Channel Nine coverage of Grant Balfour contract

So, I am sitting up, half listening to the TV as I go about a little bit of work before hitting the office tomorrow morning, and I hear on the Channel Nine News break 'Australian man signs eight million dollar contract to play baseball'....

Hmmm. 'What the hell?' is the first thing that comes to mind. I looked up and caught some footage of Grant Balfour throwing in some postseason action from a couple of years ago.

So, I open up the web and hit the NineMSN website, where I find this:

The sidebar shows that Balfour has signed a huge deal with the Angels!!!! What the hell? I better watch this story.

WARNING ----> RANT COMMENCES BELOW

I clicked on play, and you can too here, and got quite a few laughs out of it. Firstly, they report that Balfour has 'just signed a deal'.

ARE YOU KIDDING CHANNEL NINE!!!!

It happened on the 15th of January!

Secondly, as is the way with all the modern 'news' programs, they have emblazoned across the top one of their watermarks, so everyone is clear who broke the 'news' 'first'. Anyways, this one says 'First on 9'. HA!!!!

ARE YOU KIDDING CHANNEL NINE!!!!!

The story was ALL OVER the internet for days before it even broke. It was reasonably big news at the time, as the hot stove had cooled a little bit. It was widely reported online, both overseas and at home.

In fact, that great institution of journalistic integrity, professionalism and award-winning writing - the Daily Telegraph - broke the story on the 17th of January. That's 48 days ago! And, yours truly broke it on Twitter on 15th January.

'First on 9' obviously means 'first time they have featured a baseball story this month'. Silly me for thinking otherwise.

Oh and finally, they featured Balf in all his Oakland gear, and mentioned in the article a number of times that he played for the Athletics, yet their online team got it wrong and wrote Angels.

COME ON!!!! GET A CLUE!!!

RANT OVER

Ok, so I feel better now. It is great to see some mainstream media coverage, and great to see Channel Nine send their LA correspondent to visit Balfour during Spring Training camp. But a little more research and attention to detail, and a little less patting-yourself-on-the-back-for-something-you-don't-even-deserve, would have earned Channel Nine a lot more cred.

Spring Training 2011: Week One Review - Hughes the Man

One week of Spring Training is in the books. The countdown to Opening Day has begun, and there have been no less than 11 Aussie baseballers in action in Major League camps. Of the 13 participating in Major League Spring Training, only Shane Lindsay (CWS) and Drew Naylor (PHI) have yet to appear in official action.

It has been a bit of a mixed bag really. There have been some strong performances, and some slow starts. Some of the Aussies who will be a part of Opening Day rosters have been a bit rusty. And the guys battling for a roster spot have had mixed results.

High points for the week

So far the stand out has been Luke Hughes for the Minnesota Twins.

Luke Hughes of the Minnesota Twins warming up for the Perth Heat in the Australian Baseball League

Hughes has had a hot bat to start the year, with a 1.064 OPS in the ABL, and he has followed this good form into Spring Training. In five games so far, Hughes has gone 5-for-13, with two home runs and five RBIs, as well as a stolen base.

It has been enough to generate a lot of attention from Twins fans, and from management. Hughes' challenge has always been finding a spot in the Minnesota infield that contains seasoned pros like Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer. He has long been recognised as having the bat for the majors, but maybe lacking a little in defense. Things might be starting to line up nicely for him this year though. There is some doubt over Justin Morneau, Hughes has had a great (and long) pre-season, and he is attracting praise from Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire, who told the Miami Herald:


"If he can stay healthy he can be a force. He's got some pretty good tools. He can play third, he can play second, he can probably play first. I think he can go in the outfield too. He's got enough bat that he can play every day. He's got a lot of upside, as far as I am concerned."


So far so good. This week the Twins have a few games against the Cardinals, the Red Sox and the Blue Jays, among others. We'll be keeping a close eye on Hughes, as well as some of the other Twins infielders, to see how things shape up.

Chris Oxspring

Other notable performances this week have come from the Tigers Trio - Brad Thomas, Chris Oxspring and Brendan Wise.

