-1 victory over Auckland.

2 Mar: Canberra defeated Auckland 3-0, and in so doing clinched the Southern Division. It was unlikely anybody would finish with a better record than them this season.

3 Mar: Aguirre tonked 2HR in Canberra’s 10-4 pasting of Brisbane, moving him to 42 on the year.

4 Mar: He didn’t slug any HR today, but Aguirre had a remarkable outing nonetheless, going 5-5 in Canberra’s 8-1 win over Brisbane. His hits included 2 doubles. It was the 2nd time this season Aguirre had notched up 5 hits in a game, and the 4th time in his major league career.

6 Mar: Arthur Lee became the 2nd player to reach 40HR for the season, his solo effort proving the difference as Kununurra scraped past Perth 8-7. A 5-1 start to the month had seen Kununurra move into the East-West Division lead, Newcastle trailing by 1 game.

8 Mar: Zachary Woollett snared PotW with a .500/.560/1.000 performance, including 3HRs.

8 Mar: Arthur Lee hit HR #41 in Kununurra’s 4-2 win over Canberra. Aguirre had gone hitless his last 3 games.

9 Mar: Carlos Aguilar put together a 5-5 performance to help Perth beat Christchurch 10-5.

10 Mar: Isaac Russell conceded only 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5, to see Newcastle shutout Auckland 6-0.

11 Mar: Lee moved equal with Aguirre at the top of the HR standings, his 2-run HR Kununurra’s only scoring act in their 2-1 victory over Canberra. The win saw the Pioneers restore a 1-game lead over Newcastle. Central Coast was now 5 games behind, Brisbane 6.

13 Mar: Aguirre poked his nose back in front in the HR race, with a 2-run effort in Canberra’s 8-1 win over Christchurch. He had 43 homers on the year.

13 Mar: Edwin Hayes became the 3rd player to 40HR for the season, doing so today with a solo effort in Kununurra’s 6-4 loss to the Thunder.

14 Mar: Edwin Kerr became the first pitcher to 20 wins this season, getting the W after Adelaide beat Whangarei 9-7. He threw 6.2 innings, allowing 9 hits and 0 walks for 4 earned runs. He struck out 6.

15 Mar: Arthur Fingleson beat all comers to win PotW. He did so thanks to a .500/.548/1.071 performance, including 5HR.

15 Mar: Aguirre hit HR #44 in Canberra’s 6-5 extra-innings win over Christchurch. He also hit the winning walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th.

16 Mar: Aguirre was 2-5, both singles, in Canberra’s 6-5 loss to Darwin. His first single, in the 7th, saw him equal Mildren’s record for most bases in a season, 407. His second single, in the 9th, saw him take the record as his own. Aguirre already owned spots 3-7 and 9 on the all-time season total bases ladder. This was the 3rd time he’d racked up 400 or more bases in a season.

16 Mar: Dan Pankhurst limited Christchurch to just 3 hits and 1 walk, fanning 5, to help the Thunder to a 4-0 shutout victory.

17 Mar: 35 y/o Brock Wanhalla had spent a good portion of the season as Hobart’s closer before getting moved into the rotation. He had a great game today, taking a no-hitter into the 6th before surrendering back-to-back 2-out hits but, thankfully for him, no runs. He allowed no further baserunners and Hobart scored 3 in the top of the 9th to make it a conclusive 4-0 victory. Wanhalla also walked 1 hitter (the first hitter he faced) and struck out 7.

17 Mar: Today the Cavalry surrendered 8-6 to Darwin. Amongst those 6 runs was Aguirre’s 9th career Grand Slam, his 45th home run for the season. He had 146RBI, making him a good chance to become only the 3rd player to drive in 150+ runners in a season.

17 Mar: In the same game Alan Sneddon went 2-5, and successfully stole a base, his 50th steal of the season. This was the 7th season Sneddon had successfully stolen 50 or more bases.

19 Mar: Wellington won their 6th on the trot, disposing of Cairns 13-2 in the process, and in so doing wrapped up the NZ division.

19 Mar: Brisbane’s super-rookie John Foreman became the 4th player to 40HR this season, doing so with a solo effort in Brisbane’s 6-1 win over Auckland.

20 Mar: Heading into the final series of the season, the Coastal and East-West divisions weren’t yet wrapped up, though the postseason teams seemed set. In the Coastal, Adelaide had a 3-game lead over Darwin, who’d ensured themselves a wildcard berth a couple days earlier. Adelaide’s final series was against NZ division winners Wellington, while Darwin would take on wildcard hopefuls Central Coast.

In the East-West Newcastle held a 1-game lead over Kununurra, with Brisbane and Central Coast both 3 games back. Newcastle would play Christchurch, Kununurra would play Auckland, Brisbane would take on Cairns and Central Coast, as already mentioned, Darwin. The battle for the last wildcard slot was essentially between the 4 East-West teams, too, with it likely whoever didn’t take the division out of Newcastle and Kununurra would snare the second wildcard. Auckland, 4 games back, had an outside chance if they could sweep Kununurra and other results went their way.

21 Mar: Adelaide toughed it past Wellington 2-1, while Darwin beat Central Coast 3-1. Adelaide’s magic number was 1.

21 Mar: Newcastle thumped Christchurch 11-3, while Kununurra went down 5-4 to Auckland. Newcastle thus moved out to a 2-game lead. Meanwhile Brisbane beat up Cairns 8-3 to put them just 1 game back in the wildcard. Central Coast was 2, Auckland 3.

22 Mar: Rob Lane captured the season’s last PotW award, hitting .435/.500/1.261, with 6 of his 10 hits HRs.

22 Mar: Ismael Aguirre was 2-5 in Canberra’s 9-7 win over Hobart, scoring once and driving in 2. The 2 runners he drove in gave him 150RBI for the season. The run he scored moved that tally to 136, 1 behind Sneddon’s 2049 season record.

22 Mar: The Venom lost 8-zip to Wellington, but they weren’t too concerned. Darwin also lost, 4-3 to Central Coast, meaning Adelaide had won the Coastal pennant.

22 Mar: Bernie Phillips helped to keep things interesting in the East-West. The Cowboys’ SP blanked Newcastle, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 8. Christchurch’s offense busted out, too, charging to a 16-0 victory.

22 Mar: Kununurra dropped their 4th straight, losing 7-5 to a fighting Auckland. Meanwhile, Brisbane won their 3rd straight, dealing to Cairns 10-3, moving them into a tie with the Pioneers for the 2nd wildcard slot. The Thunder’s win saw them just 1 game out, and Auckland’s victory saw them 2 games back, still in with a sniff.

22 Mar: Jorge Diaz’s solo HR in Kununurra’s loss gave him 40 for the year, the 5th player to reach that mark.

22 Mar: John Foreman was lifting the Bandits’, trying to carry them into the postseason on his broad, rookie shoulders. He hit 2HRs in their victory today, meaning he’d leaped into 2nd on the overall season standings, with 43, and had gone deep in each of his last 4 games.

23 Mar: Canberra beat Hobart 7-2 to give them 100 wins for the season.

23 Mar: Newcastle thumped Christchurch 11-4 to win the East-West.

23 Mar: It would come down to the final day, or perhaps even an extra day, to see who would take out the 2nd wildcard slot. Kununurra’s ended Auckland’s dream with a 6-3 win. Meanwhile Brisbane ensured the two teams were tied heading into the final day, beating Cairns 9-3. To make things even more interesting, Central Coast beat Darwin 5-4, meaning if both the Bandits and Pioneers lost tomorrow and Central Coast won, a 3-way playoff would have to be arranged.

24 Mar: Aguirre was 1-5, scoring a run in the process, to tie Sneddon’s season runs record.

24 Mar: The Thunder, down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th versus Darwin, led off the inning with a solo HR to Damian Krajancic but couldn’t manufacture the tying run to see Darwin win 3-2, thus ending Central Coast’s season.

24 Mar: Cairns scored 3 runs in the 8th to come from behind and beat Brisbane 5-3.

24 Mar: The earlier results meant Kununurra’s destiny was in their own hands. How would they fare? In an offense heavy game, the Pioneers’ sluggers got them home, both Edwin Hayes and Arthur Lee going deep to ensure a 9-7 victory for Kununurra. They were off to their first-ever postseason!

Notable Injuries

3 Mar: Auckland were looking at 3 weeks without ace CF Trent Burton (.252/.318/.351, 4HR, +27.5ZR), meaning he probably wouldn’t be back this regular season. Auckland, currently 2 games back in the NZ, would miss his outfield skills.

12 Mar: The Metros, now just 1 game back from Wellington in the NZ, were dealt another blow today. Kane Pond (.317/.386/.549, 36HR), their best all-round hitter this season, had sprained his knee. He wouldn’t play again this year, regular season or post.

23 Mar: On the eve of the playoffs Adelaide lost veteran Karl Bell (11-15, 4.76 ERA, 4.45 FIP, 1.39 WHIP) to a torn elbow ligament. Off contract at the end of the season, Bell was looking at a November-December return, if he could find a team for next year.

25 Mar: Wellington would be without star SP Cody Watts (6-4 from 14 starts, 3.44 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 1.19 WHIP) for the postseason. He had an inflamed shoulder.

Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Snijders was reduced to a handful of pinch-hit appearances in March, managing a couple singles and a walk. Whether he could find an AUNZBL team for next season remained to be seen. If he did, he would need 13HR to reach 600.

