Tag Archives: Australia

Your Offseason Baseball Listings (October 31, 2013)

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Crud. Now the MLB season is over. But wait! Don’t worry, here’s a list of baseball games to watch today. Don’t worry, I’m not going to watch all of these. Maybe. (NOTE: I am ONLY using official streams or TV showings, no bootlegs or illegal streams).

ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN

4 AM: Australian Baseball League Season Opener- Melbourne Aces (John Hussey) at Canberra Cavalry (Brian Grening), radio feed. Link for radio coverage will be posted here when it goes active. May also be available with video streaming here (click the game).

5 AM: Korean Series Game 6, Doosan Bears (Dustin Nippert starting) at Samsung Lions (Rick Vandenhurk). Doosan leads 3-2 in Best of 7 series. Video Stream can be found here.

And that’s it for today. HOWEVER, this is a CALL FOR ACTION: if you know of a LEGAL, TEAM-RUN and/or BROADCASTER-RUN place for baseball during these offseason months, let me know on my twitter feed. It can be a video of any language, OR a radio feed of English language.

Aside: 2014 will open in Australia

Aside

As part of MLB’s efforts to grow the game and spread international peace and understanding, the 2014 season will start in Australia. It will, of course, feature those epitomes of diplomacy, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers.

World Baseball Classic Preview: Pool B (Taichung)

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Pool B is a tough one. All four teams involved in it- Taipei, Korea, the Netherlands and Australia- all have the ability to win on any given day, and all four also have professional leagues of their own. While the Asian nations must be considered the favorites, the Dutch and Aussies cannot be counted out.

See the preview after the jump:

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WBC Roster Analysis: Australia

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In 2006, Australia went 0-3 and in 2009 the Australians only did slightly better, going 1-2 (upsetting Mexico and then losing two straight, although they came close to upsetting Cuba). So how might they do this time around?

Well, Australia won’t have it’s most notable pitchers, but it’s still a team that could pull an upset or two, although it’s unlikely that they will get past the first round group that also has Korea, Taipei and the Netherlands.

Go below the jump for the analysis:

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Australian All-Star Game: A possible look at Team Australia’s WBC Roster

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The Australian Baseball League’s All-Star Game is coming up, and it pits the league’s best Australian players against the league’s best foreign players. This allows, interestingly, for something of a glimpse of what Australia’s World Baseball Classic team could look like.

The Australian roster for the ABL ASG, which can be found here, has seven players with MLB experience: pitchers Shane Lindsay, Chris Oxspring and Ryan Rowland-Smith, infielders Brad Harman, Luke Hughes and Justin Huber, and outfielder Chris Snelling, who was born in Florida but grew up in Australia. The WBC roster could add Grant Balfour, Rich Thompson and Travis Blackley, but they aren’t playing in the ABL, so they aren’t on this roster.

Some other notable names on the rest of the roster:

Allan De San Miguel, who has been confirmed to be playing in the WBC, is, as I noted back during my August projections for the Aussies, a light-hitting but good-fielding catcher who spent the past year in the Orioles organization.

Stefan Welch, who was in the Pittsburgh system last year, is a utility guy who can player first and third, although he played mainly third last season.

Elliot Biddle and Mitch Dening were also on my projections. Biddle was one of the best hitters in the ABL in 2011, while Dening was a Indy Leaguer in 2012.

Brendan Wise had a tough year in AAA, but he’s done well in the ABL this season so far, and well-deserves the spot he has on the team. He also will likely be on the WBC team.

One of the players who I did not have on my projections who is on the ABL Australian roster is Paul Mildren. Mildren, a lefty, spent eight season in the minors, reaching as high as AAA. However, he eventually washed-out, but is now pitching professionally down under. While he’s only 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA so far this season, there can never be enough lefties, so it’ll be interesting to see if he make the WBC roster.

Another player who wasn’t on my earlier projections? Corey Adamson. The San Diego prospect has been blazing his way in the ABL this season, one of the league’s leaders in batting average.

Overall, the Australians would do okay if they went to the WBC with this all-star-game team, but they’d probably have trouble advancing, since they are in a tough pool with Korea, Taipei and the Netherlands. Of course, in baseball anything can happen, and if enough MLB players take part for the Aussies, they could be a Cinderella team.

You can expect a full new projection for the Baseballroos sometime in the coming days.

2013 WBC Projections: Australia

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Australia is sort of a weird country when it comes to baseball. Plenty of people play it, but it’s an afterthought on the national level. They have lots of professional players and even a professional league of their own, but haven’t really produced any full-fledged stars. Internationally, they play well but rarely great, although sometimes they shock the world and do better than anybody was expecting them to. I think it’d be safe to say that baseball in Australia is vaguely like men’s soccer in America, especially when it isn’t a World Cup year. Maybe a bit lower. It exists, there is a league, and there certainly are some good players and a devoted fan-base, but it’s an after-thought unless somebody does something really good.

Anyway, the Australian roster is filled with professionals or former professionals, mostly from the minors and overseas but with a some MLB players here and there.The Australians have a lot of guys who can play anywhere, and as a result, you’ll see some positions where there are no dedicated players of that position.

Keep in mind that this set of projections was made over a long period of time, and while I have tried to keep it up to date, there still may be a stray out-of-date stat or piece of information here and there.

So, after much research, the Australian national team can be found under the jump. The usual rules apply:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

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