Author Archives: Matt Smith

About Matt Smith

Matt Smith is the editor and lead writer at BaseballGB. An Oakland A's fan, Matt has been following baseball since 1998 and started writing about the sport in 2006. He is the current Chair of the British Baseball Hall of Fame.

New website design goes live!

If you’re reading this then in some ways the comment is a redundant, but after several months of planning and testing I’ve finally been able to give live with the new website design.

Here’s a short video in which I go through the new features and layout.

https://youtu.be/oGfOUmXddAc

Play Fair, but Play to Win

As we reflect on the first week of nothingness that amounts to a typical seven days in the MLB off-season of late, the biggest news story of the week in British sport makes for an interesting contrast.

Saracens, the English rugby union club, have been handed down a significant penalty for repeated breaches of the Premiership’s payroll cap.

The team has been given a 35-point deduction, putting them bottom of the league table on -26 points three games into the season (a plight that would almost certainly lead to relegation for any other club, but Saracens probably will just escape that fate) and a £5.36m fine ($6.86m).

For context, the standard payroll cap in the league is £7m, so the fine is equivalent to 75% of their payroll. In some ways, a bit like the Boston Red Sox being fined $160m. The penalties are being contested, yet experts do not fancy Saracens’ chances of overturning the ruling.

The full story can be found in this BBC Sport article, but in essence the team has been accused of flouting the salary cap by setting up investment opportunities (businesses etc) with players. This has allowed them to keep hold of their best players by signing them to contracts of a reduced rate and topping up their remuneration in a way that, they argued, did not constitute a salary and therefore was exempt from the payroll cap calculations.

In short, the team’s owner Nigel Wray has been found to have been using crafty methods to pay players more money.

This is not an accusation you are ever likely to see being levelled at an owner of an MLB team.

MLB is effectively a combination of 30 ownership groups, all of whom having a strong vested interest in keeping their costs down. The quiet and contentious free agency market of recent off-seasons is seen as a direct consequence of teams choosing not to spend money on players beyond the very top-tier of the free agency class.

In this context, the comments from Atlanta Braves’ General Manager Alex Anthopoulos this week about how he has checked in with the other teams “to get a sense of what the other clubs are going to look to do in free agency, who might be available in trades” were hopelessly naive.

Anthopoulos likely was not inadvertently revealing a great conspiracy, instead referring to the obvious intelligence gathering clubs will do to get a sense of what opportunities might present themselves; however it was no surprise that the MLB Players’ Association jumped on the comments and cried “club coordination”.

Relations between MLB and the MLBPA are at their lowest point for many years and the ability of the two sides to come to agreement when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after the 2021 season is in real question.

We are regularly told by MLB Front Offices, and others doing their bidding, that the current climate is a by-product of every team being smarter, using advanced analytics to make rational decisions around contracts and transactions. There is some truth to this, indeed a team could quickly point to the two biggest free agent deals of last year’s off-season (Bryce Harper’s 13 year, $330m contract with the Philadelphia Phillies and Manny Machado’s 10 year, $300m contract with the San Diego Padres) and that neither team even finished with a winning record in the first year of those ‘franchise-changing’ acquisitions.

However, a rational market shouldn’t over-power the fundamental objective of the teams as sporting entities and businesses: competition.

For example, it may be rational and smart to have a general stance that signing a free agent pitcher to a contract longer than four years is a risky proposition, yet good MLB players are a finite commodity. It only takes one team to think ‘we’d prefer not to go above four years, but that player could really make a difference to us’ to push the bidding to five years and beyond. That is the very definition of a properly functioning free agent market.

The fundamental issue in MLB currently is that every year a significant number of teams are ducking out of acquiring good talent, whether justified as ‘retooling’ or them being in full tanking mode. The result is that most free agents are not presented with a ‘normal’ pool of teams competing against each other to acquire talent, and they are therefore not benefiting from the inflationary effect that this is supposed to have.

It’s not that teams are being smarter with their offers, it’s that the market isn’t forcing them to stretch the slightest bit beyond the lower bounds of a potentially acceptable offer for fear of a competitor being willing to offer more. In a marketplace that is restricted to a 30 team (employer) monopoly, that is a huge problem. For the players, at least.

