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.

Dude of the Month – November

All right, we’re one month into the season so its time to unveil the first Deep in the Hole Dude of the Month. There’s a strong chance you’re sitting in front of your computer scratching your head and asking; dude?? So let the Defensive Specialist set a few parameters that’ll help you better understand. Firstly, according to the Urban Dictionary, dude can be defined as:

“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

'Some people would rather die than think' - Bertrand Russell

Look, Bertrand makes a pretty good point in the above quote and hopefully it inspires everyone to get a library membership, check out a couple of book and attempt to get your grey matter churning. On the other hand, when you have a baseball academic like the Defensive Specialist doing all the heavy lifting, who needs to think? So sit back, soak up what the Defensive Specialist is breaking down and get smarter by osmosis – its that simple.

There are always a few doubters out there, people who for whatever reason and despite all evidence refuse to believe. As a means to prove the Defensive Specialists brain power perhaps now is an opportune time to discuss the series predictions the Defensive Specialist threw out before the first round of fixtures: 

• Perth Heat Vs. Brisbane Bandits- you’re old pal predicted a 3-1 series win to the Heat. And the actual result? Yep you guessed it, 3-1 to the Heat. TICK. The Heat went to Brisvegas, dropped game 1 then reeled off 3 consecutive wins to take the series.
• Melbourne Aces Vs. Adelaide Bite – continuing the Midas touch, the Defensive Specialist called a 3-1 series win to the Bite. TICK……. Oh wait, the Defensive Specialist capitulated and hedged his bets by calling a 2-2 series result. Mental Midget. Didn't matter, the Bite swept the series.
• Canberra Multiculturalists Vs. Sydney Blue Sox – ok, this whole exercise is doing the Defensive Specialist no favours by this stage. The prediction was a 3-1 series victory to the Blue Sox and it almost looked like it may happen in the last game as the Multiculturalists came out firing. Unfortunately for the Defensive Specialist’s credibility, the Blue Sox had too much firepower and too much pitching which resulted in a win and a series sweep. 

So that didn’t help, but as Theodore de Bouville said “Those who do nothing are never wrong”. With that in mind, lets do something, lets delve deeper into the Defensive Specialist’s game notes and come up with a couple of key insights in a post we here at Deep in the Hole like to call “What has the Defensive Specialist Learnt?”

1. Having an Ace is important. Yeah, the Defensive Specialist knows this was a key learning from last week, but as Chris Oxspring demonstrated again, having a big arm that can chew up a chunk of innings not only gives your ball club a chance to win each time out but also spares the bullpen, which is critical over a 4 game series. You need only look at recent World Series victors the San Francisco Giants, who rode their 3 guns to a championship with rag tag offensive support, to understand how important good starting pitching is. Oxspring was a little rocky early on, giving up a big fly to Nick Kimpton but once he settled he was lights out and in command through 8 innings. He maintained his velocity and even flirted with 92 mph twice during the game.

As an additional highlight for readers, the Defensive Specialist stumbled across this pretty cool video detailing the Multiculturalists opening game. However it gets even better at the 7.51 minute mark when Multiculturalist manager Steve Schrenk says to an unidentified player (who very much resembles Nick Kimpton):

“That Oxspring is probably the best pitcher in the league.”

To which Kimpton replies:

“You know what, he’s not that good.”

Ahh Nick, you may have taken him yard, but he’s just shoved the bat up your team’s rectum on two occasions now. It’s safe to assume that Oxspring may have that little sound bite stored in his memory bank for future reference.

2. The Multiculturalists need to get their staff in order. Look it’s early in the season and you’d expect teams to be a little rough and tumble early on, but as the Canberra team demonstrated, if you don’t get solid starting pitching early on a series can unravel mightily quickly. Steve Kent has the potential to be an ace, but if he can’t go more than two innings per outing he is leaving the bullpen exposed over the course of a contest. As the Defensive Specialist mentioned in an earlier post, perhaps his best use would be out of the pen to lock down any leads the Multiculturalists may have.

