Let the Defensive Specialist make you 3% smarter

Before closing the chapter on the Perth Heat V Victoria Aces series, the Defensive Specialist would like to introduce a regular feature to run at the conclusion of each series that he lays eyeballs upon.

“What has the Defensive Specialist learned?’

The Defensive Specialist is sure that the baseball loving public enjoys the game recaps, but if you cant walk away from the experience at least 3% smarter, then the Defensive Specialist is simply not performing his role. Lets dissect the series a little further and come up with some key learnings:

Key Learning 1

Perth Heat debutant, Liam Hopkinson is actually called Liam Hopkins. The Defensive Specialist humbly apologises for ruining your entire series Liam.

Key Learning 2

Both pitching staffs are a little short, especially at the back end. The Aces have the well-known names of Donovan Hendriks and Greg Wiltshire but the talent drop-off was noticeable. Obviously the return of Adam Blackley will bolster the staff but after those three guys and the smoke and mirror routine of Casey Jones, there wasn’t much left in the pen.

The Heat had a viable closer in years past – Brendan Wise who was capable of locking down a narrow lead. With Wise “listening to his heart- Roxette” in the US this season, the Heat have had to turn to Dean White who has significantly less experience on the bump and doesn’t quite have the stuff that Wise has. Liam Hendriks being shut down robs the Heat of a legitimate ace and although Scott Mitchinson will eventually be added to the staff once he recovers from the myriad ailments that have beset him recently, it’s tough to judge what he will be able to contribute.

Key Learning 3

Not only were the pitching staffs short, velocity was at an alarmingly low level. Wiltshire was the Aces firmest arm at 86mph although he had no clear idea where it was going. For the Heat, White nudged 86 in his one inning of work. As the summer heats up and more pro bats are added to the line-ups, the Defensive Specialist is predicting fireworks if the velo doesn’t go up soon. The opening weekend saw both teams post significant run tallies which is somewhat uncommon for early season clashes where pitching typically trumps offense.

Key Learning 4

Missing hitters

Yes, the Defensive Specialist saw a bushel of runs scored over the 3 games, but when you consider some of the names that were missing offensively, the Defensive Specialist starts to fear for the life of pitchers. If the Aces had the likes of Daniel Berg, James Beresford and even Justin Huber, they may have scored 35 runs at some stage this past weekend.

Perth Heat were missing their most dangerous hitter in Luke Hughes who ably fills the 3 hole and lets the rest of the line up settle into place. The absence of Hughes also forces a cavalcade of poor defenders out to third base that weakens the Heat defensively. Unfortunately for the Heat, Lachlan Dale is unable to travel to games outside of Western Australia (can he not get a pass out from his girlfriend?), which denies them another potent bat.

Key Learning 5

Travelling with only 19 players on the roster means that both managers have to carefully construct their roster so as to mitigate disaster. The Heat’s bench was short, as they carried 9 pitchers and 10 offensive guys. When Chris House went down with a sore coccyx, the Heat were left with noone on the pine. With Dean White now in the closers role, Heat Manager Don Kyle is robbed of another valuable utility player.

The Aces faced a manpower issue in game 3 by countering the beat down they were receiving by saving an arm and rolling rightfielder Andrew Russell out to the mound. Not the optimal solution to the issue.

Key Learning 6

In-game MC’s are unnecessary for baseball and actually detract from the experience. Baseball fans don’t need Frisbees, quizzes, or crowd members trying to put on frozen t-shirts. The Defensive Specialist is keen for readers to leave their worst in-game entertainment experience in the comments below. The challenge is to top the players introducing themselves.

Key Learning 7

We live in a weird world.

The Defensive Specialist happened to be in the press box extolling the virtues of playing as much Guns ‘N’ Roses as possible to the sound guy when a beleaguered volunteer straggled into the room. The volunteer mentioned to the announcer that she’d been besieged by complaints that the music was too loud (The Defensive Specialist used that opportunity to chime in and say “and shit”). But the next complaint rocked the Defensive Specialist to the core of his very existence.

You see, Baseball Victoria had a very bright idea. Instead of losing foul balls and having to spend $2000 per weekend on baseballs, they encourage kids to chase the balls (a baseball rite of passage) and by returning them to the canteen, they receive vouchers to KFC.  So regularly throughout the game, the announcer would make sure that every kid knew they could get some greasy food in exchange for handing a ball in – easy money right?

Wrong!

Someone had decided the announcer needed to stop the kids racing off into the dark alone and instead should change his instructions to:

“Kids make sure that you chase after any foul balls – UNDER FULL ADULT SUPERVISION and return to receive your free voucher”.

None of the research the Defensive Specialist did on Geelong before his trip indicated that the Geelong Baseball Facility was a Mecca for pedophilia.

Now if the complaint was that Baseball Victoria was encouraging obesity, a finely tuned athlete like the Defensive Specialist would strongly concur!