Oxspring has been good, giving up no earned runs, although he did take the loss in one of his appearances.

Brendan Wise has also been strong, only allowing two hits and one earned run in his 3.1 innings of work. And predictably, Brad Thomas has been sound, giving up only one run over 4 innings pitched.

Brad Thomas is a dead cert to start the season on the roster, and so far both Oxspring and Wise won't have done their chances any harm, although it still seems likely that they will start the year in AAA.

Rich Thompson also had a good week - giving up just one hit, and striking out two, in two innings of work for the Angels.

Not quite so high points for the week


Elsewhere it has been a bit of a battle for the Aussies. Some of our pitchers have been roughed up a bit, and a few hitters have been struggling to get bat on ball.

Trent Oeltjen

Trent Oeltjen has been plying his trade for the Dodgers, trying to make a bench spot for the Opening Day roster. He has not had a great deal of game time so far - usually coming in off the bench in the later innings, and he has only managed to scrape together one hit, an RBI single today. His line for the week is 1-for-6 with two strikeouts.

Trent must have been wondering what he was in for late in the week when he came up against Reds firebrand Aroldis Chapman, who has been known to clock 105mph on the radar. The first pitch Trent faced was over the plate but at about head height. "If that had been at my face, I probably wouldn't have had time to move...when you're coming off the bench and that's the first pitch you see, it wakes you up. He is one of the hardest throwers in the game, and he's a left-hander" he said. Trent - perhaps not surprisingly - ended up striking out.

Grant Balfour

While his team mate Luke Hughes has been on fire, Justin Huber has not had it so easy over at the Twins. Much like Oeltjen, Huber has had a lot of time coming in off the bench and has had to scrub together whatever he can. It took a few days to get going, and he has struck out in four of eight at bats, but Huber finished the week with a double.

In the pitching side of things, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Peter Moylan and Grant Balfour all got roughed up in at least one appearance this week.  Balfour was probably the worst of the lot. Against the Reds early in the week he started strong - getting two outs without too much damage. But he then gave up three hits, allowing three runs. While this was not a great start to the week, he bounced back on Friday, throwing one inning with one hit and a strikeout against the Rangers.



What we will be watching next week
There are a few storylines we will be following closely next week:
1. Can Luke Hughes keep up his hot form? And will it be enough to land him a spot on Opening Day?
Astros rotation?
3. Will some of the fringe guys like Oeltjen, Huber, Naughton and Naylor get a chance to showcase their wares?

Remember, for all the latest Oz MLB updates, follow me on twitter!

List of Aussie Baseballers in Major League Spring Training camps

THIS LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED AS AT 15 MARCH 2011.

Spring Training is about to kick off, so what better time than to put together a summary of all the Aussies involved.

There are two groups of players involved in Spring Training, those who are on the 40-man roster, meaning they have a major league contract, and those who are 'non-roster invitees'. The non-roster invitees are usually minor league players who are staking their claim for major league contracts and/or the highest level of minor league ball.

By my count, there are thirteen Aussies involved in Spring training, six non-roster invitees and seven who are on the 40-man roster for their clubs.

List of Non-Roster Invitees
Shane Lindsay, Chicago White Sox
Chris Oxspring, Detroit Tigers
Brendan Wise, Detroit Tigers
Justin Huber, Minnesota Twins
Joel Naughton, Phildelphia Phillies
Trent Oeltjen, LA Dodgers


List of players on the 40-man roster
Ryan Rowland-Smith, Houston Astros
Drew Naylor, Philadelphia Phillies
Peter Moylan, Atlanta Braves
Grant Balfour, Oakland Athletics
Rich Thompson, LA Angels
Luke Hughes, Minnesota Twins
Brad Thomas, Detroit Tigers

I will update this list through Spring Training as things change

A gift for Blue Sox fans

I have put together this YouTube playlist (with many thanks due to the all round nice guy Tyler Maun) for any BlueSox fans who are feeling a bit homesick and missing the Blue Town action. It is most if not all of the walk up 
songs played for Sox hitters this year, and some other tunes too. Hope you like it:

Let me know if you think of any other songs that should be here!

