Savin’ Me

What an interesting week in Australian baseball. We had the upstart Canberra Cavalry landing in Perth and stealing 3 out of 4 from the previously undefeated Heat. We had the Blue Sox taking steps to right their season by winning 3 out of 4 against the Bandits (with a little hand from their fans) We had Adelaide and Melbourne split even though slugger Denny Almonte dropped 12 rbi’s on the Aces across the 4 game series.

Unfortunately, all of that was over shadowed by even bigger news – Aussie big leaguer Peter Moylan getting into a Twitter stoush with the rock band Nickelback. Seems Moylan was suitably inspired by a recent Foo Fighters gig to call out Nickelback:

"Note to @nickelback please attend a @foofighters concert. That's how's it should be done chad,"

Unfortunately for Moylan, Nickelback fired back and fired back in style!

"@PeterMoylan Foos are killer for sure. We're doing just fine too thanks. ? for you Pete, is watching Kimbrel better from the bench or on TV?"

Zing!

Nickelback 1, Moylan 0

Anyway, enough injured relief pitchers and Canadian soft rock bands; lets get back to the ABL.

Heat V Cavalry

The Defensive Specialist suggested in a recent post that the Heat’s recent foibles in Asia could lead to a Cavalry upset. Unfortunately your old pal also predicted that the winless trip abroad would fire the Heat up and lead to a demolition of the Canberra outfit…  Canberra were having none of that, shutting down the Heat offensively in the first 3 games and having their way with the Heat pitching staff to the tune of 25 runs in the first 3 games.

Blue Sox V Bandits

Keen meteorologists will tell you that Sydney is currently in the midst of the coldest December in recent memory. As a result, the Blue Sox faced the proposition of playing the Bandits in wet and wild conditions. While the inclement weather threatened the contest across the weekend it also allowed the Blue Sox to expand their roster to 145 as the local fans came out onto the field to assist pulling the field tarp across the diamond.  In more serious news, the weekend saw the Blue Sox take steps towards respectability by adding 4 games to the win column. The key additions of Mitch Denning, Joe Hage and Brandon Barnes paid dividends immediately and manager Kevin Boles will hope and pray this newfound offense can be sustained.

Bite V Aces

Adelaide will be less than impressed after splitting a home series with the last placed Melbourne team although centerfielder Denny Almonte definitely gave the home fans something to talk about, exploding for 12 rbi’s across the series The highlight was obviously game 2 when he hit a grand slam, mixed in an RBI single and them ended the game with a walk off 3 run blast. That’s the sort of game you hang your hat on!

Denny Almonte enjoying a big series

  

After 5 years of continued success and prosperity in Sydney, the Defensive Specialist is pleased to announce that the entire Deep in the Hole operation will be relocating to Western Australia as of next week. While the logistics of moving a franchise are daunting, the Defensive Specialist is confident that a seamless transition can be made. The Defensive Specialist has a  a single Blue Sox season membership available to anyone who’s interested, simply drop the Defensive Specialist an email with your mailing address and it’ll be sent through at no cost – well actually there will be a cost, you’ll likely be accosted by autograph hounds who’ll mistake you for Australia’s preeminent baseball blogger – don’t worry, you’ll grow to love it!

Is More Less?

After making the foolish promise to up the output from a blogging perspective, the Defensive Specialist has been pacing back and forth in front of the Deep in the Hole super computer desperately trying to come up with decent ideas to waffle on about. Mired in the dead of winter is not helping the creative juices flow and the Defensive Specialist fights a daily battle against the urge to comfort eat. Fortunately Tuesday saw a breakthrough with the genius idea to talk about the 2011/2012 schedule!

Before you click off the page in disgust, remember the Defensive Specialist also committed to shorter posts (in order to avoid repetitive strain injury after a lengthy lay off). So even if it’s a crappy topic, you’ll only have to endure 500-750 words on the matter as opposed to the usual 1500-2000. That’s a win win right?

The biggest change from last season is the addition of 6 more games, increasing from 40 games (20 home / 20 away) to 46 (23 home / 23 away). Regular readers of this fine, upstanding site will know that the Defensive Specialist has long championed the idea of playing more games. For those disinclined to read through the archives to find these well-written gems and in order to pad the word count, let your old pal quickly rehash the topic.

If Major League Baseball wants to run an offseason league that’s taken seriously by its franchises then it has to offer more games. The reason? MLB teams who want their prospects to play offseason baseball are looking for 3 things: 1) quality competition, 2) quality standard of living and environment and 3) volume. We all know that you get better at baseball by playing it a lot (hence the 162 game MLB schedule). Teams want to get games into their prospects against solid competition. The more games they play (particularly offensive players who don’t need to rest their arms as pitchers do), the greater the benefit. There is a huge advantage to Australian professional players as well as they now have a legitimate offseason league to continue their development in. Think back a couple of years when an Australian kid’s offseason program included club ball and a week long Claxton Shield tournament. Now compare that to a 46 game season with games running 5 days a week!

So this new schedule is a good thing right?

Yes and no.

Obviously from a players perspective it’s a great thing. As outlined above, playing every day is only going to ratchet up the development time and skills of all players involved. It’s going to expose Australian youngsters to good baseball and allow our professional players to hone their talents. From an imports perspective, they get to continue their growth in Australia during summer while drinking better beer.