Other Notes

Edwin Hayes (.315/.380/.667, 44HR) had 5PA in the last game of the season. The fifth plate appearance was his 502nd for the year, meaning he suddenly qualified for a whole lot of batting leaderboards. This meant he finished atop the SLG, OPS, wOBA (.430), and ISO (.352) boards.

This still couldn’t overshadow the season Aguirre (.344/.396/.616, 45HR) had had. Aguirre finished with the most HR, RBI (150), hits (236), runs (137), XBH (93), TB (423), and WAR (9.1). This season saw him record the most plate appearances of any year in his career to date (762), and the most at-bats (687), topping the marks he’d reached last season. His 236 hits was 2nd-best for a season ever, while his 137 runs tied the top mark, and his 423 total bases blew away the previous record. He finished 3rd in the BA race, 2nd in the SLG and OPS stakes, and 3rd in wOBA (.421), ISO (.272), and doubles (44). It would be hard to go past him for another SotY title.

5 decimal places were needed to sort out who’d won this year’s batting title. It ended up being Martin Boston (.36182/.403/.471, 4HR) who just outshone Sean Carr (.36177/.424/.543, 22HR). The kicker (in the teeth for Carr, no doubt) was that Boston had 110 fewer plate appearances this season, thanks to injury.

Apart from Aguirre, 4 other players made it to 40HR. Those were:

Edwin Hayes (44HR)
John Foreman (296/.362/.561, 43HR)
Arthur Lee (.252/.318/.523, 43HR)
Jorge Diaz (.309/.349/.533, 40HR)

A whole lot of players reached 200 hits this year. Apart from Aguirre, there were:

Willem Baldwin (.311/.358/.523, 36HR, 212 hits)
Sean Carr (212 hits)
Beau Snell (.321/.362/.430, 5HR, 208 hits)
Jorge Diaz (204 hits)
Andre England (.324/.376/.394, 2HR, 203 hits)
Will Glasson (.310/.372/.497, 28HR, 203 hits)
Marcos Lopez (.316/.370/.495, 24HR, 202 hits)

Alan Sneddon (.293/.444/.374, 5HR) had a strong March to finish atop the OBP, BB (148), and steals (53) boards.

Lance Ralston (16-6, 2.08 ERA, 2.99 FIP, 1.14 WHIP) set a new season record for ERA. He also finished with the best FIP, HR/9 (0.40), OAVG (.219), and WAR (6.4) of all qualified pitchers. He just missed out on 200 strikeouts, registering 195, the 3 starts he missed due to injury proving the difference.

Edwin Kerr (20-4, 2.67 ERA, 3.47 FIP, 1.03 WHIP) was the only pitcher to reach 20 wins. He also had the best WHIP, and his 206 strikeouts was 3rd-most.

Nathan Beckett (17-11, 3.61 ERA, 3.43 FIP, 1.25 WHIP) topped the strikeout standings, with 215. He’d also notched up 3 shutouts.

2 other players made it to 200 Ks. They were:

Brad King (16-11, 4.01 ERA, 4.28 FIP, 1.29 WHIP, 211 K)
Greg Ahern (14-10, 4.34 ERA, 4.43 FIP, 1.27 WHIP, 200 K)

King also had the league’s best K/9 among qualified pitchers, finishing the season at 9.61.

Bronson Rees finished with 41 saves, 1 more than any other closer.

Standings, EORS

[Izz]

2054 Division Finals

Game 1 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Darwin Diggers

The two government teams in the finals, and the two latest expansion teams, facing off against each other. Darwin were certainly the better overall team, but Kununurra undeniably the more exciting.

Darwin scored 3 in the bottom of the 1st, but Tim Sverdloff recovered, not allowing another run for 7 innings. Jorge Diaz showcased Kununurra’s excitement factor with a 2-out Grand Slam in the 5th to put the Pioneers ahead (all runs unearned), a lead they never relinquished. Steven Pickhills homered in the 9th as the final scoring act of the game. Final score: 5-3 Kununurra. Sverdloff (8.0IP, 4H, 3ER, 3BB, 8K) jagged the win, while King (8.0IP, 6H, 4R, 0ER, 1BB, 7K) finished with an ERA of 0.00 but a loss.

Game 1 - Newcastle Roos vs Wellington Fury

The Roos and Fury had the exact same regular season record, but Newcastle were the heavy favourites for this series. They showed why in the 1st, loading the bases with no-one out (an error by the SS allowing the first hitter to reach), before Al Ayliffe lofted one into the stands for a Slammer. Martin Valentin saw himself ejected in the 2nd for arguing a strike call, with the words, “This is our house, not theirs,” caught by the umpire’s microphone, but he wasn’t the only Fury player unhappy with how the home-plate umpire was interpreting their strike zone relative to Newcastle’s. 6-2 heading into the 9th and Newcastle blew the game apart, sending 10 hitters to the plate and scoring 6 more runs. Wellington took 2 off the deficit in the bottom of the inning but the runs meant nothing. Final score: 12-4 Newcastle. Jay Cummins (2.2IP, 8H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB, 0K) didn’t last long, while Baden Henderson (7.1IP, 7H, 2ER, 2BB, 2K) didn’t have to do too much to get the win. Jean-Louis Villard homered for Wellington in the 6th, and Snijders started at DH for Newcastle, going 1-5, with an rbi-double amongst the 9th-inning carnage.

Game 2 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Darwin Diggers

Damian Flemming was dominant, while Bruno Budd notched up a lot of strikeouts but gave up more hits. Darwin scored first, in the bottom of the 3rd, but that was all they could muster, Will Dunshea’s 3-run blast in the 4th putting Kununurra in front. Jose Diaz had his second 3-4 game in a row, and Darwin only managed 7 baserunners all game. Final score: 4-1 Kununurra to put them 1 game away from an unlikely sweep. Flemming (7.0IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 6K) had his slider on a string, only throwing 80 pitches, while Budd (8.0IP, 11H, 4ER, 1BB, 9K) was probably lucky not to concede more runs.

Game 2 - Newcastle Roos vs Wellington Fury

Newcastle didn’t hit any HRs today, slugging 5 doubles instead, but once again they did all the running, Wellington only getting into the game late. 2 in the 1st, 1 in the 3rd and 4 in the 5th gave them a commanding lead. Arthur Fingleson and Alfredo Gonzales both hit solo HRs for Wellington, but even the hometown fans didn’t get too excited over them. Final score: 8-4 Newcastle, and they too were looking at a sweep. Isaac Russell (7.1IP, 8H, 4ER, 2BB, 5K) probably shouldn’t have come out in the 8th, but got the win regardless, while Byron Moore (4.2IP, 9H, 7R, 4ER, 2BB, 3K) was let down a couple times by his defense. Andre England was 4-6.

Game 3 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Darwin Diggers

The morning of the game, Kununurra announced Edwin Hayes, so far hitting .125 in the playoffs, had signed a 4-year contract extension, the 4th season being a player option but with a hefty salary upgrade.

Darwin found some offense today against 19-game winner Paul Colenutt, sending 11 hitters to the plate in the 4th, scoring 7. The Pioneers, by contrast, struggled to get anything going and couldn’t properly capitalize on a poor fielding display by the Diggers. Final score: 10-2 Darwin.Wei-liang Chang (8.0IP, 4H, 2R, 0ER, 1BB, 3K) had his good stuff today, the only runs he allowed unearned. Colenutt (3.1IP, 7H, 7ER, 4BB, 1K) got smoked. The only Diggers’ batter not to get a hit was Robin Herbert, but he made up for it by drawing 3 walks.

Game 3 - Newcastle Roos vs Wellington Fury

Wellington had never looked in this series and today was no exception. Bradley Courcha got Newcastle’s scoring underway with a 2-run shot in the 2nd, and the rest of their runs came via 2 Sean Carr jacks, a solo effort in the 4th and a 2-run blast in the 6th. Meanwhile, Brayden Ziersch cleared the fences in the 5th for Wellington’s only scoring act of the game. Final score: 5-1 Newcastle. Rookie Clint Kline (5.1IP, 7H, 5ER, 1BB, 6K) had had a decent debut season but was out of his depth here. Still, he’d be a player to watch in coming years. Brock Casey (7.2IP, 5H, 1ER, 1BB, 6K) got the series-winning victory.

Game 4 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Darwin Diggers

Darwin could only manage singles, kept scoreless until the 8th when they somehow managed to score 3 runs, 2 unearned, tying the game up. The Pioneers weren’t exactly busting out either, but had managed to add runs at regular intervals, and quickly pulled back ahead in the bottom of the 8th, Yin-ti Zhuo leading off with a triple, and Kade Farriss singling him home a batter later. They scored another run in the inning and retired Darwin in order in the top of the 9th. Final score: 5-3 Kununurra, and they were heading to the Preliminary Finals. King (5.1IP, 4H, 3R, 2ER, 1BB, 10K) was once again let down by his defence, while Sverdloff (7.0IP, 3H, 1ER, 0BB, 6K) looked even better this outing than last. Arthur Lee and Pickhills went deep for Kununurra.

[Izz]

2054 Preliminary Finals

Game 1 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Canberra Cavalry

Despite being a government team, Kununurra caught a groundswell of neutral support heading into this series, their trio of Diaz, Lee, and Hayes capturing the public’s imagination. On the other side of the coin, Aguirre was playing in his 7th straight postseason, while Lee was playing in his 6th straight, and his 14th overall.

