Ok, with that warning the Defensive Specialist is
ready to give it another crack.
Sydney Blue Sox Vs. Brisbane Bandits
Baseball returns to NSW this week and your old pal is
ready for some live action again with the Blue Sox taking on the Bandits. Last
week the teams split their series on Brisbane soil even though two Blue Sox
players took out awards for their outstanding contributions; Chris Oxspring and
Alex Johnson. Oxspring has had
more ink in this forum than any other player, but he keeps tossing out gems to
the point that perhaps we should start referring to him as the jeweller. Last
week’s one hitter was exactly what the Blue Sox needed after falling behind 2-0
in the series, and really halted any momentum the Bandits had going. The
Defensive Specialist was unable to find out why he was held until game 3 of the
series although logic suggests the first game of the double header being 7
innings meant that manager Glenn Williams could use him for the entire contest
and save his bullpen. Expect that to occur again on Saturday as the teams play
a double dip.
Johnson, the mystery man from parts unknown, dropped 2
bombs and racked up 5 RBI’s last week to propel himself to the top of the
batting leader board. His improbable hot streak was predicted by an anonymous
reader in this forum a week or so back who really should drop the Defensive
Specialist an email revealing his or herself so that their powers of prediction
can be used to prop up the Defensive Specialist. As with any newcomer to the
scene, it will be interesting to see how he maintains his form as the league
gets repeated looks at him.
The Blue Sox trail only the Bite as an offensive
ballclub, but haven’t had stand out performances from the usual suspects such
as Trent D’Antonio, Mitch Dening, Stone Hands Maat and Andy Graham. If these
four guys are able to perform at their expected level the Blue Sox attack could
be very dangerous. On a brighter note, Techno Tim Auty is back in the country
fresh off his runaway victory at the World Electronic Dance Championships. His
bat will be a welcome return to the 2-hole as will his 17000 beats per minute
sound track.
They say that being crapped on by a bird is lucky so
perhaps that’s what happened to the Bandits last week when they won 2 games
against the heavily favoured Blue Sox.
 |
| Look carefully at the picture and really zone in on the helmet |
James Albury has provided two steady outings and
appears to be a staff leader although his walk and strikeout totals do not fill
the Defensive Specialist with hope. In fact, the entire staff seems to love the
base on balls with Hiroki Yamada punching out 14 in 11 innings of work with 6
BB’s and Ryan Searle issuing 5 in 10 innings. If the starters keep providing
additional outs, it makes it tough to stay in games. From an offensive
perspective, Joshua Roberts and Wade Dutton (the recipient of the bird turd
deposit) have led the way but there is still a long way to go as the team has
the lowest run tally in the league and no one has left the yard yet which is a
concern.
Prediction- Sydney needs the rest of its rotation to
figure itself out with Wayne Lundgren uncharacteristically bad last week and
David Welch getting knocked around for the second consecutive outing. Having
said that, the Defensive Specialist expects the Blue Sox to recalibrate
themselves and get right after the Bandits on their home turf. Blue Sox to win
the series 4-0.
Adelaide Bite Vs. Perth Heat
Another series that was split right down the middle
last week with the key difference this time around being the loss of a major
Perth Heat bat – Luke Hughes. You don’t easily replace a 3-hole thumper like
Hughes, especially since he had begun to Heat up. The Heat will hope to plug
the hole and rely more heavily on imports Robbie Widlansky and Ronnie Welty
while praying long term contributors Mitch Graham (.114), Allan de Sa Miguel
(.182) and Matt Kennelly (.154) turn it up a notch as they take on the most
explosive offensive team in the competition.
The Heat starting pitching is bolstered with the
return to the rotation of Liam Hendriks who dealt last week and now has 9
strike outs in 7 innings of work with only 3 hits. Daniel Schmidt was cruising
for the second week in a row until the bus broke down in struggle town and he
was gang banged in one inning. The Heat bullpen has been a real strong point
for them this season and they’ll need to be on point as they go up against the
Adelaide squad.