ABL on TV - Foxtel coverage of ABL final series: Initial thoughts

So, here we are, some ten odd years since the demise of the last Australian Baseball League. Ten odd years since a local professional baseball league had any sort of decent TV coverage. Ten (or more) odd years since channel ten (I think) used to show a short Australian Baseball League highlights show on Sunday mornings. Ten odd years since Warren Smith was last the voice of Australian baseball.

Presumably the League worked hard this year to encourage Foxtel that it was worthwhile covering the game. One would expect there would be quite a cost to put on coverage of the series, and there doesn't seem to be an immediate revenue generator for Foxtel. So, I was somewhat unsure of how they would go about things. The Defensive Specialist wrote an excellent post over at Deep in the Hole, in which he talked about the challenges for the broadcast of this game - should the ABL go for a 'showcase' or should they go for educating the masses. This is one of the great questions in terms of sport coverage, and I think that often Australian broadcasters get it wrong by going too much on the ''education" side of things. So, I was a little apprehensive - but super excited - to sit down to see how the game would be covered tonight.

While I missed the very start, I did catch the introduction of the teams and umpires and so on. The presentation looked great straight away. Whoever made the decision to recruit John Deeble for the commentary is a genius! There are not too many Aussies with as much experience, knowledge and credibility as Deebs. The man knows bucketloads about the game, and is close to so many of the players through his scouting work and coaching the National team...and it seems he is doing a great job of breaking down some of the more complex aspects of the game into simple language.

So, some observations on the presentation so far (we are now about five innings in):

• Looks like the ABL has sent over some of the ground announcers from the East Coast, Tyler Maun - who did the Blue Sox announcing is announcing the game tonight, and I am sure I heard the Canberra announcer, or some other familiar voice there too. It was funny to hear Tyler announcing the Heat and Bite lineups with more pomp and respect than they got at Blue Town. Definitely no Cakebread teasing tonight and no Mexican music for de San Miguel. I wonder what the players think....
• They have the umpire wearing a microphone - which is interesting...not something I have seen before. Could be an interesting perspective on the game - particularly if they picked up some of the banter between the catcher and the ump and/or hitter
• The direction/choice of camera angles is pretty good. They seem to be following the standard, Broadcasting Baseball 101 textbook and getting it right by and large. 
• Warren Smith is not a perfect baseball commentator, there are a few little things that he says that are not quite right, but it is clear that he has done a stack of research, and he is able to keep things moving along nicely. He has made a few call backs to earlier series (at least the finals) and referenced David Welch's no hitter. He has also got some decent information on the players who have played minor league baseball. He has been breaking down some of the game into 'non-baseball' speak: relating to cricket for example, but he is not overdoing it. 
• Deeble has added a nice touch of class for baseball enthusiasts - not afraid to shy away from baseball jargon: 'platooning', 'two seam fastball', Latimore's running time to first base, being a ''five-tool" guy etc
• Smith has a lot of optimism about the number of guys who 'we might see in the major leagues' - not sure how accurate his predictions will be.

Overall, it is fantastic to have the game back on TV! 

OzMLBPlayers 2010 ABL All Star Team: Part Two - Bullpen

With two of the OzMLBPlayers All Star starters set to meet in the ABL Final Series this weekend, its time to pick the best of the bullpen for the relief spots.

Bullpen
1. Dae-Sung Koo

I felt a little cynical back on Opening Day of the inaugural ABL season. The Blue Sox and the Cavalry ground out a real pitcher's duel, before the Blue Sox took a 1-0 lead in the eigth inning courtesy of hits to Tim Auty and Mitch Dening. The Blue Sox pitching had been 'lights out' all night. Between them, Chris Oxspring, David Welch, and Wayne Lundgren had retired eleven hitters in a row. Once the Sox took the 1-0 lead, Matt Williams came in to wind things up, and promptly retired the first two Cavalry hitters. One hitter left to go, and out trots Koo to finish things off. At the time, with a noticeable Korean media presence, I thought this was nothing more than a PR stunt. Nevertheles, Koo stepped out and made history, earning the first save of the ABL by striking out Nick Kimpton.