In a game of singles, Kununurra scored 2 in the 1st, thanks to 3 singles and a walk. That was the way it stayed until the 5th when Canberra put together a run of their own, 3 singles leading to 2 runs, to equalize. The only extra-base hit of the game came in the 8th, Rhett Vadar’s 2-out double scoring 2 more to give Canberra the lead. Rex Herbert needed only 10 pitches to close out the game in the top of the 9th. Final score: 4-2 Canberra. Flemming (6.2IP, 9H, 2ER, 1BB, 3K) found the league’s best offensive team a bit harder to handle than he had Darwin, while Rayner (8.0IP, 6H, 2ER, 1BB, 6K), who’d made his name by going 5-0 from 5 starts last postseason, kept the streak alive with another win.

Game 1 - Newcastle Roos vs Adelaide Venom

Nobody knew quite what to make of the Venom, whose actual record was 11 games better than their Pythagorean expectation. Newcastle, meanwhile, had slaughtered Wellington like professional assassins. That, combined with Adelaide’s injury issues, saw Newcastle as favourites to make it through.

Adelaide closer Edward Hewat would likely have nightmares about this game for weeks. The Venom were by far the superior team, notching up 11 base hits to Newcastle's 1, including solo HRs to Willem Baldwin and Malcolm Pickhills, to lead 4-1 (Newcastle’s run unearned) heading into the top of the 9th. Then things turned to custard. Hewat recorded the first out on the 1st pitch of the inning, a regulation fly to right. England singled, Carr took a pitch on the arm, and Tyler Pratly also singled, loading the bases. Al Ayliffe ground out, but there was no opportunity for the double play, the 3B having to run in onto the infield grass before throwing to 1st. 1 run scored. Then rookie 1B Si-xun Qiao, who’d recorded 50 days of service time during the season, latched on to a 2-1 fastball and put it 439 feet back over right-centre. Save well and truly blown. The Venom managed to load the bases with 2 outs in the bottom of the inning but a ground ball out to 1st ended the game. Final score: 5-4 Newcastle, and they were showing themselves to be professional thieves as well as assassins. Edwin Kerr (7.2IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 2BB, 10K) took a no-hitter into the 7th, while Henderson (5.0IP, 10H, 3ER, 4BB, 2K) was awful but somehow managed a no-result.

Game 2 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Canberra Cavalry

A Hayes 3-run HR saw Kununurra draw first blood, but Canberra stemmed the bleeding pretty quickly, drawing level in the bottom of the inning (2 of those runs via a Tommy Hillson jack). The Pioneers poked their noses back in front in the 4th, but again Canberra had their number, Nicholas Ahernfeld’s 2-run HR in the bottom of the inning giving the Cavalry the lead. Kununurra punched back in the 5th, tying things up again. Ahernfeld smoked his 2nd HR of the night in the 6th, a mammoth 452-foot affair, and Aguirre got in on the longball action in the 7th. That was all the scoring in the game, Herbert recording his 2nd save in 2 appearances. Final score: 7-5 Canberra. Colenutt (3.0IP, 7H, 5ER, 2BB, 1K) had his 2nd bad outing in a row, while Blair Wurfel (7.0IP, 6H, 5ER, 2BB, 5K) wasn’t great either, but put some innings under his belt and went home with the W. The 3 double-plays Canberra turned may well have been the difference between victory and defeat.

Game 2 - Newcastle Roos vs Adelaide Venom

A Baldwin HR in the 2nd opened the scoring, but it was the only time any of the Venom would touch home base. Al Ayliffe was walking with a swagger after the game, hitting his 2nd Grand Slam of this postseason (!!) in the 3rd, part of a 5-run inning. That was the only inning Newcastle troubled the scorers too, but it was enough. Final score: 5-1 Roos, and they had a chance to sweep this series too. Isaac Russell (9.0IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 2K) went the whole game, while Greg Ahern (2.1IP, 6H, 5ER, 1BB, 3K) got bashed out of it early.

Game 3 - Kununurra Pioneers vs Canberra Cavalry

A 4-run 4th saw Kununurra take a 1-run lead over Canberra, though the Cavalry regained the advantage in the 6th. Rex Herbert was wild in the bottom of the 9th, though he turned 2 strikeouts to go with 2 walks. A bobbled pickup by Aguirre extended the inning, and the extra hitter, Brent Gaynon, singled home the tying run. In the 11th the vaunted Cavalry offense clicked into gear, fighting their way to singles or walks. In the end they scored 2 and Kununurra couldn’t pick themselves up off the canvas again in the bottom of the inning. Final score: 7-5 and the Cavalry had a chance to go back-to-back. Angelo Spear (6.1IP, 10H, 4ER, 0BB, 4K) had allowed 263 hits in 231.1 innings during the regular season, and it was more of the same today. Sverdloff (5.0IP, 9H, 5ER, 0BB, 4K) also allowed no walks.

Game 3 - Newcastle Roos vs Adelaide Venom

The Venom were determined not to get swept, and took the early lead via Vern Roneberg and Baldwin solo HRs in the 1st. Back-to-back doubles scored them another in the 2nd, before Newcastle began eating away at the lead. 3-2 after 4 and then the scoring dried up. Adelaide charged away with it in the 8th, however, scoring 5. Owen Wall hit a 3-run HR, and Vorneberg cracked his 2nd bleacher bomb of the night. Final score: 8-2 Adelaide and this one wasn’t over yet. Casey (5.2IP, 7H, 3ER, 1BB, 5K) took the loss, while Lance Keppell (7.1IP, 7H, 2ER, 2BB, 6K) got the win.

Game 4 - Newcastle Roos vs Adelaide Venom

The Venom had used all their energy in Game 3, it seemed, while Newcastle were just relentless, hitting 5HRs. Sean Carr had his second 2HR game of the postseason, while Marshall Tipping, Reginald Sorensen, and Courcha all chipped in, too. Final score: 9-1 Newcastle, and they were off to the big dance. Kerr (4.1IP, 7H, 5ER, 1BB, 3K) still looked haunted by Game 1, while Henderson (6.0IP, 2H, 1ER, 0BB, 7K) threw his fastball and changeup with deft precision, saving his curve for the pitchers’ counts.

[Izz]

2054 Championship - Newcastle Roos vs Canberra Cavalry

Preview: The media only had a couple days to spew out Championship-related headlines, and most of them centred around either of the following:

Could Ashley Snijders get himself a ring after nearly 20 years in the bigs? And if so, did that put him ahead of Alastair Mildren in their famous feud?

And were Ismael Aguirre, and to a lesser extent, Young-tae Lee kingmakers? For both players, this was their 6th consecutive Championship appearance, and they’d taken home the trophy 4 of their previous 5 visits. Lee had appeared in a staggering 14 postseason campaigns, winning 8 rings with 5 different teams. Could he snare himself a 9th, and if so, how did that place him alongside such players as Snijders and Mildren?

The Cavalry had homefield advantage this year, with by far the best offense in the league. They’d topped all-comers in: BA (.295), OBP (.367), SLG (.471), OPS (.838), runs scored (976), hits (1708), and XBH (560). The 211 HRs they’d socked was 3rd-best, the 642 walks they’d drawn 2nd-best, and the 964 times they’d struck out 3rd-least.

Pitching-wise they weren’t shabby either, their starters’ ERA of 3.64 2nd-best in the league, and the 663 runs they’d allowed 2nd-best. They were also the best staff at picking their spots, walking only 371 hitters all season. Where they did have a weakness was in their bullpen, the 4.02 ERA of their relievers only 6th-best. Defensively, they had a .691 efficiency, 5th-best.

Newcastle had punched their way through the first 2 rounds of the playoffs, and weren’t shy in telling all and sundry that they were more than capable of footing it with the defending champs. The Roos had the 3rd-best BA (.274), and OBP (.346), had scored the 4th-most runs (783), and whacked the 4th-most hits (1518).

Their big weakness was their pitching. While their staff had struck out more hitters than any other staff (1159), they had only the 7th-best overall ERA (4.40), and their starters were only ranked 10th (4.60 ERA). They’d given up 199 HRs during the season, 3rd-worst, but had only walked 422 hitters, 2nd to Canberra.

Neither team had any injury concerns, with both teams saying pre-series that they’d go with 3-man rotations (Rayner, Wurfel, Spear for Canberra; Russell, Henderson, Casey for Newcastle).

Verdict: Newcastle would fight hard, but Canberra would be just too good, taking it out in 5.

Game 1

Isaac Russell (14-9, 3.74 ERA, 4.34 FIP, 1.16 WHIP) had been backed up defensively all year, and that trend had continued in the playoffs, his ERA of 2.76 in his 2 starts so far in complete contrast to his FIP of 5.28. He would take the mound for Newcastle in Game 1, and perhaps he took notice of the stats because he spent most of the pre-game presser praising the defensive capabilities of his team. Eddie Rayner (19-6, 2.93 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 1.09 WHIP) had gone 14-1 through the first 3 months of the season, but only 5-5 through the last 3. Still, he had a 6-game postseason win streak going and aimed to continue that here.

Newcastle took the early lead, a 2-run Brody Cheadle HR in the 2nd putting them ahead 3-0. A run of 5 consecutive hits in the 5th gave Canberra 3 runs, tying the game up. Cheadle hit his 2nd HR of the night in the 7th, and Newcastle scored again in the 8th and 9th to go ahead by 3. In the bottom of the 9th Canberra scrapped hard to score twice and see closer Bywaters yanked. Replacement Logan Bowlby walked Blanksby first-up, but then struck out Hillson to win the game. Final score: 6-5 Newcastle

Rayner’s (8.0IP, 9H, 6ER, 1BB, 7K) streak came to a grinding halt, while Russell (7.0IP, 7H, 3ER, 2BB, 4K) survived 2 errors (1 his own) to make it 3 wins so far this postseason.

