“Something that's just so awesomely cool,
amazingly kick ass”
Here at Deep in the Hole we’re going to use that
definition as a starting point and add that a ‘dude” in a baseball sense is a
guy who basically looks his team mates in the eye, points at his back and says
“climb on boys, I’m going to carry the club”. It’s kind of like the team MVP
only cooler. So from now on when we refer to a player as a dude, you know they’re
legit! We’re not talking about guys who’ve started hot, we’re talking about
players who are carrying their ball club while carving up the league.
While you’re sitting there thinking about all the
‘dudes’ you know the Defensive Specialist needs to rip through some A1 series
predictions and address an inquiry that hit the comments box.
Predictions
Perth
Heat Vs. Brisbane Bandits
The Bandits travel to Perth buoyed by their split with
the Blue Sox last week while the Heat will be bitterly disappointed that they
weren’t able to take 3 from the Bite in Adelaide. The Defensive Specialist is
going with a 4-0 Heat series sweep as they add a couple of key bats (Adamson
& Dale).
Canberra
Multiculturalists Vs. Adelaide Bite
The Multiculturalists got rolled in Melbourne in a
rain-affected series while the Bite split with the Perth team at home. The
weather looks ominous in the nations capital but if they get all 4 in, Adelaide
will win 3.
Sydney
Blue Sox Vs. Melbourne Aces
The matchup of the round. The Blue Sox looked shabby
against the Bandits while Melbourne found some form and took 2 off the
Multiculturalists. It will be a tight contest and the Defensive Specialist is
calling a split 2-2.
Ok, now that the tips are in, lets visit a comment
that got left behind after the last post (no, not the humourless and nonsensical
one):
After the first few weeks of
the season will the ABL teams start to look for further imports to address
holes in their roster? I can see Perth needing a bit more help in the middle
infield and another starter. – Diesel
Diesel,
You’d have to assume with the roster flexibility
that’s in place, teams will do whatever it takes to tool up during the season
so if that means importing new players, they’ll do it. A number of teams (see
Blue Sox, Sydney) have a bunch of local stud horses buried on their roster
(Rowland-Smith, Thomas & Oeltjen) that will definitely help. Other teams
sniffing the playoffs may dip into the foreign player ranks if it means getting
to the big dance. In better news for the happy Heaters, the word on the street
is that Luke Hughes’ stay in Venezuela may be done in late December / early
January meaning that they’ll add his bat and Tim Kennelly’s to form a formidable
offensive attack just in time for the playoffs.
Right, lets get back to the Deep in the Hole Dude of
the Month award for November. As mentioned above we’re awarding the guy who’s
flat out been a world-beater in the first month of the season. There have been
plenty of hitters who’ve taken off running like Robbie Widlansky (Heat), James
McOwen (Bite), Josh Davies (Aces), Michael Collins (Multiculturalists) and Alex
Johnson (Blue Sox) or pitchers that have made short work of the league such as
Dushan Ruzic (Bite), James Albury & Chris Mowday (Bandits), Greg Wilstshire
(Aces) and Daniel Schmidt (Heat). But at the end of the first month of the
season, there have been two “DUDES’ that have set themselves apart from the
pack- Quincy Latimore (Bite) and Chris Oxspring (Blue Sox). Both players stand
out on league leading ballclubs and both have been instrumental in their clubs
success.
The US born Q-Tip has mashed ABL pitching at a .400
clip with a 1.264 OPS (On base % + slugging – anything above .900 is rock solid).
He has been a middle order beast for the Bite crushing 5 home runs and driving
in 16 while scoring 12 runs. Half of Latimore’s knocks have been for extra
bases meaning that he is a one man wrecking crew in the early part of the
season. The only downside to his season has been his relatively low base on
balls total (3) and high strikeout tally (11) although it’s fairly safe to say
that Adelaide Manager Tony Harris won’t be complaining about this facet of
Q-Tip’s game.
The Defensive Specialist has been fortunate to witness
3 of Chris Oxspring’s 4 starts this season and 2 of those outings were absolute
gems. Oxspring has put up a 2-0 record in his 4 starts with a 0.64 ERA and a
ridiculous 29-2 strikeout to walk ratio. Oxspring has been a workhorse, gobbling
up innings (28.1) while yielding only 2 earned runs and surrendering 16 hits.
People often bandy about the term “Ace” but Oxspring has lived up to it in
every definition of the word with displays like his start in Brisbane where he
reeled off a 1 hitter with his team down 2-0 in the series. The only blip on
the month was his last outing where he appeared a little less sharp than usual
and surrendered a 3 run lead to the Bandits.
It’s not an easy call to make since both guys have
demonstrated real ‘DUDE”-like qualities throughout the month of November, but
the Defensive Specialist is remunerated handsomely to make the big decisions so
with that in mind, the Deep in the Hole Dude of the Month for November 2010
goes to Chris Oxspring. Although Latimore has landed in Australia with his bat
blazing, he is surrounded by more firepower that assists in picking up a large
amount of the offensive burden. Oxspring on the other hand has been a steadying
force on an inconsistent pitching staff, with a middle of the road offense
behind him.
Congratulations to Chris Oxspring – Dude of the Month
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