We began our series in the Alps and we will close it out with a league from there. In our last edition of analysing numbers, we are going to Austria.
The Vienna Metrostars won the title, defeating the Union Kufstein Vikings in the finals. Vienna finished second in the regular season behind the local rivals from Superfund Wanderers. Both teams dominated the preliminary round, losing just four, respective five of the 24 games. They were the only clubs with batting averages higher than .300. And like the old quote: “offense wins games, pitching championships”, the two teams in the finals were ranked first and second in the ERA-standings.
Top 5 team batting average:
Superfund Wanderers Vienna .320
Vienna Metrostars .313
Dornbirn Indians .288
Mosquito Athletics Attnang-Puchheim .286
Union Kufstein Vikings .267
Top 5 team earned run average:
Vienna Metrostars 3.18
Union Kufstein Vikings 3.92
Mosquito Athletics Attnang-Puchheim 4.66
Superfund Wanderers Vienna 4.82
Dornbirn Indians 5.44
Individual the league is still an offensive-oriented one. Brett M. CUMISKY (Stock City Cubs) won the batting title with an average of .500. Eight more players with batting averages higher than .400 followed him. Hiro SAKANASHI (Superfund Wanderers) scored the most runs with 50. This is an impressive average of more than two per game. Peter FERAK JR (Vienna Metrostars) was the RBI-leader (32 in 16 games). Stefan ROETZER (Stock City Cubs) was successful in 30 of his 32 stolen base attempts.
Top 5 individual batting average:
Brett M. CUMISKY (Stock City Cubs) .500 (5 HR, 33 R, 24 RBI, 15 SB)
Hiro SAKANSHI (Superfund Wanderers) .494 (50 R, 29 RBI, 24 SB)
Lutz RAUCH (Vienna Metrostars) .481 (31 R, 26 RBI)
Arian QUIRANTES (Mosquito Athletics) .453 (23 R, 21 RBI)
Peter FERAK JR (Vienna Metrostars) .449 (16 R, 32 RBI)
The player-coach of the Vienna Metrostars, Tim PATRICK, led the Austrian Baseball league with an ERA of 1.17. Walter STRASSER (Mosquito Athletics) was first with 129 strikeouts in 81.1 innings pitched. Clemens CICHOCKI (Superfund Wanderers), who will pitch in the German Baseball-Bundesliga in 2008, got the most wins (10).
Top 5 individual earned run average:
Tim PATRICK (Vienna Metrostars) 1.17 (5-0, 30.2 IP, 27 SO, 4 BB)
Lance BEUS (Dornbirn Indians) 1.61 (2-1, 28 IP, 31 SO, 6 BB)
Werner HARRASSER (Kufstein Indians) 1.67 (9-2, 86 IP, 24 BB)
Walter STRASSER (Mosquito Athletics) 2.43 (8-3, 81.1 IP, 127 SO, 29 BB)
Clemens CICHOCKI (Superfund Wanderers) 2.52 (10-1, 78.2 IP, 58 SO, 29 BB)
Complete Statistics of Austrian Baseball League downloadable in forum (zip-file)