2019–20 Australian Baseball League season

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2019–20
Australian Baseball League
Season details
Sport Baseball
Country  Australia
Teams 8
Dates 21 November 2019 – 9 February 2020
Defending champions Brisbane Bandits (2018–19)
Champions Melbourne Aces
Final positions
Champions Melbourne Aces
Second place Adelaide Giants
Regular season
Games played 155
Best batting average Colin Willis (.427)
Most homeruns hit Delmon Young (13)
Most stolen bases Aaron Whitefield (23)
Best ERA Gunnar Kines (1.50)
Most strikeouts (as pitcher) Dylan Unsworth (75)

The 2019–20 Australian Baseball League season was the tenth year Australian Baseball League (ABL) season. The season was held from 21 November 2019 to 9 February 2020. The Melbourne Aces won their first title after defeating the Adelaide Giants in the postseason.[1]

Teams

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Main article: List of current Australian Baseball League team rosters

On 27 August 2019, the Adelaide franchise announced it changed its name from the Adelaide Bite to the Adelaide Giants. This was the name of the Adelaide franchise from 1989–1999 and is the first renaming of a team in the league's history.[2]

Map of Australia and New Zealand.png

The Tuatara also moved their team from the baseball-specific venue of McLeod Park to North Harbour Stadium, which was converted to a baseball field for the first time.

Teams in the ABL
Team State / Territory/ Country Stadium
Adelaide Giants South Australia Diamond Sports Stadium[3]
AUK New Zealand North Harbour Stadium[4]
Brisbane Bandits Queensland Holloway Field[5]
Canberra Cavalry Australian Capital Territory Narrabundah Ballpark[6]
GEK Victoria Geelong Baseball Park[7]
Melbourne Aces Victoria Melbourne Ballpark[8]
Perth Heat Western Australia Baseball Park[9]
Sydney Blue Sox New South Wales Blue Sox Stadium[10]

Regular season

The league retains a 10-round, 40 game schedule, with teams playing division rivals eight times and inter division teams four times. Auckland, Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney grouped into the 'Northeast Division' with Adelaide, Geelong, Melbourne and Perth grouped into the 'Southwest Division'.

Scheduled doubleheaders consist of a seven inning game followed by a nine inning game. The league uses the WBSC tiebreaker rule for all games going beyond the 9th inning, or extra innings beginning less than one hour to a curfew. In November, 2019 it was announced all games played at North Harbour Stadium would be reduced to seven innings to suit a local broadcast deal with Sky Sport.[11]

In round six, one of the games between the Bandits and Cavalry in Canberra was suspended due to poor air quality conditions following the severity of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, with the game completed the next day. The following round seven matchup between the Giants and Cavalry in Canberra was cancelled due to the same poor air quality, reducing their schedule to 36 games.[12] The conditions were the main contributing factor to Cavalry player Gavin Cecchini returning home before the completion of the season.[13]

Each team's series roster consists of 22 eligible players in addition to four amateur underage development players.

Key
Secured Semi Finals berth
Secured Wild Card berth
Northeast Division
Pos Team W L Pct. GB Home Away
1 Auckland Tuatara  21.5 18.5 .538 - 12–4 7½–12½
2 Canberra Cavalry  20 20 .500 1.5 12½-7½ 6½–9½
3 Brisbane Bandits  19 21 .475 2.5 12–8 5–11
4 Sydney Blue Sox  16.5 23.5 .413 5.0 7–9 7½–12½
Southwest Division
Pos Team W L Pct. GB Home Away
1 Adelaide Giants  26 14 .650 - 13–3 9-11
2* Melbourne Aces  23 17 .575 1.0 13–7 8–8
3 Perth Heat  23 17 .575 1.0 9–7 12–8
4 Geelong-Korea  11 29 .275 11.0 8–12 3–13
  • holds tiebreaker

Statistical leaders

  1. ↑ Minimum 2.7 PAs per team game.[14]
  2. ↑ Minimum 0.8 IP per team game.[15]

Awards

Season awards
Award Player Team Ref
Helms Award (MVP) Aaron Whitefield Adelaide Giants [16]
Postseason MVP Shane Robinson Melbourne Aces
Pitching Champion Dylan Unsworth Perth Heat
Hitting Champion Delmon Young Melbourne Aces
Reliever of the Year Ryan Chaffee Adelaide Giants
Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Whitefield Adelaide Giants
Rookie of the Year Elliot Johnstone Auckland Tuatara

Postseason

The postseason continued to include the top five teams, with a single wild card game between the fourth and fifth seeds prior to two rounds of best-of-three finals series.

The top seed was awarded to the team with the best regular season record, with the other division winner awarded the second seed. The third and fourth seed were awarded to the two divisional runner ups with the fifth seed being given to the team with the next best season record.[17]

The only change to the playoff structure from the previous season was the higher semi final was given home field advantage in games two and three (if required), with game one hosted by the lower seed.

Shane Robinson was named Championship Series MVP after batting 5/10 with three RBI and one home-run. He batted .412/.500/.647 across the postseason.

  Wild Card     Semi Finals Series     Championship Series
                           
      1  Adelaide Giants    
  4  Canberra Cavalry 5     4  Canberra Cavalry      
  5  Perth Heat 4         1  Adelaide Giants  
      3  Melbourne Aces  
      2  Auckland Tuatara      
        3  Melbourne Aces    

Championship Series

07 February 2020
19:00 (UTC+11:00)
Game 1		 Melbourne Aces 4-3 Adelaide Giants Victoria (Australia) Melbourne Ballpark, Melbourne
Attendance: 2,367
Umpires: HP: Trent Thomas. 1B: Tom West. 2B: Brett Robson. 3B: Paul Latta.
WP: Jon Kennedy (1-0) Boxscore LP: Ryan Chaffee (0-1)
08 February 2020
19:00 (UTC+10:30)
Game 2		 Adelaide Giants 2-6 Melbourne Aces South Australia Bennett Field, Adelaide
Attendance: 1,905
Umpires: HP: Tom West. 1B: Brett Robson. 2B: Paul Latta. 3B: Trent Thomas.
LP: David Holmberg (0-1) Boxscore WP: Wes Helsabeck (1-0)
HR: Mikey Reynolds (1), Jeremy Hazelbaker (1) HR: Shane Robinson (1), Delmon Young (1)

References

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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Canberra Cavalry cancellation leads to ABL's new air quality policyCanberra Times
  13. ↑ US baseball star Gavin Cecchini quits Canberra Cavalry as bushfire smoke wreaks havoc on sporting events ABC News
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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