2019–20 Australian Baseball League season

The 2019–20 Australian Baseball League season was the tenth year Australian Baseball League (ABL) season. The season was held from 21 November 2019 to 9 February 2020. The Melbourne Aces won their first title after defeating the Adelaide Giants in the postseason.[1]

2019–20 Australian Baseball League season
LeagueAustralian Baseball League
SportBaseball
Duration21 November 2019 – 9 February 2020
Number of games155
Number of teams8
Regular season
Season MVPTimothy Kennelly
Marcus Solbach
Championship Series
ChampionsMelbourne Aces (1st title)
  Runners-upAdelaide Giants

Teams
Main article: List of current Australian Baseball League team rosters

On 27 August 2019, the Adelaide franchise announced it changed its name from the Adelaide Bite to the Adelaide Giants. This was the name of the Adelaide franchise from 1989–1999 and is the first renaming of a team in the league's history.[2]

The Tuatara also moved their team from the baseball-specific venue of McLeod Park to North Harbour Stadium, which was converted to a baseball field for the first time.

Teams in the ABL
Team State / Territory/ Country Stadium
Adelaide Giants South Australia Diamond Sports Stadium[3]
Auckland Tuatara New Zealand North Harbour Stadium[4]
Brisbane Bandits Queensland Holloway Field[5]
Canberra Cavalry Australian Capital Territory Narrabundah Ballpark[6]
Geelong-Korea Victoria Geelong Baseball Park[7]
Melbourne Aces Victoria Melbourne Ballpark[8]
Perth Heat Western Australia Baseball Park[9]
Sydney Blue Sox New South Wales Blue Sox Stadium[10]

Regular season

The league retains a 10-round, 40 game schedule, with teams playing division rivals eight times and inter division teams four times. Auckland, Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney grouped into the 'Northeast Division' with Adelaide, Geelong, Melbourne and Perth grouped into the 'Southwest Division'.

Scheduled doubleheaders consist of a seven inning game followed by a nine inning game. The league uses the WBSC tiebreaker rule for all games going beyond the 9th inning, or extra innings beginning less than one hour to a curfew. In November, 2019 it was announced all games played at North Harbour Stadium would be reduced to seven innings to suit a local broadcast deal with Sky Sport.[11]

In round six, one of the games between the Bandits and Cavalry in Canberra was suspended due to poor air quality conditions following the severity of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, with the game completed the next day. The following round seven matchup between the Giants and Cavalry in Canberra was cancelled due to the same poor air quality, reducing their schedule to 36 games.[12] The conditions were the main contributing factor to Cavalry player Gavin Cecchini returning home before the completion of the season.[13]

Each team's series roster consists of 22 eligible players in addition to four amateur underage development players.

Key
Secured Semi-finals berth
Secured Wild Card berth
Northeast Division
Pos Team W L Pct. GB Home Away
1Auckland Tuatara  21.518.5.538-12–47½–12½
2Canberra Cavalry  2020.5001.512½-7½6½–9½
3Brisbane Bandits  1921.4752.512–85–11
4Sydney Blue Sox  16.523.5.4135.07–97½–12½
Southwest Division
Pos Team W L Pct. GB Home Away
1Adelaide Giants  2614.650-13–39-11
2*Melbourne Aces  2317.5751.013–78–8
3Perth Heat  2317.5751.09–712–8
4Geelong-Korea  1129.27511.08–123–13

  • holds tiebreaker

Statistical leaders
  1. Minimum 2.7 PAs per team game.[14]
  2. Minimum 0.8 IP per team game.[15]

Awards
Season awards
Award Player Team Ref
Helms Award (MVP) Aaron Whitefield Adelaide Giants [16]
Postseason MVP Shane Robinson Melbourne Aces
Pitching Champion Dylan Unsworth Perth Heat
Hitting Champion Delmon Young Melbourne Aces
Reliever of the Year Ryan Chaffee Adelaide Giants
Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Whitefield Adelaide Giants
Rookie of the Year Elliot Johnstone Auckland Tuatara

Postseason

The postseason continued to include the top five teams, with a single wild card game between the fourth and fifth seeds prior to two rounds of best-of-three finals series.

The top seed was awarded to the team with the best regular season record, with the other division winner awarded the second seed. The third and fourth seed were awarded to the two divisional runner ups with the fifth seed being given to the team with the next best season record.[17]

The only change to the playoff structure from the previous season was the higher semi final was given home field advantage in games two and three (if required), with game one hosted by the lower seed.

Shane Robinson was named Championship Series MVP after batting 5/10 with three RBI and one home-run. He batted .412/.500/.647 across the postseason.

Wild Card Semi-finals series Championship Series
             
1 Adelaide Giants 6 5 6
4 Canberra Cavalry 7 2 3
4 Canberra Cavalry 5
5 Perth Heat 4
1 Adelaide Giants 3 2 X
3 Melbourne Aces 4 6 X
2 Auckland Tuatara 4 2 X
3 Melbourne Aces 5 6 X

Championship Series
07 February 2020
19:00 (UTC+11:00)
Game 1		 Melbourne Aces 4-3 Adelaide Giants Victoria (state) Melbourne Ballpark, Melbourne
Attendance: 2,367
Umpires: HP: Trent Thomas. 1B: Tom West. 2B: Brett Robson. 3B: Paul Latta.
WP: Jon Kennedy (1-0) Boxscore LP: Ryan Chaffee (0-1)
08 February 2020
19:00 (UTC+10:30)
Game 2		 Adelaide Giants 2-6 Melbourne Aces South Australia Bennett Field, Adelaide
Attendance: 1,905
Umpires: HP: Tom West. 1B: Brett Robson. 2B: Paul Latta. 3B: Trent Thomas.
LP: David Holmberg (0-1) Boxscore WP: Wes Helsabeck (1-0)
HR: Mikey Reynolds (1), Jeremy Hazelbaker (1) HR: Shane Robinson (1), Delmon Young (1)

References
  1. "Aces sweep Giants, claim first ABL title | theABL.com.au". theabl.com.au. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  2. "Adelaide Giants return as Bite rebrand". Adelaide Giants. Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  3. "Adelaide Giants Homepage". Adelaide Giants. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 11 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  4. "Auckland Tuatara Homepage". Auckland Tuatara. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  5. "Brisbane Bandits Homepage". Brisbane Bandits. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 11 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  6. "Canberra Cavalry Homepage". Canberra Cavalry. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  7. "Geelong-Korea Homepage". Geelong-Korea. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  8. "Melbourne Aces Homepage". Melbourne Aces. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  9. "Perth Heat Homepage". Perth Heat. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  10. "Sydney Blue Sox Homepage". Sydney Blue Sox. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  11. "Baseball: Auckland Tuatara to shorten home games for entire Australian Baseball League season". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  12. Canberra Cavalry cancellation leads to ABL's new air quality policyCanberra Times
  13. US baseball star Gavin Cecchini quits Canberra Cavalry as bushfire smoke wreaks havoc on sporting events ABC News
  14. "League Batting Leaders". Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  15. "League Pitching Leaders". Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  16. "Whitefield Named 2020 Helms Award Winner". Australian Baseball League. Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  17. "New-look playoff structure revealed". Archived from the original on 2019-10-19. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
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