In our series about the statistical leaders in European Baseball, we are looking today at the German Baseball-Bundesliga.
This league is one of the few in European Baseball with a three-round playoff system. The Mainz Athletics won series against the best teams of the northern and southern conference, Solingen Alligators and Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg, to take the championship home for the first time in their history.
Despite the fact that teams from both conferences did not play each other, we are going to analyse the leaders, as it would be one league. The north had a slightly lower batting average (.260 to .276). The difference in the ERA department is also not that high (north: 4.67, south: 4.62). As you can see at these two examples, both leagues are nearly at one level.
The Heidenheim Heidekoepfe led by former Yankee Minor Leaguer Ben HIMES, was the best offensive team during the regular season. They batted .344. The Alligators, Legionaere and Paderborn Untouchables also had batting averages over .300. Pitching-wise the 2006 champion Solingen had the best staff. They finished the season with an ERA of 1.26. Five other teams were under 3.00. When you now look at the league averages, you are recognizing that there are several squads with poor statistical performances. For example, the Hannover Regents, who had lost every game in the preliminary round, hit just .192 and had an ERA of 10.12. There is still a large gap between the best and the worst teams in Germany.
Top 5 Team Batting Average:
Heidenheim Heidekoepfe .344
Solingen Alligators .335
Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg .326
Paderborn Untouchables .322
Mainz Athletics .295
Top 5 Team Earned Run Average:
Solingen Alligators 1.26
Paderborn Untouchables 2.77
Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg 2.82
Haar Disciples 3.33
Mainz Athletics 3.56
Two German national team players, Simon GUEHRING (Heidenheim Heidekoepfe) and Dominik WULF (Solingen Alligators), led the league with batting averages higher than .500. Twelve other players hit higher than .400. GUEHRING also impressed with his plate discipline as he struck out just once in 104 at-bats. Ben HIMES (Heidenheim Heidekoepfe) was the only batter with ten homeruns.
Top 5 Individual Batting Average:
Simon GUEHRING (Heidenheim Heidekoepfe) .538 (4 HR, 40 R, 37 RBI)
Dominik WULF (Solingen Alligators) .507 (4 HR, 27 R, 36 RBI)
Ben HIMES (Heidenheim Heidekoepfe) .463 (10 HR, 33 R, 33 RBI)
Christian NSIEN (Bonn Capitals) .457 (1 HR, 24 R, 25 RBI)
Klaus HOPFENSPERGER (Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg) .456 (3 HR, 25 R, 21 RBI)
Sascha LUTZ (Mainz Athletics) .456 (2 HR, 24 R, 17 RBI)
There are three pitchers, who had ERA’s lower than 2.00. The two aces of the Alligators staff, Enorbel MARQUEZ-RAMIREZ and Andre HUGHES, led the northern conference with ERA’s of 1.21, respective 1.47. However one of the most impressive pitchers of the 2007 season was Eddie AUCOIN (Haar Disciples), who dominated in the south He had an incredible strikeout to walk ratio of 117/9 in 99 innings pitched. Strikeout leader was former minor league pitcher Tim HENKENJOHANN (Bonn Capitals) with 120 in 86 innings pitched. Manuel MOELLER (Mainz Athletics) was the workhorse with 103 innings pitched.
Top 5 Individual Earned Run Average:
Enorbel MARQUEZ-RAMIREZ (Solingen Alligators) 1.21 (7-1, 52 IP, 60 SO, 11 BB)
Andre HUGHES (Solingen Alligators) 1.47 (11-1, 79.1 IP, 64 SO, 19 BB)
Eddie AUCOIN (Haar Disciples) 1.91 (9-5, 99 IP, 117 SO, 9 BB)
Dirk FRIES (Cologne Cardinals) 2.08 (9-4, 86.1 IP, 53 SO, 15 BB)
Tim HENKENJOHANN (Bonn Capitals) 2.09 (10-2, 86 IP, 120 SO, 54 BB)
Note: Because of the seven-team conference in the north, these clubs had four fewer games than the south.
Complete statistics on official website of German Baseball and Softball Federation: North – South.