So what’s the downside you ask? Well there are a couple of issues the Defensive Specialist sees: 

• Firstly, playing more games actually impacts the ability of both non-professionals and professionals to hold down regular jobs. We all know that minor leaguers are not paid any sort of princely sum and require off-season work to survive. We also had a decent level of non-professionals / amateurs taking part in the league last year who work first and play baseball second. With games now taking place on Wednesdays, players are effectively only able to work 2 days per week (when on the road). There aren’t many gigs around that A) support working 2 days per week and B) pay enough. What we’re likely to see is the number of mature non-professionals / amateurs decline and an increase in younger players (bankrolled by mum and dad!) and non-professional imports (sponsored by local clubs).
• The effect of extended series on crowd support. When contacted by the Sydney Blue Sox to continue membership, one of the selling points to re-up was the addition of games. “Instead of 4 games per series, you get 5!!” went the spiel. That looks good on paper until you consider the thought of attending 5 games a week from Wednesday to Sunday. In fact attending that many games in a week would lead to divorce papers, which wouldn’t look so good. Obviously most people wont be attending all 5 games in a series unless they have a child or loved one playing so the effect on crowd numbers will be interesting to study. Will more games allow fans greater accessibility and options or lead to apathy? You know what they say -increasing supply decreases demand.
• From a revenue perspective, franchises will be expected to give fans and supporters a great show no matter the day of the week.  You’d expect numbers to suffer on Wednesday and Thursday nights which means that the bottom line may hurt as teams aren’t pulling $$$ from concessions, alcohol, parking and the gate. Teams can’t afford to cut back on the bells and whistles on Wednesday and Thursday because they cant afford to give fans a reason (other than the night of the week) to not show up.

Another interesting scheduling curiosity to note is the ABL continuing with the New Years Eve / Day scheduling. The Defensive Specialist can think of nothing better than bringing in a new year watching baseball. Unfortunately not all family and friends may agree. Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne are the teams scheduled to host the games over the New Year period, which is also interesting. A case can definitely be made for Adelaide who have a rapid fan base that are likely to turn out in droves (plus there’s bugger all else to do in Adelaide anyway). Both Melbourne and Brisbane had sketchy attendance numbers last season so when you couple that fact with a tough date are they asking for trouble (or did they have a huge offseason membership drive that influenced the scheduling?)? Surely teams with stronger attendance figures  (Canberra and Perth) would have been better choices to host on these dates as they have a better chance to at least pull a crowd.

The Defensive Specialist has blown out his target of 500-750 words and is starting to cramp up. At the end of the day, more baseball games is a good thing for the players involved and for the perception of the league. It’s the hard to measure things that bare watching as the season progresses.

What we learn with pleasure we never forget. - Alfred Mercier

This may come as a big statement but let’s face it, the Defensive Specialist has never backed down from grandeur. Deep in the Hole brings pleasure, which means that you’ll never forget what you read here. Quite stunning when you stop and think about it really. Rest assured, the Defensive Specialist understands the impact that he’s having on your life and the lives of your friends and family who also tune in and that’s why, even after only catching one game this past weekend, your old pal is providing an abridged version of “What the Defensive Specialist Learnt”.

The Blue Sox affirmed what we all thought before the season commenced – they’re legitimate title contenders - by handily sweeping away the spirited yet undermanned Adelaide Bite. While that may sound cut and dry in print, when you lift the hood and peer in at the inner workings of the series you’ll see that things were much closer than the 4-0 result indicates. Both teams take positives and negatives from the series – let the Defensive Specialist spell a few of them out

1. Adelaide Manager Tony Harris has to be sitting in his office with a set of Rosary beads rocking back and forth, praying that the Q-Tip and James McOwen are available for the upcoming series against Brisbane. The heart of the Adelaide lineup was toothless with those two bats missing as Brandon Bantz and Stefan Welch combined to go 5-36 in the series. McOwen leading off allows the surprisingly frisky Jeremy Cresswell to slide back into the 2 hole where his bat plays much better, and the Q-Tip not only brings a power bat back into the lineup but also reduces the burden on Bantz and Welch. Adelaide has no chance of a championship if those two guys don’t play - simple as that.

2. Speaking of hitters, Blue Sox skipper Glenn Williams has to hope that Trent Oeltjen can get over his injury issues and get back onto the field because the Sydney line up could use one or two more rock solid bats in the middle. P.I.M.P Alex Johnson has shouldered a heavy load while Mitch Denning has been up and down. If Williams could insert Oeltjen in the 3 hole it allows Johnson to remain in the 4 spot and slides Denning to 5, giving the line up better balance and making it less susceptible to bullpen matchup’s late in the game. The lower 3^rd of the order is still a black hole – sucking outs into the scorebook, but with Oeltjen in place the top 6 looks good on paper with D’Antonio, Utter Club Nutter Schmutter, Oeltjen, Johnson, Denning & the Bossman / Dean.

3. As the old saying goes “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck”.  Well Yong Sup Kwak, the Bites’ Korean import is about to be a dead duck in terms of his spot in the line up with his anemic .109 average and non existent production. It’s hard to see Harris taking at bats away from some of his other role players  (Gladstone, Pett and Gossage) as he has in the past with Kwak swimming in circles and a position the playoffs up for grabs.

4. Although the Defensive Specialist rated it as a strength earlier in the season, the Adelaide pitching staff has to be considered somewhat of a disappointment. The bullpen is littered with 7+ ERA’s, which led the team to break open the trophy cabinet and remove Adrian Burnside and Tom Becker from the formaldehyde. The starters Paul Mildren, Dushan Ruzic and Brandon Maurer have been up and down all season although Maurer has been much better in his last 4 starts (3-0, 4 earned runs). While the Bite line up banged early in the season the pitching staff could afford to yield more runs than you’d ordinarily like. However, as we all know, pitching and defense win championships so for the Adelaide boys to contend, the staff is going to need to turn it up a notch.