Game 2

Brock Casey (13-9, 4.07 ERA, 4.31 FIP, 1.29 WHIP) would start for Newcastle, taking on Blair ‘Goat’ Wurfel (16-4, 3.09 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 1.22 WHIP), who was coming off possibly his best season ever.

It ended up being a night Canberra reliever Logan Dale would spend a long time trying to forget. An Ahernfeld HR in the 3rd was part of a 2-run inning that gave Canberra an early 2-1 lead before Sean Carr’s 3-run blast in the 4th put Newcastle back ahead. They added another in the 4th before Canberra’s big guns of Lee, Aguirre, Blanksby and Hillson combined to reduce the lead to 1 in the bottom of the 6th. Aguirre’s infield single in the 8th led to the equalizer scoring 2 outs later.

And then came the top of the 9th. Dale came out to pitch after having recorded the final 2 outs of the 8th. Si-xun Qiao singled wide of 2nd off the first pitch of the inning. Marshall Tipping drew a walk before Sean Carr unexpectedly sac-bunted both runners ahead. Courcha singled, driving in the go-ahead run plus 1 more. Cheadle singled, and Joshua Moore walked, loading the bases. The stage was set for Al Ayliffe to create a real piece of history. Having already hit a Grand Slam against Wellington in the Division Finals, and another against Adelaide in the Preliminary Finals, could the 25 y/o make it an incredible 3 in 1 postseason? Yes, he could, smashing a first-pitch fastball 426 feet over right centre! It took 5 minutes for the dugout celebrations to die down.

6 runs in the inning and Canberra walked off the field well and truly deflated. Never one to give up, Aguirre singled in the bottom of the inning but he was left a solitary figure at 1st when the final out was recorded. Final score: 11-5 Newcastle and they’d beaten up Canberra 2 games in a row, in the Cavalry’s stable.

Casey (5.0IP, 4H, 2ER, 0BB, 4K) looked much better than Wurfel (5.1IP, 8H, 5ER, 3BB, 4K), though neither got the result.

Game 3

Away from home and well and truly up against it, Canberra sent Angelo Spear (14-11, 3.95 ERA, 4.12 FIP, 1.30 WHIP) to the mound, hoping he would have one of his better nights. He would go up against Baden Henderson (11-13, 3.64 ERA, 4.30 FIP, 1.22 WHIP), who was 2-0 so far this postseason.

Spear brought his good stuff today, allowing only 6 baserunners in 8 innings of work. 3 of those baserunners came in the 3rd, Newcastle scoring 1, but Canberra had already gone ahead thanks to Blanksby’s 3-run blast in the top of the inning. The Cavalry scored an insurance run in the 7th, but nobody was willing to bet against the Roos in the bottom of the 9th. Herbert gave up a leadoff single to Andre England before Tyler Pratly’s follow-up single advanced England to 3rd. Qiao also singled, driving in a runner and flashbacks to Game 2 started among Cavalry fans.

But in a postseason already full of extraordinary events, another one concluded Game 3. Roos’ manager Quintin Fletcher called a hit-and-run on Marshall Tipping’s 2-2 pitch. Tipping made good contact, lining the ball hard toward the shortstop. Towards, but not over as it turned out. Cain Reed pulled off a sharp leaping catch, wheeled around while in the air and upon landing fired to Lee at 2nd. Lee, who at 38 had been poor at SS this season but still held his own on the other side of the infield, tagged the retreating runner and whipped the ball to 1st. Aguirre gloved it and Tipping was out by half a step. 6-4-3 TRIPLE PLAY to end Game 3! Final score: 4-2 Cavalry, and the way they charged in from everywhere to celebrate it seemed as if they’d won the Championship.

Spear (8.0IP, 6H, 1ER, 0BB, 4K) was the deserving winner, while Henderson (6.1IP, 8H, 4ER, 2BB, 6K) often found himself in trouble.

Game 4

Russell would take on Rayner again. Both pitchers had thrown 115+ pitches in Game 1 so it would be interesting to see how long they would last this time around.

Newcastle adopted a patient approach to Rayner, forcing him to throw strikes and fouling off plenty of those to stay alive, driving his pitch count up. It was Canberra who got on the board first, scoring 2 in the 2nd, 1 of those thanks to Blanksby’s leadoff HR. Back-to-back HRs in the 3rd (a 2-run Qiao shot followed by Tipping tipping it over the fence) were part of a 4-run inning, giving Newcastle the lead. Hillson made it a 1-run game in the 5th with his leadoff HR before Blanksby cracked his 2nd jack of the night in the 5th, a 3-run affair, to give Canberra a lead of 2.

Newcastle weren’t cowed, though, seeing off Rayner in the bottom of the inning thanks to a leadoff single followed by a walk. Reliever Gan Chang hadn’t thrown in 7 days and while he got his fastball up near the 160 km/h mark he wasn’t hitting his spots. He walked Carr, plunked Courcha to bring a run in, went wild against Cheadle to see another run score (after which Cheadle was intentionally walked) before finally recording the first out of the inning. Even so, Moore’s deep fly to left sacrificed in another run. Getting the out seemed to settle Chang down, though, and he retired Ayliffe and England in quick succession to end the inning.

The scoring dried up after that, remaining 7-6 until the top of the 9th. Bywaters, who’d stuttered badly in his last outing, came to the mound. His 0-2 curveball to Terence Kerr hung rather than fell and Kerr singled wide of 2nd. Ahernfeld didn’t lift his bat from his shoulder, walking on 5 pitches. Rhett Vader sac-bunted both runners ahead. Cain Reed hit a sharp groundball to 2nd, who was playing up and who fired quickly to 1st for the opening out of the inning. Boston got a fastball at the knees but his quick swing made light work of it, jabbing it over the head of the 3B and into the corner. Both runners scored and Canberra had the lead. Bywaters got his marching orders and his replacement, Xavier Hagerty, struck out Lee swinging to curb the damage.

It was too much, though, Herbert showing no nerves this time to retire Newcastle in order, fanning the last 2 hitters. Final score: 8-7 Canberra to level the series. Rayner (4.0IP, 7H, 6ER, 4BB, 4K) threw 95 pitches and looked nowhere near his best, while Russell (6.1IP, 8H, 6ER, 2BB, 1K) nearly got himself win #4 of this year’s playoff campaign.

Game 5

Newcastle decided Brock Casey needed another couple days rest before pitching again, so sent Vicente Velez (13-14, 5.05 ERA, 4.48 FIP, 1.52 WHIP), who’d thrown 1.2 innings of scoreless relief in Game 2 of this series, out to the mound. Canberra would go with Wurfel. The 34 y/o could still get his fastball upwards of 160 km/h even if his slider and changeup weren’t quite what they used to be.

All the runs in this game were scored in 1s through the 1st 6 innings. Carr lofted his 6th HR of the postseason in the 2nd, Qiao his 2nd in 2 games in the 5th. Aguirre hit a solo shot in the 6th but his Cavalry were never really in it, Bywaters recovering from his previous 2 horror outings to record an easy save, including 2 swinging Ks. The game may have turned after 3, when Wurfel didn’t come back out to the mound. He was having back issues, and media were told after the game that the recurring spasms he was experiencing would keep him out of the rest of the playoffs. Final score: 5-2 Newcastle, and they were now 1 game away from their first Championship since 2038.

Wurfel (3.0IP, 5H, 3R, 2ER, 1BB, 0K) looked like he was struggling from his first pitch, while Velez (6.0IP, 8H, 2ER, 2BB, 5K) did a passable job and picked up a postseason W.

Game 6

Could Angelo Spear bring it 2 games in a row? The Cavalry thought so, even if a lot of their fans had doubts, as they sent him out to the mound to start this game despite the fact they’d hinted during the off day that Rory Lowe might get a call up. Spear would be up against a fully rested Casey, who was quietly confident the Roos would win it in 6.

Spear did bring his good stuff 2 games in a row. The Roos scored first in the 3rd, 2 singles and a wild throw from the RF seeing Ayliffe safely touch home plate. Cain Reed’s 3-run jack in the 4th put Canberra ahead and 2 more were added in the 5th.

It was mostly 3-up 3-down from them on, the score 5-1 Canberra heading into the top of the 9th. Jesus Rodriguez was on the mound, having spelled Spear to record the last 2 outs of the 8th. Pratly led off the inning with a single, before Qiao struck out on 3 pitches, Rodriguez’s changeup freezing Qiao up and just nicking the zone. Tipping singled wide of short and Rodriguez headed to the showers, Herbert coming to the mound. Sean Carr wasted no time, hitting a tame fastball over the head of the shortstop for a single, loading the bases. Courcha didn’t lift his bat from his shoulder for 6 pitches, the last a called strike, ending his AB. He wasn’t happy about it, and replays showed the sinker was too low but he’d already gotten his marching orders. Next up, Brody Cheadle watched a strike and a ball go past. Then he made good contact with a cut fastball low in the zone and watched it fly deep over right centre. And into the bleachers for a game-tying Grand Slam! Herbert recovered to strike out Moore but come off the mound knowing he might not have just blown a save. He might have blown the Championship!

Boston singled with 1 out in the bottom of the inning, but Lee ground into a 4-6-3 double play to send the game into extra time. Herbert was sent back out for the 10th and responded in champion fashion, fighting through to retire the side in order. Hillson singled with 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th but couldn’t spark a rally. From then on neither side got on-base until the bottom of the 13th. Blanksby singled to lead off the inning. Hillson followed with another single and Terence Kerr walked on 5 pitches. Ahernfeld hit a fly into left-centre, finding grass between the 2 fielders for a walk-off single. Final score: 6-5 Canberra to force a Game 7 at home.

