It's getting increasingly hard to write things about the new ABL with such limited information. Which is frustrating from both sides of the screen, I'm sure people out there in the real world are after information (apparently some people do visit this site as I reached 1,000 clicks on the old odometer today), so hopefully coming closer to the season I will be able to throw some more things out there.
Anyway, I thought I'd do a little post summing up some thoughts on how the league is doing and the direction it appears to be headed in. Each team website has a FAQ page, so I thought I would start there and give a few thoughts as to how that is all going.
So here we go with Frequently Askes Question numero uno!
What is the Australian Baseball League (ABL), and how will its competition be structured?
According to each site it will be a 40 game season run over 10 weeks (thankfully my source was correct and I didn't come across looking the fool!). Now a 40 game season over 10 weeks will mean that each team will be playing 4 games per weekend EVERY weekend (while the season is on). Now this is obviously great, the more people watching baseball the better, and this obviously gives people the greatest chance to watch games and get into it. The only downside to this structure is that it will be taking away players from local competitions, which are essentially the foundation to the ABL. Now obviously this isn't such a bad thing long term, should the ABL be succesful it will create an influx of junior players to clubs. But it will be interesting to see how it does effect the various local competitiions around the states. As each local league will be faced with a potential loss in revenue whilst home ABL series are played.
What players will compete in the ABL and how are they sourced?
According to the FAQ section each team will have a 22 man roster, now this roster is said to have approximately 70% Australian players. Now what would 70% of 22 be? Using my trusty note pad, I have worked out that 70% of 22 would be 15.4 players. Obviously you can't have 0.4 of a player (unless that player is David Eckstein). So what figure would be close to 70% of 22? Well...
18/22 = 81%
17/22 = 77%
16/22 = 72%
15/22 = 68%
So it could be pretty safe to assume that each team will be made up of either 15 or 16 Australian players and that the reamining players would be imports. The early rumblings were that each team would have 4-5 international players, but from what they have written it appears it could be closer to 6-7 internationals. It will be interesting to see what this figure will be come the start of the season, and wether or not the intention is to slowly decrease the number of imports as the legaue grows.
How are players assigned to teams?
Well the ABL have come out and said that they are strongly encouraging players to play for their home states. Now this would obviously be harder for players in NSW looking to play in the league due to a strong NSW lineup. So what do we take from that? Each player looks to be playing for their home state, unless their are circumstances that make it unfeasible for this to occur.
Have any specific players yet been signed?
Well from this point I can tell you that players HAVE been signed. Players from a certain team were offered contracts early this year (I can't remember the exact date but it may have been DURING the Claxton Shield). However these were home town guys, so we're not talking about anything ridiculous here. Each team will be assigned their international players closer to the start of the season. If you think about it that makes a lot of sense, as most of the international players will be assigned not only on the needs of the Australian team but also on the needs of the American team. Ie. Maybe the Yankees have a Japanese prospect that they want to learn more English etc etc.
What are the possibilities for expansion to other domestic and international markets?
Now the obvious possibility here is the Asian market, maybe even New Zealand. With the other local market potentially being Victoria or New South Whales. However from what we have been reading, the ABL has about 5 years to become profitable, unless an expansion within another market gaurantees increased profits it would be fairly unlikely that the league expands within the initial 5 year period.
Who owns the ABL clubs? What is the governance structure of the league?
Essentially there are three main bodies controlling the running of the league (MLB, ABF and ASC), with each team being a single entity under this structure. In the past, a key reason for the failings of Australian Baseball were the strucutures by which each team was owned. Teams would go out and spend vasts amounts of money on player bidding wars until eventually running themselves into debt. So hopefully this new league strcuture, whereby there is almost a 'big brother' in the MLB looking down on the running of the league helps with the overall cost structures.
Anyway, I thought I'd do a little post summing up some thoughts on how the league is doing and the direction it appears to be headed in. Each team website has a FAQ page, so I thought I would start there and give a few thoughts as to how that is all going.
So here we go with Frequently Askes Question numero uno!
What is the Australian Baseball League (ABL), and how will its competition be structured?
According to each site it will be a 40 game season run over 10 weeks (thankfully my source was correct and I didn't come across looking the fool!). Now a 40 game season over 10 weeks will mean that each team will be playing 4 games per weekend EVERY weekend (while the season is on). Now this is obviously great, the more people watching baseball the better, and this obviously gives people the greatest chance to watch games and get into it. The only downside to this structure is that it will be taking away players from local competitions, which are essentially the foundation to the ABL. Now obviously this isn't such a bad thing long term, should the ABL be succesful it will create an influx of junior players to clubs. But it will be interesting to see how it does effect the various local competitiions around the states. As each local league will be faced with a potential loss in revenue whilst home ABL series are played.
What players will compete in the ABL and how are they sourced?
According to the FAQ section each team will have a 22 man roster, now this roster is said to have approximately 70% Australian players. Now what would 70% of 22 be? Using my trusty note pad, I have worked out that 70% of 22 would be 15.4 players. Obviously you can't have 0.4 of a player (unless that player is David Eckstein). So what figure would be close to 70% of 22? Well...
18/22 = 81%
17/22 = 77%
16/22 = 72%
15/22 = 68%
So it could be pretty safe to assume that each team will be made up of either 15 or 16 Australian players and that the reamining players would be imports. The early rumblings were that each team would have 4-5 international players, but from what they have written it appears it could be closer to 6-7 internationals. It will be interesting to see what this figure will be come the start of the season, and wether or not the intention is to slowly decrease the number of imports as the legaue grows.
How are players assigned to teams?
Well the ABL have come out and said that they are strongly encouraging players to play for their home states. Now this would obviously be harder for players in NSW looking to play in the league due to a strong NSW lineup. So what do we take from that? Each player looks to be playing for their home state, unless their are circumstances that make it unfeasible for this to occur.
Have any specific players yet been signed?
Well from this point I can tell you that players HAVE been signed. Players from a certain team were offered contracts early this year (I can't remember the exact date but it may have been DURING the Claxton Shield). However these were home town guys, so we're not talking about anything ridiculous here. Each team will be assigned their international players closer to the start of the season. If you think about it that makes a lot of sense, as most of the international players will be assigned not only on the needs of the Australian team but also on the needs of the American team. Ie. Maybe the Yankees have a Japanese prospect that they want to learn more English etc etc.
What are the possibilities for expansion to other domestic and international markets?
Now the obvious possibility here is the Asian market, maybe even New Zealand. With the other local market potentially being Victoria or New South Whales. However from what we have been reading, the ABL has about 5 years to become profitable, unless an expansion within another market gaurantees increased profits it would be fairly unlikely that the league expands within the initial 5 year period.
Who owns the ABL clubs? What is the governance structure of the league?
Essentially there are three main bodies controlling the running of the league (MLB, ABF and ASC), with each team being a single entity under this structure. In the past, a key reason for the failings of Australian Baseball were the strucutures by which each team was owned. Teams would go out and spend vasts amounts of money on player bidding wars until eventually running themselves into debt. So hopefully this new league strcuture, whereby there is almost a 'big brother' in the MLB looking down on the running of the league helps with the overall cost structures.
So there we have it, nothing too groundbreaking, but a good little insight into what may be happening once the league kicks (or throws) off.
