These days there are a lot of advanced statistics in baseball, and more being created everyday. What you still find though, is that batters can be pretty fairly summed up based on three core numbers - forming the 'slash line'. The slash line gives a pretty good indication of a batters hitting ability (average), patience (on base percentage) and power (slugging percentage). These give a good indication of a batters ability on an individual level. Of these, it's often said that on base percentage (OBP) is the most important - followed by slugging percentage (SLG) - leading to the use of the statistic OPS (on base plus slugging). If you're interested in where all these numbers come from, please search the web - there are innumerable baseball statistics resources available - my aim here is to investigate the Bandits batting performances.
With that said, here is the current Bandits slash line. I've also included the number of at-bats as it's important to take into account the number of plate appearances a player has had when evaluating the validity of the stats.
AB
|
AVG
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
|
Ayatsugu Yamashita
|
53
|
0.340
|
0.397
|
0.472
|
Kevin Hoef
|
9
|
0.111
|
0.385
|
0.111
|
Brad Dutton
|
98
|
0.306
|
0.343
|
0.378
|
Wade Dutton
|
81
|
0.235
|
0.333
|
0.346
|
David Sutherland
|
97
|
0.299
|
0.327
|
0.443
|
Joshua Roberts
|
103
|
0.301
|
0.324
|
0.495
|
Rory Rhodes
|
49
|
0.184
|
0.310
|
0.286
|
Kenta Imamiya
|
42
|
0.238
|
0.304
|
0.310
|
Mitch Nilsson
|
19
|
0.158
|
0.273
|
0.368
|
Matthew Roxburgh
|
67
|
0.239
|
0.261
|
0.299
|
Keiji Nakahara
|
87
|
0.207
|
0.258
|
0.402
|
Joel Naughton
|
40
|
0.175
|
0.250
|
0.275
|
Andrew Campbell
|
17
|
0.118
|
0.250
|
0.176
|
Taisei Makihara
|
62
|
0.194
|
0.219
|
0.194
|
Daniel Lamb-Hunt
|
7
|
0.143
|
0.143
|
0.143
|
Jay Nilsson
|
14
|
0.000
|
0.125
|
0.000
|
Ryan Battaglia
|
1
|
0.000
|
0.000
|
0.000
|
The list is ordered by on-base percentage. As you an see, the catcher Yamashita tops the list, leading in both batting average and on-base percentage, and placing second in slugging percentage. The rest of the Bandits Softbank Hawks guests fair less well - the main standout being Nakahara's slugging percentage, courtesy of his team leading four home runs.
The key fact - and this is something most Bandits fans know very well - is that the true heart of the lineup lies in the local boys: Brad Dutton & Wade Dutton (aka The Bash Brothers, or B1 & B2), David "Goofy" Sutherland, and Josh Roberts. This quartet is amazingly consistent and make the Bandits who they are. With Yamashita returning to Japan, the youthful and talented Mitch Nilsson also has a chance to establish himself within the core.
Herein lies the problem, though - the Bandits batting core is Brisbane based, with support in the first half of the season from Japanese players. Which makes it tough to see the team lose a series 3-1 largely thanks to the Adelaide Bites import players - Almote, Anderson, Jones (all from the USA) and Hu (from Taiwan). Import players are great for the standard of the league, but it is very rough for fans when the performance of their team hinges less on the ability of the players their state produces than the international appearances they can secure.
At the end of the day, the ABL needs to strike a balance between encouraging international players to attend and providing opportunities to local talent. On a local level, I feel the Bandits need to ramp up their efforts to attract quality international players (quality over quantity in this regard). The inaugural ABL all-star game (Aussies vs Imports) should be a fantastic event and a good measure of how the balance currently stands.
Next series we will see the inclusion of Schoenberger and Warner as they return to action.
ReplyDeleteNilsson will take up the full time catching duties for Yamashita, Schoenberger will take over at shortstop for Imamiya. The outfield will most likely be rearranged and see Wade Dutton and/or Rory Rhodes sent out there to compensate for the loss of Nakahara. The loss of Yanagawa is the most significant however as it is hard to see anyone solidifying the 4th starter spot and it may be thrown up between Josh Warner, Simon Morriss or the bullpen not on pitching restrictions.
Battaglia will come back into the team to backup Nilsson and with the inclusion of Schoey and Warner it will leave a spot open for either a new outfielder (Fletcher, Gabriel?), infielder (Campbell, Lamb-Hunt) or catcher (Corscadden, Turcato).
Would be great for you to do a blog on these fringe players of the Bandits at the moment and talk about their background and how they're going in the GBL.
Great comment. Thanks for your excellent suggestion, I'll certainly look at writing something along those lines in the near future.
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