The British Baseball Federation (BBF) has just announced that the National Baseball League will be reduced down to 6 teams for the 2015 season.

The six teams will be: Bracknell Blazers, Essex Arrows, Herts Falcons, London Mets, Southampton Mustangs and South London Pirates.

The NBL had seven teams in 2014. The one team which does not appear in the 2015 lineup is the Harlow Nationals. Does this mean that they have been relegated to the Triple-A League or have they been dissolved? The latter is a very likely scenario as the BBF Annual General Meeting in November revealed that the Nationals have outstanding debts not only to the federation but to other parties. The team was founded in 2011 and won the NBL Championship in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Last year they finished in fifth place.

Today’s announcement would also suggest that the 2014 Triple-A National Champions, Cambridge Royals, have either not applied for entry to the NBL or their application has not been accepted.

source: Project COBB

The table above shows how the composition of the NBL has evolved between 2000 and 2015. The reduction in the number of NBL teams for 2015 seems to go contrary to the overall growth in the number of BBF teams which has doubled since 2000 from 35 to 71 and currently stand at a 20-year high as announced a few months ago. Are teams finding it daunting to enter the NBL due to the higher calibre competition, the higher costs of running an NBL team, or some other reason? The benefits of having a team in the NBL are enormous in terms of growth, promotion, publicity and everything else linked to competing in Great Britain’s top league tier. Hopefully clubs around the country will recognise the enormous boost to their club from entering the NBL and we will see an increase in the number of teams aspiring to compete in the NBL.

Another note from looking at the chart is that it would be fantastic to see the Northern and Midlands teams return to the NBL. With the emergence of the Cambridge Royals, Hull Scorpions and several other teams, hopefully this is something which will happen sooner rather than later. An NBL made up of between 12 or 16 teams would seem to be a reasonable target in the coming years if it is going to compete with growing leagues such as the German Bundesliga which currently has 15 teams in its top league tier.

Herts Falcons can officially announc the free agent signing of Pau Sancho from German side Bonn Capitals, their second signing of the offseason thus far.

At 27 years of age, Pau brings a wealth of experience with him, having played in America, Spain and Germany to date. He most recently helped the Capitals to a 17-7 record in the German Bundesliga.

Pau is a natural baseball athlete having been a part of the Under-15 Spanish National Team in 2002, even winning the European Championships MVP award in the same year. His success as a junior earned him a call up to the senior Spanish National Team, and was the second-youngest player at the Baseball World Cup in 2005. In 2008 he won the Under-21 European Championship with Spain defeating Italy in the final.

Pau was invited to the MLB European Academy in 2003, 2005 and 2006, an event attended by a host of MLB teams and scouts. He then went on to play and study at San Diego City College and Rogers State University, Oklahoma, – NCAA Division II – between the years 2007-08 and 2009-10 respectively.

Having played at second-base, shortstop and third-base in the past, the right-hander will add versatility to the Falcons infield and will be an offensive threat in the line-up. Over the last four seasons with Barcelona FC and Bonn Capitals, Sancho maintained a .389 average in 103 games and hit 9 home runs over that period.

Everyone connected with Herts Baseball Club will look forward to seeing Pau on the field in 2015.

By Daniel Levitt @DanielLevitt32

Follow Herts Baseball on Twitter: @HertsBaseball

 

The Herts Falcons can officially confirm the signing of Maikel Azcuy from national champions Essex Arrows.

Azcuy joins the Falcons after winning four straight national titles, a feat achieved by only 16 other players, with the latest coming this year with the Arrows. Azcuy’s three other titles came with the Harlow Nationals.

A full list of all the four-time winners can be viewed here.

From the 2014 Herts Falcons roster, only Darrin Ward and John Blose have worn the Great Britain Senior National Team uniform in the past, but Azcuy is the first Herts Falcons player in the club’s history who is a current GB Senior Team player. He has been a key member of the GB squad in the last 3 years playing in the 2012 and 2014 European Championship campaigns. In this year’s European Championships in Germany and the Czech Republic, Maikel Azcuy had an impressive .370 batting average.

The Falcons have come up against Azcuy on many occasions over the years, but in 2015 he will be wearing  Herts uniform (photo by Richard Lee richardleephotography.org)

Herts Baseball Club is delighted to add such a gifted player to its roster, both on offense and defense. Maikel has won five home run titles in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014. He has a career average of .421 in 9 seasons in the National Baseball League.

Azcuy currently has 33 career NBL home runs and, in 2015, will chase down the all-time record, currently held by Simon Pole with 35.

