The Roundup - 12th November to 8th December 2019


The roundup
12th November to 8th December 2019

First of all I want to apologise for the delay in this post - news is slow this time of year, but I’ve had a struggle to find time to post due to pressures of work. Stay tuned as we have some posts in the pipeline before we start the Halli-SM coverage in the new year...

The big stories
Structure for 2020 season is released
The executive committee has released the format for the 2020 season, which will see all 14 teams play each other twice and play 4 other fixtures to bring total games played to 30. The teams are divided into groups, which determines who they play for the 4 additional fixtures. The groups are:
Group 1 - each team plays each other team twice, one home and one away game per opponent
Hyvinkään Tahko
Imatran Pallo-Veikot
Kouvolan Pallonlyöjat 

Group 2 - each team plays each other team twice, one home and one away game per opponent
Joensuun Maila
Kiteen Pallo -90
Siilinjärven Pesis

Group 3 - each team plays each other team twice, one home and one away game per opponent
Kempeleen Kiri
Pattijoen Urheilijat Raahe
Sotkamon Jymy

Group 4 - each team plays each other once in the group. Each team will have two home games and two away which have been determined by a draw
Kankaanpään Maila
Koskenkorvan Urheilijat
Seinäjoen JymyJussit
Tampere Manse PP
Vimpelin Veto

The home and away fixtures for group 4 are:
Manse PP v Vimpeli
Koskenkorva v Kankaanpää
Kankaanpää v Manse PP
Vimpeli v Seinäjoki
Seinäjoki v Kankaanpää
Manse PP v Koskenkorva
Koskenkorva v Seinäjoki
Vimpeli v Koskenkorva
Seinäjoki v Manse PP

Simo Vainikainen joins Joensuun Maila and Mikko Haukkala joins Tampere Manse PP
To add to the list of signings in the off season, Simo Vainikainen bids Siilinjarvi farewell and joins 2019 champions Joensuun Maila. This year’s Rookie of the Year clearly made an impression at JoMa and its easy to see why, Vainikainen was a big success story for SiiPe in 2019 and was a key player for the team in their fight for survival. Vainikainen scored 28 runs and had 101 successful at bats with a 60.11% rate. This years runner-up was Samuel Tirkkonen of Joensuu, who had 41 successful hits to 1st base, reaching home 23 times over 22 games and an overall success rate at moving the point runner of 53.08%. Towards the end of the season Vainikainen suffered an injury to his elbow and has required surgery during the offseason. All signs point to him being at full strength and throwing at game-speed for March 2020. 

Mikko Haukkala has signed a 1 year deal with Tampere and brings a great deal of experience to the newly promoted side. The 34-year-old made his debut in Superpesis 2006 in Nurmo's Jymy shirt. Over the years Haukkala has collected three championships with Vimpeli including 2010, 2016 and 2017, plus three SM silver and two SM bronze (indoor tournaments). Haukkala has been selected for the East West game 4 times in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014. 


Mikko Haukkala has, during his Superpesis career, played a total of 351 regular season matches, where he has collected 21 + 93 = 114 RBI and 222 runs. On top of this, he has a staggering 1116 successful at bats moving the point runner. During the postseason, Haukkala's has 118 playoff matches to his name with 6 + 20 RBI and 60 runs. Last season saw him play a secondary role in Seinäjoki’s offence, batting in the lower order or sometimes listed as a joker. This move will no doubt give him more game time and help Tampere stamp their mark on their triumphant return to Superpesis for 2020.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playoff previews 2021: Semifinals

Image
The semifinals promise to be action packed and full of surprises… The first round of the playoffs are now over and the semifinals are set. Here is my preview of the last 4: (1) Manse PP v (4) Sotkamo Both of these teams played a tough series to reach the semifinals. Manse almost became the victims of a surprise series win by IPV; however Manse came back from losing their opening 2 games and won in 5 games. Sotkamo’s road to the semifinals had a substantially more threatening roadblock in the form of a hungry Joensuu side. If JoMa had home field advantage for the series, or the ball had bounced a certain way, this semifinal would look very different. Sotkamo’s regular season games against top 4 sides were not great and they lost more games than the other 3. Despite a dazzling performance at Kaupi on 30th July, Manse still got the better of the reigning champions in their most recent matchup. Manse now have to prove that they are the championship contenders they claim to be. Expect th
Read more

Finals review 2021

Image
In 5 games we were treated to some tense games and superb defence, but in the end Manse PP managed to break through and seal their first men’s championship in the club’s history in a 1-0 win over KPL. Manse finished top of the league in the regular season and soon became favourites to reach the final; however they were soon faced with elimination from the playoffs when they unexpectedly lost the first 2 games of their quarterfinal series against IPV. In the end, neither IPV or reigning champions Sotkamo could stop the star-studded team from securing their first final in only their second season in Superpesis. In my predictions going into the final, I struggled to pick a clear winner, but ended up backing KPL. At that point, I was convinced that Manse hadn’t reached their true potential this season and thought KPL would exploit that. A few weeks later and it seems that Manse did indeed unlock their potential and showed the strength of their defensive game in ways we rarely got to se
Read more

Playoff previews 2021: the final

Image
Can KPL go all the way this season and take gold in their second consecutive final? After some intense semifinal series, the finals are set, with Manse and KPL in search of gold, whilst Vimpeli and Sotkamo go head to head for bronze. The post season so far has been one of the most thrilling and exciting in recent memory, now we will we if Manse’s big spending can pay off, or whether KPL can end their long wait for a championship… (1) Manse PP v (3) KPL This has been the toughest series for me to predict so far. Both teams are worthy champions this year and I have gone back and changed my mind several times. Manse beat Sotkamo in 3 straight games, but it was far from being an easy series. The first 2 games went to a scoring contest! Manse executed their game plan well to defeat the reigning champions, but some uncharacteristic errors (like Puhtimäki walking in a run in game 1) that made things harder than they needed to be. In a scoring contest, Manse probably has the best batting a
Read more