3. A position battle may be brewing in the Blue Sox camp. A reader launched a vociferous campaign in support of Alex Johnson who made his ABL debut in game 3 of the series and hit a big 3 run bomb in game 4. The basis of the argument was that he provides more with the bat that Pat ‘Stone Hands’ Maat which definitely was the case in this series just gone. Stone Hand’s bat looked slow and sluggish and he really laboured to catch up to mid 80’s fastballs. Johnson on the other hand looked dialed in during his AB’s with consistently hard contact. Adding to his case, he looked serviceable at first base. In Stone Hand’s defence (and that term is used very loosely when discussing Stone Hands), he has a proven track record at this level and surprised the Defensive Specialist with his outing behind the plate, displaying good receiving skills and a strong arm.

So what’s a manager to do? Well skipper Glenn Williams really has 4 of the same sort of player – that is, big corn-fed mules. Andy Graham, Stone Hands, Johnson and the Bossman are all solid units who look to pull fastballs and contribute limited amounts on defence (Graham contributes a bit more behind the plate admittedly). At the moment Johnson and the Bossman are the ones bringing it offensively (although it looks like Moanaroa will hit sporadically against lefties) so you’d have to say both have earned longer looks. Perhaps you platoon Stone Hands and the Bossman and let Johnson play out his hot hand. It’s not the worst scenario for a manager to have – 4 guys competing for 3 spots (C, 1B, DH).

4. If the Korean imports don’t start to hit, the Multiculturalists may need to send an envoy to the local embassy to keep the peace because there could be some foreign relation disasters after they get sent packing. Moon, Lee and Jang all had a woeful series with Moon registering 2 hits, Lee 1 and Jang taking the schnide. All 3 guys bail out on almost every swing meaning that from time to time they may run into something and hit it hard but for the most part they’re out in front rolling over the ball or missing it altogether. Lee and Moon seem to run ok, but its not like they’re even putting the ball in play consistently. If the Multiculturalists want to get anywhere, they need their Korean connection to figure it out and start hitting.

5. The catcher pop up may be dying art. The Defensive Specialist woke up on Sunday morning with a crick in his neck as a result of cringing too hard when both coaches butchered every attempt at the dime piece. It’s like everything in life really – practice makes perfect. Get a crate of balls, stand at home plate and don’t leave until your hands are bleeding and you’re consistently drilling balls 200 feet in the air and bouncing them on home plate. The Defensive Specialist is looking to clear his schedule in order to conduct a one on one workshop on the art of the pop up. Details and pricing to come.

6. Although their pitching has a lot of question marks, the Multiculturalists have the makings of a decent offensive ballclub. The addition of Michael Collins was always going to be big and he demonstrated his worth immediately going a lazy 6 for 11. Kimpton is a tough hitter and as the video demonstrates a confident one who’ll provide solid output in the middle of the order. If Didi Gregorious manages to put the ball in play and get on base he’ll do some damage with his speed. Until Moon figures out how to hit, the Defensive Specialist would be tempted to plug Andrew Schmidt into the 2 hole as he seems to be a scrapper who’ll find a way to get on. Donald Lutz has some pop, and Tom Vincent proved he can knock it around. And don’t forget D Wash is hidden on their roster, just waiting for an opportunity!

7. The Defensive Specialist wasn’t in attendance and usually doesn’t include 3^rd party information in “What has the Defensive Specialist Learnt”, but after seeing the result of the Adelaide Melbourne series, you’d have to say that either the Bite are the second coming of the Bronx Bombers or the Aces are a little underdone on the mound. The Bite put a legitimate beat down on the Aces and while the Defensive Specialist would like to think that we may have an offensive juggernaut on our hands this season, word from those in attendance suggests that the Aces just couldn’t compete on the mound. It will be interesting to see what the Aces can do to right the ship because no one would have predicted that last year’s champ would have been beaten like a rented mule in the first series of the season.

The Defensive Specialist will not be in attendance at any series next weekend due to Deep in the Hole budgetary constraints so if there are any philanthropists out there who enjoy reading unbelievably comprehensive baseball reviews, the Defensive Specialist is more than happy to accept your donation and make the trip. But do not fret, even if no sugar daddy steps forward with access to their private jet, the Defensive Specialist will still conjure some magic and provide your weekly baseball fix! 

