Massive May Makes Monarchs First Place Team in European
Code:
America/Asia Standings
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
RC Mounted Baseballists 31 16 .660 - 25-22 6 16-7 15-9 2-0 13-3 115 L2 5-5
New York Giants 27 17 .614 2.5 28-16 -1 15-6 12-11 3-1 7-8 W3 7-3
Mexico City Aztecs 28 19 .596 3.0 28-19 0 15-10 13-9 3-2 9-10 L3 6-4
Chicago Defenders 25 24 .510 7.0 27-22 -2 11-14 14-10 1-2 7-6 W2 5-5
Cincinnati Reds 24 23 .511 7.0 25-22 -1 13-14 11-9 1-3 8-5 W1 6-4
Tokyo Rising Sun 21 22 .488 8.0 20-23 1 10-11 11-11 4-2 5-7 L1 6-4
Rio de Janeiro Carnival 22 25 .468 9.0 25-22 -3 12-11 10-14 0-2 2-4 L2 5-5
USA Baseball Engineers 24 28 .462 9.5 22-30 2 13-14 11-14 4-6 6-8 W1 2-8
Shanghai Dragons 22 30 .423 11.5 25-27 -3 10-13 12-17 2-1 8-11 L1 5-5
Sydney Outback 14 34 .292 17.5 16-32 -2 10-13 4-21 1-2 5-8 W4 5-5
European League Standings
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
London Monarchs 32 17 .653 - 30-19 2 17-9 15-8 3-1 7-4 112 L1 6-4
Brussels Painters 31 19 .620 1.5 30-20 1 19-7 12-12 5-2 8-6 L3 2-8
Berlin Teutonic Knights 29 23 .558 4.5 28-24 1 16-11 13-12 1-0 5-7 W5 7-3
Paris Revolutions 26 22 .542 5.5 24-24 2 15-10 11-12 2-3 8-7 L2 5-5
Athens Philosophers 25 24 .510 7.0 24-25 1 15-9 10-15 2-0 5-2 W6 7-3
Rome Cardinals 23 26 .469 9.0 25-24 -2 14-12 9-14 2-3 9-9 L4 4-6
Amsterdam Admirals 22 27 .449 10.0 20-29 2 13-12 9-15 0-2 4-3 L3 3-7
Madrid Matadors 22 29 .431 11.0 21-30 1 13-12 9-17 1-0 5-7 W3 8-2
Moscow Proletariat 20 29 .408 12.0 22-27 -2 13-8 7-21 3-5 5-8 W2 3-7
Vienna Musik 18 32 .360 14.5 23-27 -5 10-13 8-19 1-4 4-7 W1 3-7
If you stand still in the League of Nations, you get passed by. That's what the
Brussels Painters learned this past month. After playing .500 ball, they saw their great start slowly erode until the defending
London Monarchs surpassed them for the pennant lead. London was simply devastating, winning 20 of 28 games and riding a Pitcher of the Month performance by
Cameron Boden (9-3, 2.13).
In the American, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists are threatening to make this a snoozer. Despite losing their first baseman and half of their projected starting rotation to injury, the Canadians out-walked the rest of the league, compiling a league-high .345 on-base percentage including 179 bases on balls in 47 games. 2B
Jonathan Simon (.328, 0, 19), CF
Alexandre Maurice (.292, 0, 21), RF
Rusty Dodd (.296, 4, 15), and 3B
Michel Briand (.259, 4, 25) all understand the power of the free pass. When you make a mistake against the Mounted Baseballists, generally you make it with guys on base.
We should also spotlight the
Sydney Outback because they are really, really bad. This is, we know, only the second season of the League of Nations, but they might just be the worst club of all time. The craziest part is, the hitting is actually not too bad. It's not great (8th in the A/A in runs) but there are worse offenses out there. CF
Kevin Martin (.380, 6, 29) in particular still has a shot at hitting .400 this season, so the fans do have something to cheer about. What's laying this club low is their pitching. Sydney's team ERA of 5.75 is almost a run and a half higher than the next-worst team (the US Army Baseball Engineers, who sport a 4.29). They've allowed nearly twice as many homeruns as anybody else (28 vs. the USA's 22) and have to date walked nearly twice as many men as they've struck out. This club is almost worth watching just to see the depths it can reach.
