With these games looming the Defensive Specialist has a significant amount of preparation to put in (statistical analysis, equipment testing, dialogue with scouts etc) so as to stay ahead of all that’s taking place out on the field. With time of the essence, the Defensive Specialist will cut the corner and dip into the mailbag for some grey matter relief.
Hi Mr. Defensive Specialist,
Reading your blog on Australia's best major leaguer I noticed that most Aussies happen to be pitchers, why do you think that is the case? Do you think that pitching is a more forgiving position in that if you throw fuel you are a decent shot, regardless if you can throw a strike and hit an edge?
Most rosters carry 11-12 pitchers so there is roughly the same number of opportunities as position players.
Are there more pitchers continuing to sign?
Trev
Dear Trev,
Solid question.
Looking over the list of Aussies that have signed pro deals in recent years, there is a fairly equal distribution of hitters and pitchers. The list is ever so slightly skewed towards hitters but not by any great margin. Now in answering your question, no the Defensive Specialist does not believe that pitching is a more forgiving position, but it does enable someone to show their core ability on every throw. Hang with the Defensive Specialist on this.
When signing Aussie kids, scouts are looking for projectability – how they will look and perform down the track with experience and maturity. Fortunately, Aussies tend to be decent athletes and if all goes to plan, project well. Unfortunately in Australia, we really don’t play very much baseball, so while we produce good athletes, we don’t pump out kids with fantastic instincts and understanding of the nuances of the game. This understanding typically comes with time, practice and experience.
Now as a young hitter signed for not huge amounts (the majority of Aussie kids when signed are signing for dollars compatible with late draft picks in the US and of course require visas) you are only going to get a couple of years to demonstrate your projectability. Those signed for bigger bucks will obviously get a little more time. So you put an Aussie kid in a foreign land at 18 years of age with good athletic ability but limited understanding of hitting (the nuances of setting up pitchers, working the count, fixing your own swing, timing), no real concept of preparation and of course tearing them off mums nipple for the first time (feeding themselves, managing their time, staying out of trouble) and you have a lot of factors working against the young man.
Now if you look good in a uniform, can run fast, put on a laser show in BP and have a good arm people will sit there eagerly waiting for you to make contact. But they’ll only wait so long and if you aren’t demonstrating improvement they’ll chop you off. Take a look at some of the guys who have made it to the big leagues or even the upper minor leagues. The majority have managed to improve every year and have slowly developed into above average hitters. Other than Dave Nilsson, no Aussie hitter has flown through the minor leagues.
Hitting is all about repetition and knowing your swing. Aussie kids tend to go away without this knowledge and then are expected to get their repetitions against competition that is significantly better than anything they would have ever seen on a consistent basis. Couple that with the fact that their off-season work usually involves playing in a local level competition with pitchers tossing it up there at 79mph and you can understand how development can be slow.
Pitchers on the other hand are generally signed because they throw hard or show signs of being able to throw hard. Every time a pitcher goes out there he gets to showcase his one key skill – velocity. And it’s the magical 90mph+ that keeps teams interested. As long as a pitcher can keep slinging it up there with good velo, they’ll get a chance (and even more if they happen to be a lefty). So continual good velocity will keep people interested and thus buy the guy enough time and repetition to develop other things like secondary pitches, control and command as well as developing his understanding of the game like setting up hitters and executing a game plan.
The Australian guys who get cut are the ones whose development or projectability ceases. A guy like Peter Moylan is a classic example. He roles out to the World Baseball Classic dropping 95 on people and he gets snapped up. Do you think a 28-29 year old Aussie who mashed at that tourney would have been signed and started their pro career at AAA? Of course not, it would have been considered an anomaly, celebrated for a week or two and then guy would return to Australia and continue terrorizing state league baseball.
A hitter can take porn hacks on every swing and show tremendous bat speed but if he can’t make contact he’ll get cut. A pitcher on the other hand can dial it up on every pitch and have scouts salivating. Of course if the dude can’t even deliver the ball to the same hemisphere or is a total head case then the time will come to push the button.
Noted author Malcolm Gladwell (http://www.gladwell.com/index.html) is an advocate of the 10,000-hour rule, which he details in his book ‘Outliers’. The best way to achieve success is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills. The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field. It would seem that Aussie pitchers are given a greater opportunity to hone their skills and therefore have greater success.
Jesus, that was cerebral.
Hey DS,
What do you think about these competitions asking people to name their ABL team?
PK
Dear PK,
The Defensive Specialist has no problem with the competition whatsoever. It’s an opportunity to drum up some interest and get your average fan thinking about the league as it springs to life later in 2010. What the Defensive Specialist does have a problem with are the names that actually get used. For example, what is a ‘Heat’? After a long cardio session, the Defensive Specialist often has severe heat in his crotch and around his butt crack. Too often franchises want to come up with clever and boutiquey names that just don’t stick. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the Toronto Raptors NBA team that took its name from a now woefully dated movie that wasn’t even that good in the first place and has no correlation at all to that city.
Teams are also scared to go near names that they deem a bit common. Tigers, Lions, Bears etc have been used before, but they’re also classic and will never go out of fashion. Another bugbear to the Defensive Specialist is the death of alliteration - Sydney Sharks, Perth Pirates (a little tough matching anything to Queensland however – Quince maybe??). That stuff roles off the tongue. What we’re likely to see is Adelaide Great White Sharks, Canberra Politicians and Melbourne Underworld Characters.
So basically the Defensive Specialist is happy for people to name their local teams, just embrace matching up the letters (alliteration) and don’t try to be too artsy.
Right, that’s the mailbag emptied folks. If you have any other questions or issues you’d like the Defensive Specialist to tackle be sure to pound the inbox thedefensivespecialist@gmail.com.
As mentioned previously, the Defensive Specialist will be live and in full effect for the Heat / Patriots series so you can expect enlightenment on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings (think of the reading material you will have while taking a dump!), with 3 game reviews and then a comprehensive overview of what the Defensive Specialist learned. These last posts have proven to be invaluable to coaches around the league and the Defensive Specialist has had to put a stop to private phone conversations with managers as they were gaining unfair advantages over their upcoming opponents and the Defensive Specialist is all about equality…especially when he’s not on the payroll.
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