Balmy Balmy Night

The only things that could have made viewing conditions better at the Blue Sox Multiculturalists clash on Friday evening would’ve been a steady supply of pina coladas and a Thai massage (no happy ending necessary). As late afternoon turned to dusk and the field became bathed in a warm golden light (look at your old pal getting all poetic on the readers right there!), the Defensive Specialist leaned back in his well located seat, surveyed the surroundings and decided that it really doesn’t get much better than this from a baseball viewing perspective.

While we’re on the viewing experience, the Defensive Specialist had the opportunity to chat with a buddy who’d been at the Brisbane Bandits home opener on Thursday night. Interestingly he said that if he hadn’t  been at the league launching game last week he would have rated the Brisbane experience as quite good. However, the Blue Sox experience really stood out for him with components that worked for all range of fans – kids, parents and baseball purists. Another interesting aside gleaned from his travels is that the ABL seems to be operating a cash-only economy. If you’re the type of person who only carries plastic then you’re going to be in a world of hurt and look like a degenerate when you have an armful of merchandise and not the prerequisite $495 in cash needed to seal the deal. Fortunately the Defensive Specialist always rolls with fat wads so he’ll be fine (did that just set the Defensive Specialist up to be jumped in the car park?).

Anyway, back to the game.

As you know, the Defensive Specialist applied the print equivalent of a blowtorch to both teams’ coaches responsible for infield outfield, and more specifically the catchers pop-up, in the past week. Both efforts last week were best described as feeble and while that may have been acceptable in the amateur Claxton Shield, we’re now in the big boys league and excellence is demanded. Canberra took the field first and coach Brent Phelan showed physical signs of being rattled with some less than stellar fungo work. When it came time to nail his dime piece, he tried unsuccessfully to covertly wipe the sweat off his hands – clear signs that his nerves had got the better of him. The ball toss looked ok but when it came to contact, well put it this way if he was playing tennis the cut backhand that resulted would have been exceptional. Unfortunately such a shot on the baseball diamond results in the ball heading out of the stadium rapidly. Phelan knew that he didn’t have the intestinal fortitude for another attempt and exited the playing field hastily.

Rumour has it that Blue Sox coach Jason Pospishil (that name NEVER gets any easier to spell and always auto corrects to popsicle so from now on its going to be Jason Popsicle) had spent the entire week working on his dime piece. The fungo work looked crisp and clean during the innie outtie but the proof would be in the pudding when it came to the money shot. Popsicle didn’t look as physically rattled as Phelan but stress doesn’t always manifest outwardly and who knew how badly his insides were twisting. To the untrained eye it would appear that Popsicle arched his back and put a good hack on it. To the Defensive Specialist’s acute eye Popsicle had a slight nerve induced micro twitch a nano second before contact. Although he managed good height, the slight hitch in his swing caused him to be late on the ball which sent it straight back. Although it stayed in the yard and in line with the plate, catcher Andy Graham snared it right on the screen which is barely acceptable at this level.

If things don’t improve on Saturday night, the Defensive Specialist may have to convene an emergency dime piece hitting session! The Blue Sox take the win in this contest but it’s a cheap W and one that you don’t tell your friends about over a beer.

The week break in between games gave both managers the flexibility to reuse their staff aces. Blue Sox skipper Glenn Williams seized that opportunity and wheeled his pitching coach Chris Oxspring back out to the mound. Oxspring was looking to replicate his first outing which would once again enable him to tell the rest of his pitching staff that he still has it and that they should all do it exactly as he does. The Multiculturalists had changed up their line-up offensively by adding the dangerous bat of Michael Collins and adding a new second baseman from parts unknown Tylor Purdhomme.

The Sydney in game entertainment crew has received positive reviews in this forum but perhaps does not get enough credit for the psychological battles they wage on opposing hitters. You’ve heard of hitters having walk up music as they approach the plate – typically a hitter will pick a song they like or that fires them up. Well the Blue Sox crew go the opposite direction and play the schmaltziest and schlockiest tunes they can find in the hope that it’ll drain every ounce of testosterone out of the hitters and prevent them from getting the ball out of the infield.