After this relatively simple appearance, one might have expected Koo would looking to wind down his career. But that seemed to be the furthest thing from his mind. As the season wore on, he became an absolute juggernaut for the Blue Sox.

Koo led the league in saves, with 12. Daylight was second. A whole bunch of others sat in third place with three.

He put together a record of 2-1 in the regular season, striking out 30 hitters over 27 innings, while issuing only 8 walks. And, he showed himself to be a complete iron man. Multi-inning appearances were regular, and on 22 January he pitched in both games of the season-ending double-header against Canberra; after a significant rain delay in the second game. He has a no fuss, no waste approach to the game, and was one of the most consistent and reliable performers in the league.

While Koo didn't get much opportunity to shine in the post season, he cemented his place as a legend of the first ABL season with a 6.2 inning relief performance in the epic 15-inning showdown between the Bite and the Blue Sox. While he ultimately took the loss in that performance - the fact that he was prepared, and able, to get through so much work, at this stage of the season, in such a critical game for the Blue Sox, is nothing short of outstanding.

For these reasons, Koo would be the first man picked in the ABL All Star team.

2. Brendan Wise

Perth local Brendan Wise had a pretty decent year in the 2010 minor league season. He spent time at both AA and AAA levels in the Detroit Tigers organisation, and has earned himself an invitation to Spring Training with the Tigers. He only made a handful of appearances for the Heat through the ABL season, but he was very effective.

Wise appeared in four regular season games through January 2011, and picked up three saves. While he did walk four hitters, he did not give up a hit, and struck out two. Further to this, he made two very important appearances in the first week of the finals series against the Blue Sox. He pitched in both games, going 1.2 innings, one hit, one walk, and picking up one save. He will be looking for a big 2011.

3. Chris Mowday
Big Brisbane righty Chris Mowday first drew my attention in late November, when he dominated against the Blue Sox. He has racked up a lot of experience in the minor leagues, and has played recently in the Netherlands.

In one outing, Mowday retired 14 of the 15 Blue Sox hitters that he faced. All he gave up was a walk to David Kandilas. At the time, in five games against the Blue Sox, Mowday had pitched 7.1 innings, allowing 5 hits and 0 runs.

He continued his strength throughout the season. In the end he finished up with 20 appearances, a 6-3 record, and one save. He struck out 26 over 42 innings, and compiled an impressive ERA of 2.74.

4. Adam Bright
One of the brighter spots on the Aces season, was the performance of Adam Bright - one of the few Melbourne pitchers able to put together some consistent performances. Bright made 14 appearances, for a record of 2-3, with two saves. He struck out 27 over 26 innings, and drew the attention of Japanese scouts - being rewarded with an opportunity at the Yomiuri Giants.

5. Ben Grice
Ben Grice is a tall right hander with a long sidearm delivery, who has quietly racked up some very solid numbers for the Heat this year.


Grice has been almost perfect this season, allowing just one run in his twelve appearances. He threw 17.2 innings, giving up just 12 hits and 5 walks, while striking out 16. His ERA of 0.51 leads the League for relievers who made 10 or more appearances.



6. Phil Stockman
Like Ben Grice, Phil Stockman is a big right hander. Unlike Grice, Stockman has significant minor league and major league experience. Apart from one bad outing against the Aces on 21 December, Stockman didn't give up a run all season. He made ten appearances, striking out 15 over 14.2 innings, and giving up just three hits and four runs. His control was an issue, as he walked fifteen, but he was still able to put up noughts in nine out of ten games.

Series Review: Adelaide Bite vs Sydney Blue Sox

So, what a series hey.

The Blue Sox certainly know how to do things the hard way. Despite having no less than FIVE chances to score the winning runs in today's epic 15 inning game against the Bite, the Blue Sox just could not get it done. Dae Sung Koo pitched an amazing 6.2 innings in relief, which for someone at the age of 41, whose role is to come in as a closer, is nothing short of legendary. What a man!

And David Welch throwing a no-hitter! Unbelievable.

