This topic is the first in a multi part series on the premiere European season that was. First we'll examine each of the regular season campaigns of each of the Alliance's two circuits, the East and West, followed up a playoffs overview and, finally, we'll take a look at the players who soared above their opponents in a who's-who of EBA All-Stars. I also hope to eventually get a little more in-depth and try and provide a general historical primer of each of the storied European ball clubs, but that's a bit further down in the old pipeline.
First up, the Eastern Alliance!
The Eastern Alliance (which, oddly, consists almost entirely of teams residing to the west of those in the Western Alliance. Just another quirk of this charming league!) was awfully competitive this year, with two teams actually tying for first place at the end of the season and a third team finishing only a couple of wins back. While American baseball fans sat eagerly awaiting the playoffs to start, their European counterparts watched as the three teams atop the EBA East battled down the wire for a chance to advance. It really was a hell of a campaign.
The Paris Patriots
71-91, .438
Starting at the bottom of the table, the embattled French side were the only Eastern club to find themselves out of the pennant race looking in; a record 20 games below .500 all they had to show for a long summer of baseball. Interestingly, les Patriots actually posted the third highest OBP and scored the second most runs of any team in the league; it was their bottom-of-the-basement pitching and team defence that kept the club from challenging the big boys.
Led by Dutch center-fielder Jacky Blok, who split time the last couple of seasons between Paris and her AAA affiliate before making the jump to the majors full-time for the 2022 campaign, les Patriots finished the season a mere nineteen runs short of topping the league in that regard. No matter how many run they scored, however, it would prove impossible to pull a Brooklyn (as it were) and power their way past poor pitching. The team's hurlers allowed the second-most runs in all the league, and finished dead last in strike-outs -- when you can't retire an opposing batter to save your life, no amount of offence can turn things around.
The boys in blue were particularly pathetic over the month of August, racking up an 8-18 record as fans began to stay away in droves, preferring instead to watch the league's big dogs on television. The club also has some serious financial issues beginning to clamp down on them -- the team's highest paid player is the Japanese reliever Yoshiaki Sasaki, who pulls down $870,000 a year (quite a lot by European standards) to record an ERA of 4.77 (as mediocre in Europe as it is here in America). The future looks little better, as the aforementioned Jacky Blok is currently seeking employment in the MBBA and their All-Star RF Sammy Dawbin was snatched up in the Rule 6 Draft; from here, at least, it would appear that their offence is more likely to sputter than their defence is to improve.
London Bishops
84-78, .519
The Bishops kept themselves in the thick of it all the way to the end of the line, but ultimately came up two wins short of a shot at glory. In some ways the Patriots mirror opposites, the stout Englishmen posted some subpar offensive numbers but were able to stay in the hunt on the back of their lights-out pitching staff. Finishing tops league-wide in both Runs Against and Starters ERA, the London side really came to life in the last month of the season. The 2022 campaign had been middling through the first few months, but September saw them go on an invigorating 17-9 run to really put the fear of God into their rivals. Unfortunately, they came up just short; October saw the team play their two final games, and they dropped each of them (to Rome, no less, who are unequivocally the EBA's weakest team). It was an a humiliating end to what had been a heartening season.
The team's offence, so much as it is, was led by Rule 6 Draftee Pedro Burgos, whose Slugging and OPS totals (.581 and .963, respectively) were good for first in the Alliance). While they'll certainly miss the slugging Spaniard, the Bishops are even more likely to miss their pair of aces, should they choose to depart. Jeremy Gaze and Jimmy McCabe, a duo of American pitchers who tied for the team lead in ERA, are both free agents who are hoping to find service in the MBBA. The club remains optimistic, however, as neither of them appear to be the type of player to make the jump successfully -- and the Bishops don't have too much money tied up going forward, which should give them a prayer of resigning the two for a second run at the European Cup.
Brussels Eagles
86-76, .531
The Eagles represent yet another uneven roster -- you'll notice that this is something of a theme in the European competition. Leading the entire Alliance in Runs Scored, Batting Average, On-Base Percentage and Slugging, the Belgian side was held back by mediocre pitching. Unlike Les Patriots, however, the club's hurlers were merely average, not hopeless. Led by 20 year-old first baseman Ruben "Martini" Alvarez, the club's offence was utterly dominant all down the line; had the club not cooled off in September, a month in which they won just fewer than half of their games, they would certainly have taken the pennant with ease. Regardless, the Eagles were in fact able to clinch a playoff spot despite losing the tiebreaker to the boys from Belfast.
Like many Euro clubs, the Eagles will have some sizeable holes to fill as good chunks of their roster are now seeking employment in the land of Coca Cola. Unlike many clubs, however, the Eagles seem poised to continue their success: while a number of their pitchers are no longer with them, those pitchers performed pretty poorly and shouldn't be hard to replace from their ample farm system. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Alvarez is still four years away from Rule 6 eligibility, giving Brussels nearly a half-decade to build around the Cuban All-Star in pursuit of a Cup.
Joining Alvarez on the team next year will be Alfredo "Savage" Salazar, a Salvadorian slugger who has emerged as a genuine superstar across the pond. Sporting an 8/7/9/8/7 rating, Salazar seems certain to be a first overall selection when his number is called in the Rule 6 Draft. Like Alvarez, however, the 20 year-old Salazar still has several years of European play before qualifying; with a core of young studs still years away from being pillaged by American clubs, the Brussels Eagles are sitting pretty for the next half decade at least.
Belfast Northstars
86-76, .531
The Northstars are a true oddity. This fine broth of Irish lads took the division (based on a head-to-head record tiebreaker over the Brussels Eagles) despite posting thoroughly mediocre stats in almost every category. Excepting bullpen ERA and bases stolen (categories in which they finished first overall), their team finished anywhere between 3rd and 8th (out of eight) by every statistical measure. Powered by a fantastic home record of 47-34, the team managed to eke out the regular season pennant utilizing a small-ball strategy. Finishing the season with a run differential of only 25 (less than half the figure that Brussels can boast), one has to expect the Northstars to regress seriously towards the mean next summer.
The team's offensive leader, Leonhart Kleinendorst, is actively disliked by both the local fans and the league at large for his tendency to dog it on the field and, presumably, for his bullshit goatee. The club's "ace", Cecil Ware, started a league-topping 35 games this season -- of course, he only managed an ERA of 4.63, causing one to wonder if some of those games might have been better started by somebody else. What's more, Ware is taking home $2,400,000 a year -- a salary almost unfathomably high for a middling pitcher in a league where only four players are paid over a million dollars annually.
If there's a bigger mystery in baseball than the success of the Belfast Northstars, I'm not sure what it is. Financially, the team has been utterly incapable of translating their on-the-field success into revenue; the club sits at or near the bottom of the Alliance in nearly every financial metric. Indeed, the team's total gate revenue last season didn't even cover the salary of the previously discussed Cecil Ware, and their attendance numbers roughly equal that of the sadsack Paris Patriots.
Weird, man.
Later this week I'll be posting the regular season review of the EBA's Western Alliance, followed by a report on the league's post-season. Stay tuned!
