The long-awaited Opening Day of the French D1 baseball season is finally here. The 30-player rosters have been submitted, and each team can now begin the season this Sunday, April 7.
Four matchups between these eight teams for eight games, including “JFL games” and “non-JFL games”.
- As we know, JFL teams must pitch at least seven innings in both games.
- As we know, five JFL players must always be on the field with four non-JFL players.
- As we know, each team has expressed its ambitions, ranging from a triple crown for Montpellier or Montigny (European Cup, championship, and challenge) to simply reaching the playoffs (Sénart, Toulouse, Savigny, La Rochelle, and Metz), with Rouen aiming for a double.
On this Opening Day, the first and last teams from last year face off: Montpellier takes on Metz in Montpellier. A real test for both sides. Metz will quickly see if their off-season work and recruitment efforts will challenge the best, and what better way to start than against the 2023 champion. Next up, second-place Montigny faces seventh-place La Rochelle. Both teams will have their work cut out to set the tone for the season. Then, Rouen hosts Sénart, and Savigny travels to Toulouse. These four teams all want to reach the playoffs, with Montigny aiming even higher, though their season will be busy with the European Cup on top of their 2023 French Challenge victory. Savigny and Sénart are determined to perform well on the road to stay in contention, while Rouen needs to regain confidence and secure two wins against Sénart. Toulouse has similar ambitions.
In the end, there’s a good chance we’ll see splits—one win and one loss for each team—which would keep the suspense alive for us viewers and make this championship thrilling. If a visiting team like La Rochelle, Sénart, Savigny, or Metz sweeps both games, the tone will be set for a championship that shakes up the usual hierarchy. Conversely, if the home teams go undefeated, we can expect Rouen, Montpellier, Montigny, and Toulouse to be strong contenders for the final four playoff spots.
The big news this year is that you can follow live play-by-play stats for all games on the Federation’s statistics page here. You can track the game’s progress and see results, errors, hits, strikeouts, walks, and more. By evening, we’ll have all the results and stats live.
As for broadcasts, only one game—Rouen vs. Sénart—will be streamed. Toulouse and Montpellier haven’t managed to start their broadcasts yet, and Montigny doesn’t have a streaming system in place.
Finally, the Baseball TV France editorial team had some fun with statistics.
Montpellier is favored at 60%, followed by Rouen, Montigny, and Toulouse.
Rouen is favored at 40%, followed by Montpellier, Montigny, and Savigny.
Metz is predicted to finish eighth at 70%, closely followed by La Rochelle.
According to these predictions, the fourth playoff spot will be contested between Savigny, Sénart, and Toulouse.
As for the MVP predictions for JFL and non-JFL pitchers and hitters, there are too many unknowns about the new recruits to make a call. The only name that stands out is Ben Couvreur for JFL Pitcher MVP.
Photo Credit: Huskies Com
