ABL: Three teams. One spot. Three weeks to go. Everybody plays each other once.

The stretch run of the 2025-26 Australian Baseball League season is going down to the wire.

Welcome to Fire Form, where we take an analytical look at one key player on each team ahead of the weekend’s play.

Round 7 may have been the perfect teaser as to what’s to come. Every game was decided in the margins.

In Adelaide, the Giants and Heat played to a dramatic split. Adelaide walked off Game 1. Perth had a huge lead and held off a furious Giants’ comeback in Game 2, with Adelaide having the tying run at the plate in the ninth. Alex Hall’s clutch sixth inning two-run homer provided marginal separation in Perth’s 4-1 victory in Game 3. Adelaide played the reverse uno card in Game 4, building a huge lead before Perth roared back, brining the winning run to the plate in the ninth.

In Brisbane? Two extra inning contests. Sydney wins one, Brisbane wins the other. The two other games were separated by just two runs as well.

On to Round 8 with the standings looking like this:

1. Sydney 18-9 (next: @ Adelaide)
   2. Adelaide 12-14 (next: vs Sydney)
   3. Brisbane 12-15 (next: @ Perth)
   4. Perth 11-15 (next: vs Brisbane)

In terms of form, nobody wants to grab this thing by the horns.

Sydney benefited from an early season nine game win streak but have played .500 ball outside of that stretch. Adelaide have played to 2-2 series splits the last four weeks in a row. Brisbane have yet to win a series. Perth are 6-4 in their last ten which is – unbelievably – the best mark in that time period.

Now, over to Irvin Chiu to take you through some key figures in the ABL.

We’ve now finish Round 6-7 (sorry) and are heading into the New Year, New You, final three rounds of the regular season.

Sydney – Pablo Nunez

Sydney has been facing a little bit of dry spell right now, splitting the series with Brisbane 2-2 and going 5-5 in their last ten after beginning the season 13-4, although they still have a 5.5-game lead in the standings.

Pablo Nunez, leadoff man for the Sox, didn’t have the best of starts to the series, going 1-for-8 in his at bats with two strikeouts and a walk.

By the end of the round, his batting average went from .345 to .367 (67ers rejoice).

Wait.

His batting average went up?

Going 5-for-7 at the plate with two walks and zero strikeouts in the remaining two games would do that for your triple slash. A 1.492 OPS in the last two games after having a .347 OPS in the first two to finish the round with a .900 OPS and .864 for the season.

Also, don’t look now, but his season On-Base Percentage of .466 leads all qualified players this year.

What’s even more impressive is that he currently has more walks (16) to strikeouts (13) on the season. If sorting by On-Base Percentage, even if we’re being generous and choosing just 10 At-Bats as the minimum qualifier, the next player to also have more walks than strikeouts is Yirer Garcia.

Garcia is ranked 38th in OBP.

It’s also just the two of them in the top 50.

How’s that for productivity?

Adelaide – Devin Saltiban

In Round 7, Saltiban had a .462 batting average, .467 on-base percentage, a godly .923 slugging, and a 1.390 OPS.
Having a .923 slugging percentage means that he is averaging a single every time he steps up to the plate.

Safe to say, the starting Center Fielder of the Adelaide Giants had a great Round 7 as he brings his season OPS up to .968, good for sixth in the league among qualified players.

But it gets even more ridiculous.

Compared to just one strikeout, he tacked on three doubles and a home run.

That’s right. He had four times as many extra base hits as he had strikeouts. Not only that, but his seven RBIs and three runs means that he was involved in nearly forty-two percent of Adelaide’s runs this week.

This isn’t some one-off performance either, as he is currently tied with Drake Logan of the Perth Heat for most RBIs this season, and is only one of the twelve qualified players this season to have at least as many RBIs as strikeouts.

While RBIs is a statistic that isn’t often looked at amongst advanced statistics due to its dependence on one’s teammates to get on base, it still gives a general idea on how good a player is at driving home those runs when such opportunities present itself.

Considering how Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth are all within a game of each other, every RBI becomes more valuable, and Devin “Salt of the Earth” Saltiban is providing the Giants that reliable value.

By the way, have we mentioned he’s 20

Brisbane – Seung-Min Ryu

As mentioned in last week’s Fire Form, with the standings tightening up, each game becomes more and more of a must-win than ever.

So, of course, for Brisbane’s nominee this week, we chose a position player that didn’t play every game this round in Seung-Min Ryu.

Picture this.

Game 4 of the series. Sydney is up 2-1 in the series and 2-0 in the game. Bottom of the second, runner on first, and it’s an 0-1 count.

[Ryu’s 2-Run Home Run]

A two-run home run to tie the game. Not to mention it being Ryu’s first ABL home run.

Fast forward to later in the game. It is now extra innings, bottom of the tenth, and the game is tied 5-5 with two outs and a runner at the corners.

Once again, we have Ryu at the plate. On the mound is Josh Guyer, who hasn’t allowed an earned run all season.
A 2-2 count with two runners on and two outs. “Deuces Wild,” as the legendary Vin Scully coined it.

[Ryu’s walk off]

Enough said, don’t you think?

Perth – Jake Bowey

He’s said before that he doesn’t like the comparisons to Shohei Ohtani, so we won’t compare him to Shohei Ohtani.

…

Jake Bowey had the most Shohei Ohtani stat line a non-Shohei Ohtani player can put up in a professional baseball league.

Imagine this. It’s Sunday afternoon, and it’s 40 degrees Celsius at West Beach in Adelaide. You, Jake Bowey, know that you’re going to start later that evening in the second game of a Christmas week doubleheader, so it’s probably wise to take it a bit easy…

…and hit a mammoth, no doubt home run.

Now, it’s later in the evening, and it’s time for the second game. You, still as Jake Bowey, take the mound. You don’t have the best of outings, but it was more than decent, going 6.0 innings, allowing three earned runs off seven hits and two walks, but you’re able to strike out five against the team that are the best in the league at not striking out.

But still, you, yes, still Jake Bowey, are upset that you have given up three runs. So, top of the eighth, the Heat down 3-8, one out with two runners on, you wallop a moonshot into right field to make it a 6-8 ballgame in a key game where winner takes second seed.

Technically speaking, on the 28th of December 2025, Jake Bowey the pitcher allowed a net earned run of -1.
Pretty good for Fire Form, if you ask me.