Winter Baseball: Week 4

[lonewolf75]

I miss my game previews

[oldmanriver]

DANDENONG BASEBALL ASSOCIATION ROUND 4
To help lonewolf out and give that icon a smile, here is a crack at week 4.
BONBEACH V FRANKSTON.
Will be an interesting contest with Simon Myles out for 4 to 6 weeks with a dodgy hammy, a couple of changes have been made. Bonbeach at present are struggling but with Harpo at the helm should make the Jays competitive. Frankston will be starting Mitch Bowen for his first game in A Grade on the hill. In a close game I will lean towards Frankston having just that much more experience. Good luck to Richo who returns to Bonny since resigning as Coach there last year.
CHELTENHAM V BERWICK.
Cheltenham have been travelling very nicely under Clarko who is chasing his 100th premiership this season. Berwick last week came to life with the bats and blasted Frankston off the park giving young Steve Hughes his first A grade win. I just think that Cheltenham will have enough guns to get over Berwick, but don't be suprised if Berwick cause an upset.
DANDENONG V PAKENHAM
Dandenong have been so far inconsistent with both the fielding and the hitting, taking on the new comers in Pakenham they better bring their number one game or Pakenham will take the game. Pakenham possess a strong hitting line up led by Rick Wheeler and if the Pumas can get productivity from the hill could suprise. My long shot for the day will be Pakenham to cause the upset.
MORNINGTON V DINGLEY
Dingley has started strong with a revamped line up with the inclusions of Jack Larner, BK and Pinkster all contibuting. Dingley is yet to score under twelve runs so far so this will be a very solid test for the Brendan Wilson led Pirates. Mornington have been far from shabby display good offence coupled with solid hitting. I feel Dingley will have too many guns and will hold out the Pirates in a close and hard fought game.
I won't do a report on B Grade as it is basically a thirds competitionm, so I will just concentrate on A Grade.
All the best to all players this weekend.

[lonewolf75]

Alright, DBA has thrown out the gauntlet. Anyone else from the other league willing to take up the challenge? GB? MWBL A and/or B? Whats happening in the country?

[Deleted]

Some clear-cut results in the GBA this afternoon, with Lara blanking the Brewers 9-0, Bellarine overpowering Corio 10-0 and Saints delivering in offence for a 17-4 result over Werribee.

In the closest game of the round, Guild gained an early break and emerged a 7-3 winner over Guild, though not before Shane Lindsay whiffed ten in tossing four innings of scoreless work for the Marsh towards the end.

www.geelongassociation.baseball.com.au

[bushman]

A wet weekend in Bendigo baseball over the weekend, with some controversy resulting.

In the East vs Scots game, East got up 5-3 in a rain-shortened affair.
From reports I have rain was falling right throughout the game, but in the bottom of the 3rd it was falling quite heavily while East were trailing 3-2, although the game was allowed to continue in an attempt to finish the dig, before then however East were able to pick up a bases-loaded triple, resulting in a 5-3 lead. Time was then called for rain and were unable to return, resulting in the result standing and East picking up the win.
What conditions were exactly like I cannot say, I wasnt at the game myself, but a bit of conjecture has occured as a result. If somethine else comes from it, I cannot know.
However, it gave East their first win of the 2013 season, and evens Scots record at 2-2.

Another wet game was played between Dodgers and Falcons, however they were able to get through the full 2 hour game. There were times that the game may have been halted, but with all credit to the umpires and both teams that were willing to play, they got through it.
Jason Cruse took the ball for Dodgers, looking to make use of the difficult conditions for hitting.
Falcons did take an early lead, but Dodgers scored 3 in the 3rd, courtesy of a few walks, to take a 4-2 lead. Falcons came back to score 1-3-1 over the next 3 digs while keeping Dodgers off the board to run out winners. As expected the day was very tough day for hitting, with the hit count for the day going to Falcons 8-4 I think.
This result lifted Falcons record to 2-2 and the Dodgers are now 3-1 with this being their first loss of the season.

Overall as predicted the season is looking to be very tight, and is definately a year where any team can beat anyone on their day.
With 3 games before the mid-season break it will be interesting to see where each team sits.