Spear (7.0IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 4K) had another good night, while Casey (4.2IP, 7H, 5ER, 3BB, 3K) looked like he could do with another day of rest.

Game 7

Rayner was determined to shoulder the Game 7 start, according to his coaches, as he’d been ready to do last season. Henderson would start for Newcastle, hoping to atone for his Game 3 effort.

Back-to-back doubles to lead off the bottom of the first opened the scoring for Canberra before Henderson settled into a rhythm. A Courcha double drove Qiao home in the top of the 2nd, tying things up, before Newcastle edged ahead in the 3rd, England’s 3-1 ground out deep enough to score Ayliffe. Both pitchers rattled through their opposing lineups until the 6th. Lee led off the inning with a swinging K before Aguirre drew a walk. Blanksby spotted a 1-1 changeup and didn’t hesitate, getting underneath it to send it over the leftfield fence for a 2-run HR.

With Herbert having thrown 40 pitches the night before and possibly down on confidence, Canberra sent Zachariah Quinn, who’d started 21 games during the regular season, out to the mound in the 9th. Tipping got himself to 3-1 but could only hit a fastball directly to short for a regulation 6-3 out. Carr got frozen up by a 2-2 forkball and was given out on strikes. Courcha, hitting .360 for the series, went hard at a 2-1 fastball high in the zone. Right idea, but he couldn’t quite execute it, his liner going fast but straight into the shortstop’s glove for the series-winning out. Final score: 3-2 Canberra, to make them the latest to go back-to-back and prove Aguirre and Lee were both kingmakers. Unfortunately for Snijders, there would be no ring this year, and this might’ve been his last shot unless a Championship-calibre squad would hire him on for next season.

Rayner (6.2IP, 5H, 2ER, 2BB, 8K) saved his best for last, while Henderson (7.0IP, 5H, 3ER, 2BB, 7K) also brought his good stuff.

Hurler of the Series: Angelo Spear (1-0, 15.0IP, 12H, 1BB, 2ER, 8K), though some ecstatic fans were of the opinion Quinn should’ve received it for his nerveless Game 7 save.

Slugger of the Series: Jacob Blanksby (.444/.545/.963, 4HR) was definitely big-time, this award marking the second consecutive year he’d won it.

Teammate Aguirre had a quiet series, but always seemed to be on-base when needed, while Newcastle's Ayliffe would always be remembered as the guy who hit 3 Grand Slams in 1 postseason.

[Izz]

2054 Championship-winning Cavalry

[Izz]

2054 Season Leaderboards

(click to enlarge)

[Izz]

Hall of Fame - Rex Rees & Alan Delaney

The Hall welcomed 2 new entrants on the first day of the offseason.

Of the 2, much had been written about Rex Rees, who chose to be inducted in Auckland colours.



The other player inducted was former 2B Alan Delaney, who hit .306/.348/.423, with 126HR, over an 18-year major-league career. At the time of his HOF induction, Delaney still held the season record for doubles, having hit 65 in 2041. He also held 3rd-place on the season leaderboard with his mark of 58 in 2044. All time he sat third, his 551 career doubles only behind Mildren (555) and Ackland (600). Delaney was inducted wearing a Melbourne cap. The Aces were the team he'd started his major-league career with. Delaney made 5 All Star teams over the course of his career, but won no Championships, having only played in 1 postseason, in 2032 with Melbourne. He won the batting title in 2033, topping the league in hits the same year.

[Izz]

2054 Awards

Gold Gloves

Pitcher: Lai-hsiang Song (Brisbane Bandits)
Catcher: Roland Thrippleton (Christchurch Cowboys)
First Baseman: Edwin Hayes (Kununurra Pioneers)
Second Baseman: Vince Hudswell (Brisbane Bandits)
Third Baseman: Joshua Moore (Newcastle Roos)
Shortstop: Angelo Rankin (Darwin Diggers)
Left Fielder: Norman Ladds (Brisbane Bandits)
Center Fielder: Trent Burton (Auckland Metros)
Right Fielder: Martin Boston (Canberra Cavalry)

Rookie of the Year

25 y/o Brisbane corner OF John Foreman won this in a landslide. Anchoring the lineup, the youngster hit .296/.362/.561, 175-592, with 101 runs, 14 doubles, 7 triples, 43HR, 104RBI, 53BB, and 2SB. His WAR was 4.5, his VORP 54.1, and his OPS+ 142.



22 y/o Diggers’ RF Arturo Medina (.267/.318/.498, 27HR, 2.4 WAR, 23.6 VORP, 114 OPS+) came runner-up, with 22 y/o Blue Sox SS Dean Brewster (.310/.377/.381, 3HR, 3.0 WAR, 28.5 VORP, 103 OPS+) 3rd.

Skipper of the Year

Cavalry skipper Vic Hutchinson missed out on this award last year, due to Brisbane’s phenomenal regular season effort, but this season he’d skippered the team to a 101 win season and the Championship, so surely he had to be a shoe-in, right?

Wrong. First-year skipper Timothy Donaldson, who’d led Adelaide to a division title and Preliminary Finals appearance, netted Skipper of the Year. The Venom had made a name for themselves in 2054 as real scrappers who finished the season a staggering 11 games ahead of their expected record. Donaldson, who wore the moustache of a brawler, was certain of one thing: Adelaide would be even better next season.



Hurler of the Year

Would Rayner’s exceptional first half and Championship ring net him HotY? Or would Edwin Kerr’s 20-win season, plus great peripheral stats, be the business this year? Bruno Budd and Paul Colenutt were also in the mix, while some experts said Ralston deserved the award above all others.

The winner was... Edwin Kerr. Adelaide’s newly-acquired southpaw ace went 20-4 from 32 starts, with a 2.67 ERA, 3.47 FIP, and 1.03 WHIP. He fanned 206 in 222.1 innings pitched, and recorded a WAR of 5.7, and an ERA+ of 166.



Eddie Rayner (19-6, 2.93 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 1.09 WHIP, 4.3 WAR, 151 ERA+) collected the silver medal, and Lance Ralston (16-6, 2.08 ERA, 2.99 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, 6.4 WAR, 213 ERA+) bronze. This was the 3rd time Ralston had finished 3rd in HotY. He was yet to finish higher.

Slugger of the Year

Surely this couldn’t go to anyone but Ismael Aguirre? Surely? Surely! Aguirre made it 4 SotY awards in 12 seasons in the majors (to go with 2 other podium appearances). This year Aguirre was .344/.396/.616, with 45HR, a 9.1 WAR, an 88.1 VORP, and a 165 OPS+. This was the 5th season Aguirre had finished with an OPS above 1.000.



Perhaps driven by his excellent postseason, Aguirre’s teammate Jacob Blanksby (.335/.416/.574, 30HR, 7.3 WAR, 161 OPS+) came 2nd. Sean Carr (.362/.424/.543, 22HR, 8.0 WAR, 156 OPS+) had had an excellent year, and probably deserved higher than his 3rd-place finish, but he acknowledged after the Awards Dinner, “This award’s always a tough pick, but I think this year it was especially tough.” Carr then darted off. He was headed downtown on his typical club crawl.

[Izz]

2054 Career Leaderboards

Snijders had made 3000 hits, but could Wakely? He needed another 139 to join that exclusive club. In 532PA in 2054 he'd managed 120 hits.

Aguirre needed 81 hits to reach 2500 but, of more interest to the fans, was that 32HR next season would get him to 500.

[Izz]

Offseason

2054 Notes

League ERA rose to 4.44, even though BA remained static at .268.

Canberra set a new season attendance record of 4,753,918, beating the record the Bandits had set last season.

A few players announced their retirement once the playoffs finished. Among those was 38 y/o MR/CL Brendan Sheppard (46-52, 167 sv, 3.59 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 1.21 WHIP), who had played exactly 10 seasons in the AUNZBL. Sheppard, who’d become well known as much for his history as for his pitching, had won 1 Championship, in 2046 with the Blue Sox, and made it to 3 AUNZBL All Star Games.

BL Wrap-up

The Cali Destructores won their 2nd BL Championship with a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Maracaibo.

Novato del Ano went to 31 y/o Asuncion Rebeldes RF Keith D’Antonio (.297/.365/.499, 19HR), who’d started the year in Juarez. Antonio had played in the AUNZBL from 2047-2053 with Cairns and Hobart, never quite realizing the potential many saw in him as an elite power hitter.

Wes Hewitt (17-3, 2.08 ERA, 3.67 FIP, 1.03 WHIP) dominated the BL on his way to Jarra de Oro. This was Hewitt’s first year in the BL, having played in the Thunder pen from 2047-2053. His 17 wins equaled the season record Josh Kershaw had set in 2052.

The massive news out of the BL this season was that a local player won the Bateador de Oro. 27 y/o Ovidio Arvelos (.339/.477/.543, 12HR), in his 2nd full season in the BL top flight, was the winner. Likely to file for free agency, many wondered if his agent was canvassing AUNZBL teams. Ovidio, drafted in the 2nd last round of the 2049 draft by Juarez, had an excellent eye, which helped him hit for average in the BL (he’d set a new season OBP record this season), but he would likely struggle to have the same impact if he migrated to the AUNZBL. Arvelos won the 2054 BL batting title as well.