Well, Why Don't We Look At Those Team Stats?
Code:
America/Asia Batting
Team AVG HR R AB H 2B 3B BB K OBP SLG OPS SB
New York Giants .285 8 229 1566 446 62 21 133 104 .339 .367 .706 27
Cincinnati Reds .281 16 220 1659 467 60 22 123 123 .333 .373 .706 34
Mexico City Aztecs .279 9 213 1678 468 83 23 140 151 .334 .372 .706 15
Tokyo Rising Sun .279 17 214 1548 432 64 25 147 120 .339 .386 .725 50
Chicago Defenders .277 9 259 1752 485 83 30 162 138 .340 .374 .713 58
RC Mounted Baseballists .271 14 233 1598 433 74 26 179 124 .345 .376 .721 46
Rio de Janeiro Carnival .270 11 229 1662 449 68 28 130 163 .322 .365 .686 59
Sydney Outback .270 21 218 1665 450 69 20 164 128 .336 .374 .710 29
USA Baseball Engineers .265 13 226 1843 489 82 23 132 131 .318 .356 .674 102
Shanghai Dragons .263 10 228 1843 485 87 13 136 207 .316 .341 .657 60
America/Asia Totals
Team AVG HR R AB H 2B 3B BB K OBP SLG OPS SB
TOTALS .274 128 2269 16814 4604 732 231 1446 1389 .332 .368 .700 480
European League Batting
Team AVG HR R AB H 2B 3B BB K OBP SLG OPS SB
Rome Cardinals .288 12 243 1724 496 84 24 171 134 .350 .385 .736 35
London Monarchs .287 22 297 1726 495 88 31 191 128 .358 .412 .770 65
Brussels Painters .287 12 248 1841 528 95 24 114 145 .331 .384 .715 6
Paris Revolutions .287 10 246 1717 493 79 22 150 118 .344 .376 .720 35
Berlin Teutonic Knights .281 8 252 1844 519 83 29 126 174 .327 .371 .698 87
Vienna Musik .275 12 242 1784 491 76 22 144 166 .328 .363 .690 94
Athens Philosophers .274 20 243 1677 460 73 23 159 114 .339 .381 .720 68
Madrid Matadors .263 10 217 1790 471 72 19 98 197 .303 .341 .645 49
Amsterdam Admirals .251 5 191 1680 421 67 12 102 180 .295 .314 .609 68
Moscow Proletariat .249 14 209 1673 416 68 22 159 179 .316 .341 .657 52
European League Totals
Team AVG HR R AB H 2B 3B BB K OBP SLG OPS SB
TOTALS .274 125 2388 17456 4790 785 228 1414 1535 .329 .367 .696 559
America/Asia Pitching
Team ERA S IP HA R ER HRA BB K OAVG CG SHO
Mexico City Aztecs 2.89 1 429.2 399 174 138 10 92 168 .242 32 0
Cincinnati Reds 3.16 3 421.0 472 204 148 4 91 148 .280 31 3
New York Giants 3.33 4 391.2 385 169 145 11 150 97 .258 29 0
Chicago Defenders 3.46 1 437.0 481 236 168 15 151 140 .276 31 1
RC Mounted Baseballists 3.80 2 417.0 447 213 176 13 133 142 .273 30 1
Shanghai Dragons 3.83 1 458.2 520 238 195 6 148 170 .283 27 0
Rio de Janeiro Carnival 3.84 1 414.1 423 211 177 14 168 85 .264 31 2
Tokyo Rising Sun 4.11 2 389.2 454 234 178 5 117 168 .285 21 2
USA Baseball Engineers 4.29 3 476.1 502 269 227 22 193 150 .267 25 3
Sydney Outback 5.75 0 415.0 521 321 265 28 203 121 .307 18 3
America/Asia Totals
Team ERA S IP HA R ER HRA BB K OAVG CG SHO
TOTALS 3.85 18 4250.1 4604 2269 1817 128 1446 1389 .274 275 15
European League Pitching
Team ERA S IP HA R ER HRA BB K OAVG CG SHO
Brussels Painters 3.21 7 451.1 450 203 161 10 142 176 .260 24 4
London Monarchs 3.39 3 441.0 473 227 166 5 85 177 .268 26 2
Amsterdam Admirals 3.68 1 431.0 473 236 176 9 105 161 .275 30 5
Berlin Teutonic Knights 3.95 4 465.1 465 233 204 13 186 186 .259 27 5
Moscow Proletariat 4.06 3 432.2 484 235 195 9 165 144 .281 26 4
Vienna Musik 4.20 0 446.0 536 260 208 18 123 138 .295 29 1
Athens Philosophers 4.21 3 430.0 438 247 201 12 161 124 .261 25 2
Rome Cardinals 4.24 2 435.0 502 238 205 19 129 145 .285 25 1
Paris Revolutions 4.34 6 429.2 479 250 207 10 154 124 .282 25 2
Madrid Matadors 4.38 4 443.1 490 259 216 20 164 160 .278 25 0
European League Totals
Team ERA S IP HA R ER HRA BB K OAVG CG SHO