All up I was lucky enough to watch all 33 innings of baseball this weekend, and it was all high quality. In the end, the Bite were able to execute better when it counted. The Blue Sox failed to successfully lay down bunts a couple of times, whereas the Bite got it done. It was definitely a "pitchers' series", with runs generally hard to come by.

It will be interesting to see how the Final Series between the Heat and the Bite pans out. I think that Perth will be the favourite, and deserve to be, but Adelaide have a lot of momentum now, having won two series in a row, and having been able to turn things around after the enormity of Friday's no hitter. Interestingly the Heat and Bite have a 50/50 split record, with each team taking 2 games from the other in the home series. It would be an incredible effort for the Bite to travel all the way from the East Coast over to the West, and come away with the title. I reckon it is a good bet though, they will be riding high after their last two series.

Some interesting managerial decisions were made by Glenn Williams during the series. He made some changes to the Blue Sox lineup on Friday night in what seemed to be an attempt to get some more pop in the offense. He moved D'Antonio to second base - which has been a bit of an offensive vacuum for the Sox - and brought in Josh Dean at third. He also moved Kandilas up the order. These changes seemed to work, as the Sox piled on the hits. This was of course behind Welch's dominant performance.

It was a little disappointing to see the Williams didn't stick with the same lineup on Saturday night. I am not sure why he didn't. The Sox were facing another righty in Brandon Maurer, and they had been successful on Friday night. Anyways, they couldn't get the bats going and went down.

And today, well what a game. The Sox could have won it a number of times. Perhaps the most heartbreaking occasion was the unbelievable diving catch taken by Brandon Pett to rob Josh Dean of a certain two run, game ending double in the bottom of the 14th.

Reviewing the hitting stats out of the series allows a few interesting conclusions to be drawn:

1. The middle of the Blue Sox order did not get the job done
Between Brendan Kingman, Alex Johnson, Josh Dean and Moko Moanaroa, the Sox only managed to pull together 5 hits from 34 at bats (.147) and one RBI. It is always going to be tough to get the job done when the heart of the order is struggling. This has been a challenge for the Sox for a while now - having Andy Graham and Boss Moanaroa, and with Alex Johnson and Josh Dean being very streaky, it has been hard to have stability in the middle of the lineup. Brendan Kingman was able to be effective in his early games, but as the stakes have risen he was not as reliable, and Moko Moanaroa did not show the same level as comfort as his brother Boss.

Hitting in the three-spot, Mitch Dening had a great series against the Heat, and started well against the Bite. Coming in to today's game he looked ok at 3-for-8 with a double. But his 0-for-7 today hurt, especially when there were runners in scoring position a lot of the time.

Conclusion - Glenn Williams will have 'power hitter(s)' as his number one wish item for next season.

2. The bottom of the Sox order (and Trent D'Antonio at the top) is still reliable
Throughout the regular season, David Kandilas developed into a very strong nine-hitter. Through this series against the Bite, he was joined by Michael Lysaught and Trent D'Antonio as the chief run production area of the Sox lineup. The three went 18-for-39 (.461) and drove in six of the Sox twelve runs for the series.

Conclusion - Kandilas and Lysaught to move up the order next year (assuming they both return to the Sox roster)

3. Errors hurt the Blue Sox
The Blue Sox had 9 errors to the Bite's 1 over the series. The Blue Sox had generally sloppy pre-game routines over this series, and it carried over onto the field. While Lysaught had a sharp bat, he was not at his best in the field. The Bite, and for that matter the Heat last week, appeared to have a tighter defensive unit.

Conclusion - Blue Sox to tighten up their fielding practice for next year.

4. In most hitting categories, the Sox did better
In terms of most hitting categories, the Blue Sox had the Bite covered. Runs, Hits, Average. But, the Bite came away with two victories to one.

Conclusion - timing is everything. The Sox just weren't able to string together their hits at the right time.

Anyways, its all done now. The Bite will take on the Heat for the finals, and the Blue Sox players with either wind down back to club baseball, or head on overseas to their other clubs. Best of luck to the Bite in their series against the Heat. We will be watching keenly.