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Zachary Nelson – Starting Pitcher – Auckland Avengers – 74.0% First Ballot

Zachary Nelson was a 5’10’’, 200 pound left-handed pitcher from Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Nelson was a well-rounded pitcher with solid stuff, movement, and control. His velocity peaked at 95-97 mph with the somewhat unusual arsenal of forkball, changeup, splitter, and cutter. Nelson had excellent durability for the front end of his career. He was also a great defensive pitcher who was stellar at holding runners.

Nelson was one of the top Australian prospects for the 1963 OBA Draft and Auckland selected him fourth overall. He was immediately a full-time starter, winning 1964 Rookie of the Year. He spent seven years as the ace of the Avengers. His third, fourth, and fifth seasons were very impressive as he led the Australasia League in WAR each time, while also leading in strikeouts twice. Nelson’s 1968 season earned him Pitcher of the Year with an incredible 14.2 WAR with 34 quality starts, a FIP- of 42, 406 strikeouts, and 1.96 ERA. It set a record for most WAR in a season for an OBA pitcher and still is the ninth most in a season as of 2037.

Although that was his only time winning the top award, Nelson was regularly a finalist. He finished second in 1965, 1966, and 1967; then took third in 1969 and second again in 1971. In Nelson’s second season, Auckland won the Australasia League title, falling to Tahiti in the final. He allowed five runs over 14.2 playoff innings with 20 strikeouts. In total with Auckland, Nelson had a 119-88 record, 2.24 ERA, 2061.1 innings, 2496 strikeouts, and 67.0 WAR.

The Avengers slowly fell into irrelevancy after that 1965 title and had bottomed out to 63-99 in 1970. Auckland needed to rebuild and they figured Nelson would leave for free agency after the 1971 season, so they traded him to Gold Coast for CL Ryder Doan and 2B Jan Galic. Nelson helped put the Kangaroos over the top as they won their first-ever Oceania Championship. He went 2-0 with an ERA of 3.78 in 16.2 playoff innings with 21 strikeouts. Nelson was ultimately a rental and opted for free agency at age 30, but many Gold Coast fans have a soft spot for him helping kickoff a brief dynasty run.

The money offers from Major League Baseball were too much to deny and Nelson went across the Pacific for the rest of his career. He signed a seven-year, $2,302,000 deal with Detroit and while he was never an elite pitcher there, he provided the Tigers with four solid years as a starter. His fifth season would be marred by a torn UCL in June, knocking him out for 13 months. In total with Detroit, Nelson had a 62-49 record, 3.25 ERA, 1139.2 innings, 892 strikeouts, and 23.7 WAR.

Detroit cut him loose after the 1976 season and the 36-year old Nelson became a journeyman for the next six seasons. He had stints with San Francisco, Cincinnati, Tampa, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, Quebec City, and Milwaukee and provided decent production for those teams, although age and injuries hindered him. Nelson ended up in minor league Lafayette, Louisiana in 1985 and had his career end there with a partially torn UCL, forcing retirement at age 44. For his MLB tenure, Nelson had a 122-111 record, 3.63 ERA, 2348.1 innings, 1700 strikeouts, and 42.8 WAR.

For his entire professional career, Nelson had a 262-209 record, 2.92 ERA, 4730.2 innings, 4580 strikeouts to 993 walks, 412/639 quality starts, 76 FIP-, and 119.3 WAR. That would be a slam dunk Hall of Fame resume, but his OBA candidacy was based on seven years with Auckland and one with Gold Coast. For OBA, he had a 140-98 record, 2.22 ERA, 2382.1 innings, 2880 strikeouts, 438 walks, 238/303 quality starts, 62 FIP-, and 76.5 WAR. It didn’t have the tallies many voters want, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better eight year stretch and he was certainly considered a top three pitcher that entire run. Enough voters were solid on the short burst to put Nelson in on his first ballot with 74.0%.



