WBSC Premier12 2024 Group A Stats Review: USA's Matt Shaw dazzles in Mexico; 'parity' the word overall

The WBSC Premier12 2024 presented by RAXUS Group A finished on Thursday in Mexico with an extraordinary climax, which saw Venezuela and USA eventually confirmed as the two teams to advance to the Super Round after a super competitive pool play.

Looking at the Group A statistics, USA's third baseman Matt Shaw was the best player in Mexico, posting magnificent numbers. The USA third baseman led the field in six categories, including batting average, RBIs, hits, on base percentage, triples and total bases. 

Shaw hit .579 in Mexico including a double, a triple and two home runs in five games. He totalled 12 RBIs and 20 bases with a 1.053 slugging percentage. He scored six runs and stole three bases for USA, in both cases tying for second in the group.

According to data provided by Synergy, he saw 88 pitches in Group A: 47 fastballs, 27 sliders, seven sinkers, three curveballs, two changeups and two cutters. 

He stablished a Premier12 record on Sunday against Netherlands with a 7-RBI game.

From a pitching standpoint, Venezuelan starter Ricardo Pinto was solid for manager Omar Lopez, throwing 10 scoreless inning in the tournament and earning two of the four Venezuelan wins in the competition. He struck out eight and allowed a .171 batting average to his opponents. His teammates Odannier Mosqueda and Mario Sanchez led Group A in strikeouts with 10.

According to Synergy, Pinto made 141 pitches in the tournament to date, using 61 fastballs, 43 sliders, 30 splitters, and five sinkers (one pitch unknown). He averaged 93.4mph with his heater, throwing in for strikes 51% of the time. His WHIP was 0.9 in Mexico.

Anyone can beat anyone

Managers, players, media representative and fans agreed on one thing: Group A was a tightly contested competition.

"This is an extremely competitive tournament; it’s not an easy one, as some might think," confirmed Puerto Rican skipper Juan Gonzalez. "It’s a highly competitive tournament where anyone can beat anyone."

It was a highly competitive group in Mexico. With three games to go, five of the six teams remained in contention for a spot in the next stage of the Premier12, including a chance to finish with a four-way tie on top of the standings. 

The proof is all teams earned at least one win, with Puerto Rico finishing sixth with a 1-4 record, including a win against USA on Opening Day. And there were no undefeated teams in the group, with Venezuela winning it with a 4-1 record.

"This is a very even group, where everybody beats everybody," said Netherlands manager Evert Jan ‘t Hoen after their win against Puerto Rico on Tuesday.

The scores of the games also showed how even the group was. Nine of the 15 games of the group were decided by three runs or less, including four one-run ballgames. 

Group A numbers

Looking at the numbers of the tournament, even when it was a predominantly offensive competition in Mexico (with 11.2 runs scored per game and a combined 5.59 ERA), good pitching prevailed with Venezuela and USA posting the lowest ERAs with 2.36 and 2.41 respectively.

The best hitting team of the group was the Netherlands, leading the tournament in average (.363), runs (37), hits (65), doubles (tied with 14), home runs (10) and slugging (.620). However, they also were the worst pitching team in the group with a 10.07 ERA, potentially explaining their elimination from Super Round contention.

The two qualified teams for the Super Round also hit over .300 (Venezuela .312; USA .317).