A balance is always necessary in a sport so that there is hope for all teams and that the league is not simply determined by a small group of big-pocketed clubs. In the case of Saracens rugby club, it appears that they have broken the rules agreed to by all and rightly deserve a punishment for it.

Yet in the context of the current MLB landscape, it shouldn’t be overlooked that at heart the Saracens’ owner was motivated by wanting to put together a great team (which he has done) and financially compensating those players accordingly. He was motivated by a desire to build as competitive a team as he was able and to bring success on the field.

How many of the 30 MLB ownership groups could say the same?

Great Britain win but miss out on Euro Quarter-Finals

Great Britain lining-up against Germany. Photo courtesy of Paul Stodart, https://hotshot.photo
Great Britain lining-up against Germany. Photo courtesy of Paul Stodart, https://hotshot.photo

Great Britain did all they could in Germany on Wednesday, but sadly it wasn’t quite enough to earn a European Championship quarter-final place.

The Lions beat Sweden 13-7 to finish their First Round on a 2-3 win-loss record. The result left the team and their supporters waiting nervously as Germany played the Czech Republic, knowing that a win for Germany would be enough to put GB through to the quarter-finals.

Unfortunately for us, the Czech Republic had other ideas. Their 10-6 victory meant the Czechs finished 3rd in Pool A. Germany’s previous 1-0 win over GB on Sunday broke the tie between the two 2-3 teams, putting them in fourth place and Great Britain into the classification round.

I did a live-stream on Periscope/Twitter after the game and have uploaded it onto the new British Baseball Beat YouTube channel, adding in some excellent photos by Paul Stodart, who is out in Germany with the team.

https://youtu.be/caYwGXJ0_pQ

As discussed in the video, here’s how the Classification Round section is structured (all times in BST).

The tournament continues for Great Britain with a game against Austria on Thursday (10.00am BST first pitch). Follow the game live at baseballsoftball.tv.

Quarter-Finals still possible for Great Britain

Great Britain head into their final game of the First Round of the 2019 European Baseball Championships on Wednesday still in with a shout of making it to the Quarter Finals.

Tuesday’s 7-4 loss to Israel showed once again how small margins can make such a big difference in short-series tournaments.

Great Britain got off to the perfect start in Solingen, Germany, when third baseman Ben Andrews hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning, but Israel had drawn level at 3-3 when he stepped up to the plate to lead-off the bottom of the sixth.

Andrews hit a double into left-field for his third hit of the game, the second being a single in the third inning, and, after Rich Brereton struck out, he advanced to third on a wild pitch. Nate Thomas then walked and stole second base to put runners on second and third, only for Maikel Azcuy (strike-out) and Rich Klijn (pop-up to second base) to leave them stranded.

It felt like a momentum-changing situation and, unfortunately for us, that’s how it proved. Blake Gaillen hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning to give Israel a 5-3 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

Although Jordan Serena quickly got one of those runs back by singling home Will Savage in the bottom of the frame, Israel scored a run in the top of the eighth before Gaillen struck again in the ninth for his second long-ball of the game and his third of the tournament so far.

A game that Great Britain might have gone on to win, against a very good Israel team, slipped away to a 7-4 defeat, just as a brilliant showing against Germany on Sunday only amounted to a 1-0 loss. Liam Carroll’s team have been close to putting together a hugely impressive First Round and whilst being so close, but so far, is frustrating, it also shows the talent and fight the team has that they put themselves into that position.

They’ll need to draw on those reserves on Wednesday to give themselves a chance of making it to the Quarter-Finals.

How things stand

Let’s deal with the second part of the day first.

Great Britain’s suspended game against the Netherlands will be completed with a ‘first’ pitch set for 17.30 UK time. The Dutch were leading 10-2 after eight innings when bad light meant the final regulation inning could not be played, so whilst we can all cross our fingers for a comeback to end all comebacks, more realistically we should pencil in a loss to GB’s record (and a W for the Dutch).

