Superpesis roundup

  Sami Partanen and Tuomas Jussila were big names for IPV in 2020, but failed to secure a playoff spot Prior to the 2020 regular-season, things look positive for IPV. Many people speculated that they would make the play-offs last year, even at the expense of Kitee. As the regular-season came to a close however IPV fell short once again and failed to reach the play-offs. In this post I analyse the positives and negatives for IPV in the 2020 season and wonder how they failed to make the top eight. Pre-season The Halli-SM tournament was not a great success for IPV, but there was still a lot of promising signs for the coming season. Mikko Kosonen’s 8 RBI from 11 attempts was the second best conversion rate in the tournament with runners on 3rd base. When you factor in the fact that IPV’s group games included the seemingly impenetrable defence of Joensuu, this statistic starts to look very promising indeed. Similarly, Juuso Lattu and Teemu Nurmio’s 15 successful hits each were joint ...

  Who were the best, worst and most efficient Pitchers in 2020? Since the end of the 2020 regular season I have been working on some statistical analysis of pitcher’s performance in games. When I first became interested in pesäpallo I was surprised that there weren’t any statistics for pitchers or team’s defence at all. At the time, there was very little in the way of statistics for fielders in baseball or cricket and it was in fact a major talking point amongst MLB fans and commentators. In both cricket and baseball however there has always been a method of calculating a pitcher/bowler’s performance, usually based on the number of runs scored against them measured against the number of batters they faced or innings/overs they played. Pesis didn't seem to have any equivalent, which led me to wonder two things: (1) why are there no statistics? (2) what would the statistics look like if they did exist? Why are there currently no pitching/defence statistics To answer this question,...

A new tournament could become a great symbol for the game and unite pesäpallo across Finland Just over a month ago, the Pessäpalloliito (Pesäpallo association) announced that the annual winter (pre-season) tournament was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. In the press release, the Pessäpalloliito stated that teams would still be able to play organised training games tournaments, but with the association’s approval. The association suggested that teams would have to “be creative” to create any tournaments... this got me thinking: what could a more expansive tournament look like in the future? What could a tournament look like now? With the Supercup now being cancelled and a hint that there may be a competition next year to mark the 100 year anniversary, I thought I should finally get round to putting my thoughts together in a post. Why change Halli-SM at all The truth is, there is no real reason to replace the current tournament; however the prospect of creating something new an...

Janette Lepisto came back from an injury during the season to lead Lapua to the playoffs in 2020 To celebrate International Women’s Day I decided to update and re-write a post I published last year. Even though the blog focuses on the men’s Superpesis, I am a big fan of the women’s game too - sadly the team I support disbanded their women’s team some time ago, so I have mainly followed the men’s game (mostly due to my many competing demands on my time). In 2020 we saw the Women’s Superpesis regular season start before the men’s and draw in a lot more attention, with more and more people realising how competitive, athletic and thrilling the women’s game can be. Popularity of women’s sport For decades (if not longer) women’s sport in general has taken a back seat to men’s and in some cases (such as the Football Association in England) been purposefully oppressed. In the modern age, many sports are playing “catch up” when it comes to promoting a women’s competition. 2019 saw the crea...

Perttu Ruuska spent the 2020 season developing his game management skills What is meant by the tempo of the game? When you watch Pesis there is often a lot going on that doesn’t stand out immediately, especially if you are be to the game; however one thing that players and coaches talk about a lot is how to control the tempo of the game (especially pitchers). The easiest way to imagine this is to draw a direct example with American Football - the quarterback controls the tempo of the game and will either take a quick snap or take some time to adjust to the opposing team’s defence, in doing so the quarterback hopes to out play the opposing defence. The same is true in pesäpallo, but it is the pitcher who takes on the quarterback role and the batting/running team they are attempting to beat. If you are coming from baseball background, this can seem a little different to what your re used to; in baseball, pitch selection and location are the key tools to try and defeat the batter, n...

Jukka-Pekka Vainionpää wearing the Joker’s vest next to his teammates What is a joker? If you are coming from a cricket background, the joker can seem like a very strange concept indeed; in baseball, the joker is much more familiar than you may think. A joker is like a designated hitter in baseball, like you see in American League rules, but the role is much more tactical and has more scope than simply substituting a place in the lineup for a pitcher. There is no equivalent in cricket, so it is worth explaining what a joker is in pesis in some detail: The international rules state that “A team can use three different jokers at bat during each offensive half. The use of a joker does not cause any other player in the batting order to lose his turn at bat.” As to when a joker can be used: “The use of a joker need not be announced beforehand. A joker can take a turn at bat, if the player in the batting order hasn't settled at bat. A joker cannot be taken away from batting if he...

Markus Tuikka announced his retirement this week The big stories Markus Tuikka retires On 25th January Joensuun Maila announced that Markus Tuikka had decided to announce his retirement and both he and the team were mutually terminating his contract. Tuikka made an exciting start in a JoMa shirt against Kitee the weekend before, after taking 2020 away from the sport. Last year started with Tuikka playing for Hyvinkää, which would have given them a much needed boost in the regular season; however when the COVID-19 pandemic started to effect he sport, Tuikka and Tahko parted ways by usual agreement. Tuikka started his career with Spartak Kajaani in 2010, before joining Sotkamon Jymy. Tuikka’s debut in Superpesis was against Alajärvei on 11th June 2013. Thereafter, Tuikka was a regular in the Sotkamo lineup and won 1 gold medal and 3 silver medals. I was so excited to see Markus back on the pitch in JoMa’s training games last weekend, but it seems that Markus will not be returning to ...