TOTALS 3.96 33 4405.1 4790 2388 1939 125 1414 1535 .274 262 26
The story of the American/Asian league, aside from the awfulness of the Outback, is probably the way the Royal Canadians have mounted an assault on first place with a hitting and pitching attack that are both pretty average. There are two ways of looking at this. On the one hand, perhaps they are more vulnerable than people might think. On the other, they're winning a lot of ballgames without their best hitter in 1B
MacKillan Dwywy (.367, 3, 20) and will benefit sometime this year from the return of
Bernard Thivierge (11-1, 1.97 ERA last year before he was shut down with a life-threatening abdominal injury).
As expected, the Mexico City Aztecs, who combined their own twin staff aces in
Manuel Figueroa (7-4, 2.57) and
Jose Gonzales (5-3, 3.71) with the Madrid Matador's top 2 pitchers
Jesus Galvan (8-5, 3.11) and
Mario Ramos (7-1, 1.51), have the best pitching staff in the business. Their lackluster hitting is what's holding them back.
The European hitting story is one of haves vs. have nots. The top 5 teams have a mean batting average of .286, compared to a .265 by the bottom 5. The haves are bringing in about 257 runs per team compared to 220 by the have-nots, a difference of almost a run per game. The have-nots do have more stolen bases (due primarily to Brussels' "sit on the bases and wait for a 3-run triple" philosophy), but even by crazy statistics that are made up by the kinds of people who live in their mothers' basements the haves are ahead 249 runs per team to 208 (the mom's basement statistic here is Base Runs, which were transported into 1920 by some application of the Tesla/Einstein time travel method that we do not want to think about too much).
How Are Last Year's Champs Doing?
Given the addition of four new teams this year and all the turmoil associated with that sort of thing, we felt it would be interesting to take a look at how last year's Big Six and Most Valuable Player award winners were doing so far:
2B
Jonathan Simon (.328, 0, 19) is still chugging along. He was mentioned in this month's report as one of the four Mounted Baseballists who "gets it" when it comes to the base on balls. Adding to his offensive prowess is a high-minded approach to defense that has thus far seen him commit just 3 errors all season long for a .986 fielding average.
Steve Daly (7-4, 2.30) has already matched his loss total for all of last season but he isn't letting that bring him down. He's still 3rd in the A/A in earned run average and also has the 3rd-fewest baserunners per 9 innings with 9.57. A good push by him coupled with the New York Giants' improved play as a team might just garner him a second consecutive Big Six.
Aurochs Eckhardt (.387, 3, 30) is still not showing any signs of slowing down at the advanced baseball age of 38. The only thing right now between him and a second MVP is the fantastic play of Vienna Musik RF
Veit Ahrenthal (.403, 6, 32), who is flirting with .400 into June. Eckhardt is right there behind him in the hitting race and also ranks among the league leaders in on-base percentage, triples, and home runs.
Of the four award-winners, it could be said that
Yvon Calzolai (7-5, 3.30) is the one who has fallen the farthest from his lofty perch. He's barely over .500 and has lost 3 straight games. He still ranks in the top 6 in both strikeouts and fewest walks per 9 innings so it would be a mistake to count him out of this year's race.