[FuzzyRussianHat]

The Asian Baseball Federation’s East League had a competitive field as eight teams finished within eight games of the #1 seed. At the all-star break, defending EL champ Tashkent and last year’s ELCS runner-up Hyderabad had the top records at 59-41. The Tomcats held onto the top spot at 94-68 for a third consecutive North Division crown and fifth straight playoff berth. In the North, they held off Almaty (89-73), Osh (88-74), Samarkand (88-76), and Bishkek (86-76).

Rawalpindi was in position to grab the #1 seed, but ended the season getting swept at Gujranwala in four games. The Red Wings still held onto the Pakistan Division at 93-69 to grow their playoff streak to seven seasons. They had the EL’s best run differential at +162 and were the top scoring team with 711 runs. Rawalpindi had 300 team home runs, tying the EL record and tying for third-most in ABF history.

Faisalabad was one back on Rawalpindi at 92-70, earning the first wild card to end a 12-year playoff drought. Hyderabad was third at 89-73 and was tied with Almaty for the second wild card with Osh one back and both Samarkand and Bishkek four back. ABF doesn’t use tiebreaker games and head-to-head (6-2) gave the spot to the Horned Frogs, who had a four-game June home sweep over the Assassins. Hyderabad narrowly extended their ABF-record playoff streak to 14 years.



Historic power pushed Rawalpindi CF Hafayah Razam to East League MVP, although it was still a tough battle to deny Osh’s Dzhurakhon Asadullayev his fourth MVP. Razam had 21 first place votes and 393 points, while Asadullayev had 11 first place votes and 343 points. The Red Wings acquired Razam in a January trade for Multan for four pitching prospects. He was coming off a good 2036 with 5.9 WAR and 48 homers, but he had a league-worst 223 strikeouts and a 35.0% K rate.

Razam still struck out 29.4% of the time in 2037, but that doesn’t matter as much when you set the league’s single-season home run record. He smacked 79 dingers, passing Vahid Hadadi’s 74 from 1991. This was one of only 13 times in all of professional baseball history where a slugger had 79+ homers in a season. The 24-year old Pakistani also led in RBI (153) and WAR (12.3). He had a 200 wRC+ and 1.059 OPS with 151 hits, 121 runs, 19 doubles, 189 strikeouts, and .260/.327/.733 slash.

As for Asadullayev, he led in runs (124), walks (103), total bases (432), OBP (.450), slugging (.767), OPS (1.217), and wRC+ (239). The 29-year old Kazakh lefty had 196 hits, 31 doubles, 67 homers, 128 RBI, .348 average, and 11.9 WAR. Asadullayev had led in OBP in each of his seven seasons so far and has led six teams in OPS and wRC+. There have been eight qualifying seasons in ABF with an OPS above 1.200; Asadullayev has half of them. He’s signed through 2042 for Osh.

Pitcher of the Year was highly competitive with Namangan’s Tariq Sidqi just defeating Bishkek’s Andrei Tynkov. The former had 17 first place votes and 177 points, while the latter saw 14 first place nods and 158 points. Sidiqi was the 2036 Rookie of the Year in split starter/relief role. In 2037, the 23-year old Pakistani righty led in complete games (17), FIP- (55), and WAR (8.8). Sidiqi added a 2.11 ERA in 243.2 innings, 331 strikeouts, and 17-12 record.

Trynkov was a 34-year old journeyman who had signed with Bishkek for 2037 after a four-year stint in MLB. His previous best ERA in ABF was 3.08 in 2032 with Ankara, but he surprised many in 2037 with a league-best 1.57. The Azeri righty had a 16-6 record, 217.1 innings, 310 strikeouts, and 6.2 WAR. The Black Sox signed him at five years and $39 million. Trynkov had stellar stuff with a 10/10 fastball and curveball, but his abysmal control had prevented him from sustained success.



The first round opened with both division champs getting upset in the first round; Hyderabad over Tashkent 2-1 and Faisalabad 2-0 against Rawalpindi. The Fire took game one 5-3 over the Horned Frogs in the second round, but Hyderabad prevailed 12-2 and 7-5 in the next two. The Horned Frogs guaranteed a repeat appearance in the East League Championship Series and their ninth trip since 2026.

Tashkent ousted Rawalpindi 2-1 to stay alive in the double-elimination bracket. Faisalabad’s pitching locked them down though for 3-0 and 4-1 wins in round two, eliminating the defending EL champ. The Fire picked up their first ELCS trip since their four consecutive trips from 2021-24. Faisalabad earned another shot at Hyderabad and would have home field for the series.

Hyderabad opened with a 4-3 road win with a go-ahead solo homer in the ninth by Khalaf bin Abdullah. Faisalabad evened the series on a 5-0 win, getting a three-hit shutout with 11 Ks from Caglar Alatli. The Horned Frogs hosted game three and won 1-0 as five pitchers combined for a three-hit shutout. Sultan Han, the new ABF career home run leader, had the game’s only run with a solo bomb in the fourth inning.

Faisalabad evened the series on a 4-1 road win, taking the lead on a three-run eighth. Hyderabad dominated game five 11-4 to claim the 3-2 series lead. Now back at home, Faisalabad won game six 2-0 on another complete game shutout by Alatli, this one a six-hitter with 12 Ks.

The decisive game seven saw both teams with a solo run in the fourth inning. In the sixth, Faisalabad’s Rasiwala Batool put him squad ahead on a two-run homer to left. Hyderabad got one back in the eighth, but the Fire survived for a 3-2 win to earn their fourth pennant (2011, 2014, 2021, 2037). It was an impressive return to form for Faisalabad, who averaged 69 wins per season from 2025-36. Batool was the series MVP, going 12-35 with three homers and nine RBI.