MAIKEL AZCUY NBL CAREER STATISTICS

TEAM	SEASON	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	HBP	SO	SB	BA	OBA	SLA
Essex Arrows	2014	74	68	24	28	6	4	3	30	5	0	13	7	0.412	0.446	0.750
Harlow Nationals	2013	66	54	18	19	2	1	4	10	9	3	7	7	0.352	0.470	0.648
Harlow Nationals	2012	89	76	15	32	8	0	4	26	8	3	12	9	0.421	0.478	0.684
Southern Nationals	2011	84	71	25	30	5	1	4	23	9	2	17	11	0.423	0.494	0.690
Croydon Pirates	2010	96	85	19	36	5	2	6	31	9	1	18	3	0.424	0.479	0.741
Croydon Pirates	2009	44	39	15	12	4	2	1	4	5	0	7	8	0.308	0.386	0.590
Croydon Pirates	2008	37	34	8	16	1	1	4	12	1	2	10	1	0.471	0.514	0.912
Croydon Pirates	2007	71	58	33	31	4	1	5	31	11	0	6	6	0.534	0.592	0.897
Croydon Pirates	2006	25	23	9	10	3	0	2	6	2	0	4	2	0.435	0.480	0.826
TOTALS		586	508	166	214	38	12	33	173	59	11	94	54	0.421	0.485	0.738

Source: Project COBB

On the defensive side, the Falcons welcome the reigning Best Third Baseman in the NBL, an award equivalent to Major League Baseball’s Gold Glove Award. Azcuy also won the same award in 2010 with the Croydon Pirates.

Herts Falcons fans will be able to see Azcuy for the first time when he joins the team for spring training in 2015.

By Daniel Levitt @DanielLevitt32

Follow Herts Baseball on Twitter: @HertsBaseball

Abel Salas launches another home run (photo by Paul Holdrick)

Project COBB has published the 2014 National Baseball League award winners in the various categories and Herts Falcons’ ace Abel Salas has scooped up all three of the Most Valuable Player awards. These are the most prestigious prizes awarded to individual players and are the equivalent of MLB’s MVP and Cy Young Awards.

MOST VALUABLE BATTER

Abel Salas’ outstanding offensive numbers secured the Most Valuable Batter Award after he led or was among the top players in all of the main batting categories. He had the highest slugging average (.848), tied with Maikel Azcuy of the Essex Arrows for most home runs (3), third in batting average (.435) behind Martin Tucker of the London Mets (.525) and Fraser Duggan of the Bracknell Blazers (.522), fourth in on-base average (.567), third in runs batted in (20). We understand that the formula used to determine the winner indicated that the race for the Most Valuable Batter title was very close and Abel Salas’ grand slam home run against the South London Pirates in the final game of the season may have clinched it.

MOST VALUABLE PITCHER

NBL batters struggled to make contact with Abel Salas’ pitches all season long (photo by Paul Holdrick)

In the pitching category Abel Salas was just as impressive. He led in wins (5) a 4-way tie, strike-outs (56), was second in earned run average (3.73) behind Pietro Sollecito (2.95) of the London Mets. It was the strike outs per 9 innings where Salas stood apart from the rest with 12.3. We have to go back to 2009 when Cody Cain had 12.8 and 2008 when Ryan Bird led this category with a mind-boggling 16.9.

BEST TWO-WAY PLAYER

If the top batting and pitching awards were very closely fought, the Most Valuable Two-Way Player Award must have been easier to determine given Abel Salas’ offensive and defensive numbers. It is very rare for a player to dominate both the batting and the pitching categories. Baseball has become a game where players specialise in one or the other so Salas’ feat is significant. We have to go back to 2005 and 2002 when Simon Pole won both the Most Valuable Batter and Most Valuable Pitcher Awards playing for the London Warriors.

FIELDING AWARDS

Ryan Hackel filled the hole in the Falcons infield left after the departure of Robbie Unsell and Xavi Gonzalez (photo by Paul Holdrick)

The Herts Falcons’ biggest weakness in 2104 was fielding. It was the main reason for the team missing out on the postseason for the first time in 3 years. However, it is not a surprise to see Ryan Hackel named as the best shortstop in the NBL this season. Hack’s arrival at the end of May played a key role in bringing the team back into the playoff race after a string of injuries to key players resulted in the team’s poor start of the season.