If we do that, then Pool A will look like this ahead of the three scheduled games to be played in full:

PTeamWL
1Israel40
2Netherlands31
3Czech Republic22
4Germany22
5Great Britain13
6Sweden04

Wednesday’s Pool A fixtures, all being played in Bonn, are as follows:

  • Sweden v Great Britain (12:30 BST).
  • Israel v Netherlands (14:00)
  • Germany v Czech Republic (18:00).

What do we need to happen?

Great Britain’s game is the first one up and, pending a shocking comeback against the Netherlands later on, quite simply is a game they must win to have a chance of finishing the top four.

From there, attention will turn to the game at 18:00 BST between Germany and the Czech Republic. That will determine which of those two teams finishes 3-2 and which finishes 2-3, and that will be hugely important for Great Britain.

CEB tournament rules dictate that the first tie-breaker when two teams finish on the same win-loss record is the head-to-head result between the two teams.

If Germany beat the Czech Republic then Great Britain will finish fourth, qualifying for the quarter-finals, due to our 4-3 win over them on Monday.

If the Czech Republic beat Germany then we will be placed in fifth, with Germany’s 1-0 win on Sunday putting them ahead of us.

A nervous day ahead!

Those small margins will loom large on Wednesday. If Great Britain lose to Sweden not only will that put us into the ‘Classification’ section, rather than the quarter-finals, it would also mean a sixth-placed pool finish (Sweden winning the tie-breaker with us both on 1-4 records). That would be a real shame and not at all representative of how well the team has played.

But let’s not allow such negative thoughts into our heads. Instead, let’s focus on cheering Great Britain to victory over the Swedes and then spending the rest of the afternoon learning the German national anthem!

After the games are complete

I’ve been live-streaming ahead of Great Britain’s games on Periscope/Twitter over the last few days and if you haven’t seen them then you can check them out on the new British Baseball Beat YouTube channel. As noted there, the YouTube channel is going to be developed over the off-season but it seemed a good idea to collate these videos in one place so we’ll call it a soft launch!

Here’s the video recorded prior to Tuesday’s games, as an example:

https://youtu.be/VsBnllet_8A

I’m planning to do a live-stream on Periscope/Twitter after the Germany-Czech Republic game (so, probably about 21:00 BST) to reflect on the day’s events, so keep an eye out for that on my Twitter account: @mattbaseballgb.

Euros Day One: GB game to be completed

The first day of the 2019 European Baseball Championships is almost in the books.

The ‘almost’ is there because Great Britain’s game against the Netherlands was suspended after eight innings due to bad late stopping play. The Netherlands lead 10-2, so it will be an almighty ninth-inning effort by Liam Carroll’s Lions to avoid a defeat, but technically we can say the game is still alive!

There’s no official word yet as to when the final inning will be played, although today (Sunday) and Wednesday are the only two days in the First Round on which the two teams are playing in the same place, so we should know fairly soon.

I rounded up all the action from Day One, and then looked ahead to Day Two, on a Sunday morning Periscope live stream. I’ve uploaded it to our new British Baseball Beat YouTube channel which is very much a work in progress, but will be developed over the course of the off-season.

https://youtu.be/LHAAGFzNGJM

Great Britain’s game on Sunday is scheduled to start at 18.00 BST. We take on the hosts Germany in Bonn, with live coverage available at baseballsoftball.tv.

European Baseball Championship 2019 begins today

The day is finally here. The 2019 European Baseball Championship begins in Germany with not only the European crown on the line, but a path towards qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The top 12 teams in Europe will battle it out over the next nine days, playing 47 games in total across two venues: Bonn and Solingen.

Whilst every team will be aiming to emerge victorious in Game 47, they will also be mindful that the top five teams earn the right to compete in the Europe-Africa Olympic qualifier in Italy, starting on 18 September, alongside South Africa.

The two pools

The twelve teams are split into two pools for the first round of the tournament. Great Britain are in Pool A.

Pool A

Netherlands (8th)
Czech Republic (18th)
Israel (19th)
Germany (22nd)
Sweden (34th)
Great Britain (38th)

Pool B

Italy (16th)
France (25th)
Spain (26th)
Austria (27th)
Belgium (30th)
Croatia (32nd).

The numbers in parenthesis are the current WBSC World Rankings. As with FIFA’s football world rankings, the exact placements can be questioned but they do tell a tale of the challenge ahead for Liam Carroll’s team.