Notable Club Happenings

Adelaide: GM Rupert Goudie retired with little fanfare. The 64 y/o, who’d also played AA-ball, was looking forward to “travelling and spoiling the grandkids.”

Brisbane: Skipper Carlos Sosa was the only casualty of the Bandits not making the postseason. The 2-year Brisbane manager wasn’t fired but didn’t have his contract renewed. He was still at a loss to explain Brisbane’s mediocre season.

Cairns: 5-year skipper Paul Kesterton’s contract finished and no extension offer was forthcoming, and the team’s BC, hitting coach, and pitching coach were fired. Insiders said that GM Jordan Hurlson, about to enter his 2nd year at the helm, wanted to rebuild from the ground up and put his “own stamp on the joint.”

Hobart: Manager Wes Dunn got his marching orders. In both of his seasons skippering the team, Hobart had gone 68-94. Dunn said he was likely to head back to the BL, where he’d been a successful pitching coach prior to working with the Prospects.

Sydney: Juan Espinoza got the heave-ho as manager. He’d managed the Blue Sox to 2 losing seasons in a row. BC Marcus Kent would move into the role. Kent had made it as high as AAA before hanging up the cleats and heading into coaching. His first major role was as BC for the Magnates in the BL. He’d then spent some time as hitting coach for Christchurch before Sydney hired him on in 2053 as bench coach.

Notable Free Agent Signings/Player Contract Extensions

29 Mar: Canberra, in a training camp ahead of their Preliminary Finals entrance to the postseason, announced 2 contract extensions today. First, 26 y/o OF Nicholas Ahernfeld (.282/.350/.471, 30HR), who’d started 115 games in 2054 after being solely platoon material the previous 2 seasons, had agreed to a 5-year extension.

29 Mar: Second, another member of their outfield battalion, 26 y/o Terence Kerr (.273/.379/.407, 31HR), had also re-upped for 5 years.

29 Mar: Melbourne revelation, just turned 26 y/o, Vern Bull (.281/.414/.505, 44HR) had signed a 5-year extension with the Aces. The catcher, who’d gone undrafted in 2048, said, “This is just amazing. I can’t really describe how I feel right now, except to say I’m super grateful to the Aces for giving me an opportunity, and for helping me develop into the player I want to be.” Aces’ skipper Norm Upchurch couldn’t praise Bull enough, saying, “You guys were surprised by Vern this season? Well, he’s still not finished figuring his game out. Next year he’ll just blow you all away. We might even put him at 1B or DH to make sure he gets as many games as possible.”

11 May: This year’s top 5 free agents, according to Out of the Park Broadcasting, were:

35 y/o C Zachary Woollett
29 y/o RF Manuel Alou
29 y/o SP Dan Pankhurst
36 y/o LF Esteban Madrigal
40 y/o 3B Brock Wakely

Overall, it looked a fairly weak free agent class. Other players on the market were:

33 y/o SP Walter Anglesey
28 y/o CL Caspar Buffey
41 y/o 1B Ashley Snijders
32 y/o SP Marshall Whiffin
38 y/o RF/1B Lindsay Colson
35 y/o 1B Blair Toohey
37 y/o SP Karl Bell
30 y/o LF Austin Allan
29 y/o SP Jeremy Challinor
31 y/o C Carlo Gadsden
32 y/o 2B Christos Hutchinson
29 y/o RF Sterling Bull
29 y/o 1B Stefan Lock

The Thunder were the biggest losers, down 9.4 WAR at the beginning of free agent season.

19 May: Wellington swooped with the first big signing of this offseason, snaring Zachary Woollett (.313/.384/.533, 341HR) on a 2-year contract.



19 May: Not long after Wellington’s announcement, Newcastle held a presser of their own, introducing Manuel Alou (.306/.383/.515, 150HR) to the assembled journalists. Alou had inked his signature on a 6-year deal. Alou said he was excited to be joining the Newcastle organization, and especially happy at reconnecting with good mate Sean Carr.



26 May: Newcastle re-upped 30 y/o Brock Casey (67-43, 3.78 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 1.24 WHIP) for another 5 years.

27 May: Darwin signed Carlo Gadsden (.286/.333/.467, 153HR) for 4 years.

31 May: Aging superstar Brock Wakely (.282/.391/.499, 565HR) was heading back to where it all began, another fan favourite lured back home by Auckland management. He’d signed with the Metros for 1 season.



31 May: Stefan Lock (.263/.321/.504, 206HR) cited a desire to “see the world” as his motivation for signing a 3-year deal with Havana in the BL.

1 Jun: Jeremy Challinor (77-90, 4.47 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 1.39 WHIP) agreed to a 5-year contract with the Blue Sox.

1 Jun: 37 y/o Allan Spear (202-183, 4.31 ERA, 4.25 FIP, 1.28 WHIP), the 2nd-winningest pitcher in AUNZBL history, had no desire to stick around in the hope an AUNZBL team would offer him a carrot late in the offseason. He was off to the NABA, and not as a marquee player either, but as one who would play for Montreal for minimum wage next season.

2 Jun: Blair Toohey (.261/.370/.391, 127HR) would turn out for the Heat for the next 3 seasons.

9 Jun: Fast-approaching-42 y/o Ashley Snijders (.304/.402/.533, 587HR) found himself a home for 2055 as he attempted to chase down 600HR. Whangarei had picked him up for 1 season. If he managed to stay in the starting lineup all year and notched up 153 hits he’d overtake Mildren at the top of the hits leaderboard.

12 Jun: Central Coast offered Esteban Madrigal (.280/.356/.521, 181HR) a 3-year deal and the 36 y/o snaffled it up. Thunder management wanted to put Madrigal at cleanup.



18 Jun: Brisbane signed up Sterling Bull (.297/.348/.476, 90HR) for 2 years.

18 Jun: Caspar Buffey (23-25, 114 sv, 3.20 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 1.16 WHIP) had hogged a lot of headlines until this point, happily fueling speculation as to where he might be headed. Today though, it was a done deal. He was heading to Newcastle, having signed a 3-year contract. What this meant for 33 y/o Robert Bywaters (305 career saves) remained to be seen. With 30 y/o Rhett Thurley (219 career saves) also on the staff, it could mean a nearly unhittable late-inning bullpen, or a couple really unhappy guys.

22 Jun: Coming off possibly the best season of his career, 34 y/o Blair Wurfel (120-76, 3.77 ERA, 3.93 FIP, 1.27 WHIP) wouldn’t confirm or deny if the Cavalry were giving him a pay raise. He’d negotiated a 2-year extension with the club, with some sources saying his pay would drop by some margin in the 2056 season.

29 Jun: Kununurra wrapped up the services of 32 y/o Paul Colenutt (77-63, 4.15 ERA, 4.38 FIP, 1.37 WHIP) for a further 4 years from 2056 onwards. He’d just recently agreed to a 1-year extension with the club.

8 Jul: 32 y/o Manny Gallo (.290/.326/.519, 265HR) hadn’t taken much part in the 2054 season thanks to injury which, coupled with the fact he played for Hobart, meant he wasn’t really on any media radars heading into the offseason. Adelaide were happy to have him, though, signing the free-swinging power merchant to a 2-year deal.

21 Jul: Austin Allan (.270/.319/.434, 120HR) was off to San Jose. He’d be in the BL at least 3 years.

22 Jul: 2054 Bateador de Oro, Ovidio Arvelos (.322/.462/.509, 31HR in 2 1/2 BL seasons), had been lured by the bright lights of the AUNZBL. The Bandits, always shrewd recruiters, had signed the 27 y/o to a 4-year contract.

29 Jul: Central Coast were keen to keep 36 y/o SP Adrian Duggan (142-113, 3.92 ERA, 4.17 FIP, 1.26 WHIP) in a Thunder uniform for a few more seasons. Today they announced they’d successfully signed him to a 3-year extension.

4 Aug: In Sydney, the official first day of the preseason began with a signing announcement. Marshall Whiffin (75-75, 4.39 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 1.46 WHIP) was coming to the club on a 3-year deal.

10 Aug: After months of speculation, Dan ‘Giant Killer’ Pankhurst (65-70, 3.90 ERA, 4.23 FIP, 1.30 WHIP) finally put pen to paper, signing a 7-year deal with the Roos. Pankhurst said of the deal, “Now that I’ve got my playing future sorted out for a while it’s time to get out there and train hard so I can slay a few hitters.”



11 Aug: 33 y/o Christos Hutchinson (.312/.370/.398, 16HR) was headed for the more public climes of Sydney, signing for 3 years with the Blue Sox. While Darwin was certainly no minor city anymore, and certainly had a thriving nightlife (soldiers did like to party, after all), it wasn’t a place which celebrated celebrity. Apparently, Hutchinson had already put feelers out to see if his reality series might get another go-around, but it seemed that baseball reality TV was a thing of the past.

12 Aug: Kununurra added another arm to their rotation, signing 34 y/o Walter Anglesey (122-125, 4.27 ERA, 4.14 FIP, 1.35 WHIP) for the next 2 seasons.

17 Aug: Lindsay Colson (.287/.356/.490, 409HR) wasn’t done in the AUNZBL just yet. He’d signed on with the Thunder for 2055.

19 Sep: 29 y/o Andre England (.325/.378/.413, 14HR) went the entire 2054 season without suffering injury, the first time he’d managed that in his nearly 9-year career. Perhaps buoyed by that fact, the Roos offered him a 2-year extension, which he today agreed to.