That approach definitely worked with Didi and Moon who both feebly grounded out to second but Nick Kimpton proved to be smarter than your average bear by stuffing toilet paper in his ears and then punching a ball into the 5.5 hole that Michael Lysaught couldn’t make a play on. Collins succumbed to the musical hypnosis and ended the inning by grounding out 4-3.

J.H Heo took the ball for the Multiculturalists and decided that his first ABL start was the perfect time to bust out his shiny white spikes with Velcro tabs instead of laces. This is a bad look on so many levels A) these shoes should only be worn by 65+ year olds at a lawn bowl match and B) nowhere in the baseball fashion universe does it say that white spikes are acceptable with an orange and black uniform. The baseball Gods will have their revenge the Defensive Specialist predicts!

Both pitchers cruised through 2 innings surrendering only 1 hit apiece (Heo gave up a crushed double by the Bossman to the right centre gap in the second) At the start of the third inning the Blue Sox in-game entertainment came crashing down with a dumb game that had 2 kids racing to put on oversized uniforms. It dragged on for what seemed like an hour and felt like a women’s change room at a major department store during a 75% off sale. It was so bad that it scrambled the announcing team who left Trent D’Antonio’s walk up music running during his at bat. Fortunately it happened to be the Defensive Specialist’s favourite band – Pearl Jam and inspired D’Antonio enough that he hammered a first pitch fastball out of the yard for the Blue Sox’s first run. Techno Tim pulled a double down the left-field line just as his lasers and 11,000 beats per minute walk up routine was turned off. Heo was on the ropes, but fortunately for him Mitch Dening has chosen a walk up song that is fairly soft to start with so he has to take a long slow walk to the plate in order to draw the song out enough until it gets to the macho part. This gave Heo enough time to regroup and get Dening on a 4-3 groundout.

The Multiculturalists struck back in the top of the 4^th when Nick Kimpton crushed a homerun to right. Kimpton broke out a somewhat disjointed homerun trot which appeared to be the result of the toilet paper in his ears getting caught in his spikes. Donald Lutz came up with a chalk raising double down the left line and Tom Vincent plated him with a  single to leftfield. As Lutz chugged for home there was a moment of indecision when Andy Graham weighed up blocking the plate and trying to back hand a short hop (and being steamrolled by Lutz who is a solid unit) or clearing out and avoiding all contact. He decided to avoid all contact, which was disappointing because Lutz Vs. Graham would have been the meeting of two immoveable objects.

The Blue Sox were at it again in the 5^th. David Kandilas led off with a firm line drive to right for a single and D’Antonio walked. Multiculturalist manager Steve Schrenk had seen enough and went to his pen, bringing in Jung-Min Lee. As Lee finished his warm up, the lights suddenly cut out and 13000 beats per minute came over the loud speakers. The fans leapt to their feet as the following instructional video was shown on the jumbotron. Yes, it was Techno Tim Auty time! Auty punched a ball through the infield for a single to load the bases. Dening unsuccessfully mugged his way to the plate, yet again denying the crowd a chance to hear the cool part of his song, but made up for it by belting a long drive to the right centre gap that hopped over the fence for a ground rule double plating two runners. Stone Hands Maat put an excuse me check swing on a ball to short that scored Techno and moved Dening to third. A scary moment took place when Graham scorched a line drive down the third base line that smashed in to Dening as he took his lead. For a second the Defensive Specialist thought the ball had struck Dening directly in his baby makers but when he promptly popped up the Defensive Specialist realised that his testicles had not been ruptured and the blow had been to the leg. Graham walked, which lead to Lee’s night being over. Lefty Chris Morgan relieved and despite not cracking 82mph managed to punch out the Bossman and Lysaught to end the inning.

Those 3 runs were enough for Oxsping who decided that he wasn’t going to give up anything else on the day and locked down the Multiculturalists through to the 8^th inning. Korean catcher Sung-Woo Jang who wears so much body armour when hitting that it would make more sense for him to walk into a pitch than try and hit it punched out. Purdhomme grounded out to second, which brought Didi Gregorious to the dish. Gregoriuos has had difficulty making solid contact in his 7 at bats to commence the season but this appeared to have changed when he lined a ball to left. Unfortunately it was close to 10pm and Techno Tim had to start making preparations for his 4am club arrival. Techno charged hard to his left on the fading liner, launched himself so that he was horizontal to the ground and snagged the ball out of the air. The crowd exploded to their feet and simultaneously broke out into the running man in celebration. For that display, Techno Tim receives the Defensive Specialist ‘Play of the Game’ for the second game running (man).