Great Britain are ranked as the lowest team of the 12 and GB’s pool contains four of the top five ranked European teams, albeit that the differences in the Czech Republic (18th) to Belgium (30th) group of teams are not wide.

Don’t be so quick to count GB out, though.

The favourites

The same five teams have finished in the top five in the past three Euros: Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic.

It will be difficult for any team to break into that group, but that’s not going to stop the rest from trying and Great Britain will be right there among them.

GB’s roster

GB’s Schedule

Here’s GB’s full first round schedule, with start times in BST.

Saturday 7th – Netherlands (15.00 BST)

Sunday 8th – Germany (18.00)

Monday 9th – Czech Republic (11.30)

Tuesday 10th – Israel (11.30)

Wednesday 11th – Sweden (12.00)

Game One: Netherlands

Great Britain’s tournament starts today against the Netherlands.

The Honkballers have won the tournament a record 22 times, including the last two in 2014 and 2016. They go into this year’s competition favourites not only to win the Euros, but also to prevail in the Olympic qualifier.

That means GB have the toughest test to start.

It also means GB have the perfect opportunity to really set down a marker for the days ahead, hopefully in the form of a shock win but, if not, at least by putting in a strong performance that they can take a lot of confidence from.

All of the games in the tournament are going to be streamed live on www.baseballsoftball.tv. Be sure to follow along from 15.00 BST as our Lions get their 2019 Euros started.

BGB Fantasy League 2019: Week 21

Six teams have now booked their play-off place in the BGB Fantasy League.

That leaves two places remaining to be claimed ahead of the final week of the regular season competition. Here’s how the match-ups played out last week.

Team

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score

Durham Riverkings

32

9

24

1

.232

.759

1

4

42

1

3.41

1.00

1

Newcastle Knights

29

10

28

4

.280

.877

5

5

74

4

2.43

0.97

11

Homer Time: Gary Sanchez (Riverkings) put three over the fence last week

Springer loaded: George Springer (Knights) added 9 RBI to the cause.

Great Giolito: Lucas Giolito (Knights) continues to mow down hitters, striking out 16 in his two appearances although no pitching wins were forthcoming thanks to his White Sox team ‘mates’.

Team

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score

Bunting for Britain

46

14

44

3

.341

.998

3

0

45

4

5.02

1.72

10

The Bath Bombers

24

8

32

2

.284

.779

0

1

35

2

5.40

1.52

2

Three-sy does it: Mitch Garver and Justin Turner both went deep three times for Bunting, whilst Starlin Castro and Nick Castellanos both did so too for the Bombers.

The only way to Save: Andres Munoz (Bombers) got the only save for either team.

Things that make you say ‘ouch’!: Reynaldo Lopez’s ‘contribution’ to Bunting’s week was an 81.00 ERA and a 10.50 WHIP.  For the uninitiated, that’s what’s known in fantasy baseball as ‘not very good’.

Team

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score

Mighty Slugs

30

12

30

0

.218

.781

3

1

61

1

5.90

1.19

4

Swindon Devil Rays

28

14

34

0

.314

1.029

2

4

39

0

2.63

0.91

7

Good/Bad Luck: the key stat of the week was 27.1 innings pitched, as the missing-in-action Devil Rays made a rare foray over the 20 innings minimum. Good luck for them, bad for the Slugs not to benefit from a forfeited pitching category sweep!

Perfect 10: J.D. Martinez (Slugs) batted in 10 runs on the week.

Lovely Luis: Luis Castillo (Slugs) struck out 19 and gained two pitching wins.

Saves: Ken Giles and Brandon Workman both notched two saves for the Devil Rays.

Team

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score

The Cheddar Chasers

37

10

32

7

.288

.865

3

1

39

0

5.53

1.39

6

Orpington Isotopes

26

10

23

2

.228

.719

3

2

65

0

5.08

1.48

3

Pinch-blogging rules!: The week I pinch-blog for Mark, my Chasers beat his Isotopes. Maybe I should do this more often?!

5 Alive: Eugenio Suarez launched 5 homers for the Isotopes.

Three is a magic number: Freeman, Rendon and Escobar all hit three homers on the week for my Chasers.