FALCONS AMONGST THE LEADERS

John Blose played hard all season long (photo by Will Baxter)

John Blose led in the Runs Scored category (27) to round of a season in which his numbers have exploded compared to 2013, making him one of the most productive players for the Herts Falcons. Jamie Gregory’ batting average was .429 which puts him fourth overall in that category. There were two Herts Falcons players whose season was cut short due to injury to Cris Hiche and transfer to the USA in the case of Ryan Bird. If their season was not cut short, they would have been right up with the leaders. Cris Hiche had a batting average of .778 with 1 home run from 14 plate appearances. Ryan Bird batted 1.000 with 1 home run from his 5 plate appearances. 17-year-old Will Zucker also impressed with a batting average of .571 from 7 at bats in his NBL debut season, while another Herts youngster Carlos Casal Jr had an average of .400 from his 25 at bats – a very promising sign for the future of the club.

WHAT WILL 2015 BRING?

In 2013 Robbie Unsell won the Most Valuable Pitcher and Most Valuable Two-Way Player Awards. This was his final season in the NBL as he moved to America. Ryan Bird won the Most Valuable Batter Award and also moved across the Atlantic shortly after the 2013 season. 2013 team MVP Xavi Gonzalez signed with Stuttgart Reds. 2014 was Abel Salas’ final season in the NBL as he too will be moving to the USA so there is a trend for the Herts Falcons to attract the league’s star players and lose them shortly after that, however the noise coming out of the club’s front office is that there are positive signs that the Falcons will be able to make the player acquisitions needed to get back in the playoff race in 2015. We will keep you updated as soon as the club makes any announcements in the coming months as we build up to the 2015 season.

written by Joe Gray

Maikel Azcuy (Essex Arrows) tied with Abelardo Salas (Herts Falcons) for the 2014 National Baseball League home-run title, with both players hitting three long-balls. This is the fifth year in which Azcuy has been joint or outright British home-run champion, which pushes him past the previous record mark of four titles set by Simon Pole (London Warriors), a British Baseball Hall of Famer. A list of all players with recorded stats in modern British baseball history, ranked by home-run titles, can be viewed here.

The 2014 crown is Azcuy’s third straight home-run title and his fourth in five seasons. His first came back in 2007, as a Croydon Pirate. Azcuy’s career home-run total now moves to 33, two shy of Pole’s all-time record.

Mike Osborn on the mound for the Herts Falcons at the London Mets (photo by Paul Holdrick)

The 2014 season also saw Michael Osborn (Herts Falcons), move to within 35 regular-season plate appearances of the 1000 mark. Only Alan Bloomfield (like Pole, a British Baseball Hall of Famer) has more than 1000 recorded plate appearances in modern British baseball history. Osborn, a two-way stand-out, has now played 17 seasons in the top tier.

Finally, Matt Gilbert (Southern Nationals) has becomes the first player in modern British baseball history to pass a half-century of recorded complete games, moving to a total of 54 with six this season. Gilbert now has 408 career strike-outs, and if he returns next season his first strike-out will draw him level with Cody Cain’s modern British record of 409.

About Project COBB

The Project for the Chronicling of British Baseball (Project COBB) is an online collaboration aimed at restoring the record of British baseball’s past and preserving its present. Click here to go to the Project COBB website.

Herts baseball fans followed the playoff race this season while keeping one eye on the German Bundesliga where 2013 Herts Falcons MVP, Xavi Gonzalez, reached the semi-final after his transfer to the Stuttgart Reds.

News has just emerged that the 2012 Herts Falcons MVP, Ryan Bird, is making news across the Atlantic with the Mayfair Fighting Irish in the Greater Philadelphia Men’s Adult Baseball League (GPMABL). The 3-time National Baseball League started the season with the Herts Falcons, but his move to the USA meant that British baseball had to begin search for a new Ryan Bird. He marked his final game for the Falcons with a towering home run against the London Mets. It looks like his excellent performances continue in America.

He made his debut for the Mayfair Fighting Irish on 8 June 2014 going 2-for-5 and driving in a run against the Quad County Brawlers. Since then he has been producing phenomenal numbers which has moved him to the top in some of the key statistical rankings. At .529 Ryan Bird has the second highest batting average in the whole league (159 players). The Mayfair Fighting Irish must have seen his impressive pitching stats in the British leagues and have added Bird to their pitching staff. He currently has one of the lowest ERAs (1.10) in the whole league.

Ryan Bird’s view from the dugout during the GPMABL 2014 All Star Game

Despite arriving partway through the season, his performances earned him a place in the League’s All-Star game which was played last week at Frawley Stadium, home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, which is the Single-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

Herts fans enjoy seeing updates about former players making news across the globe and we will keep you informed about Ryan Bird, Xavi Gonzalez, Riley Fisher and other Herts players who have moved on to other parts of the world.