Dae Sung Koo was summoned from the pen in the 9^th and closed out the contest comfortably for his second save in as many opportunities to secure the victory for the Blue Sox.

Oxspring was dominant once again, travelling 8 innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 7. Offensively Techno Tim paced the attack with 2 knocks along with the Bossman and Dening who led the way with 2 RBI’s. Manager Williams would still be concerned that his lower order is offering nothing in the way of offense and that Stone Hands and Graham aren’t providing much in the middle order. Having said that, if his starting pitchers keep doing what Oxspring is doing, they’ll only need to score a couple per game to be competitive. As much as The Defensive Specialist wants to give fan favourite Techno Tim the Deep in the Hole ‘Player of the Game’ award, that honour has to be bestowed on Oxpsing who is proving to be a force to be reckoned with.

The Multiculturalists will be thankful to see the back end of Oxspring as they head into game 2 as Wayne Lungren takes the ball for the Blue Sox against lefty Steve Kent .

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study ~ Chinese Proverb

You all know the Defensive Specialist is a wise man, so consider this post a conversation and free up your calendar for the next ten years! That’s right folks, today is all about your education. The Defensive Specialist doesn’t risk hard-core seat rash just to catch a ball game – it’s all about capturing data and information and then relaying it to the loyal readers so as to enhance the baseball experience. After each series, the Defensive Specialist will endeavour to bring you a “What has the Defensive Specialist Learnt” post that will highlight key findings and insights from the most recent activity.

Being on hand for the ABL season opener presented the Defensive Specialist an opportunity to lay eyes on the Blue Sox who have been widely regarded as the best team in the competition and the Canberra Multiculturalists who many believed would simply make up the numbers. Needless to say, the Defensive Specialist had thoughts on both teams.

Enough small talk, lets get learned:

1. The Multiculturalists aren’t simply making up the numbers. The Defensive Specialist figured that once Kent succumbed to his innings limit (2) the game would turn into batting practice for the Blue Sox. Michael Lennox showed a loose arm and Jung-Min Lee tossed up the kitchen sink to hold Sydney to 1 run. There seems to be enough in the bullpen to keep opposing teams in control. It will be intriguing to see how the rest of the starting rotation pans out across the remaining 3 games against Sydney. Offensively the lineup seems well balanced although there were a few tardy swings against Oxspring which you’d expect early in the season.  Contender for name of the year, Didi Gregorious leads off and appears to have plus speed, Kyu-Hyun Moon was flying open but should be able to handle the bat. Nick Kimpton and Donald Lutz make a solid 3 / 4 combo with Kimpton providing the contact and Lutz bringing the grunt. The lower half of the order was a little thin but if they can scrap their way on base, it will give the top half something to work with.
2. Having an ace is important. Anytime you can wheel your pitching coach out to the bump and have him toss up 6 scoreless with 8 punch outs, it forms the basis of a strong teaching platform: “Guys, just watch me and do as I do”. The Defensive Specialist was intrigued to see what Oxspring had to offer after a year off and he didn’t disappoint, working primarily off his fastball (87-88 with one appearance at 91). The really exciting thing for Sydney is that he maintained his velocity throughout the outing, which means that the bullpen was not required early. If Oxspring can maintain that level of competitiveness, the Sydney pitching staff could be very very miserly.
3. Don’t run on David Kandilas. As a base runner on first, anytime a left handed hitter pops a 97 hopper through the infield you have to go first to third (unless of course you have a piano strapped to your back). So when Kyu-Hyun Moon saw Kimpton’s ball scoot through to rightfield, his natural instinct was to keep wheeling to third. Unfortunately, the ball ended up in David Kandilas’ glove and he proceeded to unleash one of the more impressive throws the Defensive Specialist has seen in person. The ball travelled from medium rightfield on a line to the shoe tops of the awaiting third baseman to nail Moon comfortably. Opposing third base coaches may want to jot the above to the underside of their cap as a reminder when playing the Blue Sox.
4. The quality of infield outfield catcher pop ups was low. Whether it was the fact that both coaches were ABL rookies appearing on the big stage for the first time or the knowledge that the Defensive Specialist was in attendance and grading, the standard of pop ups was simply not up to standard. Everything in this league has a shiny new professional look and feel about it, which means that the dime pieces have to be significantly better. Let this serve as a warning to both coaches – the Defensive Specialist wants more (height, location and style)!
5. The Blue Sox bullpen could eat up lefties. On Saturday we saw David Welch and Dae-Sung Koo work and both were murder on the Multiculturalists left handed hitters. Welch was 85-86 with the fastball and used his breaking ball effectively. Koo has an odd set up with his back almost facing the hitter and the delivery almost brings the ball out of right centre making life misery for the one lefty he faced (professional hitter Nick Kimpton).
6. Sales were up. The Defensive Specialist was amazed and pleased to see a large proportion of the crowd sporting some form of Blue Sox apparel. Considering the somewhat lofty prices associated with the gear, fans have come out in force to snap up the merchandise. It will be interesting to see how sales go around the rest of the franchises.
7. The Blue Sox offense was a little sluggish. The top half (D’Antonio, Auty and Dening) seemed locked in, but the remainder will need to turn it up a notch if the Sydney team hopes to live up to the mantle of being “the best team ever assembled in the history of baseball in the universe” as proclaimed by ABL Chairman Mark Peters. Pat ‘Stone Hands’ Maat was struggling to catch up to the fastball and Graham and Moanaroa were tardy on the heat throughout. The lower third of Lysaught, Holland and Kandilas also looked a little toothless and can be pitched to.
8. The ABL is working to give the fans a good experience. Despite a couple of speed bumps, the in game presentation and entertainment was 100% better than anything we saw last year. It wasn’t gimmicky or over engineered and despite a heavy reliance on the Black Eyed Peas, Rhianna and Justin Bieber the music was tolerable – although a shout out to last year with some Bon Jovi would have been nice. 