Unless a sugar daddy slips a couple of airfares under the Defensive Specialist’s door that’s it for the regular season games. This weekend’s fixtures have some dramatic ramifications for the play off picture. The Heat take on the tail spinning Aces in Perth with the opportunity to put the Melbournians to the sword. The much-anticipated Peter Moylan appearance in the inaugural ABL season appears to have fizzed out with his Twitter updates indicating that he’s back in Atlanta. Brisbane and Adelaide square off in a little 6 game dance in Adelaide with serious repercussions for both teams. If Adelaide can bang out 2 wins they’re fairly secure in the top 4. If Brisbane can steal a few and Melbourne continue their bad run, there’s chance that the young upstarts could sneak into the playoffs. The Multiculturalists play host to the Blue Sox who’d love to sweep or win the series and give themselves a chance at first place and home field advantage.

40kgs of Water Weight

After traversing 4 time zones in 3 days, it would have been easy for the Defensive Specialist to bypass game 4 of the Adelaide Bite / Sydney Blue Sox series in favour of a nice glass of red wine and some family time. As loyal readers know, the easy route is not the path the Defensive Specialist typically takes, so the suitcase was simply loaded into the Deep-in-the-Hole-mobile and the long trek to the Blacktown Olympic Park was made. Inside the facility conditions were steamy and potentially stormy which did not bode well for the diehard Blue Sox fans who’d decided to dress up – specifically the dude in a fully body rabbit suit and the character who was using an old shower curtain as a cape and hood. Both chaps had the potential to lose at least 40kg in water weight if the humid conditions did not ease. To make the night even more interesting, the crack sound team decided that Saturday night was “80’s cock rock night”; the Defensive Specialist eagerly awaited the Choirboys Run to Paradise!

Entering the series, both team’s fortunes had been travelling in opposite directions. The league-leading Bite had won 7 out of the past 8 games and were fresh off a 3-1 series win in Melbourne. The Blue Sox had seen their grip on first place loosen as they dropped 4 in a row at home to the Heat last week. Obviously the Heat assault was a wake up call for the Blue Sox because they’d taken it to the Bite and won the first 3 games of the series (albeit in nailbiting fashion with all games being 1 run victories and two of the contests ending in walk offs). Normally when a home team takes the first 3 games in a series, the sweep is almost inevitable but the Defensive Specialist had yet to lay eyes on the Bite and wanted to get a read on their ticker as the playoffs approach. Ticker you ask? Dropping 3 games in close fashion and then playing to avoid the sweep will tell you a lot about the spiritual make-up of a team. True playoff contenders will scrap and fight for any moral victory they can find. Pretenders roll over and start planning their team outing for the conclusion of the series.

What did we have on our hands tonight?

The Blue Sox, sniffing the series sweep and an opportunity to regain first place, sent Wayne Lundgren to the mound while the Bite countered with the imposing Dushan Ruzic. The Bite were also without James McOwen and Quincy Latimore which obviously put a significant dent in their offensive attack. Things looked to be off to an ominous start for Lundgren as Jeremy Cresswell led off with a routine ground ball that became less than routine when it hit the bag and popped straight up for a base hit (in every sense of the word). Lundgren shook it off and retired the next 3 hitters to escape the inning.

Ruzic had his issues in the bottom of the first as Trent D’Antonio started things off with a laser to rightfield. Trent Schmutter then poked a ball into right for another knock and Mitch Denning kept the party going but added his own base hit in that direction (all 3 hits coming in 5 pitches). Alex Johnson grounded into a run scoring 6-4-3 double play that looked to be a momentum killer but Josh Dean hit a screaming line drive past Ruzic that nearly surgically removed his right arm to plate another run.

Both pitchers settled in the second but the Bite took a chunk out of Lundgren in the top of the third. Lundgren walked 9 hole hitter Josh Cakebread (which infuriated the Defensive Specialist) and then gave up potentially the softest base hit in his life to Cresswell who rolled a ball through the 4 hole into rightfield. With runners on second and first, Scott Gladstone singled to left that scored Cakebread. After Cakebread crossed the plate there was an ear piercing noise that instinctively had the Defensive Specialist diving across the children seated in front of him as a means to protect them from the unmistakeable sound of sniper fire!  The Defensive Specialist looked up to see Cakebread sprawled across the home plate area. Fortunately the bullet only grazed him and he left the playing field uninjured with only a slightly damaged ego. Lundgren’s concentration may have been broken after laughing at Cakebread falling over which resulted in him serving up a fastball that Stefan Welch scorched back at him. The ball ricocheted off his pitching hand and carried into right field allowing Cresswell to even the game up at 2-2. After a couple of throws to determine if he still had feeling in his hand, Lundgren continued the inning and retired the next 2 hitters to stem the flow.

There were fireworks again in the 4th inning but not of the run scoring variety. Instead, fans at Blacktown Olympic Park were treated to an impromptu fireworks display from across the road that carried on for a good 15 minutes.

