Identity Crisis

After a refreshing 398-day break between posts, the Defensive Specialist thought it was about time to get back on the horse. On top of that, being harassed on a daily basis by a legion of loyal fans begging/ demanding that the Defensive Specialist contribute to their intelligence by imparting baseball related knowledge started to become tiresome. So here we go.

Sitting back and being awesome at other things over the past year had its advantages:

1. Nobody roasts a chicken like the Defensive Specialist
2. The Defensive Specialist has his front lawn currently resembling the infield of the Oakland Athletics
3. The Defensive Specialist’s kid may in fact be baby Einstein
4. The Defensive Specialist has had plenty of time to sit back and observe the Australian Baseball League from afar 

As Deep in the Hole devotees will attest, a well studied Defensive Specialist is a lethal weapon.

So what did your old pal come up with in all this time?

The Australian Baseball League doesn’t know what it is. Quite simply it has an identity crisis. Let the Defensive Specialist ruminate on the subject. A good starting point is a series of questions: 

• Should the ABL be a league filled with international talent sent Down Under by their big league clubs (American or Asian) with a view to continuing their professional development during the offseason?
•  Should the ABL be filled with professional Australian talent along with international professional talent?
•  Should the ABL be a development site for young Australian players?
•  Should the ABL teams be filled with local players so that fans have names they recognise to support?  

In the Defensive Specialists opinion, the ABL should be a league comparable to the South American offseason leagues – stocked with high calibre professionals. In posts past the Defensive Specialist has listed the many appealing reasons why a league Down Under is a great option for Major League teams to send their prospects for extra seasoning. In an ideal world, rosters would be made up with solid professional internationals playing alongside their Australian counterparts.  Non-professional players should be youngsters deemed as potential pro guys.

However, as the Defensive Specialist castes his eye around the box scores all he see is a mish mash of talent and space fillers that has no rhyme or reason to it. While the Defensive Specialist is not privy to the inner workings of each roster’s construction (in an effort to remain impartial the Defensive Specialist has turned down numerous consulting gigs), it seems amazing that in a league sponsored and sanctioned by Major League Baseball that each franchise is not aligned heavily to one or two big league clubs with a steady pipeline of talent being supplied for the offseason. Instead we have more comings and goings than a whorehouse during a US Navy visit. Clubs are hitching their hopes on pro’s who come down for half a season and vanish and or fill out their line-ups with local club ball talent.

Quick sidenote - As an up and coming prospect and then throughout a career as a superstar, the Defensive Specialist continually rolled his eyes when he heard old timers say “back in my day” in reference to what they perceived as the game or players not being as good as they believed it was way back when. This annoyed the Defensive Specialist to the point that the Defensive Specialist vowed to never say it. Except that it seems like there’s less talent running around now than there was in the DS’ day.

Which takes us back to the Defensive Specialist’s original point – the ABL doesn’t know what it is. It definitely can’t be everything to everyone – high quality baseball that appeals to the local communities because the line-ups are loaded with local names. Why? Because most states don’t have the talent to fill out a roster with enough quality to ensure high calibre baseball. Fans aren’t going to turn out to see a State League All Star team. The Defensive Specialist had heard gripes about the Canberra Cavalry being loaded with Americans – well guess what, Canberra isn’t exactly a hot bed of baseball talent and the Pony Riders are currently sitting on top of the league! Fans love winners and I bet no one in Canberra (other than the mother of some local club ball guy who cant get a run this year because a yank is playing in his spot and hitting a hundred points higher) is complaining about Team USA representing in the nations capital.

The ABL and the franchises in it need to bite the bullet and sell themselves as a premier destination for off-season baseball to US Major League teams. Load up rosters with prospects and semi prospects, entice Australian professional players to participate and ensure that the best possible baseball is being showcased.

The fan issue is difficult because name recognition in sport is important – the Defensive Specialist acknowledges that. Unfortunately baseball is a different beast in that younger players typically take longer time to develop and therefore are often recognizable as big leaguers 3 or 4 years after they left our shores. You end up with fans watching a big league game saying – “I remember that guy, he played in the ABL 3 years ago!”

Of course the other issue is pitching and having enough quality arms available to get through a full season, as professional guys must balance their workload and ensure they are ready to go for their “real” season. The Defensive Specialist may just have an answer to this but doesn’t want to blow his wad in his first post back from his sabbatical.

Anyway, the Defensive Specialist is sick of the ABL being Dean one day and Deandra the next. Decide what you want to be, get the augmentation surgery and be proud of your chosen identity!