So there you have it. The Defensive Specialist has eased you in to things for the first time this season, from here on out you’ll need to bring your Masters Degree as things will get mighty technical. If you have any thoughts or comments from the opening game, be sure to hit the mailbag. Since the Defensive Specialist is only one man and can only get to the Multiculturalists Vs. Blue Sox this weekend, any feedback and insights from other series is always welcome.

The plan for Thursday (pending GM’s responding to the Defensive Specialist’s requests for starting rotations and line ups) is a set of series previews as the Aces take on the Bite and the Heat go head to head with the Bandits.

Here we go again!

Imagine this conversation taking place sometime in 2007/ 2008 in the 78^th floor New York offices of Major League Baseball:

MLB Executive 1: “Geez, Bud’s all over our asses to come up with something interesting to promote and grow the game.

MLB Executive 2: “Relax, I’ve got this. Let’s start up a professional baseball league in Australia.”

MLB Executive 1: “Throw another shrimp on the barbie.”

MLB Executive 2: “Seriously, a league where we can send our prospects and develop more Aussie talent.”

MLB Executive 1: “Do they even have baseball down there?”

MLB Executive 2: “Dumb ass – Nilsson, Lloyd, Moylan, Balfour”

MLB Executive 1: “What about the weather?”

MLB Executive 2: “That’s the best bit, our winter is their summer. The weather is perfect!”

MLB Executive 1: “Surely Bud’ll fly us down there business class! Lets do it!”

Now cut back to Saturday November 6^th 2010

Game time weather report – 16 degrees Celsius, overcast and drizzling.

Sydney Blue Sox Vs. Canberra Multiculturalists

Despite the wet and blustery conditions, the Defensive Specialist was joined by 1999 other baseball fans for the inaugural game of the new ABL. The Defensive Specialist isn’t going to lie to you, it was pretty damn exciting to be there!

Initial thoughts?

·      The Blacktown Baseball Facility playing surface was a little rough. It looked like a dressage competition had been held on it a week prior. You know things aren’t in the best order when the grounds crew are using green paint to cover the ugly spots.

