Mister Baseball

The Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament is over and Canada, South Korea and Taiwan clinched the spots for Beijing. Today we want to take a look at the individual numbers, which led to the known results.

Batting:
The Canadian James VAN OSTRAND won the batting title with ten hits in 18 at-bats (.556) right in front of teammate Nick WEGLARZ (.529) and the Australian Luke HUGHES (.500). WEGLARZ had the best power numbers slugging three homeruns and a double. The Korean Seung Yuop LEE didn’t disappoint either with two homeruns and three doubles. He also led all batters with twelve RBI. His colleagues Yong Kyu LEE and Young Min KO were one and two with eleven and ten runs scored.

As you might expect Canada and South Korea when you look at the standings both teams also dominated team wise the batting statistics. The North American squad hit .332 (SLG .534) with 53 runs scored. The Asian powerhouse scored seven runs more but batted “only” .329 (SLG .460). The three teams at the bottom of the standings Germany (.199/.273), Spain (.175/.230) and South Africa (.167/.195) know already what they have to do to get better.

Pitching:
Due to the small sample size the pitching leaders are spread out through all teams. Let’s take a look at the starters, who have pitched more than seven innings. Chine-Fu YANG (14 IP) from Taiwan sits at the top with an ERA of 0.64, followed by Min Han SON (12 IP) from South Korea with 0.75. The German Ace Enorbel MARQUEZ-RAMIREZ, who led all pitchers with 17 innings pitched, is in third with an ERA of 1.59.

The Mexican Francisco CAMPOS MACHADO took the strikeout crown (22) with his impressive 18 K’s performance against South Africa. SON (with 16) follows in second. However both were in their own league as the next Paul MILDREN (AUS) and Chien-Ming CHANG (TAI) are third with just ten.

If your are taking ERA as an indicators then South Korea (1.55) and Chinese Taipei (1.60) had the best pitching staffs. Germany posted a respectable ERA of 3.86 in fourth right behind Canada (3.00). The Spanish hurlers didn’t have their best stuff during the last few days, finishing in eighth with a horrible ERA of 7.15.

Check for the complete statistics IBAF.tv

Photo: © International Baseball Federation (www.ibaf.tv)