30 Sep: As Opening Day loomed on the horizon, it could be said that Newcastle had added the most value to their roster, gaining 9.9 WAR. The Bandits had added 7.0 WAR as they looked to make sure 2054 was a blip rather than a trend. 3 other teams registered minor WAR improvements, while every other team lost WAR.

Notable Trades

11 May: Staunch division rivals Brisbane and Central Coast slipped through a trade on free agent filing day. Brisbane sent 26 y/o SP Lai-hsiang Song (19-8, 3.56 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 1.22 WHIP) and an infield prospect to the Thunder, receiving 33 y/o C Jordan Blackford (.255/.317/.432, 137HR) in return. While the Bandits were filling an immediate need, it looked like Central Coast would be the longterm winners, with Song still yet to come into his own.

31 May: Brisbane suddenly had 2 decent catchers on their books after finalizing a deal with Wellington today. The Fury, having recently signed Woollett, dealt 31 y/o C Bob Bowden (.270/.328/.443, 162HR) and a small sum of cash to the Bandits in return for 31 y/o RF Elliot Cleaver (.249/.312/.467, 146HR) and a pitching prospect.

31 May: 30 y/o Gareth Orpen (.254/.334/.466, 184HR) was on the move again, this time from the Central Coast to Adelaide. He was accompanied by cash, while Central Coast received 25 y/o LF Vern Roneberg (.268/.312/.410, 20HR in 3 seasons as a platoon/backup) and a minor leaguer.

1 Jun: Christchurch badly wanted Blue Sox 31 y/o 2B Nigel Pinney (.252/.350/.400, 135HR). To get him, they sent Sydney declining 32 y/o SP Karl Lang (85-75, 4.25 ERA, 4.44 FIP, 1.35 WHIP), plus a guy who looked to be a career minor leaguer, and cash.

1 Jun: Later that same day, Christchurch wrangled another trade. They acquired 27 y/o CF Ben Dalley (.265/.294/.371, 25HR) from Adelaide in return for 35 y/o fringe-ML MR Rod Cashmore (3-3 across bits of 7 seasons), and an IF prospect.

NABA Wrap-up

The Montreal Prosperity took out the NABA league, with the Evansville Peacemakers runners-up, 1 game back. While the final result might’ve seemed close, the Prosperity had the result well in the bag before letting their foot off the pedal somewhat in the last couple weeks of the season. In the NABA Cup, Montreal showcased their dominance by dispatching the Peacemakers in straight sets. This season was the first time the Prosperity had ever finished higher than 4th. Allan Spear threw 8.0 innings in the Game 1 win.

The NABA Award winners were all Prosperity players.

26 y/o Luke Mansfield, who’d had a few cups of coffee with Kununurra between 2050-2052 before setting sail for the NABA took out both the North Cascades and Yellowstone Awards with a fantastic .347/.413/.560 season. He hit 16HR amongst all that and also won a Gold Glove at 1B.

The Yosemite Award was won by 31 y/o Dylan Fry, who went 10-4 from 16 starts for Montreal, his pitching stat-line a 2.59 ERA, a 3.44 FIP, and a 1.05 WHIP. Fry had appeared in the AUNZBL for Hobart between 2047 and 2051, spending almost all of 2050 in their pen.

Other Notes

29 Mar: Whether Perth made the announcement today in the hope the playoffs would mean the move would slip through unnoticed we’ll never know, but if that was their intention it worked pretty well. What was the move? 24 y/o (just) SP Quentin Welch, the overall first pick in the 2052 draft, and who’d made his major league debut in 2053, would spend the offseason training at 3B in the hope of making the Heat’s 2055 roster as a hitter. Welch, who’d gone 9-14, with a 4.05 ERA, 4.35 FIP, and 1.44 WHIP, looked like he was “just about getting to grips with being a major league starting pitcher,” according to one well-known analyst. Could he successfully make the transition? Perth’s management were betting he could, saying he had a “30 homers-a-year swing and eye,” and was still young enough to adapt to playing every day.

[Izz]

The Australasian Baseball Coalition?

Rumours regarding a rival competition had been doing the media circuits for the last few years, but nobody really took them seriously. The AUNZBL was the baseball (and sports) powerhouse, not just in Australia, but in the world, an organization even the government couldn't control. And, at least publicly, the AUNZBL didn't discourage other professional competitions within Australia. Indeed, there were at least a half-dozen regional leagues around the country that ranged from semipro to fully pro (albeit the fully pro didn't pay much more than minimum wage).

In fact, in what was immediately seen as an intentional ploy after the news aired, over the last 12 months the rumours had died down to nothing. Then, suddenly, as soon as Spring Training started an announcement was made by a coalition of businessmen: a rival competition was in the works. While it was still probably 2 years away from realization, this was far more than a rumour. Agreements had been signed with owners of the new teams, some of whom were standing at the press conference. The coalition spokesman even hinted that there may be an AUNZBL team or two who would head to these "greener pastures."

At this stage, though, the only concrete things the new competition had were a name and a logo.

The name:

Australasian Baseball Coalition

To directly quote the coalition spokesman: "As easy as ABC, and a name that will soon be first on everybody’s lips when it comes to baseball.”

The logo (subject to change, apparently):



While the conference was carefully orchestrated to give away as little information as possible - even the media questions appeared scripted - some tidbits were released: there would be teams in the competition from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia; the total number of teams would be the same as the AUNZBL, as would the schedule length; expansion would be aggressive.

The obvious hope of the brains behind the new competition was to steal the limelight away from the AUNZBL as it headed towards Opening Day. And that hope became a reality. Baseball media spent the month of September in a constant state of hyper-speculation and argument between those for the competition and those against it.

Amongst all the talking heads action, the following quickly became obvious: there were two driving forces behind the ABC.

Firstly, money. The AUNZBL made plenty of the stuff, enough to sometimes bail out struggling organizations to the tune of millions. While a lot of the money they brought in was baseball-related, they’d also shown themselves to be shrewd investors, particularly in the commercial space industry. Of course the businessmen behind the ABC would want a piece of the baseball pie.

Secondly, disgruntlement. Over the weeks immediately following the announcement most of the franchise owners within the rebel league publicly identified themselves. The great majority had put in bids for AUNZBL expansion but missed out, most more than once, and to a tee they all felt the AUNZBL was expanding too slow and didn’t have the game’s greater interests at heart. At least one of the ABC’s administrators had experience within the AUNZBL offices, too. It also didn’t take long to discover that some of the primary financial backers of the ABC came from media empires who were no longer at the top of the AUNZBL media lists.

By the time Opening Day rolled around, most of the new teams locations were known. The ABC would feature teams in:

Brisbane
Sydney
Melbourne
Canberra
Perth
New Zealand (only 1 NZ owner confirmed at this stage)
Papua New Guinea
Indonesia
Alice Springs
Broome
Coffs Harbour

With 3 team locations unknown, a few began buying into the ABC’s statement that some participants from the AUNZBL would cross over to the new competition. The media favourites as to who these teams would be were Cairns, Adelaide and possibly a team in NZ. The Crocs, Venom and all 4 NZ teams vigorously denied anything of the sort.

How did the AUNZBL respond to news “war was coming” (the ABC’s words)? They didn’t have much to say, not holding any press conferences on the subject and refusing to answer any questions related to the ABC at other pressers. A representative of the Commissioner’s Office did say, in an interview, that the AUNZBL “felt it had nothing to fear,” and that “competition was welcomed.” The snippet from that interview that got the most replay time on the datawaves was the following: “Running a financially stable baseball competition is no easy thing, and wasn’t something the AUNZBL attained overnight. If the ABC thinks all their teams have to do is start playing and the money will come rolling in, they’re dangerously, perhaps stupidly, naïve.”

What was going on behind closed doors though, nobody knew.

How did the players feel? The stance of the Player’s Union was that all enquiries about the new competition were to be directed to them. While some felt that the PU would be excited at the news its arch-enemy would face a few challenges, the PU were very cautious. “There has been no consultation with us from representatives of the ABC,” the head of the PU told media, “and we will take a wait-and-see attitude. Our concern is player welfare. Will the ABC treat its players better than the AUNZBL? We hope so but at this stage we have had no dialogue with them regarding their stance.”

How did the fans feel? Opinion ranged from optimism to opposition. Some dug into the history archives, highlighting a period from rugby league history known as the “Super League War,” when two factions wrestled for control of the game. It was generally agreed upon by sports historians that the game was the biggest loser then, the fight setting development back by, in the estimates of some, decades.

Would the same happen here? It was too early to say. The ABC's tentative date to start playing ball was October 1 2057, and a lot of water could flow under the bridge in that time.

[Izz]

2055 Preseason Predictions

Coastal Division: Adelaide would slump, while Darwin would win the pennant.

East-West Division: This would again be the most tightly contested division, with Central Coast rising to take it out by a hair from Kununurra. Newcastle would finish 3rd, but still well above .500, while Brisbane's offseason moves wouldn't help them as they slipped to a sub .500 record for the first time since 2047.

NZ Division: The weaklings of the league. Auckland would finish at the top of a miserable heap, winning the division despite finishing the season 6 games below .500. Wellington would slump to the worst record of any team.

Southern Division: Canberra all the way, though Hobart were, surprisingly, picked to win 90+ games.

Wildcard: Kununurra and Hobart, with Newcastle unlucky to miss out, even though they'd finish with the equal 5th-best record in the majors.

Slugger of the Year: All the OotPB analysts picked Jorge Diaz to go blammo this season. In fact, the official predictions had him hitting .342, with a record-obliterating 58HR and 166RBI. Aguirre would be runner-up but by so far he might not even see Diaz crossing the finish line. Blanksby would be in the mix too, with Patrick Maggs also sniffing about.