·      Maybe it was just for the season opener, but it looked like the Sydney promotional team was really laying on the fan experience. There was a bunch of stuff for the young fans to do and the game presentation was a hell of a lot more organised and professional (more on this to come) befitting a professional league. 

The first taste of baseball came when the teams took infield outfield. Loyal readers know how excited the Defensive Specialist gets over the coaches pop-up to the catcher and this would be the first chance to eyeball what the respective coaches were bringing to the table in 2010. The Multiculturalists took the field first and looked relatively slick with the only notable point of interest being the shiny red glove the Korean third baseman decided to break out. Coach Brett Phelan was handling the fungo for the Multiculturalists and when it came time to do the pop-up he looked agitated. It was obvious that he knew the Defensive Specialist was on hand and for his first time, he wanted to make an impression. The first attempt was woeful which would have rattled the cage of many. Instead Phelan steadied himself, took a deep breath and let rip. The second effort had solid height although it drifted down the third base line where the catcher took it.

The Sydney team stormed on to the field with the baseball loving Black Eyed Peas pumping on the sound system. Jason Pospishil was in charge for the Blue Sox (Graham Cassel was sporting a bandage on his hand as a result of a fungo accident earlier in the week which ruled him out) and handled the bat relatively well. Once again, he too seemed to notice the intense scrutiny that the Defensive Specialist placed upon him because his sphincter tightened when it came to the pop up and as a result he sailed both attempts out of play.

The Multiculturalists grab an early win!

With the new league kicking off the Defensive Specialist was expecting some pomp and ceremony. You’ll remember last year the Defensive Specialist was a little critical of the pregame and in game entertainment that came with the Claxton Shield. Bad choices of music, silly games between innings and ear splitting sound. How would a professional league address these issues? We were about to find out.

A well-clad gentleman confidently strode out onto the field with his run sheet and a wireless microphone. Then he went to speak……..and nothing. Microphone issues. The sound team scrambled and when he eventually went live after a few seconds he was LOUD and clear at approximately 500 decibels. Before the Defensive Specialist’s cochlear erupted, the mic cut out again. Then it came back on. Then it went off. The slick in game announcer (who was very good) scrambled and covered by telling the crowd to look out over the left field fence for a special guest.

The Defensive Specialist’s eagle eye spotted a light off in the distance. Was it a helicopter? The sound track to the Natural was playing and the Defensive Specialist must admit that he got goose bumps.  The fans waited and waited and waited. The announcer scrambled again realising that the helicopter was a little too far away and introduced the mascots. Eventually a different helicopter appeared from the sky and landed behind second base. The Defensive Specialist sat forward in his seat, expecting Grant Balfour or Peter Moylan to jump out, stride to the mound and pump a ceremonial first pitch fastball on the black at 90mph. Alas that wasn’t to be, but they did find a kid who was born on the day of the last game of the first ABL (13/1/99) who fired a strike. Interestingly, the helicopter in the distance was actually a police helicopter that had been dispatched to investigate the mysterious yellow chopper hovering over the baseball stadium and in close proximity to the Richmond airfield. How close did fans come to witnessing an 11-year-old baseball fan getting blown out of the sky by the authorities who’d perceived a threat on national security? We’ll never know!

Some Australian Idol contestant belted out a disjointed national anthem and the fireworks gave off more second hand smoke than a natural medicine convention in Nimbin. Sure there were speed bumps but all in all it was a pretty solid first up effort by the Blue Sox promotions team and surely will get slicker.

You don’t necessarily come to Deep in the Hole to hear about fungos and firework so lets get into the game activity.

33-year-old right hander Chris Oxpsring got the opening day start for the Blue Sox and was set to face Multiculturalists shortstop Didi Gregorious who is an early contender for name of the year. The sound guy blasted Justin Bieber as he walked to the plate in a deliberate attempt to emasculate him. Oxspring established the tone immediately, pumping a first pitch fastball for strike one. Didi flew out meekly to centrefield and the season was off and running.