Speed kills: Jonathan Villar (Chasers) swiped 5 bags in one week.

Team

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score

Beckenham A&E Dept

28

5

31

5

.235

.749

7

4

70

0

4.16

1.10

5

Richie’s RBI’s

39

14

29

4

.318

.949

4

1

59

3

2.52

0.91

7

Spread out the homers: no less than nine players went deep for the RBI’s last week.

Run and run: Mallex Smith (RBI’s) scored seven runs and stole three bases

Say ‘yes’ to a no-no: A&E benefitted from Justin Verlander’s no-hitter on Sunday. He picked up 2 wins and 18K’s on the week, whilst Michael Pineda also added two wins to Beckenham’s bunch alongside 17K’s.

Team

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score

Cheshunt Maltsters

37

9

29

4

.305

.891*

5

4

43

1

3.80

1.27

7

Norwich No II

33

10

26

2

.280

.891*

2

6

48

2

3.83

1.12

5

Joy of Six: Lindor, Reynolds and Dickerson all batted in six runs for the Maltsters.

Starling effort: Starling Marte contributed 8 runs to Maltsters’ cause.

The other J.D.: Davis went deep three times for No II.

Standings

Rank

Team

W-L-T

Pct

GB

Last Week

Waiver

Moves

*1

Newcastle Knights

154-87-11

.633

11-1-0

9

32

*2

The Cheddar Chasers

134-98-20

.571

15.5

6-3-3

4

11

*3

Bunting for Britain

134-100-18

.567

16.5

10-2-0

11

39

*4

Mighty Slugs

135-101-16

.567

16.5

4-7-1

6

39

*5

Beckenham A&E Dept

128-103-21

.550

21

5-7-0

2

15

*6

Orpington Isotopes

127-107-18

.540

23.5

3-6-3

5

23

7

Norwich No II

124-111-17

.526

27

5-7-0

10

28

8

Richie’s RBI’s

115-120-17

.490

36

7-5-0

7

24

9

Cheshunt Maltsters

114-125-13

.478

39

7-5-0

12

39

10

Durham Riverkings

101-137-14

.429

51.5

1-11-0

1

29

11

The Bath Bombers

80-159-13

.343

73

2-10-0

3

16

12

Swindon Devil Rays

70-168-14

.306

82.5

7-4-1

8

4

Week 22 match-ups

Bunting (3rd) v Chasers (2nd)
Isotopes (6th) v Devil Rays (12th)
Beckenham (5th) v Bombers (11th)
Maltsters (9th) v RBI’s (8th)
Riverkings (10th) v No II (7th)
Slugs (4th) v Knights (1st)

London Mets win their sixth National Title

The London Mets made some more history at Farnham Park today, defeating London Capitals 14-4 to win the British National Baseball Championship for the third consecutive season, and a record sixth time overall.

London Mets 2019 National Baseball Champions – BBF YouTube

The Mets are only the fourth team in British Baseball history to win three national titles in a row, joining the Cobham Yankees (1986-88), Enfield Spartans (1989-91) and Southern/Harlow Nationals (2011-13).

The London Mets came to prominence whilst winning back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008, but their recent run has put them at the top of the all-time National Champions list. They’ve participated in each of the past six finals, winning four and losing two to the Essex Arrows in 2014 and Southampton Mustangs in 2016.

Sunday’s final was set up by a pair of semi-final games on Saturday. London Mets were pushed hard by the Essex Arrows, but ultimately prevailed 4-1, whilst the Capitals booked their place in the final with an emphatic 17-6 win over Herts Falcons.

The Mets and Capitals finished first and second in the regular season so it was fitting that these were the two teams battling it out to the end. Ultimately, the Mets showed their class by jumping ahead in the final and the game ended on a well-hit line-out to third base in the seventh inning, with the game being called after seven innings and the Mets leading by ten runs.

It’s a great achievement by Drew Spence and his team and there’s no doubt that the London Mets are the benchmark in British Baseball right now.

The games are available to watch back in full via the BBF’s excellent YouTube coverage. The weekend also saw East London Latin Boys capturing their first Triple-A title with a 12-2 seven-inning victory over Cartmel Valley Lions.