Seymour “Moby Dick” Lennox – First Base/Designated Hitter – New Caledonia Colonels – 72.2% First Ballot

Seymour Lennox was a 6’0’’, 200 pound left-handed batter from Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. He was nicknamed “Moby Dick,” for his obsession with whales and love of sharing whale facts. Lennox was a scrapper who became very popular in each of his stays. He was a leadoff man who was an excellent contact hitter with great speed and baserunning instincts. Lennox rarely hit home runs, but he had terrific gap power and still got you around 25-30 doubles and another 25-30 triples per season on average. He was good at avoiding strikeouts, but didn’t draw many walks. Lennox made about half of his starts at first base, where he was a slightly below average defender. Most of his other starts were as a designated hitter, although he did play some second base with horrendous defense there.

New Caledonia selected Lennox sixth overall in the 1964 OBA Draft and mostly kept him in developmental in 1965 with only six at bats. He started half of the games in 1966, but was impressive enough to earn Pacific League Rookie of the Year. He was a full time starter in 1967, although he missed six weeks to a hamstring strain. From then onward, Lennox was consistently a full-time starter and rarely missed time to injury. He led the league in hits eight times, doubles twice, triples seven times, total bases once, stolen bases seven times, batting average four times, and OPS twice.

Lennox’s highlight with New Caledonia was winning the 1970 MVP, leading in runs, hits, doubles, steals, average, and OBP. He also was third in 1969’s MVP voting and won four Silver Sluggers from 1968-71. The Colonels won their first ever Oceania Championship in 1970, beating Melbourne in the final. Lennox had four starts with four hits and three runs in the series. This would be ultimately the only playoff experience he’d have in his career. Lennox would play on the world state regularly for New Zealand’s national team though from 1963-85. In the World Baseball Championship, Lennox made 115 starts and 134 appearances with 135 hits, 56 runs, 20 doubles, 10 triples, 12 home runs, 45 RBI, and 64 stolen bases.

Lennox decided to try free agency when he was up after the 1971 season. For his New Caledonia tenure, he finished with 984 hits, 408 runs, 148 doubles, 123 triples, 35 home runs, 322 RBI, a .310/.351/.467 slash, and 30.2 WAR. He found a new home in Brisbane for $1,432,000 over eight years. Lennox only spent four years with the Black Bears, although 1974 was arguably his strongest season with career highs in WAR (9.4), hits (214), doubles (36), triples (38), total bases (341), average (.349), OBP (.386), OPS (.942), and wRC+ (184). This earned second in MVP voting and a Silver Slugger. He also won Sluggers in 1973 and 1975 with Brisbane.

Lennox decided to opt out of his contract with the Black Bears and finished there with 717 hits, 300 runs, 108 doubles, 126 triples, 21 home runs, 257 RBI, 297 steals, and 23.9 WAR. He got a pay raise with Melbourne to the tune of six years and $1,794,000. Lennox played five years of the deal and was still a solid starter, but his power and speed diminished into his 30s. He won one Silver Slugger in 1979 with the Mets, who were consistently at the bottom of the standings. For his tenure there, he had 866 hits, 369 runs, 128 doubles, 100 triples, 275 RBI, 317 steals, and 22.9 WAR. This marked the end of his OBA career, but it wasn’t the end of his baseball career.

Lennox was a rare player to leave for Eurasian Professional Baseball, which started to open up more to outsiders in the late Soviet period. He signed with Russia’s Yekaterinburg Yaks and had two solid seasons there. His third season was ruined in the opening weeks by a ruptured MCL. Lennox attempted a comeback with Yerevan in 1984, but was middling in his one season in Armenia. After going unsigned in 1985, he retired at age 41. For his EPB tenure he had 475 hits, 201 runs, 67 doubles, 45 triples, 140 RBI, 166 stolen bases, and 8.6 WAR.