Lefty Steve Kent took the ball for the Multiculturalists and made short work of Blue Sox lead off hitter Trent D’Antonio. As soon as the out was made, the stadium lights were cut off and the field descended into darkness. As fans began to worry about their safety, green lasers pierced the night air, dry ice drifted in from the bullpens and 9000 beats per minute came over the loud speakers. Yes that’s right, it was Techno Tim Auty. The crowd leapt to their feet and waved their glow sticks, which clearly inspired Techno Tim as he laced a line drive over second base for the first hit of the 2010 season. Mitch Dening then erased Techno’s good work by grounding into a double play 4-6-3.

Some players just love the big stage and our boy Techno Tim is one of those guys. The second inning saw S.Y Lee slice a fading line drive to left field that Techno Tim got horizontal on and snared just in fair territory. The catch had the crowd doing ‘big fish, little fish, cardboard box’ in unison and was enough to earn him Defensive Specialist “Play of the Game” honours.

Oxspring and Kent both rolled through the second with the only speed bump for Kent being a base on balls to Boss Moanaroa (also a contender for name of the year). As predicted, Kent was on a short leash and was gone by the third inning, replaced by Michael Lennox.

The Multiculturalists mounted an attack on Oxspring in the 4^th with K. H Moon singling to right. Nick Kimpton then hit a 97 hopper through the infield to right, Moon got on his horse and rounded second as right fielder David Kandilas charged the ball and unleashed an absolute rocket to third base on a line to shoot the Moon down. Rally dead.

The 6^th inning saw Boss Moanaroa absolutely butcher an infield pop up that had the Defensive Specialist pining for Pat ‘Stone Hands” Maat  (who was DH’ing). Fortunately it didn’t lead to any damage. The Blue Sox got some offense going in the bottom of the 6^th against Korean import J.M Lee. Kandilas walked, D’Antonio singled crisply to left. Techno Tim dropped down a perfect sac bunt 5-3. Dening was intentionally put on base as Multiculturalist skipper Steve Shrenk went to the mound to talk to his Korean pitcher and catcher. That would have been an interesting conversation because nowhere on Shrenk’s resume does it state that he speaks Korean. Perhaps they used the international language of love? Whatever they said, it worked as Lee punched out Stone Hands and then got a feeble come backer from Andrew Graham to extinguish the threat.

Oxspring was relieved in the 7^th by lefty David Welch. Pretty impressive outing by Oxspring, 6 innings, 3 hits, 1 BB, 8 strike outs. With a total lack of offense the Defensive Specialist was steeling himself for a long night featuring extra innings. The Blue Sox had different ideas. With two out in the bottom of the 8^th, Techno Tim Auty realising that the dance clubs would be opening in about 5 hours dropped a single into left field. The Defensive Specialist cannot be sure, but Techno Tim may have been distracted by the first base coach whispering in his ear about a hot new club, because he was all over the shop when Dening took the count to 3-2.  Techno took off running like he believed it was a full count and was only safe because of a bad throw by the catcher. Dening then dumped a soft single into centre as Auty crumped into home plate for the first run of the season. Dening stole second and then Stone Hands laced a ball into centre that Kimpton made an excellent catch on to end the inning.

The Blue Sox sent Matt Williams out to start the 9^th inning and he nailed down the first two outs. With the dangerous Kimpton due up next, manager Glenn Williams called upon geriatric Korean Dae Song Koo to close it out. The 41 year old lefty is going to be murder on left handed hitters this year and showcased this by striking out Kimpton for the save and the Blue Sox first win of the campaign.

Sydney 1- Canberra 0

If game 1 is anything to go by, we’re going to see some decent arms rolled out to the mound each and every week and the offense may struggle somewhat. Granted its early in the season and pitching tends to be ahead of hitting but the Defensive Specialist suspects that the upgrade in pitching is going to mean some low scoring affairs.

As much as the Defensive Specialist wants to hand the Deep in the Hole player of the game trophy to Techno Tim Auty for his 2 hit, game winning run and stellar catch performance, you really cant go past Chris Oxspring who was dominant in his first outing and set the tone for the Blue Sox season. All in all it was a great opening to the ABL season both on and off the field and the Defensive Specialist is proud to say he was there.

Having almost cracked the 2000 word mark, the Defensive Specialist needs to sign off. Do not fret though; Deep in the Hole will be alive later this week

with a “What has the Defensive Specialist learned” and other assorted baseball related thoughts.