British Baseball Beat: Play-off Places

We’re at the sharp-end of the British Baseball season, although that’s not to say everything is decided.

Some regular season games are still to be played and some wider questions over who is going to make the post-season are still to be answered.

Firstly it should be noted that the (much-improved from last year) BBF website is using a football template for the division tables, so confusingly is displaying a points system (3 for a win) and goal difference rather than the baseball format of how many games back of first place the team is. I’ve converted the current tables as published at time of writing below.

NBL: Arrows in the Air

The London Mets (21-1) carried on their winning ways last Sunday by defeating the Essex Arrows (5-19) by a score of 15-4 and edging a close game against the London Capitals (13-11) 2-1.

This Sunday will conclude the regular season with the Arrows hosting the Mets and the Capitals hosting the Herts Falcons (7-15).

PTeamWLGB
1Mets211
2Capitals13119
3Falcons71514
4Arrows51917

However, there is still some uncertainty over the upcoming play-offs.

In theory this should see the first-placed team (Mets) facing the fourth-placed team (the Arrows) in one semi-final, and second and third teams in the other, on Saturday 24th to set up the final for Sunday 25th.

However, questions still officially remain unanswered over the Arrows’ play-off eligibility following their two games against Herts Falcons on 7 July currently being determined as forfeited in favour of the Falcons. Whether this is finally confirmed to be the case is an important point, as BBF rules state that any forfeit by an NBL team disqualifies them from the post-season.

If so, the likely answer would be to give the first-placed Mets a bye which, whilst being a shame from a competitive point of view, wouldn’t be so unfair bearing in mind their regular season dominance.

AAA: Putting the ‘Wild’ into Wild Card

This is where things get complicated.

The Triple-A teams have played out their regular season games, with the exception of a double-header between Oxford Kings and Herts Londoners that was scheduled for 16 June and has not been played. The BBF’s final standings are as follows:

PTeamWLGB
1East London Latin Boys195
2Essex Redbacks14105
3London Mammoths11138
4Oxford Kings10128
5Herts Londoners10128
6Richmond Knights91510
7Kent Buccaneers91510

The Triple-A play-offs involve the top four from the division alongside Cartmel Valley Lions (of the British Baseball League) who have the number 2 seed. Latin Boys get the first seed for winning the division, whilst Redbacks have the third seed.

The teams that finished third and fourth in the AAA division play a Wild Card game this Sunday, with the winner being the fourth seed into the National Baseball Championships.

The BBF have confirmed that game will be between the Mammoths and Kings; however the Londoners are unhappy with how the BBF’s rules on splitting tied teams at the end of the season have been applied. An official appeal has been submitted and a decision clearly needs to be made quickly.

What the Handbook says

The BBF 2019 Handbook is published on an issuu page which is supposed to make things look nice but, especially when downloading is disabled, makes it more of a pain to read (or copy and quote). Anyway, let’s break down what the Handbook says.

It confirms that a tie means either identical win-loss records or the same games back if teams have played a different number of games. Consequently it’s not just the Kings and Londoners who are tied, as the Mammoths are the same number of games back (8) even though they have an extra win (and loss) than the other two.

Breaking the Tie(s)

The first tie-breaker is forfeited games, based on the team that has forfeited the fewest number of games being higher in the standings.

The tricky thing with that from the outside is there is no clear record that a game has been forfeited in the published BBF results. In the past, forfeits have resulted in the non-forfeiting team being awarded a 7-0 win (and the forfeiting team an 0-7 loss). That doesn’t seem to be the case now, indeed the way forfeits are accounted for in the standings, particularly for the team that forfeited the game, is a bit odd (see pages 13-15 of the Handbook).

Anyway, the double-header at Oxford continues to sit in the BBF results as un-played and no results awarded. The actual decision on those is crucial to the standings.

If they are considered forfeits by the Kings then they will finish 5th (third of the three teams tied). That then leaves the Mammoths and Londoners still tied (unbroken by the forfeit rule) and they would be separated by the second tie-breaker which is results between the tied teams. The Londoners won that season series 3-1, so they would finish third and Mammoths fourth.

