ABL takes second steps

Last weekend saw the beginning of the new league, this weekend sees it take its second steps. There are two games on tonight, Perth vs Brisbane, and Adelaide vs Melbourne.

Opening for Brisbane will be James Albury. Albury is a 24-year old right-armer who played for the Oakland County Cruisers in 2010, and has about five years experience in the Minors. He racked up a great year in 2009 for the Midwest Sliders, going 6-2 from 10 starts, and was then signed by the White Sox in July. He went on to finish the year in class A ball with the awesomely named Kannopolis Intimidators (for the aspiring geographers out there, Kannopolis is in North-Carolina, and for anyone wondering why they are called the Intimidators, apparently the word  is NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt's nickname, and he owned the team for a while) where he went 5-2 from 9 starts, with a 4.79 ERA. He played 2010 at the Oakland County Cruisers (which, despite what you might think, not located in California, but in Michigan), where he went 6-5 from 14 starts with a 4.72 ERA. The season there wrapped up in September.

For the Heat, it is 22 year old Liam Baron. He has been playing college ball in the States for a few years. In 2010 he pitched  for the Gonzaga Bulldogs - both as a starter and out of the pen. His record of 0-7 and ERA of 5.79 would suggest he did not have the best of times. Interestingly enough, he has decided to 'postpone' a professional career (it seems he won an award for some sort of science project as a youngster, and was also no the dean's list at Linn Benton, so perhaps he wants to continue to study) . He was reasonably effective in the two warm up games for the heat, where he did not give up an earned run in 11.2 innings.

In Adelaide, Adam Blackley will be given the ball to face off against the Bite. The younger brother of Travis Blackley, Adam has slogged it out in the minors since 2003, culminating with a season of AA ball for the El Paso Diablos in 2008. He went 4-1, with a 3.95 ERA in the 2009 Claxton Shield, and then signed with the Amsterdam Pirates for the 2009 season. He returned to Australia for the 2009/2010 Claxton Shield, and went 2-0 for the Aces in 4 starts. He also featured in a couple of games from the pen.

For the Bite, fresh from a strong Claxton Shield in 2009/2010, Paul Mildren will take the mound.

Later this week, Sydney and Canberra will resume hostilities. Stay tuned for more updates.