[oldmanriver]

Went and watched the Bonbeach v Frankston game on the weekend, it was a happy and sad day. Happy in the fact that my son's first game in A grade went alright and Frankston got the lollies, but sad to see how Bonbeach has fallen and sad in that players have left for imbeguous reasons. It was great to see Harpo toil away on the hill and keep Frankston in check and it it was terrific to see the passion being displayed by the older Jays along with the younger brigade. It is a pity that those younger players that left don't have the same passion as Harpo has for his Club. Kudo's to Gnome and Mal and all the loyal Masters players that still have that fire in the belly to make the Club tick over. Keep up the good work, success is not far away.

[lonewolf75]

So desperate for a bit of a baseball fix I have and a look at the MWBL ladders to see if I could find some conversation topics. Looking at A grade The top three are getting the job done at both levels. Is this indicative of their depth or the teams they have face ATM.
At the other end of the ladder whats the word on Westgarth? First season back up, I know its early but they are 0 and 4 and their reserves aren't much better. Again is this more about who they have played at this stage. Did they recruit through the off season or go with the guys they had last year and therefore show the gap between A and B? Whats happened at Research, they only dropped two games last season and have dropped three already, too early to call?

B Grade - Wow big difference to last year. 12 teams. They have lost St Kilda from last year but Doncaster has come in and are competing well. Diamond Creek and Essendon have stepped up to have B and B res. Essendon, at this stage, seem to be handling this better than DC. GMBC have stepped up to make it an even 12 like Ringwood but appear to be doing it tougher. Now that B grade has 12 teams, should Ringwood and GMBC look to go back to C grade. How do the other teams in the grade feel about them being there. Do they like having them there, they certainly appear to be competitive giving the other teams quality games? Melb Uni have come down, are finding it tough in B grade but their reserves are flying. Have they lost a few player from their 1st or have they had a tough draw to start. This is going to be a very tight grade for top 4 spots.

C Grade - A lot different to years gone by, great to see clubs like Wheelers, Paton Hills and St Kilda not only in this grade but doing well. I hope that they and the league see this as a path way for they to push to B grade and further. Interesting to see two Heathmont sides in C res, and both doing well. Looking at the percentages, and not having seen any games, it looks to be a relatively even competition. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

D - Grade - Looks to be a very even competition with an interesting mix of teams from the 1st for Mitchell, Footscray and Upwey to the other clubs 3rds and 4ths.

Would love to hear more from the guys playing in these grades on what the evenness is like. I think the league has done an outstanding job in restructuring the comp of the last few seasons. There appears to be a genuine pathway for clubs to build and go from D grade all the way to A grade. This can only be a good thing to grow the sport. Has this new structure improved the quality of games in each grade? Has it removed those big blow out games? I remember five or so years ago some of the grades were almost two horse races, has this improved, is it getting better.

[lonewolf75]

Sorry guys, one other thing. Is there any Buzz around the three Uni side going up against each other this year? Are the Ubi's themselves making anything of it??

[stockley]

So quick to forget... People around the league has been questioning why GMBC hasn't previously put in the B Grade team. Now they haven't beaten everyone in B-Grade, and you want them to drop back down???

Ringwood didn't win every game as soon as they moved up to B-Grade either. It took time for people to adjust to the new level of competition. I'm pretty confident that GMBC's B-Grade team will adjust and surprise you.

The whole point of having 12 teams in B-Grade was to help C-grade stay an even competition, and keep all the teams in B-Grade who deserve to be there.

Lets not forget, we're only 4 games into the season.

[Deleted]

Relax stockley. No need to be so defensive.GMBC hardly got a mention.

[Deleted]

Yeah its a bit quiet in here of late isnt it LW.

Well as far as I can tell this far in, in B Grade VWBL Forrest Hill will be the measuring stick again with our boys NC Rebels (last years Runners Up) a big threat again too, partic with so many Pitching options when the boys are all fit.

Waverley will also be up there no doubt with the game Vs our boys this week pretty big for both teams. Ringwood continue to be solid in B Grade which is a credit to the club and its depth.

Then there appears to be the clump of three Unis with Latrobe perhaps the bets of them but we havnt seen Monash or Melb yet (and the season within a season where the three Uni's play each otehr twice I think is fascinating ).

The rest will have good days and bad I suspect with Bundoora niggling away as they do at the top teams and Essendon capable of keeping its opponents to a losing score from time to time with a couple of real good players, but they are still a bit young.

Diamo, GMBC (good on them for having a crack at B Grade) and Doncaster look like they may struggle as the season progresses but there are plenty of winning opportunities as the bottom half of the ladder play each other across the season.

All in all it promises to be an interesting season with the imbalanced draw likely to be a factor with some teams having an easier draw than others I suspect.