[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 2030 Baseball Grand Championship was the 21^st edition of the event and was hosted in Lima, Peru. The auto-bid teams in the field were MLB’s Seattle and Washington, CABA’s Tijuana and Haiti, EAB’s Nagoya and Goyang, BSA’s Bogota and Manaus, EBF’s Berlin and Cluj-Napoca, EPB’s Vladivostok, OBA’s Brisbane, APB’s Taipei, CLB’s Jinan, WAB’s Cotonou, SAB’s Ahmedabad, ABF’s Baku, ALB’s Muscat, and AAB’s Cape Town. The at-large bids went to ABF’s Lahore, WAB’s Dakar, and AAB’s Mogadishu.

This was also an occasion where the defending Grand Champion had a chance to repeat, as Cape Town had surprised many in 2029 as an at-large. The Cowboys were a strong second place at 15-6, allowing the fewest runs at 59. However, Berlin had a dominant showing at 17-4, joining 2024 Dublin as the only European teams to win the BGC.



The Barons had the most wins and best winning percentage in event history. Berlin also set new BGC records for runs scored (120), and hits (190). They also had the second-fewest runs allowed at 64 for a +56 run differential. This was the second-best differential in even history behind only 2012 Philadelphia’s +60. The only other teams that had been at +50 or better included +55 by San Diego in 2026, +53 by 2020 Denver, +51 by 2015 Antwerp, and +50 by 2019 Tabriz.

Berlin’s star was RF Elias Helwig in his 12^th season for the German capital. In 20 starts, Helwig had 25 hits, 18 runs, 4 doubles, 12 home runs, 18 RBI, 1.234 OPS, and 1.98 WAR. For second place Cape Town, they joined San Diego and Denver as the only teams to hold a first and second place finish in event history. The Cowboys set an event record with a .859 team WHIP.



Seattle and Tijuana were tied at 14-7 with the head-to-head tiebreaker placing the Toros third and Grizzlies fourth. Tijuana became the fourth Mexican League team to earn a top three finish. Baku and Cluj-Napoca were next at 12-9 with the Blackbrids taking fifth on the tiebreaker. After that, Brisbane, Manaus, Mogadishu, and Muscat were each at 11-10. The Mighty Mice had the second-most runs scored at 104.

Goyang stood alone in 11^th at 10-11. Six teams finished 9-12; Ahmedabad, Bogota, Cotonou, Dakar, Lahore, and Vladivostok. At 8-13 were Haiti, Jinan, Taipei, and Washington. Nagoya was alone in last place at 7-14, despite setting a new BGC team record with 47 doubles. Washington set a record for walks drawn with 94.

Tournament MVP was a strange and controversial choice as Washington 2B Jude Hoffer won it for the second time. It was baffling as over 21 games, Hoffer had a lackluster 0.3 WAR and .186/.321/.500 slash line. He joined Mike Rojas as the only two-time winners, having also won MVP in 2024.

The statistically logical choice would’ve been Mogadishu’s Abel Teklemariam, who set new BGC records for total bases (76) and WAR by a position player (2.40). The 25-year old Ethiopian second baseman in 21 games had 29 hits, 20 runs, 7 doubles, 2 triples, 12 home runs, 28 RBI, a 1.460 OPS, and 294 wRC+. As of 2037, his OPS ranks 7^th among qualifiers and his 1.013 slugging percentage is 5^th. Teklemariam’s RBI also were tied for the 4^th-best.

Best Pitcher went Bogota’s Leonardo Scarpa in his sixth year for the Bats. The 26-year old Brazilian in four starts had 29.2 innings, a 3-0 record, 0.30 ERA, 29 strikeouts, 16 hits allowed, three runs, one earned run, one walk, and 1.7 WAR. Scarpa’s ERA was the third-lowest qualifying ERA in BGC history and the lowest among any pitcher in the full round robin format. Brisbane’s Andrew Pendlebury was also notable, setting a BGC record with 72 strikeouts. Tijuana’s Richard Wright had the highest WAR at 2.32, the fifth-best by a pitcher in event history.

Other notes: Three other event records were set in 2030. Offensively, Bogota’s Mariano Salas became the first to record five triples, while Cluj-Napoca’s Theo Pereira tied the singles record with 22. Seattle’s Kendrick Dodd also was the first to record five wins. Cape Town’s Leo Williams became the 7^th to get 5+ hits in a game.