If the Kings-Londoners double-header is simply put to one side (rather than forfeited) then you’d need to look at the season results between the three teams, which would make the order Londoners (4-2), Mammoths (4-4), Kings (2-4).

If the double-header was considered as two forfeits by the Londoners then they would be fifth, and the Mammoths would be in third as they won the season series over the Kings 3-1. That would tally with the BBF’s standings, but the comments so far certainly don’t suggest that this is the case.

It’s clear as mud then, which is a bit of a mess ahead of the Wild Card game on Sunday. Hopefully the BBF will not only finalise the position but also clearly explain it in a news item on their website as soon as possible. That’s the only fair approach, not just for the Londoners who appear to have missed out but also on the Kings in making it clear to all how they’ve earned their play-off spot

Single-A and Double-A

These two levels still have one Sunday left of the regular season, so I’ll look back at that some time next week. Here’s what the games-back tables look like currently (noting that some tie-breakers may need to be accounted for).

Double-A Pool A

PTeamWLGB
1Bournemouth Bears140
2Bristol Badgers1253.5
3Herts Hawks897.5
4Guildford Mavericks7119
5Richmond Dragons61210
6Brighton Jets21212

Double-A Pool B

PTeamWLGB
1London Marauders122
2Norwich Iceni974
3London Sidewinders963.5
4Milton Keynes Bucks853.5
5Cambridge Monarchs586.5
6Brentwood Stags01512.5

I’ve just copied that one out in the same order it’s published on the BBF website, but using the standing Games Back method it would seem Iceni are in fifth. We’ll see!

Single-A Pool A

PTeamWLGB
1London Musketeers211
2Essex Archers1665
3Essex Redbacks1665
4Bracknell Inferno1686
5London Mustangs71514
6Richmond Dukes51515
7Herts Eagles41817
8Herts Raptors31918

Single-A Pool B

PTeamWLGB
1Kent Buccaneers186
2South Coast Pirates1841
3Brighton Jets985.5
4Tonbridge Wildcats975
5Tonbridge Bobcats7149.5
6Guildford Millers71510
7Kent Mariners11513

Again, just copied in the order as on the BBF website, but would seem that the Wildcats should be in fourth.

Single-A Central

PTeamWLGB
1Long Eaton Storm193
2Leicester Blue Sox1752.5
3Birmingham Bandits1595
4Birmingham Outlaws1464
5Northants Centurions61412
6Cambridge Royals41815
7Cambridge Lancers12118

The Bandits and Outlaws can argue about third and fourth!

U23 European Championships This Week

In a busy year of international baseball, the latest competition sees Great Britain heading to Prague for the Under 23 European Championships.

Drew Spencer of the London Mets has taken on the role of GB’s U23 Head Coach and he will lead a team to the Czech Republic looking to build on the positive performances shown by the U12s and U18s so far this summer.

The U23 event takes place from Wednesday to Sunday and consists of eight teams spread across two first round pools.

Great Britain are in Pool A alongside France, Germany and the Netherlands, with Pool B containing Belgium, Croatia, Ukraine and the hosts, Czech Republic.

GB Schedule

Great Britain’s First Round schedule is as follows:

  • Wed 7th – Netherlands (15:00 local, 14:00 in UK),
  • Thurs 8th – Germany (15:00 local, 14:00 in UK),
  • Fri 9th – France (13:30 local, 12:30 in UK).

Once the First Round games are complete, the top two teams from each Pool will play semi-finals on Saturday (Pool A 1st vs Pool B 2nd etc), with the winners heading to the Final on Sunday and the losers playing a Third-Place game.

The teams that finish third and fourth in the First Round will play out their own Second Round on Saturday and Sunday, so all eight teams are ensured of five games across the five days.

Full Schedule details are available on the CEB Tournament webpage.

How To Follow The Action

The hosts Eagles Praha stream their league games live from their main field on YouTube, so that’s likely to be used during the U23 tournament. Great Britain’s games on Wednesday and Thursday will be played on that field, with the Friday game being on the Tempo Prague Field which doesn’t appear to have a live webstream presence.

As always with CEB events, there will be a live game tracker available from the main tournament page, whilst no doubt the Great Britain Baseball Twitter feed will be providing updates as well.