[FuzzyRussianHat]

Tianjin had the best record in the Northern League for back-to-back seasons, although they had a more realistic good season at 102-60 instead of last year’s 123-39. The 1970 league champ Nanjing took the second place spot after finishing third in 1971 with the Nuggets at 100-62. They edged 1970 China Series champ Beijing by one game at 99-63. Shanghai, who won 107 in 1971, dropped to a fourth place 84-78.

Winning Northern League MVP was Tianjin RF Boyang Zhang. The 32-year old in his final year with the team was the leader in home runs (51), total bases (344), slugging (.578), wRC+ (189), and WAR (9.7). Xi’An’s Guichao Li won the Pitcher of the Year in his first full season, bouncing back after missing his rookie year with a torn labrum. Li was the ERA leader at 1.75, posting 8.6 WAR and 254 strikeouts in 247 innings.



Dongguan became a first time Southern League champ, taking the top spot at 107-55. Defending China Series champ Guangzhou and Chengdu tied for the second playoff spot at 100-62. The Gamecocks won the one-game playoff to earn back-to-back playoff appearances. Last year’s wild card Foshan fell off a cliff to 63-99, placing tenth.

In an odd twist, MVP and Pitcher of the Year were both won by pitchers, but different ones. Dongguan’s Feixien Zhang won the MVP with the 30-year old lefty joining the team after a trade from Shanghai. He was the ERA leader at 1.34 with 293 strikeouts in 283 innings, 31 quality starts, and 9.8 WAR. Meanwhile, Chengdu’s Chun Lin was the Pitcher of the Year and was third in MVP voting. His 13.3 WAR was a single-season record to that point and he also led in strikeouts (325) and wins (22-7) with a 1.37 ERA over 249 innings with 31 quality starts.

Both semifinal series went all seven games. In a rematch of last year’s China Series, Tianjin and Guangzhou again went seven games and the Jackrabbits prevailed again. Tianjin becomes the first team to earn back-to-back finals berth. On the other side, Dongguan won the first three games, followed by three straight by Nanjing. The Donkeys avoided the collapse and claimed game seven.



In the third China Series, Tianjin defeated Dongguan in five games, earning redemption after dropping last year’s final despite their incredible record. 2B Jinwoo Si was the finals MVP with the 31-year old getting 16 hits, 7 runs, 3 doubles, and five RBI in 12 playoff games.



Other notes: Qingdao’s Shenchao An had 215 hits, which held as a the CLB single-season record until 1996. Zachary Li had 125 RBI, tying Andrew Song’s mark from the prior year. This was the single-season RBI record for CLB until 2011. As a team, Beijing had a .316 on base percentage, which held as the Northern League’s single-season record until 2030. The Bears drew 565 walks, which is still by-far the all-time CLB record as of 2037. On the reverse end, Zhengzhou’s pitching staff allowed 584 walks, which remains the worst mark in NL history.