Mister Baseball

by Thommy Brolin

The Swedish top league Elitserien starts this first weekend in May, and is promising to be a very competitive and exciting league. Reigning Champions are Karlskoga Bats, who defeated Sundbyberg Heat in the finals last year. Newly promoted from the second division is Rättvik Butchers.

Time	Home	Visitor	Field
Dates and Times are subject to change! In case of doubt check with the responsible national federation!
Saturday, May 03 2008
13:00	Leksand	Gefle	Leksand
13:00	Stockholm	Karlskoga Bats	Stockholm
13:00	Rättvik	Sundbyberg Heat	Rättvik
13:00	Tranås	Alby	Tranås

Here is a quick run-down of the teams in the order they finished last season.

Karlskoga Bats

Karlskoga Bats, the reigning Swedish champions, puts a re-vamped team on the field this season. The league’s dominating pitcher last year, Adam Sowell, has moved to Holland, and also Joe Rovirosa and Shawn Vance are missing in Karlskoga’s line-up. To replace these three players, American Dennis Kelly (of) and Aussie Brendan Horne (p, if) have been brought in. They have also signed August Casson (p, if), but Casson is expected be available only at a limited number of games this season, and should therefore have less of an impact on the team. Pitcher Ronny Frid and infielder Elias Sölveling last year played only a few games each, and both is expected to put in a full season this year.

Pitching

Pitcher Adam Sowell last year was 14-0, with a 1.78 ER over 101 innings, and is a tough act to follow for Brendan Horne. Brendan Horne is expected to share starting duties with Kent Karlsson (11-5, 2.58) and Ronny Frid (1-0, 2.57), with young Sami Säkkinen (5-0, 4.43) expected to get chances as well.

Batting

In losing Rovirosa, Vance and Sowell, Karlskoga loses a lot of batting strength. Collectively they had 125 RBIs, 124 runs and 10 HRs. Shawn Vance was last year’s Batting Champion with .445, followed by Joe Rovirosa with .442, and Joe Rovirosa also won the slugging title with .762. Together with new signings Kelly and Horne, Christoffer Johansson (.346 last year) and Stefan Fahlin (.328) are expected to be most productive offensively this year.

Sundbyberg Heat

The Heat was last year’s runners up in the Swedish league, and also won the Cup-title for the fifth time in the last seven years. As with Karlskoga, Sundbyberg also has had a lot of movement in the roster over the winter. Two very tough losses is pitcher Nick Soubiea (6-5, 3.44), and all-rounder Rickard Ljung (1-1, 4.42 as pitcher, and .387 with 10 doubles, mostly as lead-off). Nick Soubiea will attend college in USA, and will be available for Sundbyberg only during the summer months. It is also doubtful if Will Rikard, MVP in Sundbyberg’s Championship year 2006, will play this year. New additions are outfielder Joaquin Pedroso from Alby, and come-backing pitcher Carl Sjölin and infielder Walter Blunck.

Pitching

Michael Andersson, Sundbyberg’s most successful pitcher last year with a record of 7-4, will anchor a rotation that looks pretty open at the moment. Chris Clancy, Carl Sjölin, Kerim Troeller and Alexander Albrecht are all expected to compete for starting duties. Rock solid Johan Tisell (ERA 1.00, .174 batting against and 5 saves last year) is the closer.

Batting

Even with the losses over the winter the batting looks good for Sundbyberg. Joaquin Pedroso brings a .352 batting average with good power (.507 slugging), with Philip Gajzler (.342), Robert Porsklint (.322), Per Lindgren (.304) and Eric Mercado (.291) as other members of a very potent offence.

Stockholm

Stockholm, who lost the semi-final to Karlskoga last year, has lost slugger Dean Lindberg over the winter, but gained pitcher Niklas Eriksson from Alby, and infielder Andy Berglund returning from USA. Stockholm is a very talented team, which has not fully reached expected levels since their promotion into to top league two years ago. Their younger players are maturing, and this could be the break-through year for the club from Sweden’s capital.