For his OBA career, Lennox posted 2567 hits, 1077 runs, 384 doubles, 349 triples, 97 home runs, 854 RBI, 1075 stolen bases, a .307/.342.472 slash, 149 wRC+, and 77.0 WAR. He retired the all-time triples leader and held that crown until the early 2020s, still sitting second as of 2037. He was the third to 2500 career hits, joining his Hall of Fame classmates Hala and Tatupu, and was the sixth to 1000 runs scored. The lack of home run power or defensive value made some voters iffy on Lennox, plus they were tired of learning about whales. But enough appreciated his accomplishments and made him the fourth member of the 1986 class with 72.2% on his debut.



Luke “Wild Thing” King – Starting Pitcher - Melbourne Mets – 71.1% First Ballot

Luke King was a 6’3’’, 200 pound left-handed pitcher from Sydney, Australia. He was nicknamed “Wild Thing,” mostly because it flowed well off the tongue, as he wasn’t a particularly wild or crazy person. His solid control was his biggest asset with only above average stuff and movement for most his run. King’s velocity peaked at 93-95 mph with a changeup, splitter, cutter arsenal. He wasn’t one to go deep in games as often as some of his contemporaries. King was also considered a strong defensive pitcher, winning Gold Gloves in 1969 and 1970.

King was a very highly touted Australian prospect coming from the amateur ranks and was selected second overall by Melbourne in the 1965 OBA Draft. He was thrown into the rotation full-time as a rookie, but missed nearly two months to back spasms. It was still a solid enough debut to get third in Rookie of the Year voting. He had a solid 1967, but again back troubles kept him out for a big chunk. The Mets would win the 1967 Oceania Championship, but King would miss the series to injury.

That began a dynasty run for Melbourne, who won four straight Australasia League titles from 1967-70 and took the OBA ring in 1967 and 1969. It seemed King would never got a chance at the playoffs for a time, as a stretched elbow ligament in June 1968 knocked him out 11 months, King bounced back though with a mostly full 1969 and got to throw 10 playoff innings in the 1969 championship. In 1970, he made one playoff start and had a full season with 341 strikeouts, starting to finally live up to the high potential.

Melbourne would slowly fade to the bottom of the standings in the next few years, but these were King’s most impressive individual seasons. 1972 saw his lone Pitcher of the Year as he led in ERA (1.85), WHIP (0.74), and K/BB (19.6) with 10.6 WAR. 1973 saw a no-hitter with 10 strikeouts against Adelaide and a third place finish in Pitcher of the Year. He’d never be a finalist again or league leader, but he had another few solid seasons with the Mets. King also made some appearances in the World Baseball Championship with Australia. From 1968-77, he had 46.1 innings with a 1.94 ERA and 55 strikeouts.

In total with Melbourne, King had a 164-118 record, 2.46 ERA, 2632 innings, 2733 strikeouts, and 66.8 WAR. By 1976, the Mets were terrible and King missed a month to start the season with shoulder inflammation. The team opted to move the 33-year old at the deadline to Port Moresby, although King would remain well liked by Melbourne fans and later see his #31 uniform retired. King stayed through 1977 with the Mud Hens and posted a 2.27 ERA over 285.1 innings with 7.4 WAR.

His career would be in doubt with radial nerve compression in August 1977. Port Moresby let him go and Adelaide gave him a chance on a four-year, $1,120,000 deal. King still pitched respectably with the Aardvarks, but then suffered a stretched elbow ligament in late August 1978. This ended his 1978 and cost him all of 1979. He attempted a 1980 comeback and pitched 125 innings with unremarkable results and was cut at season’s end, opting for retirement at age 37. With Adelaide, he had 6.7 WAR and a 2.90 ERA over 316.1 innings.

King’s final stats: 199-153 record, 2.49 ERA, 3233.2 innings, 3281 strikeouts to 513 walks, 307/433 quality starts, 75 FIP-, and 80.8 WAR. A fine career, but one lacking dominance or big accolades. Still, he had respectable totals even over a shorter span and the voters of the era were trying to get more names into the OBA Hall of Fame. King got 71.1% on his first ballot, allowing him to be the fifth and final member of the massive 1986 class.