Hurler of the Year: This would finally be Ralston's year. He was sublime last season but hampered in his HotY bid by playing in a struggling team. This year there would be no stopping the Bandits' ace, despite the Bandits performing even worse. Eddie Rayner would get silver 2 years in a row, while Central Coast's Ted Heathcote and Matt Juhl would be in the hunt, along with Angelo Spear and Clint Aitcheson.

[Izz]

2055/2056 Season - October

Notable Performances

6 Oct: Lance Fookes carried his 14-game hit streak from last season and continued that form through the first 6 games of this season, today registering 20 consecutive games with a hit. It took him until the 9th inning to get that vital hit.

8 Oct: Fookes’ hit streak ended at 21 games.

10 Oct: Barry Nunn had started last season hot and was doing so again this season. He was 5-5 in Melbourne’s 5-3 win over Brisbane.

11 Oct: Vince Hudswell scooped the season’s first PotW by going .517/.531/1.034. He slugged 4HR in his 15 hits.

13 Oct: Rory Lowe recorded the 1st shutout of the season, blanking the Metros 9-0. He conceded just 6 hits and 1 walk, fanning 4. This was the 4th shutout of 36 y/o Lowe’s major-league career.

16 Oct: Randall Butcher went 5-6, including a HR, but was on the losing side as Cairns surrendered 15-8 to Kununurra. 5 of Cairns’ runs were scored in the 9th, but unfortunately Butcher’s night would have an added sour note: he struck out to end the game.

18 Oct: Longtime Cavalry caller Rodney Macintosh said watching Aguirre at the plate was “like watching the sunrise from atop Mount Ainslie on a clear summer morning.” Aguirre won the season’s 2nd PotW. He hit .538/.567/1.077, with 4HR.

19 Oct: Angelo Spear moved into a tie for 7th on the all-time shutouts list, his 2-hitter against Adelaide the 8th of his career. Canberra romped to a 9-0 victory, Spear allowing only 1 walk to go with those 2 hits, and striking out 7. Spear took a perfect game into the 7th before giving up a leadoff single.

19 Oct: In that same game, Jacob Blanksby went 1-4, with 2 walks. That hit, an rbi-single in the 7th, was the 2000th hit of the 34 y/o catcher’s career. While excited to reach the 2000 hit mark (he was the third catcher in AUNZBL to get there), Blanskby had another goal firmly in his sights: 400HR. He needed another 20 to be the first catcher to that mark.

23 Oct: Spear made it 2 shutouts in 2 games, restricting Hobart to 3 hits and 1 walk, striking out 7. Canberra cruised to a 6-0 victory. That shutout catapulted Spear to equal-5th on the all-time shutouts list. He was tied with Jay Cummins and Logan Neilson.

24 Oct: Martin Boston jacked his BA for the year to .430 by going 5-5 in Canberra’s 6-4 loss to Whangarei. The loss snapped Canberra’s 8-game win streak.

25 Oct: Unsurprisingly, Boston won PotW, having hit .559/.583/.588 over the last 7 days. He also stole 4 bases. Only 1 of his 19 hits went for extra-bases, a double against Adelaide in the week’s first game.

Notable Injuries

7 Oct: Zachary Woollett (.240/.345/.280, 0HR) strained his hamstring and would be out at least a month.

23 Oct: Clint Aitcheson (1-2, 3.91 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 1.54 WHIP) might be on the DL up to a month with a back strain.

Notable Trades/Signings

6 Oct: Martin Boston (.273/.304/.318, 0HR) would be eligible for free agency at the end of this season, but he’d be staying in Canberra colours at least another year, having just agreed to a 1-year extension.

Month Awards



Rookie of the Month & Slugger of the Month: Brisbane had a habit of unearthing genuine hitters. Last year it was John Foreman, a late round 2049 draft pick, who dominated most of the rookie headlines. In 2055 the rookie flavour of October was 23 y/o Richard Moore. He was such a hit that not only did he win RotM, he also took out SotM, a nearly unheard of feat. Brisbane’s round 2 pick in 2053, Moore went that season from college to rookie ball, playing there all season and winning their SotY plus a Gold Glove (.321/.404/.502, 9HR). In 2054 he jumped straight to AA, where he again dominated (.326/.393/.595, 39HR), once more winning SotY and a Gold Glove. And this season he’d bypassed AAA, winning a place in Brisbane’s big league squad. In October he hit .304/.354/.739, 35-115, with 25 runs, 11 doubles, 13HR, 30RBI, and 10BB. He led the league in SLG, OPS, HR, wOBA (.442), ISO (.435), XBH, and total bases (85). He was tied for the lead in RBI and runs.

Hurler of the Month: Bruno Budd had won the #1 spot in Darwin’s rotation to begin the season, relegating Brad King to 2nd. Darwin appeared to have made the right move, their southpaw winning HotM on the back of a 5-0 effort. His ERA was 2.91, his FIP 3.24, and his WHIP 1.01. He struck out 33 in 46.1IP, and currently sat alone atop the season wins board.

Media Watch

Ashley Snijders: Snijders spent nearly 2 weeks on the DL during the month after hurting himself at training in an inter-team soccer game. He did play 20 games during the month, though, and the results weren’t pretty. He hit .159/.293/.203, with 11 hits and 0HR. Whangarei management were sure he would bounce back and provide value during the rest of the season.

Quentin Welch: Could the kid make the switch? Perth, in their dubious wisdom, decided to play him at 2B instead of 3B, their rationale being that the overall #1 draft pick of 2053, 21 y/o Calvin Hodnett, was going to spend the season learning his trade in the majors. But even though Welch wasn’t suited to the 2B role, putting up a -4.6 ZR in October, he was suited to the plate. He went .320/.410/.583 in the month, hitting in the 3-hole, 33-103, with 23 runs, 9 doubles, 6HR, 17RBI, and 16BB. Skipper Logan Smith, in his 6th year in the job and having not yet led Perth to a winning season, was excited with Welch’s progress, saying, “The young fellah’s lifting all the rest of the guys. They see him putting in and rocketing ahead and they’re motivated to do the same. I think the transition’s been really good for ‘Goose,’ too. He seems much more relaxed and settled within himself.”

Jorge Diaz: With all the hype heaped on him preseason by the media, Diaz got a lot of attention during the month as all the analysts hoped he would live up to expectations. He was trucking along pretty well, hitting .341/.362/.667, 42-123, with 16 runs, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 10HR, 30RBI and 5BB, even if his Pioneers were fighting to get out of first gear. He was tied with Moore for the league RBI lead.

Ovidio Arvelos: Arvelos was the first homegrown BL player in a fair while to move to the AUNZBL, and fans were interested to see how the best hitter in last year’s BL would go in the majors. He played 24 games for the Bandits in October, starting 23, and finished the month with a stat-line of .220/.319/.329. He was 18-82, with 12 runs, 3 doubles, 2HR, 3RBI, and 11BB. His OPS+ at month end was 72.

Other Notes

Coastal Division: Darwin were locked up at the end of the month with surprise packets Perth. Adelaide were awful, as were Cairns, with rumours heating up that both teams would be headed to the ABC. Of course, Cairns were owned by the government, and would they want to weaken their share in the AUNZBL by a full quarter?

East-West Division: Newcastle started strong, as did Brisbane, who finished October 1 game back from the Roos. Central Coast was a further 2 games back, while last year’s fan favourites Kununurra were in the doldrums.

NZ Division: Auckland led Whangarei by 1 game, with Wellington 3 games below .500 and Christchurch the worst team in the league.

Southern Division: The entire division played .500+ ball in October. Canberra were the best team in the majors, Sydney 3 games back, and Hobart and Melbourne a further 2 games behind.

Wildcard: Merely a curiosity at this point.

#

Perth’s Peter Moy (.417/.440/.571, 1HR) snuck in from somewhere to finish the month at the head of the BA boards, the caveat being he’d only played 20 games during the month.

Martin Boston (.411/.445/.488, 0HR) might’ve surrendered the BA lead, but he was well out in front in the hits department (53), and was equal top in runs scored (25), and WAR (1.9).

Equal with Boston in WAR was Auckland’s Trent Burton (.360/.414/.590, 3HR).

Kununurra’s Yin-ti Zhuo (.338/.465/.512, 2HR) had the league’s best OBP, while Alan Sneddon (.281/.457/.313, 0HR) recovered from an awful opening 10 days to end the month with 31 walks, 2 more than anybody else.

24 y/o Aces’ SP Ramon Cruz (2-1, 1.74 ERA, 3.17 FIP, 1.06 WHIP), a scouting discovery out of the Lower Americas, led the league in ERA.

Eddie Rayner (3-1, 2.92 ERA, 2.12 FIP, 0.86 WHIP) had the best FIP, WHIP, K/BB (18.00 - he walked 2 hitters in 37.0 IP), and WAR (1.6).

Nathan Beckett (3-3, 1.88 ERA, 3.28 FIP, 1.23 WHIP) led the league in Ks (41) and IP (48.0). He’d also started 1 more game than any other pitcher, managing 7 starts in October.

Edwin Kerr (1-3, 5.94 ERA, 5.06 FIP, 1.50 WHIP) was having a terrible start to the season, but could at least boast the league lead in K/9, with a 9.18 mark.

Newastle’s new signing, Caspar Buffey, had nailed down the closing role, at least to start the season, and had repaid Newcastle’s faith with a league-leading 10 saves.

Standings, Nov 1