Pitching

Joakim Claesson (2-1, 1.88), Magnus Pilegård (5-1, 3.29) and Jacob Claesson (3-4, 4.80) are expected to be the regular starters, with third Claesson brother Thomas as closer. Watch out for young Oscar Carlstedt (2.60 over 17.1 innings last year).

Batting

Stockholm is expected to be one of the top offensive clubs in the league this year, even without Dean Lindberg. The club batted .299 as a team last year, and don’t be too surprised if they do even better this year. Top hitters are Magnus Pilegård (.405), Björn Johannesen (.386), Petter Diurlin (.336) and Peter Johannesen (.311).

Tranås

Tranås played o very exciting semi-final series with Sundbyberg last year, losing it narrowly 1 game to 2. They have lost top pitcher Ryan Leake (7-3, 2.63), but counter that with American Sean Kammerer, and slugger David Leander who returns from a one year stint in Gefle.

Pitching

With Ryan Leake not in the club any more, Mikael Andersson (2-5, 4.84) and Erik Falkenäng (2-4, 5.33) will carry biggest load, possibly with assistance from new signed Sean Kammerer. Also David Leander (2-2, 4.70 with Gefle last year) and Matt Merrifield are candidates for pitching duty this summer.

Batting

Tony Dermendziev (.355), Matt Merrifield (.346), Erik Falkenäng (.324), Mikael Andersson (.317) and David Leander (.275) are the top batters in Tranås, who in the past has had a very potent top of the line-up, but less so towards the bottom of the line-up. With a little more production from the players below the top five, Tranås can be a very strong club indeed this coming season.

Leksand Lumberjacks

Leksand missed the play-offs unexpectedly last year after dominating the league in recent years together with Sundbyberg. This coming season play-off is no certainty, as ace pitcher Nicklas Melin leaves the club to play in Holland the coming two years. On top of that pitcher Per Sjörs and SS Tobias Bornström will play college baseball in USA. No significant additions have been reported, so the Lumberjacks will have to perform at their peak to reach the play-offs this year.

Pitching

Nicklas Melin was 6-2 with a 2.86 ERA, and lead the league in both batting average against (.174) and strike-outs (111) over 88 innings pitched, and will be sorely missed together with Per Sjörs who was 5-3 last year. Håkan Börjes (3-1, 2.38) and Richard Leander (1-2, 9.00) are expected to anchor the rotation this year. Rickard Leander’s numbers over the 2005-2006 seasons are 11-4 with a 2.26 ERA, and if he can perform on that level, Leksand has a chance to surprise.

Batting

Leksand is traditionally a very strong team in the batting department, and Richard Leander (.347), Simon Emanuelsson (.343), Mats Jones (.337), Daniel Farth (.321) and Hakan Börjes (.310) are expected the lead the Lumberjack attack this year.

Gefle

Gefle was promoted into the top league last season, and surprised everyone except themselves by beating Tranås 5 - 0 behind Mikael Boström’s pitching in the season opener. Their second game was lost to Tranås 5 - 6 after 12 innings, but after that very promising start things headed the wrong way. Gefle ended the season in sixth place with a 9-21 record, and were never near the play-offs after the first series against Tranås. The team has lost high impact players such as David Leander, Peter Jansson, Jonas Andersson and Yinka Adewusi, and they would be big surprise if they reach the play-offs this year.

Pitching

Mikael Boström (2-9, 5.38) will, as last year, anchor a rotation that will miss Peter Jansson and David Leander. A very interesting new pitcher for Gefle is young Robin Andreassen who will rejoin the club after missing all of last season. Robin is a 19-year old southpaw with a lot of potential!

Batting

Gefle have one of the league’s best hitters in Manual Valdes (.369), and also Tomas Jansson (.303) will be a threat to opposing pitchers. Looking at the roster beyond Valdes and Jansson, the players lost over the winter will be very tough to replace. The team will be looking for their lesser known players to step up in this second season in the top league.