Sydney took it to Ruzic in the bottom of the 5^th as Mark Holland led off with a walk and was driven in by a scorched Andrew Graham double down the left field line. After a strike out, Bite Manager Tony Harris went to the pen to put a lefty on Blue Sox lead off hitter Trent D’Antonio. Jackson Lodge promptly walked D’Antonio and then surrendered a single to Trent Schmutter that scored Graham and allowed both runners to advance on the throw to the plate. With the infield in, Denning grounded out to short leaving runners on second and third with 2 out and right hander Johnson coming to the dish. With the base open and a two run ball game the Defensive Specialist expected an intentional walk or at least an unintentional intentional walk where Lodge would pitch extremely carefully to Johnson in order to get a lefty lefty match up on the next hitter Dean. Instead, Lodge went right after Johnson who smacked a ball into left for a 2 run double.

Sydney 5-2

Lundgren’s night came to an end in the top of the 6^th when he was replaced by Todd Gratton after getting 2 outs. For Lundgren the night’s line was 5.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 BB and 3k’s. No further runs were scored in the contest from the 6^th but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few interesting events: 

• -      Trent D’Antonio had a defensive shocker in the top of the 7^th by contributing an airmailed (emailed for generation Y) throw and a booted ground ball.

• -       Josh Dean fielded a ground ball and then barely beat the hitter Tom Brice to the base while simultaneously colliding with closer Dae Song Koo who was attempting to cover the base. Blue Sox Manager Glenn William’s sphincter undoubtedly tightened, as his dominant closer lay hunched on the ground obviously in discomfort. Fortunately he shook it off and finished the game off for a Sydney win and series sweep. 

The handy series sweep put the Blue Sox back on top of the table in equal first place with the Perth Heat. For Adelaide, the sweep dropped them to 3^rd position with a big series against the Bandits coming up next week. Much to the Defensive Specialist’s delight, the Bite showed some heart with a severely depleted line-up to keep the contest close. Manager Harris will be setting up a shrine to the Baseball Gods and praying that crucial components Latimore and McOwen heal in time for their series next week and more importantly the playoffs.

Utter club nutter Trent Schmutter

In terms of the Deep in the Hole Player of the Game it’s a toss up between utter club nutter Trent Schmutter or Alex Johnson. Since Johnson punished the Bite for pitching to him with a 2 run double, the Defensive Specialist will bestow the honour upon him despite his insistence on continuing to wear David Ortiz P.I.M.P shoes that do not look good on a white man.

White men handle with care

'Complexity creates confusion, simplicity, focus.' Edward de Bono

We live in a world loaded with information thanks to the ease with which technology delivers it to us and if that sounds a little deep for you on a Monday night / Tuesday morning, take a deep swig of your drink / coffee and consider your old pal on Saturday night. The Defensive Specialist basked in a downpour of information as he sat and watched the Blue Sox take on the Heat. Thanks to the wonders of the modern world, the Defensive Specialist watched the ball game while writing a blog post, checking the scores of other games, registering on eHarmony, accessing real time stats and checking Facebook status updates. 

However, bombarding oneself with information isn’t for everyone – it creates confusion and clouds issues. And that’s where the Defensive Specialist comes in. After attending a series, the Defensive Specialist likes to collate all relevant data and then report key findings back to the loyal readers in a simple and efficient manner. The simplicity allows focus! And my word wasn’t there a plethora of facts, figures and themes to digest after the first placed Blue Sox squared off against the 4^th placed Heat.

The Defensive Specialist has mentioned it numerous times before but it stands to reason to raise it again. In general, teams look to win the series at home (3 out of 4) and to split on the road (2 out of 2) (obviously this changes when playing lesser opponents). It’s not easy to win a series outright and even tougher to go on the road and do it. So when the Blue Sox travelled to Perth and blew the Heat away 4-0, eyebrows were raised around the league and surely doubts began to creep into the Heat camp. Then, just as they had their backs to the wall, the Heat roared back and stole 4 games from the Blue Sox at Olympic Park. When something like this transpires, you know the Defensive Specialist will have a take on it. So with no further ado, your old pal presents “What the Defensive Specialist Learnt”.


1. You can run on the Blue Sox. Andy Graham’s throwing has regressed from years past and while Stone Hands Maat has a decent arm, his catch, release and footwork slows things down. However, blame is not entirely leveled on the Sydney catchers! Oxspring is ridiculously quick to the plate (in the 1.3 range) but for the most part the rest of the Sydney staff can be run on. When you couple that with the arms behind the plate, teams are definitely able to exploit the chink in the Blue Sox armour. The most telling example occurred in game 2 with David Welch on the mound. Obviously with a lefty on the hill, the runner is going on first move and takes the risk that the pitcher will not pick off. On a couple of occasions, Heat runners got such great jumps that no throw was even made to second base. Welch was forced to speed up his motion, which may have unsettled his rhythm and definitely reduced his velocity and control.


2. Is there such a thing as home field advantage? Usually playing at home presents a huge advantage to teams as they have familiar surroundings, better fan support and creature comforts. Yet over the course of 2 weeks we have seen two strong teams hit the road and sweep a series. The Defensive Specialist began to think that there may in fact be an advantage to being on the road – think about it, in the ABL the vast majority of players actually have to maintain some form of gainful employment to supplement the meagre earnings they make playing baseball. When at home, players are rushing to the yard from work, trying to wedge baseball into their lives and fulfil various other commitments like friends, family and loved ones.  On the other hand, the minute the team boards the plane to travel interstate, all of those other issues go out the window and the focus is totally on baseball and the games ahead (oh and where to have a drink once the series is over).To confirm the Defensive Specialist’s hypothesis, the theory was raised to Heat manager Brooke Knight:

“I really like our team on the road. We’re cohesive, we don’t have distractions, and we’re at the yard working on our game as a team. There are definitely advantages to travelling in this league”.

