{"id":3711,"date":"2009-08-12T20:29:09","date_gmt":"2009-08-12T19:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2019-11-09T21:49:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T21:49:04","slug":"roundshaw-hop-final-weekend-of-nbl-regular-season-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=3711","title":{"rendered":"Roundshaw Hop: Final weekend of NBL regular season approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roundshaw-Hop-(128x128)\"While those involved in the National Baseball League (NBL) will inevitably have their thoughts on the approaching National Baseball Championship<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(NBC) at Roundshaw on 29 and 30 August, the final weekend of the regular season still offers much of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

League pennant
\n<\/strong>Richmond’s nervous 5-4 victory over Croydon on Sunday ensures that they can still draw level with the Mets if they can sweep the double-header between the two teams at Finsbury Park on Sunday. If this does occur, the league title\u00c2\u00a0will be determined by a tie-breaker. Since neither team has forfeited any games – the first\u00c2\u00a0decider\u00c2\u00a0in the \u00c2\u00a0tie-break – the decision will go down to the head-to-head record, which the Flames would lead 4-2 with a sweep. (Note: I had originally incorrectly stated that “the league will be shared, as there is no formal stipulation for a play-off.”)<\/strong><\/p>\n

That 5-4 victory also reduces Croydon’s opportunities to get a first win to just two games. They\u00c2\u00a0travel to\u00c2\u00a0Bracknell knowing that they really need two wins to get off their 0-fer, as one win would be wiped off owing to an forfeited double-header back at the start of the season. Should Croydon get that sweep, Bracknell will finish tied third with Herts; if not, Bracknell will get third outright.<\/p>\n

Individual offensive\u00c2\u00a0awards<\/strong>
\nRyan Trask went long off the Falcons’ Nick Goetz last Sunday to draw within one home run of Ryan Bird’s league-leading total of five. Bird and Trask, the latter\u00c2\u00a0the defending\u00c2\u00a0home run\u00c2\u00a0champ, should both be in action on Sunday. The two sluggers are also one and two in the runs batted in category, with the Blazers’ Trask driving in\u00c2\u00a0four\u00c2\u00a0last Sunday\u00c2\u00a0to move\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a028, two ahead of\u00c2\u00a0Richmond’s Bird. Only one other hitter has more than 17 (Kyle Hickson with 21).\u00c2\u00a0It is perhaps unsurprising that Bird currently tops the slugging average list, with his .825 looking hard to beat with\u00c2\u00a01 week left.\u00c2\u00a0Another category that Bird\u00c2\u00a0looks to have a safe lead in is base hits. His 29 hits are three more than both Lin Yuchih and Darrin Ward amassed for Herts this season, but\u00c2\u00a0they have completed their regular-season schedule and the next in the list sits five back.<\/p>\n

Robbie Unsell, though now departed for the season, is unlikely to be caught as stolen base leader,\u00c2\u00a0with his total of 21 putting him six clear of Rob Anthony in second place. And Anthony looks safe at the top of the runs scored list. The Mets’ shortstop has 32 so far, and the nearest competitor is his team-mate Callum Woods, who has crossed the plate seven fewer times this season.<\/p>\n

London’s Carl Randall currently holds the lead\u00c2\u00a0in batting average\u00c2\u00a0with .511. Only Bird (.460) can conceivably catch him, but\u00c2\u00a0based on\u00c2\u00a0an assumption\u00c2\u00a0that both of the hitters get seven at-bats in the Mets-Flames double-header,\u00c2\u00a0that would require\u00c2\u00a0the Richmond player\u00c2\u00a0to collect three more hits than Randall.<\/p>\n

Finally, there is a surprising leader in on-base average: Bracknell’s British youngster Tom Bray.\u00c2\u00a0 Aided by 18 walks, which tie for\u00c2\u00a0the lead with\u00c2\u00a0Grant Delzoppo of the Flames, his figure of .644\u00c2\u00a0is so good in fact that it would break Ryan Barwick’s top-tier single-season record<\/a> of .623. This is the only single-season record that could realistically\u00c2\u00a0be broken in 2009.<\/p>\n

Individual pitching awards<\/strong>
\nReid Wilson’s league-leading earned-run average of 2.16 should be safe, with the nearest competitor on 2.92, unless Cody Cain pitches at least 5.2 innings. This would take Cain to 32 innings – the minimum for qualification – and his earned-run average currently sits at 2.05. Similarly, the London player has a solid lead in WHIP with 0.98, but Cain’s figure of 0.95 lurks ominously near the top of non-qualified players. And the theme continues to strike-outs per 9 innings. This time it is Wilson’s team-mate\u00c2\u00a0Jason Roberts (10.94) who leads the list of qualified players but who sits below the Flames’\u00c2\u00a0veteran (13.67).<\/p>\n

Darrin Ward will almost certainly finish the season with the most innings pitched (74.2), but his league-leading wins total of six is under threat from two players on five who could be in action on Sunday: Reid Wilson and Henry Collins.<\/p>\n

Finally, this Sunday should see Matt Maitland of Bracknell\u00c2\u00a0and Jose Sosa of Croydon\u00c2\u00a0duel for the strike-out title at Westmorland Park, the former having 57 to the latter’s 54. Richmond’s Michael Osborn is also still in the running, with 53 to his name.<\/p>\n

Milestones update
\n<\/strong>Cody Cain still needs 11 more strike-outs for 500 and Michael Osborn still needs\u00c2\u00a0six more for 250, as neither of the\u00c2\u00a0Richmond players saw action last week.\u00c2\u00a0Matt Maitland\u00c2\u00a0struck out\u00c2\u00a0six batters\u00c2\u00a0last Sunday\u00c2\u00a0to move within\u00c2\u00a0nine\u00c2\u00a0strike-outs\u00c2\u00a0of 200, while\u00c2\u00a0his Bracknell team-mate Ryan Trask\u00c2\u00a0needs\u00c2\u00a0three more home runs for 25,\u00c2\u00a0as he hit\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a022nd of his career on Sunday.<\/p>\n

To view full sortable statistics for the National Baseball League, follow the instructions here<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While those involved in the National Baseball League (NBL) will inevitably have their thoughts on the approaching National Baseball Championship\u00c2\u00a0(NBC) at Roundshaw on 29 and 30 August, the final weekend of the regular season still offers much of interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[556,89,69],"class_list":["post-3711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-baseball-2","tag-british-baseball","tag-nbl","tag-stats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3711"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21397,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711\/revisions\/21397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}