Last week Mister-Baseball started with the review of the 2008 season in the German Baseball-Bundesliga. Dirk Fries looked at the playoff teams in the north. This week he is continues with the top four of the southern division.
by Dirk Fries
Mainz Athletics
What was to be expected of the 2007 German Champion? Followers of the German league were almost secure that a repeat was out of the question. Mainz’s triumph was seen as a major upset, especially after being down in the series 0-2 against the heavy-hitting Legionaere. But the A´s did pull it off, winning the clubs first ever men’s title to go with already a number of championships at different youth levels.
The team, which had won in Cae Santos first year as the new head coach, did undergo some major changes for 2008. Veteran catcher Janusz Radicke retired after the finals, as did outfielder Uli Wermuth, who proceeded to switch into a management and assistant coach role. Finals hero Keigo Miyagi was also not expected back. Outfielder Mike Larson was brought back. He was supposed to shoulder the offensive load alongside Japanese catcher Shu Sasaki, British utility man Raef Hobbs-Brown and American infielder Daniel Hayes.
What the stats say:
Pitching wise Mainz had the worst ERA of the four playoff teams from the south. Ace Manuel Moeller started out rather slow. His time-consuming school has obviously kept him from being the extremely dominant force of the last few years. But still, he can dominate any team´s offense on any given day, which he showed on a more frequent basis later in the season. He really turned it on when the club was in danger of falling out of fourth place. He ended the season with a 7-4 record, a 2.82 ERA and still logged a team-high 95+ innings!
Nils Hartkopf led the team in ERA with 2.44. He threw a total of 51+ innings, posting a 5-2 record. Dimitar Nassapov was solid at 3.63 out of the bullpen. Daniel Hayes could not match Miyagi´s performance from last year, being a disappointment with an ERA of over seven in almost 40 IP (7.17 in 37.2 IP). Others like Max Boldt, Flo Arnold or Hobbs-Brown saw only very limited action as pitchers, and could not impress. While the starters were good for the fourth-best ERA in the league, relievers pitched at a 5.85 clip. That means the bullpen on average gave up more than two more runs than the starters per nine Innings.
Possibly the A´s season would have gone smoother, had Sascha Lutz, the sparkplug atop the A´s lineup, not gotten hurt. Lutz missed quite a bit of time with a nagging foot injury he sustained early in the season while batting in a game against Haar. He did return by the middle of July, posting solid numbers after being out for such a long time (.400 AVG in 15 games). Max Boldt led the A´s offense, which was fourth in the league. Boldt hit at a .366 clip. He led the team in hits (41), RBI and runs (20, 22).
Other than Lutz and Boldt, only Mike Larson and Keigo Miyagi (who was brought in to replace Hayes), ended up hitting above the .300 mark. Miyagi only appeared in ten games, though. Larson finished at .323. Benjamin Hieronimi, Nils Hartkopf, Daniel Hayes, Sasaki and Martin Kipphan all stayed below their potential. Kipphan led the offense with five homeruns, possibly taking advantage of the short leftfield porch at the A´s Sandflora facility.
Coach Santos tried out quite a few youngsters, with almost all showing some promise. Most of them, including Jan-Nicklas Stoecklin and Maximilian Doll, still are believed to be a little while away from really contributing.
The Mainz team showed almost no speed, swiping only a total of 28 bases. They did have only 33 attempted thefts, good for a .848 success rate.
Defensively, Mainz again placed itself in the top-4, earning the third spot with a .957 fielding percentage. 47 errors in 28 games could not compete with Regensburg or Heidenheim, but still was by far below the league average of 61.
Tomorrow: Heidenheim Heidekoepfe
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Solingen Alligators
Paderborn Untouchables
Cologne Cardinals
Dortmund Wanderers
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