October 5th 2022 Edition

The 2022 PEBA regular season has come to an end. Teams are set for the playoffs and the crowns handed out. A couple of surprises and a couple of status quo’s. We saw a great race for the Sovereign League Wild Card spots and a first time 20 game winner from a dominant pitcher who it seemed won that many every year of his career. If it wasn’t for the stat book to refer to, I wouldn’t have believed it. Lots to recap, so lets get on with it shall we.

Races

The Crystal Lake Sandgnats dominated their division once again. It’s their 4th division title in a row and their 12th overall. But they are still looking for their first elusive PEBA Championship trophy. They carry the best record in all of PEBA into the playoffs with 107 wins on the year.

The Aurora Borealis took the tough Desert Hills division crown for the second year in a row. It is their 11th franchise title which includes 3 Championship trophies. They trailed Crystal Lake for the best record by a single game with 106 wins.

The Shin Seiki Evas were on cruise control for much of the year taking their division by 19 games. It’s their second in a row since coming over from the Land Of The Rising Sun League. And their 14th division pennant overall. Only twice did the Evas not take their division and in those two seasons they finished second. They have 3 LRS titles under their belt and are looking for their first in PEBA trophy.

The Wild Card spots were nailed down by the Yuma Bulldozers who took the 4th playoff slot. Their cross state rivals the Tempe Knights took the 5th spot with their first playoff appearance in 9 seasons. But the real race was for that 6th and final playoff spot. The Duluth Warriors came out of the pack to punch their ticket to join the dance. They bested the Bakersfield Bears and Palm Springs Codgers in fierce fight who both ended up 1 game back. The Kalamazoo Badgers put on a big charge at the end, but fell 3 games shy along with the Okinawa Shisa who were just outside of that 6th spot down the stretch but just couldn’t get over the hump. The Niihama-Shi Ghosts was at the tail end of the race at 4 games back.

As the playoff gods would have it, the two Arizona state rivals Yuma and Tempe will face each other in the first round, while Duluth will battle both Shin Seiki and long plane trips in the other first round playoff series. Both first round bye teams Crystal Lake and Aurora will sit home in front of the TV with some popcorn and watch those series’ with interest to see who they will face in round two.

Chases

Batting Champion

Aurora’s OF-River Pope decided enough is enough and went of and hid in the batting chase. He finished hitting .454 on the year. He went on a terror in the final month of the season, raising his average 17 points. Canton Longshoremens OF-Gabriel Martinez put up a gallant fight til the end but came up short by hitting .339 on the year. Shin Seiki’s 2B-Matsusuke Hamada rounded out the top three with a .333 average.

Home Run King

The Reno Zephers Ramon Leach hung on to win the crown with 40 home runs. After missing over a month due to a broken finger,  Shin Seiki’s OF-Ryozo Takeuchi still finishes up in second one tater behind Leach with 39. The Warriors SS-Andres Hernandez ended up close behind in the third spot with 38 bombs on the year.

RBI Crown

Crystal Lakes 1B-Wilson Munoz takes the RBI Crown with 137 on the season including 22 since September 1st. I’m not his agent but I believe the kid is gonna get paid. Takeuchi came in second with 119 RBI’s and Yuma’s OF-Jarrod Ricks rounds out the top 3 with 118 ducks.

The Flying Shoe

Duluth’s Joe Kenny takes the Flying Shoe award home with him as he swiped 57 bases on the year. After this award was announced Kenny said to himself I can do this as he swiped 15 bases since the 1st of September. He opened up a big margin over runner-up Mike Hale from Aurora, who had 49 steals on the year. The Ghosts’ Roman Suarez came in third with 46 stolen bases.

The Oscar Meyer Winner

The Sandgnats Francisco Robles had a terrific year winning 21 games and claiming the Oscar Meyer Winner award for 2022. Robles finished his best year as a pro with a record of 21-6, 3.20 ERA, 1.1o WHIP and 133 K’s. Aurora’s Michel Provost was the only other 20 game winner in all of PEBA with 20 wins even. A surprising fact that Provost had never won 20 games in a season before this year is incredible. As dominant of a pitcher that he is I would have thought he would have multiple 20 game win seasons. It just shows how tough of a feat it really is in PEBA. Palm Springs Miguel Cantu and Crystal Lakes Manuel Corona both finished with 18 wins.

Strikeout King

Provost will take home this award with 206 strikeouts in 2022. He has struck out 200 or more batters on 3 different occasions. This chase wasn’t a landslide by any means. It was close right down to the end. In the runner-up spot was Duluth’s Julian Thomas with 205 K’s. He also is no stranger to the 200 strikeout mark. He has reached it 3 times as well. Following closely behind in 3rd is Aurora’s Arturo Jimenez with 204. Which was one better than his last years total of 203 K’s for a total of two 200K seasons in his short career.

Fireman Award

The Warriors Julio Gonzalez stayed atop of the saves chase for much of the year and ending up to be the fireman champ. He ended the season with 40 saves. In 72.0 innings of work he had a 3.88 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 97 K’s. Following him was Aurora’s Bryant Burris and Tempe’s Raul Cruz who both ended up with 37 saves each.

That concludes the 2022 edition of Races and Chases. Congratulations to all the award winners and the teams the played for and good luck to all the playoff teams. It was fun watching the Wild Card race especially and we also had some good chases that went right down to the wire. Looking forward to next season already.

But til then,

We’ll catch that can of corn next year

Good night everybody