2025 EBA Alliance Series Round Recap

[Lane]

London, England
13 October, 2025

Andino Gelmetti tossed his glove and threw his arms into the air as his Northstars teammates sprinted towards the mound in celebration of their Western Alliance Series victory over the London Bishops. Gelmetti had just secured his 34th save of the season to complete the 4-1 series win, a result that came as a surprise to no one. London finished the season a respectable 81-81 but were significant underdogs against the 88-74 Northstars, having lost the season series 8-15.

The high powered Belfast offense showed up in full force in the best of seven series, scoring a whopping 39 runs in the 5 games. They were led by series MVP 2B Jesus Martinez who put up a .500 average with 2 HR, 7 RBI and 8 R. The potential Rule 6 draftee had another exceptional year, his 4th in the EBA. He appeared in his 4th consecutive All-Star Game and has now won Alliance Series MVP for two straight years. On the season, Martinez has hit .302/.370/.418 with 11 HR and a career high 78 RBI to go along with excellent defense. For a man with so many personal accolades, he remains focused on the team: "I didn't really pay attention to the numbers or my stats at all as we went along. I'm just so focused on trying to help the team win, that's it."

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
15 October, 2025

As lopsided as the Western Alliance Series was, the Eastern Alliance Series was close. With a razor thin season series victory of 12-11, and the EBA's best pitching staff, the Amsterdam Neptunes were the slight favorites leading up to the series. However, the Brussels Eagles owned the leagues best offense so the series shaped up to be a test of the old adage, "pitching wins championships."

Amsterdam took the first two games at home, with a narrow 4-3 victory in game one. Game 3 in Brussels gave the Eagles their first victory of the season, but their pitching could not hold down the Neptunes bats in Game 4. Facing elimination at home in Game 5, the Eagles sent 26 year old Ron Robert to the mound. Robert pitched 7 solid innings allowing only 3 runs, and with the offense scoring 7, the Eagles avoided elimination for another day. The relief would be short lived however, as they would face quite a challenge against Amsterdam's Bob Latrobe in Game 6. The 36 year old Latrobe did not disappoint pitching 6.2 innings and allowing only 1 R on 5 hits with no walks. Brussels starter Declan 'Divine' Hollinshead pitched admirably, but nothing short of perfection was going to beat Latrobe that day as the Neptunes won, 8-1.

In a series that featured 27 HR over 6 games, Amsterdam CF Marceau Dubois was named series MVP for hitting 5 HR to go with his .409 AVG and .480 OBP. He had this to say: "We definitely didn't look ahead to the European Cup, but we thought we'd be there for sure." The potential EBA MVP and two-time All-Star will definitely be thinking about the European Cup now, as his team is set to face the Belfast Northstars in the best of 9 series.

[udlb58]

Great recap there Lane. 4.5 HR a game in the Amsterdam/Brussels series is some exciting stuff! The best two teams are facing off for the European Cup, will be interesting to see if the Neps can grab a championship before the Rule 6 breaks up the band.

[Lane]

Great recap there Lane. 4.5 HR a game in the Amsterdam/Brussels series is some exciting stuff! The best two teams are facing off for the European Cup, will be interesting to see if the Neps can grab a championship before the Rule 6 breaks up the band.

Thanks! Yeah it was a great series and I also hope that Amsterdam can pull this off. I think they've got a good chance with their pitching.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lane]

Still trying to wrap my head around the 4.5 HR per game. Also Dubois and Jaso combined for over 90 HR this season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lane]

Back at my computer now and I can check to see exactly how outrageous 4.5 HR/game is. I thought, well maybe the EBA just has a high HR rate, and well, it does, but not THAT high. The EBA rate for 2025 was 2.3 per game. So yes, it is outrageous at nearly double that for a playoff series.

For the sake of being complete, this years MBBA rate was 2.1 per game, so in the same ballpark. And since I can't stop myself, I counted up the HR/Game for the recently completed Doubleday Series and Geoghegan Round, and that clocked in at 4.0 HR/Game. (3.75 without Geoghegan, but the Kraken-Bandits series featured 20 HR in 3 games)

So without doing even more number crunching tonight, it looks like MBWBA batters are selling out for power in the playoffs. This may be a good source of off season writing...

[Lane]

Back at my computer now and I can check to see exactly how outrageous 4.5 HR/game is. I thought, well maybe the EBA just has a high HR rate, and well, it does, but not THAT high. The EBA rate for 2025 was 2.3 per game. So yes, it is outrageous at nearly double that for a playoff series.

For the sake of being complete, this years MBBA rate was 2.1 per game, so in the same ballpark. And since I can't stop myself, I counted up the HR/Game for the recently completed Doubleday Series and Geoghegan Round, and that clocked in at 4.0 HR/Game. (3.75 without Geoghegan, but the Kraken-Bandits series featured 20 HR in 3 games)

So without doing even more number crunching tonight, it looks like MBWBA batters are selling out for power in the playoffs. This may be a good source of off season writing...

[Lane]

Back at my computer now and I can check to see exactly how outrageous 4.5 HR/game is. I thought, well maybe the EBA just has a high HR rate, and well, it does, but not THAT high. The EBA rate for 2025 was 2.3 per game. So yes, it is outrageous at nearly double that for a playoff series.

For the sake of being complete, this years MBBA rate was 2.1 per game, so in the same ballpark. And since I can't stop myself, I counted up the HR/Game for the recently completed Doubleday Series and Geoghegan Round, and that clocked in at 4.0 HR/Game. (3.75 without Geoghegan, but the Kraken-Bandits series featured 20 HR in 3 games)

So without doing even more number crunching tonight, it looks like MBWBA batters are selling out for power in the playoffs. This may be a good source of off season writing...

[ae37jr]

Back at my computer now and I can check to see exactly how outrageous 4.5 HR/game is. I thought, well maybe the EBA just has a high HR rate, and well, it does, but not THAT high. The EBA rate for 2025 was 2.3 per game. So yes, it is outrageous at nearly double that for a playoff series.

I've been thinking that our league had some crazy HR totals. I kinda figured it is a product of our talent pool. We lack elite pitching and have a decent amount of Rob Deer's, I mean Fank Harris. One dimensional hitters that just mash cripple pitching.

It does make sense that our series saw so many longballs. We were 1/2 in HR and 2/4 in HR allowed. I think moving forward I'm going to shift more toward a speed/defense team. Trying to field 4-5 designated hitters tied my hands a lot. May take another season or 2 to get there though.

[trmmilwwi]

We should all nerf up our stadiums with max HR totals. Watch offense rise through the roof as the antithesis of soccer.