Mister Baseball

There are two analysis left in our series about numbers in European Baseball. Today we are looking at Croatia.

The highest level in Croatian Baseball is divided into two leagues. The 1A Hrvatska Baseball League, where wooden bats are used, and the 1B league with aluminium bats. The 1A league consists of four teams and is the most important one. However we will take a look at both leagues.

Kelteks dominated the 1A league. They won 20 of the 22 games during the regular season and defeated Zagreb in the finals. Kaptol Zagreb finished in first place of the 1B league with a 13-3 record in front of Donat (12-4) and Medvednica (11-5).

There are no team statistics available, so we concentrate on the individual categories. Due to the difference between the leagues it is hard to compare those two. But we can see trends. In the 1A league there are just two batters with averages higher than .400. In the 1B league there are three with averages higher than .500 and nine more hit better than .453. This is related to the different bats, used in Croatia. A guy has a much faster bat speed with aluminium than with wood. To our surprise the slugging percentages are on the same level. On the other hand the sample sizes in all categories are too small to prove any theories.

Top 5 Batting Average 1A league:
(Minimum 40 at-bats)
Jason POSPISHIL (Kelteks) .443 (34 R, 27 RBI, 26 SB)
Damir KARIN (Kelteks) .417 (15 R, 16 RBI, 11 SB)
Ivan RACIC (Nada SSM) .377 (12 R, 18 RBI)
Josep BROZINIC (Kelteks) .362 (25 R, 16 RBI)
Matija GROFELNIK (Zagreb) .356 (13 R, 18 RBI)

Top 5 Batting Average 1B league:
(Minimum 40 at-bats)
Nikola HORVAT (Grabrik Karlovac) .548 (15 R, 18 RBI)
Ivica ANIC (Donat Zagreb) .533 (16 R, 19 RBI)
Ivan DONDIVIC (Donat Zagreb) .507 (32 R, 24 RBI, 30 SB)
Igor BOBIC (Medvednica Zagreb) .492 (14 R, 35 RBI)
Damir MANDIC (Medvednica Zagreb) .490 (35 R, 9 RBI, 29 SB)

Pitching-wise the numbers in the major categories are not much different. One player was really dominant. Sasa DOKMANOVIC (Kaptol Zagreb) had 159 strikeouts in 74 innings pitched in the 1B league. He won eight games, had an ERA of 1.09 and a WHIP of 0.892.

Top 5 Earned Run Average 1A league:
(Minimum 24 innings pitched)
Gary TONGUE (Kelteks) 1.16 (7-0, 54.1 IP, 31 SO, 21 BB)
Mario ZDELAR (Kelteks) 1.70 (7-0, 69 IP, 48 SO, 16 BB)
Dejan MARIN (Zagreb) 1.99 (3-2, 58.2 IP, 29 SO, 19 BB)
Slobodan GALES (Kelteks) 3.24 (4-1, 33.1 IP, 34 SO, 10 BB)
Matija GROFELNIK (Zagreb) 3.36 (8-2, 83 IP, 92 SO, 50 BB)

Top 5 Earned Run Average 1B league:
(Minimum 17 innings pitched)
Sasa DOKMANOVIC (Kaptol Zagreb) 1.09 (8-1, 74 IP, 159 SO, 32 BB)
Elvis SALESEVIC (Sisak) 1.42 (3-1, 19 IP, 21 SO, 18 BB)
Pavao KARIN (Grabrik Zagreb) 3.33 (3-6, 67.2 IP, 37 SO, 43 BB)
Hrvoje TOLJANIC (Novi Zagreb) 4.02 (6-6, 96.1 IP, 80 SO, 53 BB)
Ivica ANIC (Donat Zagreb) 4.02 (8-3, 100.2, 91 SO, 31 BB)

Complete statistics of both leagues on official website of Croatian baseball federation.
Link to 1A league
Link to 1B league