Topeka Thunderbears 2042 Final Review
A-ball Topeka finished 2042 at 74-66, their best record since 2040 (62-78), in third place in the West Central division equalling their previous highest position in 2036 when they went 58-69. The Thunderbear’s total attendance for the season, of 451,666 was also the team’s single season highest beating last year’s 411,666. In both April & May they finished the month 16-12 but followed it up with a rocky 11-14 June. July saw them back to 18-11 for the month before falling below .500 in the final month (13-16) which probably cost them their first ever post-season appearance as they finished five games short of the PL Wild Card spot.
It had been a solid all-round performance by Topeka, but very little outstanding work as in most stat categories the Thunderbears were firmly in the lower half of the division. Their 135 homers were the third best in the PL though and their 95 stolen bases was 5th. The team’s staff ERA of 4.39 was the sixth best in the PL while their BABIP (.275) and defensive efficiency (.713) were both second best in the PL. 22-yr-old Catcher Brian Best and 21-yr-old Bill Burke provided a lot of the Thunderbears offence. They finished one & two in the teams single season highest record for average (.306 & .295) and OBP (.402 & .389), Burke went on to set SLG (.503) and OPS (.892, with Best just .002 behind him) single season records too. Best set a team single season record of 4.3 WAR and it was also hard to separate the pair in runs scored (Burke 87, Best 75, both single season highs), Hits (Burke 139, Best 126, again both single season marks) and walks (Burke 67, Best 65, both 1& 2 in Single season stats, over 20 walks ahead of the third). Elmer Lomond set the single season mark for Triples with nine.
21-yr-old reliever Mike Allain set a single season Topeka record for games pitched with 75, 20 games ahead of the previous mark but Allain would not have been impressed with his 74 walks allowed (second only to David Johnson’s single season mark of 75, also set this year). The only other pitcher to trouble Topeka’s record books was 20-yr-old Reynold Voermans (who spent five games, 0-2, in AA Columbus), he posted a 4.5 rWAR that was second in the Thunderbears all-time single season mark.
TOPEKA AWARDS 2042
Mike Allain and Bill Burke
Mallard’s Pitcher of the Year : 21-yr-old Mike Allain
Mallard’s Batter of the Year : 21-yr-old Bill Burke
Both players will be at Double-A Columbus next year and are pictured in their new uniforms
TOPEKA STATS 2042
