Superpesis roundup

It’s less than 7 days until the Itä v Länsi Allstar game and things are hotting up in the regular season. Who shot up the power rankings last week? And who was left searching for answers? 1st Manse PP, Tampere If you only watch one game this season, go back ad watch the intense matchup between Manse and Sotkamo last Friday. The game could easily hav easily been mistaken for being a final, with such great plays and hits. The back and fore eventually swung in Manse’s favour in the first jakso and despite a spirited effort from Sotkamo, Manse pulled off the win… not before Sotkamo denied them the chance at 3 points however! In other games, Manse made light work of Kitee and SiiPe, taking a total of 8 points from the 3 games. 2nd Kempeleen Kiri Kempele are this year’s dark horses and threaten to shake up the usual top 8 and claim their first playoff spot. Kempele continues to improve with each season and last week’s win over Vimpeli away puts them in 2nd place in the power rankings,...

At the end of last week, the news came through that HP would have to self isolate due to a positive Covid result for one of their players. With the season heading towards a thrilling conclusion, who were the ones who rose to the top of our power rankings? 1st Sotkamon Jymy Sotkamo have had a few pedestrian weeks as far as the power rankings have been concerned, with little success against the top teams. Last week however they took maximum points against Tahko and IPV who have enjoyed some success so far this season. 2nd Vimpelin Veto Vimpeli’s wins over Hamina and IPV were not much of a surprise, but the crowning achievement of the week came with a 3 point win over KPL that ended their winning streak that spanned back to their 2nd game of the season. Vimpeli remain one of the strongest teams to beat, although they dropped a point against IPV and ultimately cost them top spot in the power rankings. 3rd Pattijoen Urheilijat, Raahe PattU managed to put together a string of great...

Now that IPV are finally out of self-isolation, all the teams were back in action last week. Who were the ones who rose to the top of our power rankings? 1st Manse PP, Tampere Despite a narrow loss to KPL last week, Manse tops the power rankings because they beat Vimpeli and JymyJussit. Manse sit comfortably at the top end of the table, and appear to be striking up a rivalry with KPL; who they have narrowly lost to twice this season.   2nd Kouvolan Pallonlyöjat KPL remain in top end of the power rankings as they ride on their current wave of success; in fact their winning streak continued intact last week (despite playing Manse) to 12 games. KPL have won both of their games against Manse this season and are currently the team to beat. KPL’s other game last week was a routine win over local rivals Hamina. Curiously, young pitcher Elias Pitkänen pitched in both encounters between the two teams this season, but for different teams!  3rd Hyvinkään Tahko Tahko have had a ...

Withe table well and truly shaken up by Coronavirus and the new “points per game” system, who were the week’s top performers? 1st Kouvolan Pallonlyöjat Last week’s number 2 goes one better and became number 1 with wins across the board. KPL are one of the teams to greatly benefit from the new points per game system, catapulting them into 2nd in the table. This boost clearly gave the players some further encouragement as they beat Joensuu, Sotkamo and Kankaanpää. Also of note was the emergence of 17 year old pitcher Elias Pitkänen, who started the season with local rivals Hamina.  2nd Vimpelin Veto Vimpeli dusted off their loss to Tahko last week and followed that up with some solid wins over JymyJussit and PattU to challenge for the top of the table. Vimpeli’s success rate at moving the point runner in both games was over 60% and their offence seems to be on fine form. The announcement of the Itä v Länsi players sees Vimpeli well represented for the west, with the maximum nu...

After the midsummer break the teams got straight back to it, but who were the best performers? 1st Hyvinkään Tahko Tahko’s best result this season came on Friday against the league leaders Vimpeli. Not only did Tahko win the game, but they took a full 3 points and showed a much improved defence on their 2020. Tahko’s other win was less spectacular win over Hamina; however another solid 3 points in the bank. 2nd Kouvolan Pallonlyöjat KPL were the only other team that won all their games during the week, bating IPV and Kempele, who both seem to have shown improvements on their 2020 campaigns. KPL now extend their winning streak which goes back to game 2. 3rd Vimpelin Veto Despite losing to Hyvinkää on Friday,  Vimpeli had such a significant win over reigning champions Sotkamo that they reached number 3 in the rankings anyway.  Worst performance - Siilinjärven Pesis The midsummer break did little to reset SiiPe’s performance and they were the only team last week not ...

Three weeks into the season and things are hotting up… and I don’t just mean the hot weather Finland has been experiencing. 1st Joensuun Maila At the start of the week JoMa beat IPV away to claim another 3 points for the season. despite a fairly tight first jakso, JoMa had no problems piling on he runs in the second, out scoring the Reds 0-9. Later in the week, Joensuu became the first team to topple the current champions this season, when Sotkamo visited Kerubi stadium. JoMa had a lot of energy in the game and played with grit and determination to earn 3 points. 2nd Pattijoen Urheilijat, Raahe Last week we saw PattU finally get a win after some tough and close games to start the season. The win came against the league leaders - Vimpeli, who were without their regular pitcher (and all round golden boy) Perttu Ruuska. PattU won both jakso and claimed a decisive 3 points against the championship hopefuls. The win was significant for PattU, as it ended their losing streak to start t...