Alby Stars

Alby finishes seventh in the league last year with a 1 - 29 record, and are hoping to improve with a roster that sees many changes from last year. The most notable losses are Joaquin Pedroso, Niklas Eriksson and Tom Dunlap. New players includes Raul Lozano, Aridany Moreno and Sebastion Diaz from Stockholm, and David Boman from Jeddah All Stars in Saud Arabia. The losses Alby have suffered over the winter is likely to affect the team more that what the new players are doing, and it will be very tough for the team to reach the play-offs. However, the team has a number of promising younger players, look out for 19-year old C/IF Timor Kombarov to have a break-out year this season.

Pitching

Tom Dunlap and Niklas Eriksson pitched the lion’s share of Alby’s innings last year, and this year new addition Raul Lozano is expected to anchor the rotation. Other pitchers are expected to be David Boman, Sergio Sanchez, Almir Hamzic, Sebastian Diaz and Ramon Illa.

Batting

Departed Joaquin Pedroso was the most potent hitter last season, and this season most of the offence is expected to come from Sebastian Diaz (.315), Sergio Sanchez (.268), Timor Kombarov (.268) and Alex Ibañez (.265).

Rättvik Butchers

Rättvik is the newly promoted team in the league, but a team with tradition such as Swedish Champions 2001 and 2002, and Cup winners 2000. The team has a very interesting mix of veterans and young players, and also have a couple of interesting additions in P Peter Jansson from Gefle, and C/IF Eunique Johnson from USA. The team definitely has potential to compete for one of the play-off spots.

Pitching

Pitching will be Rättvik’s strength this season. With current or ex national team pitchers as Magnus Höglund, Mattias Stenis and Rickard Reimer, and the addition of Peter Jansson, the team ranks in the top group in Sweden.

Batting

In Rickard Reimer Rättvik has one of the best hitters in Sweden, Tomas Börjes swings a good bat, and Eunique Johnson is expected to be a threat. Behind these three the team doesn’t look as impressive as they do in the pitching department. A lot of the players yet have to prove themselves on this level, and how well the team does that will decide exactly how well Rättvik will do as a newly promoted team.

Conclusion

The 2008 season in Sweden looks very exciting with no team looking like the obvious front-runner. Karlskoga, Sundbyberg and Stockholm might be on a level slightly above Tranås, Rättvik and Leksand, with Gefle and Alby a bit further away from play-offs than the other six teams.

The quality of the new foreign signings in Karlskoga, Rättvik and Tranås will be a deciding factor in what team will finish on top.

Final pairing

Trying to name the finalist already now is a difficult task, more challenging than in recent years. Very little separates the top six teams, and I think the start of the season will very much give the early winners the momentum needed reach the finals in the autumn. I think that if Stockholm gets off to a good start, they will be the team to beat down the stretch.

Sundbyberg has a new coaching staff, and have reported excellent winter training this off-season. If the club manages to successfully replace the pitchers that left during the winter, I think they too will be hard to beat this year.

Reigning Champions Karlskoga will have a very different team from last year, and the new team will have quite a lot to prove. If the new additions settle in and meet expectations, and their pitching remains on last year’s level, they are also one of the favourites.

Newly promoted Rättvik is another team that can go very far if their pitching performs on the expected level, and if the relatively inexperienced offence rises to the occasion, expect them to get very far too.

The outcome for Tranås is very much dependant on how they can replace Ryan Leake, and with good pitching their offence can carry them far.

Leksand have suffered tough losses over the winter, but the club is used to success, and is no doubt eager to prove that last year’s failure to qualify for the play-offs won’t be repeated. There is a lot of talent in the team, and if everything falls into place they can be ready to bounce back from last year’s shortcomings.

Gefle and Alby is in my opinion a bit behind the top six, and if either team finishes better than seventh place that should be considered a good result.

I find it extremely hard to predict this season, but my money is on a subway-series between Sundbyberg and Stockholm in September. And with the more experienced team, I predict Sundbyberg as winners in 5 games.