The Q-Tip leads the way for the Bite hitting at a
robust .441 clip with 4 long balls and 12 RBI’s. Backing him up are James
McOwen and Brandon Bantz who have proven to be valuable additions to the squad
in a short period of time. These three guys are absolutely critical to the
Adelaide team, as their output has carried some fairly poor contributions from
other key members.
On the mound the Bite have to be happy with what
they’ve received from their big 3- Paul Midlren (1-1, 2.13 ERA), the ageless
Darren Fidge (2-0, 3.21 ERA) and Dushan Ruzic (1-0, 1.98 ERA). Ryan Murphy and
Wayne Oughs contributions have been solid out of the pen with Brandon Maurer
expected to continue to improve. Adelaide’s pitching is heavily reliant on
their starters extending in to the latter innings as the rest of their bullpen
is somewhat suspect.
Prediction- The Heat head to the raucous Norwood Oval,
minus a big bat, and with the Bite riding high after splitting on the road… the
home crowd will propel Adelaide to a 3-1 series win.
Melbourne Aces Vs. Canberra Multiculturalists
The two worst offensive teams in the competition
square off at Melbourne’s new home ground – the MCG! Ok that’s a white lie, they’re
actually playing at the Melbourne Showgrounds which has been renovated to look
and feel just like the MCG! The Aces will be happy to be in friendly territory
and will hope that with some fan support they can make a dent in the win
column.
Josh Davies has been the leading light for the Aces
offensively, hitting at a .379 mark. Runs have been hard to come by and as a
result no one jumps out of the stat sheet as a major producer. Justin Huber
needs to dig deep and find something for his team as his anaemic 2-29 offering
to this point is not helping the cause. At the outset of the season much bigger
things were also expected of Matthew Lawman and Scott Wearne and the Japanese
imports are staring down the barrel of a straight swap for a bento box (miso
soup included) if they don’t start bringing something to the table.
You know your pitching staff is in a spot of bother
when your starting catcher has the best ERA on the ball club (ok, that was a
cheap shot, Grant Karlsen was obviously used in mop up duty during a blow out).
Adam Blackley was much better in his second outing and Greg Wiltshire provided
a quality start for Melbourne in his first appearance. Donovan Hendriks has not
had the start he’d hoped for (8+ ERA with 1 strike out n 6 innings) and
Norihito Kaneto is 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA in his 2 outings. Surely one of the 16 coaches on the
coaching staff has some expertise in pitching to fix this?
For the Multiculturalists Jun Hyeok Heo takes the ball
in game 1 and at this point the Defensive Specialist doesn’t really know what
to expect from him. In 3 starts he’s gone 1-2, striking out 10 in 12 innings
while only walking 2. Steve Kent has made 3 starts for the Canberra team while
only pitching 7 innings, which obviously brings the bullpen into play very
early in the contest. Phil Brassington is pencilled in as a starter this
weekend which always makes for interesting viewing since the knuckleball can be
a hero or villain on any given day (or any inning for that matter). With Kent
and Brassington in the rotation there is a chance that the bullpen will be
tested and to this point it hasn’t been the steadiest part of the operation for
manager Steve Schrenk.
Michael Collins continues to mash for the Multiculturalists
although you’d love to see a little more pop from him. After his big numbers,
things drop off with contributions from Tom Vincent and Nick Kimpton and then a
barren wasteland. The Multiculturalists desperately need Didi Gregorious
setting the table and greater contributions from Donald Lutz and the Korean
contingent who should probably imagine the Melbourne hurlers to be Kim Jong-il
and take out their rage on him.
Prediction- Ok, the Defensive Specialist is going big
here and suggesting that the Aces spark up in front of their home crowd at the
mini MCG and deliver a beat down on the Multiculturalists to take the series
3-1.
No comments:
Post a Comment