Don’t get the Defensive Specialist wrong, it’s highly unlikely that any team would turn down the chance of a home final, but there is something to be said for getting your team together as a unit and going to battle for 4 concentrated days.

3. The ABL really could be the Second Chance Saloon. Already we’ve seen pitchers Oxspring and Adam Bright salvaged off the pitching scrap heap following outstanding performances Down Under. After seeing the Heat’s Daniel Schmidt dial his fastball up to 90 against the Blue Sox with significant run and control, you’d have to think that he’d have a chance to catch on somewhere since effective lefties don’t grow on trees and he’s still relatively young at only 22.

4. The Heat pitching staff is perched precariously on the ledge. Imports Trevor Caughey and Matt Zachary both made huge contributions for the Heat on Thursday and Sunday respectively. Unfortunately the reason they are in Australia is to play club baseball, which means once their local competition starts up again, their availability will be severely compromised and the Heat pitching staff further weakened. Schmidt and Cole McCurry provide arms at the front of the rotation but the Heat bullpen is lessened if Liam Baron and his rubber arm is forced back in to the rotation. Manager Knight will likely have to closely monitor the local competition and snap up imports as their rotations permit (in WA, imports can only pitch every second game). Not an optimal situation to say the least.

5. The Sydney Big 4 is still vaunted; it’s the guys behind them that’s the concern. Oxspring, Welch, Lundgren and Anderson form a dominant rotation, giving their team a chance to win every time out. Dae-Sung Koo is a crafty veteran who knows how to pitch. After that, there is a whole bunch of uncertainty in the Blue Sox pen. Obviously with such a solid frontline staff the pen will rarely be exposed but as the weekend showed, once a team gets in there, trouble can ensue. There’s word on the street that Matt Williams may be shut down for the remainder of the season, which removes another pro arm from manager Glenn Williams arsenal. You’d like to think that Rich Thompson will be more effective than he showed on the weekend, to give Williams another big arm to call upon.

6. Never underestimate the effect of 27,000 beats per minute. Techno Tim Auty was left off the roster until he replaced Trent Oeltjen later in the series and the lack of lights, lasers, smoke machines and pulsating beats had the noticeable effect of deflating the crowd. Trent Schmutter tried unsuccessfully to accept the mantle but there is only one Techno Tim Auty. Perhaps Blue Sox management need a Techno Tim Auty night for the upcoming series against the Adelaide Bite to get the crowd performing “big fish, little fish, cardboard box” with vigor and restore life to the venue. Start with a stirring rendition of Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce if necessary.

7. Speaking of music, the Blue Sox sound team tried every emasculating song in the book to break the Heat hitters down, but in this series the line up finally came to life. Almost 1 through 9 contributed across the series, which is what we’ve been expecting from the Perth boys all season. With Luke Hughes firmly entrenched in the line up, Knight was able to run out a fairly consistent squad – only playing lefty righty matchups with his left fielder (Brandon Dale and Ryne Price).  With the Heat pitching questionable, the hitters need to bang to keep them competitive. What is more telling is that the bats got going against the best staff in the league.

Right, the Defensive Specialist has kept things as simple as possible and hopes that the loyal readers have been able to maintain focus. Things get exciting this weekend as the Heat travel to Melbourne to face the up and down Aces . Interestingly, the Defensive Specialist happened to see a piece on the Blue Sox on the 7.30 Report as they played the Aces at the Showgrounds. My word, that playing surface looked absolutely disgraceful! The Defensive Specialist can appreciate that the Aces are lucky to have a new home base close to the CBD but that field did not look conducive to good baseball (happy to hear the thoughts of those who have attended games in Melbourne on the playing field). The Blue Sox play host the to league leading Adelaide Bite which will tell a lot about both teams. The Bandits have the chance to knock the Multiculturalists out of playoff contention and vault themselves into the 4.

Until then

Naughty or Nice

The Defensive Specialist isn’t going to lie to you; he’s had his feet up for the past couple of days taking a well earned break before the second half of the ABL season cranks up. It’s easy to get fat off the land when Christmas roles around but a series of emails from loyal readers bemoaning the lack of Christmas cheer from their favourite baseball blogger has spurred the Defensive Specialist into action –after all, tis the season of giving! Every team has specific needs heading into the second half so the Defensive Specialist negotiated with Australia Post to intercept each managers shopping list to Santa – what better time than Christmas Eve to evaluate the wish lists of each skipper to see what they need to succeed in 2011.

Perth Heat

Manager Brooke Knight’s list to Santa:

1. Pitching

2. Pitching

3. Pitching

4. And grey uniforms for when we play away

Although the grey uniforms are a no brainer they’ve been covered ad infinitum in this forum and in reality, it doesn’t matter what uniform you’re wearing if you don’t have anyone to pitch. The Heat is set to lose number 1 & 2 arms Liam Hendriks and Cole McCurry to inning restrictions while import reliever Brett Jacobsen was traded to the Minnesota Twins and recalled back to the states. On top of that, leading bullpen arm Tyler Anderson is set to head back to the US to work on completing his college degree. That’s 4 fairly key appendages that will be tough to replace. While there’s word that Brendan Wise may be available in the coming weeks (making up for the loss of Jacobsen) Knight will be scouring his little black book searching for live arms to fill the void in his rotation with only Liam Baron a local option. With the Heat regaining the services of Luke Hughes and apparently an import second baseman, the addition of front line arms would almost assure the Heat of a finals berth.

