Last article during the Olympic break. Baseball in France is on vacation and can savor the historic French victories in other sports. The return to competition will take place on August 25th between Montpellier and Montigny for two postponed matches, and the last three matchdays will be held on the following weekends. By the evening of September 15th, we will know the standings of the regular season before the playoffs and playdowns.

Let’s analyze together the results in terms of points and point spreads over the first 11 matchdays.

Mercy Rules

Relatively few mercy-rule games, an average number of points quite within the norm, and several games that go down to the wire: the JFL rule has not led to a scoring frenzy.

Has the JFL rule contributed to skewing the results, to decreasing the quality of play in the championship? Not really, if we look at the numbers. First of all, the average number of points scored per game this season is 10.28. That’s quite within the norm of the last three seasons: 10.77 (2023); 12.77 (2022); 10.26 (2021). And it’s even less than the last year with 8 teams, 2017: 12.38. Having young French pitchers (sometimes too young for this level of play, we concede) is therefore not synonymous with a scoring frenzy.

Another fact demonstrates this, that of the « mercy rules. » The worst was feared at the start of the season. There were indeed no fewer than 5 during the 3rd matchday. And, in total, 10 in the first 36 games. Then the gaps narrowed, things settled down a bit: no mercy rules during the next 39 games. And a slight reacceleration since then, 3 in the last 9 games, including 2 last weekend.

Note that Rouen has signed 4 mercy rules, ahead of Savigny (3), Metz and La Rochelle (2), Toulouse and Montpellier (1), and that Montigny and Toulouse have been the main victims (4) ahead of Sénart and Metz (2) then La Rochelle (1).

13 mercy rules in 86, that’s 15% of games ending that way. Let’s compare that with the last few seasons. It was 25% in 2023, but with a very weak Nice team, victim 11 times of the rule. If we remove the Niçois, we get 16%. In 2022, it’s 22%, including 8 at PUC. Removing the Parisians, we drop to 14%. In 2021, it’s 21%. Going back to the 2017 season, it’s 30%, including 13 at St Just. Without them, we get 18%.

So far, there are fewer mercy rules, so a more balanced championship, it’s enough to read the standings to be convinced.

However, it must be conceded that these are often JFLs, often very young, who have found themselves at the heart of the big gaps. The mercy-rule games of this season often have a common characteristic: a high-scoring inning. 7 runs in the 6th inning for the Huskies against Sénart (final score 11-1), 6 runs in the 8th for the Boucaniers against Metz (12-2), 11 runs in the 7th for the Huskies against Toulouse (19-4), 9 runs in the 4th for Sénart against Montigny (17-4), 8 runs in the 5th for Savigny against Montigny (16-5), 6 runs in the 8th for Metz against Toulouse (10-0). And, in the box score of these games, we find the names of Davy, Chevet, Duquenoy, Bennemacher, Guesmia, Py, Perrois, Clairet, who suffered a very harsh apprenticeship on this occasion. Rare are the games started by a non-JFL that end in a mercy rule. This has only happened three times out of the 13.

But there’s no need to panic, the young JFLs are doing their job relatively well, and even if they sometimes have a big rough patch, it doesn’t have a dramatic consequence on the championship and on the game. This is an important aspect to highlight about this rule that has made, and still makes, a lot of noise.

Comebacks

There were two mercy-rule games last Sunday, but at the opposite end of these games without much suspense, there was also a walk-off, Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly allowing Briones to score and causing a huge turnaround in the last inning. That was already the 6th walk-off of the season. There was previously a single by Ouanyou (Sénart) against Montigny, a fielder’s choice by Scavo (Toulouse) against La Rochelle, a double by Lassaline (Montigny) against Rouen, a double by Nakamura (Sénart) against La Rochelle, a bases-loaded walk by Grisot (Montigny) against Toulouse.

Speaking of turnarounds, 20 games were decided after the 6th inning. That is, the score was either tied, or in favor of the team that ultimately lost, who was then caught and overtaken in the last 3 innings (or more, in the case of an extra inning). In this little game, the Cometz have shown themselves to be the most « clutch »: they have reversed the score in their favor 4 times, and their good season is partly explained by this ability to never let go. It happened 3 times to La Rochelle, Montpellier, Sénart, and Toulouse, and 2 times to Montigny, and once to Rouen and Savigny. The Cougars have been overtaken in the final stretch 4 times (and these games can weigh heavily at the end of the season), just as much as Savigny. Rouen has lost 3 times in the final innings (but that was before the Huskies decided not to lose anymore), just as much as La Rochelle. It was two times for Montpellier, Metz, and Sénart, and never for Toulouse. This is further proof that it would really be good not to touch the 9 innings. This would change the face of the championship in a way that is perhaps more important than the JFLs.

The Toulousans have made a specialty of close games: in games ending with a one-run margin, they are 6-3, and 3-0 in games with a two-run margin. So 9-3 in close games. With the 4 mercy rules suffered, we see that the season of Randy Perez’s men goes through all the moods! Curiously, Montigny is quite comfortable in close games: 4-3 (2-2 in one-run games, 2-1 in two-run games). As is Sénart: 4-3 as well (2-1 and 2-2). All the other teams are in the negative: La Rochelle 4-6 (4-5, 0-1), Metz 4-6 (3-3, 1-3), Montpellier 5-7 (4-4, 1-3), Rouen 4-5 (2-5, 2-0), Savigny 4-5 (3-3, 1-2).

And to finish with these nail-biters, 8 games ended in extra innings. The Boucaniers and the Cometz are the specialists, 4 each, for the same result of 2 wins and two losses. Sénart won its 2 extra-inning games, Toulouse won 1 and lost 1, Savigny is 0-1, and Montigny is 1-2.

No doubt, this championship in « 8 teams / JFL » format is worth following. Not too many unbalanced games, plenty of suspenseful matches. And an end of the season that already makes us drool. It’s not that we’re against long vacations in August, but we can’t wait for the end of the month already!