Dude of the Month – December

The Defensive Specialist knows he’s been MIA over the festive period and while he’d like to believe that the bevy of emails hitting the Deep in the Hole inbox are as a result of withdrawals from loyal readers, the high proportion of messages from ABL players had the Defensive Specialist wondering. Why on earth would ball players be dropping notes to the Defensive Specialist imploring him to shake off the Christmas pudding and start hitting the keyboard again? After a short period of reflection, it dawned on the Defensive Specialist – its Dude of the Month time again! Keen observers will recall what happened the last time the Defensive Specialist anointed a Dude of the Month – Chris Oxspring signed a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers. So the sharp spike in player emails was obviously a ploy to get the Defensive Specialist pouring over stats and anointing a winner allowing scouts to eschew the usual process of evaluating players and simply sign up a DUDE.

Before we get to December’s DUDE, it would be prudent to try to get our heads around where we’re at right now. There were a number of games in the lead up to Christmas and across the New Year period that turned the league on its ear somewhat. The ABL’s idea of playing games on New Years eve was widely derided by many fans when the schedule was released but feedback to the Defensive Specialist from attendees has been mostly positive. Your old pal would love to hear the reader’s thoughts on the event and whether or not the league should do it next year – hit the comments section!

As we stand right now, the table looks like this:

Sydney 17-10

Adelaide 15-11

Melbourne 15-12

Perth 14-14

Brisbane 10-16

Canberra 10-18

The Blue Sox did themselves a favour by travelling to Perth and pulling off the heist of the year – sweeping the Heat in a four game series at their yard.  No team enjoys a home invasion and the Heat tumbled down the standings as a result. Melbourne shot up the charts taking 6 out of 8 from Brisbane across 2 series while Adelaide boosted their stock by sweeping the Multiculturalists last weekend. The Adelaide Vs. Melbourne series this weekend will be the big match up as the suddenly hot Aces take on the consistently steady Bite at home, to determine a clear-cut second place team. The Blue Sox will be looking to throttle the Heat at Olympic Park this time and take full control of first place while Brisbane and Canberra will continue their development.

Ok, enough league talk, lets get to the part where the Defensive Specialist changes a baseball player’s life - the Deep in the Hole Dude of the Month. Loyal readers know the Defensive Specialist is a man of simple tastes and as a result has not asked much from the big wigs at the ABL headquarters - preferential treatment when it comes to player access, seating and travel arrangements aside, the Defensive Specialist has kept it fairly basic. However, the time has come for the Defensive Specialist to call in a favour: Could you please have your IT wizards provide player stats on their bio pages that include monthly performance measures. It would make choosing a Dude of the Month so much easier! Hopefully this request comes in time to be considered in the usually jam-packed Deep in the Hole segment of the weekly ABL staff meeting…..

Anyway, with limited statistical data available the Defensive Specialist has identified 3 candidates for Dude of the Month (with credit given to near misses – Chris Mowday, Grant Karlsen and Travis Blackley):

David Welch

The Sydney lefty was lights out in December going 3-0 in 4 starts over 32 innings. During that stretch, Welch conceded 1 earned run, struck out 21, walked 2 and surrendered 16 hits. His ERA was a miniscule .28. There’s not really much more to add to that monthly stat line!

Getting freak nasty in December

Yoshiyuki Kamei

In his stint as a Japanese minister he sported the flowing mullet

And kept the mullet alive during his baseball career

Yoshiyuki and his legit Japanese mullet set the ABL on fire in the short period of time that he strapped it on for the Aces. The Defensive Specialist is going to cut a fairly substantial corner and only evaluate the 10 games that appear on his player profile (hey give the Defensive Specialist a break, you try compiling and living up to a list of 375 New Year resolutions! Having made that crappy excuse, a quick look at his numbers would suggest that the games he played preceding those 10 were not overly stellar). Kamei hit a redonkulous .558 with 17 runs, 4 doubles, 6 homeruns and 24 RBI’s. Even more remarkable he punched out only twice in 43 at bats and posted an OPS of 1.712 (remember, anything over .900 is at the rock star level).

Andrew Russell

Andrew Russell creating nuclear fission

Yeah yeah yeah, another Melbourne hitter the Defensive Specialist hears you say. You need to remember that the Aces put a legitimate beat down on the Bandits, outscoring them 46-21 across a 4 game series so you had to expect that more than one Melbourne hitter had a tasty December. Russell went nuclear in December (the Defensive Specialist is using the same 10 game period as Kamei) hitting a robust .525 while racking up 21 hits including 5 doubles and 5 home runs. Russell scored 16 while driving in 18 and posting an OPS of 1.593. The highlight of his month has to be the 4-4 performance against Canberra that included 2 long balls, 4 runs and 5 RBI’s.

So who gets the call as December’s Dude of the Month? It has to be Yoshiyuki Kamei. Combining a fine black mullet with an explosive 10 game performance that saw him rocket to the league lead in homeruns, RBI’s and OPS has to be enough to earn the Defensive Specialist’s highest honour. The Defensive Specialist offers his congratulations and encourages Kamei to keep his phone fully charged, as the big leagues are sure to be calling after this achievement.

Mullet wielding Dude of the Month for December