Melbourne Aces

Manager Phil Dale’s list to Santa:

1) Better foreign relations

2) Smaller coaching staff

It would surprise some that Dale would request a smaller coaching staff, but do you realise how hard it must be to remember that many names? The first point about foreign relations relates to the fact that the Aces’ Japanese contingent are said to be shipping back to their motherland in preparation for their spring training / season. Just as the Aces started to hit their straps (winning 9 of their last 11), word comes that their imports need to pack up shop and leave. These departures leave quite the void:

Yoshiyuki Kamei has been an offensive monster hitting .438 with 7 bombs, 25 RBI’s, 20 runs and an OPS of 1300. Sick numbers! Dale should find some way to hide his passport. While Dale is being devious, perhaps he should think about hiding a sizeable quantity of marijuana in the boogie board bags of Norihito Kaneto (2-2 with an ERA of 4.35 over 30 innings), Jumpei Ono (awesome name, 1-1 and 2.12 ERA), Masumi Hoshino (1-0 3.38 ERA) and Tetsu Nishikawa (1-0, 4.85 ERA) in order to keep them in our fair land.

On the upside, the Aces are dropping bombs and scoring runs at an alarming rate of late, lead by Andrew Russell who has vaulted into contention for Deep in the Hole “Dude of the Month”. The beat down has continued recently as the Aces man handled the Bandits in their latest series.

Adelaide Bite

Manager Tony Harris’ list to Santa:

1) A Stud

Harris has always been known as a simple man and his wish list reflects just that, yearning for only one thing. Unfortunately the one thing he desperately desires is the one thing that Santa doesn’t dish out willy nilly –staff aces. The Bite have an offensive line up that bangs with anyone in the league, meaning they’re always going to be able to put up numbers. What they lack is a guy who takes the ball and almost always guarantees a win. While they do have a group of steady pitchers, none has stepped forward and demonstrated the ability to be the guy. Paul Mildren doesn’t have the over powering stuff, Darren Fidge is almost a pensioner and their import Brandon Maurer has been inconsistent. Dushan Ruzic has had some exceptional outings but Harris will be imploring his GM to reach out into the baseball universe to find a staff leader that would completely reshape his pitching staff by providing stability at the front and allowing an arm like Fidge to become a go-to bullpen guy.

Canberra Multiculturalists

Manager Steve Schrenk’s list to Santa:

1) The ABL to only schedule home games

Being a new parent himself, the Defensive Specialist is keenly aware of the developmental cycles of young children. Right now, the Defensive Specialist’s young child is in the phase where kids tend to experience separation anxiety (time away from parents upsetingt them). The more the Defensive Specialist observes the Multiculturalists, the more he sees the signs of separation anxiety. The team plays with confidence and joy at home but goes to water whenever they leave the friendly confines of the nation’s capital. The solution? Perhaps take their parents along for the road trip while loading up on the porn and fireworks to make the lads feel as at home as possible.

Sydney Blue Sox

Manager Glenn William’s list to Santa:

1) A Banger

No Williams isn’t looking for a new relationship! What he’s after is a middle of the order thumper who can put fear into opposing pitching staffs and drive in a plethora of runs. Prior to the season commencing there were a number of guys ear marked to fill this role locally but to this point no one has stepped forward to be the MAN. We keep hearing that Trent Oeltjen will eventually strap on the powder blue uni and while he may not be your prototype banger, he definitely provides a premium bat that should be able to carry a large proportion of the load in the middle of the order

Brisbane Bandits

Manager Dave Nilsson’s list to Santa:

1) Snowstorms in Japan

2) Lubrication

The lube is more of a stocking gift but definitely well needed as the Aces have been legitimately sticking it to the Bandits in their pre Christmas series. The Bandits were pumped 18-8, 12-10, 10-0 and 16-3. That’s some serious friction!

Much like Melbourne, the Bandits are rumoured to be losing their Japanese imports in the coming weeks. The two keys losses will be Shuhei Fukuda who joint leads the team with 4 homeruns, while driving in 6 and scoring 11. He has also proved to be a reliable and versatile defender. From a pitching perspective, the big loss is Hiroki Yamada who has started in every series and struck out almost a hitter per inning while compiling a record of 2-2 with a 4.91 ERA. Neither import has put up “stop the press” numbers but having been steady contributors that Nilsson has relied upon as the season has progressed.

Unfortunately the Defensive Specialist has to cut this post short as he still has 2438 baseballs to autograph as Christmas presents. Thank you very much for reading Deep in the Hole and have a great and safe Christmas. The Defensive Specialist will next check in from the Heat VS. Blue Sox series on December 30th.

Half Full or Half Empty?

So here we are – sitting at the halfway point of the first ABL season (well 2 teams have played 20 so that’s close enough!). As you could probably tell from the Defensive Specialist’s attempts to predict the outcome of each series, things have been a little up and down in terms of performance and form across the league. Just when it seems one team is ready to put their foot on the accelerator and take off, they get a bad case of the speed wobbles and are dragged back to the pack. Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that the Defensive Specialist was hiding behind ‘league parity” as a means to down play his prediction foibles? Anyway, with 20 games down now seems like a good time to lift the hood on each team and evaluate what’s going on with them. Which teams have reasons to be optimistic in the second half and which teams should be preparing for the worst? Being an eternal optimist, it’s often tough for the Defensive Specialist to deliver tough criticism so please take a moment to appreciate your old pal’s efforts.

