Apologies for the lack of activity last week – the
rigours of travel and a Luke Hughes vigil consumed the Defensive Specialist’s
time and prevented any form of creative output. Hughes is obviously getting a
lot of press at the moment with his scorching hot Spring Training (second in
homeruns and RBI’s) but the Defensive Specialist wanted to spare a paragraph or
two to discuss his plight. For
those of you unaware, Hughes is currently in a battle to win the utility
infielder role with the Minnesota Twins.
His plight seems to resonate with the Australian baseball community
because we’ve not seen a position player earn a roster spot out of Spring
Training for some time and because it would be totally cool to have an Aussie
hitter on a big league roster with some regularity!
Ideally what you’re looking for in a utility guy is
someone who plays multiple positions (to cover for injury and provide a rest to
the regulars) and who can swing it a little. While his manager indicated that
he’d never be a gold glover, he’s given Hughes time at second, third,
leftfield, first base and short stop to get a real look. The knock against him is that he
doesn’t profile as a guy who could handle shortstop (primarily due to a lack of
range and arm) but that may be purely academic as the Twins have other options
to mitigate that problem. If you scan big league rosters, the back up infielder
is generally an “all field, no hit” type of player so Hughes flies in the face
of this by being more offensively minded which provides another weapon to his
skipper.
Baseball fans will know all of the above so as per
usual, the Defensive Specialist wants to take things a little deeper by
discussing just how tough it is to play the role of a bench guy. If you look at
Hughes’ numbers this spring, you’ll see that he is at the top end of at bats on
the Twins. This indicates that he’s getting plenty of game time and the
repetitions necessary to keep his bat going. And herein lies the rub – as a
bench guy, he may only play 2-3 times per week meaning that it will be tougher
to find a rhythm and stay in tune with his swing. No measure of batting
practice makes up for the daily live pitching that regulars see. If Hughes takes
an 0-4 in AAA, he’s back in the line-up the next day ready to make amends. At
the major league level, he may sit on that 0-4 for a couple of days before he
gets a chance to get back out there which makes it very difficult to work out
the kinks and maintain any semblance of timing.
The Defensive Specialist doesn’t raise this point to
poo poo his effort – the fact is, being a bench guy is a tough job that
requires a special sort of resilience to be ready when the manager pencils your
name in. Of course, the 400k+ salary makes swallowing that pill a little
easier!
All right, lets get back on track and continue the
in-depth SWOT analysis that your old pal has been cooking for a few weeks now.
Today’s instalment is probably the Defensive Specialist’s favourite section –
Opportunities. In this component, its time to look at the avenues the ABL could
take to improve and grow the competition moving forward.
The Defensive Specialist has mentioned it repeatedly
but it bears stating again – television coverage. Telecasting the Grand Final
series and doing it well highlighted the opportunity to take the game to a
wider audience if done properly. As much as it pains the Defensive Specialist
to say it, its pretty obvious that trying to broadcast every game would be
financially ruinous, but strategically showing big games, key matchups or final
series is definitely a way to market the competition. The Defensive Specialist
has spent plenty of time thinking about the best format to showcase the game on
TV and surely it has to be a “game of the week” and then a highlights type show
that is lighter on content but higher on razzle dazzle. The benefit of doing
something like this is that it reduces the cost (a game of the week requires
only one crew and on air talent), which then allows a more polished production.
The ultimate goal of this strategy is to capture the casual observer and keep
baseball front of mind for the kids who the ABL desperately need to draw into
the game.
Expansion. On one of the Defensive Specialist’s many
jaunts to New Zealand over the past 6 months there was a back page news story
on softball, which referred to Baseball New Zealand’s quest to have a team in
the ABL. With 6 teams currently in play in Australia’s largest markets there is
a definite opportunity to expand into other regions such as New Zealand, Asia
and regional Australia. Logical expansion destinations would include northern
NSW and New Zealand (although that would be a killer road trip from Perth).
Asia is probably the biggest jewel in the expansion crown due to the passion
incited by baseball in that region and the money that sponsorship and crowds
could generate.
Playing more games is a definite opportunity for the
ABL, and arguably it’s the lack of games that currently prevents some of the
better MLB professionals being sent down under to get their offseason works in.
If the ABL could present 5-6 games per week and effectively recreate a
professional environment (in terms of volume of games) then there is
significant value to prospects participating in the competition. Obviously
there is significant cost and effort involved in staging that many games per
week for each team as well as travel and accommodation expenses but the
opportunity to be a premier offseason league is not too far off. The benefit of
having higher profile prospects taking part is that they bring with them “higher
ups” from their respective clubs, which has the carry on effect of exposing
more Australians to the eyes of key decision makers.
With year one under the belt and reasonably solid
crowd numbers in play around Australia, there is a definite opportunity to ramp
up the marketing and suck more and more kids into the sport. Baseball saw
fantastic growth in the halcyon days of the first ABL with teeball seeing
robust participation rates. Now is the time to leverage the ABL by pumping up
the profiles of local talent, promoting our professionals and showcasing
Australian Major League players to junior competitions. It’s obviously tough
promoting the ABL when the season runs through the school holidays and the
offseason (the time when school visits and camps would normally be conducted)
sees our talent ship off to their US seasons, but nonetheless, the time is
right to promote the game hard and jack up the number of kids taking part.
The carry on effect from this marketing is a growth in
crowd numbers. Increased promotion to children as well as a television presence
will surely increase the number of punters pushing through the turnstiles. More
fans in the stands equals greater club profitability, which allows teams to
invest both on and off the field and improve the product.
Leverage the relationship with Major League Baseball
and run more sanctioned events like camps and coaching seminars. Flying out a
couple of MLB stars, running educational coaching sessions or conducting skills
camps is only going to benefit the game. The ABL was successful in using mostly
home grown coaching staffs but how much access does the average coach have to
their skills and expertise? Imagine having an MLB hitting or pitching coach run
a session on their specific skill set and the value it would bring to the
Australian baseball community? It’s these big ticket names that will draw more
and more people to the ball park and inspire kids, coaches and parents to be
involved in the game.
The Defensive Specialist promises to come back with
the 4th instalment in a more timely fashion – unless of course Luke
Hughes lands himself a starting gig, then all bets are off. As usual, if the
Defensive Specialist has missed any opportunities, hit the comments section
below.
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