The second week of the regular season is now behind us, but who was top of the power rankings and who was left struggling? 1st Manse PP  Manse sit at the top of the table with Vimpeli, but have had a tougher schedule than ViVe. The jewel in the crown was a home win over Joensuu, where Manse took the full 3 points. even the win over Kempele was not a certainty, as Kempele’s much improved performance this season has meant that they are a more difficult team to beat. Henri Puputti led Manse’s offence in style against JoMa with a 4 run home run that took his career tally to over 700 RBIs. 2nd Imatran Pallo-Veikot IPV played only 1 game last week, but it was a significant result for the club, who many have predicted will fall way short of the battle for a post-season spot. IPV took the full 3 points against Hyvinkää, who finished 6th last season. Despite IPV losing a number of players to Kitee in the offseason from critical roles, the team are actually doing far better than Kitee...

  The wait was finally over last week and the Men’s Superpesis returned for another exciting season. Unlike 2020, one or more teams will be relegated at the end of the season, so there is even more pressure at the bottom of the table. 1st Vimpelin Veto  Vimpeli wasted no time in proving that they are serious contenders for the championship and picked up where they left off last year, where they beat JoMa in the bronze medal series. In the opening 2 games, Vimpeli took the full 6 points, out scoring Kempele and Kitee So far, the batting lineup at Vimpeli has looked solid and Perttu Ruuska looks strong in the role of pitcher. 2nd Manse PP Everyone anticipated Manse to be powerful this season, as they had completely transformed their lineup from the 2019 team that blitzed Ykköspesis. Manse had a good start to their season with a 3 point win over Hyvinkää before turning their attention to PattU and taking a further 3 points. Whilst Tahko and PattU are teams that the new Manse line...

Vimpeli blank KPL to show that they are a force to be reckoned with As the chances to make it into the top 8 are running out for most teams, it’s time to get to make a final push for the end of the season. Here are last week’s performance rankings: 1st Vimpelin Veto Vimpeli have been an interesting project to watch this season and the pieces have been coming together for some time. Despite some losses to teams like Kankaanpää, which have been tough to explain, Vimpeli proved that they are the full package and are capable of anything this season when they beat KPL 2-0 at home and stopped KPL from scoring in the entire game. Perttu Ruuska is performing extremely well at the plate and as a pitcher. Vimpeli’s explosive offence has left teams on the back foot against a very challenging defence. The only question that remains is how will they perform against Joensuun, who they won’t face in the regular season. 2nd Kiteen Pallo-90 Kitee continue to be the most exciting development for 2...

Hyvinkää storm back into the top 8 with key wins over IPV and KPL There was one result last week that changed as a result of an ineligible player. This has a significant impact on teams at the top and bottom of the performance rankings, so I have had to apply a bit of thought to how to deal with the Siilinjärvi v Koskenkorva result... 1st Hyvinkään Tahko Hyvinkää needed a big performance to lift themselves up into the playoff spots and last week they certainly got that. With 2 wins from 2 games, scoring 5 out of a possible 6 points, this was a solid week for Tahko - especially when you realise that one win came against KPL. Pihkala is known for its run scoring potential and so far this season Hyvinkää had struggled to stop their opponents exploiting this and have the most runs conceded in the league. Last week however they managed to power past both KPL and IPV with Juha Korhonen’s 7 RBI against IPV and Teemu Nikkanen’s perfect 8/8 at moving the point runner, including 4 RBI agains...

KPL, Sotkamo and Joensuu all have a chance to finish 1st Full predictions This post will look at the full picture of the league and analyse the projected positions of teams based on calculations as well as my own personal thoughts. Who will take the top spot? The calculations half way through the season suggested that it could be any of the top 4 teams that will finish 1st this season, where they could equally also finish anywhere in the top 4. When this season’s new format was announced, I did a post analysing which teams would benefit from the changes; I predicted that the top 4 teams would have better results overall and would benefit - the analysis so far this season suggests that I was right, although this could be down to a number of factors. The most likely candidate for 1st place is now Sotkamo; however KPL could take top spot if they play the same as they did in the first half of the season. My personal view is Joensuu will finish first in the table, but only if they contin...

There is plenty to be happy about at Joensuu this week With a huge 24 games last week, most teams had good and bad results, but who came out on top? Here are last weeks performance rankings. 1st Joensuun Maila Joensuu remain top of the performance rankings with 4 victories last week, dropping only 1 point across their games. Joensuu haven’t lost a game since 12th July when they lost to Kitee. The victory over KPL on Sunday was the real reason why Joensuu remain top of the power rankings.  2nd Kiteen Pallo -90 Kitee struggled coming into last week, with a run of poor results that saw them plummet down the table. Last week however, Kitee’s fortunes turned around with a win over KPL that saw their confidence return. From that win they beat IPV and Kankaanpää with maximum points. All of a sudden Kitee are back in the mix and actually sit 5th in the table. 3rd Vimpelin Veto Vimpeli are at full steam right now and boast 4 different players with 20 or more RBI so far this season...

Joensuu have good reason to celebrate after dominating against Sotkamo last week As we reach halfway through the season the push is on now for the playoff spots. Here are last weeks performance rankings. 1st Joensuun Maila Joensuu were on fine form last week with 2 huge wins over Sotkamo that restored a lot of faith in their status as favourites to win the championship. With 8 points out of a possible 9 last week it would have been good enough to reach the top end of the rankings regardless of who their opponents were; however 5 of those points came from wins over the league leading Sotkamo team that hadn’t lost a game since their initial game against Kempele.  2nd Vimpelin Veto Vimpeli have been building their season and are starting to put some solid results together. It may sound like taking 3 points from a game against Koskenkorva is easy; however KoU have started to put results together and have been threatening to join the fight for the top 8. Vimpeli have some key q...