Sydney Blue Sox

Outlook: Half Full (just)

Look, there’d be a fair proportion of Melbourne supporters who’d disagree after the Sydneysiders had to hire an extra bus to transport their rear ends home after they were handed to them by the Aces, but the Defensive Specialist has too much faith in their pitching to believe that last weekend’s performance was the death knock on their season. For those of you not following along, the Aces and Blue Sox squared off in a 5 games series (one game was a make up for a Sydney rain out) in Melbourne that ended in a Sydney blood bath, especially on Saturday when the Aces gave them the prison shower treatment in the form of a 30 run assault.

Melbourne fans are still not convinced about the pitching so let the Defensive Specialist elaborate – Chris Oxspring continues his dominance of the league despite only getting a decision in 50% of his games. He is a legitimate number 1 who gives the Blue Sox a chance to win every time out. David Welch seems to have overcome his early season difficulties and has now strung together 3 consecutive outstanding appearances. So right there you have the chance at a series split each week with those two guy - that’s something to be optimistic about isn’t it? But the issue arises with the rest of the rotation. Wayne Lundgren has been Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (more Dr Jekyll of late) this season and Craig Anderson got touched up pretty badly on the weekend. All it takes is for one of those guys to straighten it out and all of a sudden you have 3 big arms at the front of the rotation with the likes of Ryan Rowland Smith and Brad Thomas set to make some form of appearance as the season progresses. Dae-Sung Koo has been rock solid as the closer with 8 saves and 14 punch outs in 11 innings of work and Matthew Williams has provided another quality late inning arm. After those guys, things are somewhat sketchy with the remaining relievers not providing reliable options for manager Glenn Williams.

League leader in saves - D.S Koo

The Blue Sox offensive struggles have been well chronicled in this forum and things just don’t seem to be picking up. If you look at overall team hitting stats, the Blue Sox are 4^th in runs and pretty much middle of the pack in everything else which isn’t too shocking. What is shocking is the overall lack of performance from a line-up full of proven performers at this level. The most telling stat? 143 strike outs, which is almost 20 more than the nearest team. We keep waiting for the hitters to click and start swinging it like we expect them to, but at some point perhaps it needs to be said they’re not a good offensive club. When do we say that? Lets give them 2 more series to show us some life.

Brisbane Bandits

Outlook: Half Empty (but half full)

Hang with your old pal on this one! The Bandits have no chance at an ABL championship this year and will be hard pressed to make the playoffs, BUT their future is looking fairly bright beyond this season, which is the half full part. That makes sense right?

The Bandits have consistently screwed up the Defensive Specialist’s predictions by stealing games that no one thought they’d win but the reality is they’re a young team that are a year or two away. The offensive line-up is littered with local talent like Josh Roberts, Rory Rhodes, Joel Naughton and Alan Shoenberger who will form the core for years to come. In fact, if Rhodes falls into vat of weight gainer he may get so big that he takes up 2 spots on the hitting order! But with youth comes growing pains in the form of low team run totals, poor base on balls tallies, high strike-outs and next to no power. These are all things that typically come with experience and age, which is why the Defensive Specialist has to be pessimistic on the team’s chances this season.

Future man-child Rory Rhodes

The pitching staff also shows flashes of promise but still lacks the consistency of a championship calibre ball club. No one shows more promise than Ryan Searle who has an electric arm but can’t quite parlay it into on-field dominance. James Albury started out well but hit a brick wall in his last 2 starts including a 3-inning beat down by Adelaide last week. Hiroki Yamada appears to be settling into the staff ace role with a K per inning this season and 2 excellent appearances against Perth and Adelaide although reliever Chris Mowday may be the MVP of the pitching staff thus far with 21 innings of work and a 3-1 record.

So don’t expect too much more from the Bandits this season, instead think of them as a long term high interest bearing savings account – you keep contributing to it (more games and experience) and when you check in down the road your investment has paid off as your initial deposit has grown and blossomed into something greater (a better team). That’s a deep metaphor!

Canberra Multiculturalists

Outlook: Half Empty

The Multiculturalists really do live up to their name – a melting pot of talent, performance and output than when stirred together ends up looking brown. On paper a line up of Nick Kimpton, Didi Gregorius, Donald Lutz and Michael Collins looks solid but that’s the beauty of baseball – the game isn’t played on paper. Collins has kept his good form from last season going although a little more pop would be appreciated by manager Steve Schrenk. Kimpton hasn’t been able to maintain the white hot pace he carried across two seasons and Gregorius’ performance has been far from gregarious. The Korean connection was always going to be a surprise and for the most part its been an underwhelming surprise, much like receiving socks at Christmas time. So what’s the upside? Well you’d definitely bring back Collins, Kimpton and Tom Vincent (and not just because they live in Canberra) and the rest you could wave goodbye to and start afresh next year! Is that an upside?

Michael Collins

Ok so that was a bit tough on the Multiculturalist hitters, lets try to be a bit more positive with the pitching staff.

(Crickets chirping)

Just kidding - Chris Morgan has been a real find for the Canberra team, logging 16 innings in relief and picking up 2 saves with an ERA of 1.69. Jun Hyeok Heo and Myung-Ho Jin have emerged as two front line starters although Heo has been prone to the long ball and doesn’t over power hitters. Jin racks up the punch-outs but also the walks, which may explain why his inning total is down. If these were local kids the Defensive Specialist would be giving them the same convoluted treatment Brisbane received but since they’ll likely never be seen again its hard to get excited about their potential. Steve Kent is a local guy but his season to this point is well below where he’d like it to be with an 0-3 record and a couple of outings (against Melbourne and Perth) that he was lucky to get out of alive. The rest of the staff is a bit hit and miss but it is populated by young arms (Phil Brassington being an outlier), which means that with experience and age they should develop and get better in the seasons to come.

Part 2 tomorrow

Credit Where Credit is Due

The Defensive Specialist’s series predictions have become a dog’s breakfast of inaccuracy each and every week. Despite picking winners with about the same level of precision as a scud missile, the Defensive Specialist insists on ploughing on – after all, the key to becoming a champion is persistence so your old pal is going to take another crack at it. Before we get to the balky guesses / educated picks, the Defensive Specialist wanted to take a moment to congratulate himself for directly contributing to Chris Oxspring signing a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers yesterday. Seriously, the Defensive Specialist was scanning the advanced metrics that work behind the scenes of the Deep in the Hole blog and noticed a flurry of activity hitting the site from the offices of the Detroit Tigers, specifically around the time that Oxspring was crowned “Dude of the Month” for November. If you ever doubted the clout of the Defensive Specialist, well this signing has to show you that the man wields mighty power! One award from Deep in the Hole and the guy is banging on the door of the big leagues again!

Ok, so perhaps the Defensive Specialist is slightly exaggerating his involvement in the whole thing. Congratulation to Chris nonetheless, now he can truly say to his pitching staff “BE LIKE ME!” when they’re scuffling.

Another house cleaning issue that the Defensive Specialist vowed to clear up was the ruling around adding players to the 22-man roster. According to a team General Manager, players can be added to the 22-man roster in the case of injury or illness but these changes have to be approved by the ABL. So without knowing what transpired with the Multiculturalists, it’s safe to assume that they didn’t get up to any unsanctioned mischief when they used coach Michael Wells to fill in during their last series.

And finally before the Defensive Specialist embarrasses himself again with his picks, lets answer a question from reader Nathan:

Hello Defensive Specialist,

I'm a big fan of your blog, and enjoyed this run down of the Blue Sox lineup challenges. You mentioned that the addition of Trent Oeltjen could add some spice. I agree - but I think it poses a challenge for the team when three of the better bats belong to Dening, Auty and Kandilas. Will be interesting to see who gets pushed out. I have read around the place that Dening can play a bit of first base, not really sure how likely that is though, and I can't imagine they would have Oeltjen as a DH...so who misses out? Auty? 


Keep up the good work


Nathan

Nathan,

Thanks for taking the time to write in.

As much as it pains the Defensive Specialist to say it, you’d have to think Techno Tim is the odd guy out when and if Oeltjen makes his much anticipated appearance for the Blue Sox. You slot Oeltjen in to centre, move Dening to left and let Kandilas lock down right. However Oeltjen’s return really throws a cat amongst the pigeons because there is a strong chance he may just DH which means that Alex Johnson, Stone Hands Maat or the Bossman miss out and you end up playing a lesser bat in the outfield. Either way, I’m sure it’s a problem manager Glenn Williams is looking forward to having because his bat is a huge addition to the line up.

Right, time to get focussed and nail these picks.

Adelaide Bite Vs. Brisbane Bandits

The Bite will be desperate to get back in the winners circle after last week’s debacle against the Multiculturalists that saw them get swept in a 3 game series. The Bandits return to home soil fresh off a split against the Heat, which could have very nearly been a 3-1 series win. As much as the Bandits have continually made the Defensive Specialist look stupid lately, the Defensive Specialist’s heart and advanced analytics tell him that Adelaide will come out swinging. They’ve added a 6’7 monster by the name of Mark Brackman to the pitching staff which gives them another professional arm and of course the Q-Tip continues to bang along with James McOwen. Adelaide to take the series on the road 3-1.

Sydney Blue Sox Vs. Melbourne Aces

Sydney took the series 2-0-1 last weekend in a rain affected contest and now travel to Melbourne for their first taste of action at the MCG.  The Aces added Travis Blackley last week and Shane Lindsay this weekend, significantly bolstering their pitching staff. Their bats were fairly stagnant last week but that is almost expected against the Blue Sox considering the strength of their arms. Speaking of arms, the Defensive Specialist strolled past Ryan Rowland Smith at the airport in Brisbane this week – no real reason for telling you that story other than to let you know he’s in the country. Anyway, getting back to the predictions – Melbourne’s improved pitching versus Sydney’s sputtering offense = 2-2 split.

Canberra Multiculturalists Vs. Perth Heat

The Multiculturalists have to be riding high after brazenly taking 3 games off Adelaide last weekend and head to the West Coast with the goal of at least splitting the series. The Heat have demonstrated that they don’t mind people coming into their house, eating all their food and making out with their wife as evidenced by them splitting their last 2 home series. The one advantage the Heat have is that the Multiculturalists have not travelled well at all having not yet won on the road. The Multiculturalists bats got going against Adelaide with Donald Lutz leading the way. The Heat welcome back Tim Kennelly (who just spent time in the prestigious Arizona Fall League) to the line up where his bat will be another welcome addition. Manager Brooke Knight will count on ace Liam Hendriks figuring things out as his last 2 starts have been horrendous. Daniel Schmidt, Cole McCurry and Warwick Saupold will also need to calm the Canberra bats. Heat to take the series 3-1.

The Defensive Specialist looks forward to reflecting on these picks on Monday! Enjoy your baseball weekend.