Bazzana Comes From a Land Down Below. You Higher Run, You Higher Take Cowl

Travis Bazzana, the no. 2 draft prospect on The Board in the meanwhile, had a giant day Sunday towards Oklahoma State. In 4 at-bats, the Oregon State second baseman hit 4 balls 108 mph or more durable, coming away with a double and two house runs for his hassle. The primary of these house runs was crushed so arduous that the outfielders didn’t hassle chasing it — one among baseball’s nice refined aesthetic signifiers. Greater than that, the DJ at Globe Life Area was capable of spin up the theme from The Pure earlier than the ball even landed:

And now Travis Bazzana will get in on the motion!https://t.co/a1pkN1nG65#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/SOlYsavVyZ

— Oregon State Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) February 25, 2024

That’s how you realize it’s gone.

Having watched a ton of Chase Utley as a younger man, I’ve a silly optimism over faculty second basemen with fast, compact hitting actions. After all, Utley is an not possible comp to drop on any prospect; along with being an MVP-level hitter, he was one of the best defensive second baseman of his era and probably the greatest baserunners at any place in any era. The latter two qualities Bazzana doesn’t possess.

However he can rake. In eight video games, six of them towards energy convention competitors, Bazzana is 14-for-32 with 5 house runs and 5 walks. He’s scored in all eight video games. It’s fairly a begin, particularly as a result of the opposite faculty infielder at present within the combine for the highest decide within the draft, West Virginia’s JJ Wetherholt, is nursing a hamstring damage.

We’ve bought an extended strategy to go from now till the draft, and even longer till the 21-year-old Bazzana settles in as a significant league common, if that occurs in any respect. However I wished to take this chance to dive just a little deeper into one thing I solely touched on in my faculty preview two weeks in the past. Bazzana is Australian, and he’s already probably the greatest place gamers his nation has ever produced.

As a lot as main faculty baseball is an efficient ol’ boys’ community, there’s the occasional interloper from abroad. For some time, I bought Edouard Julien — then of Auburn, now of the Minnesota Twins—blended up with one other left-handed-hitting French-Canadian second baseman from the SEC, Kentucky’s Émilien Pitre. The Australian George Callil performed about 100 video games for South Carolina earlier this decade. Essentially the most well-known Australian faculty participant might be Craig Shipley, who starred at Alabama within the Nineteen Eighties and went on to play elements of 11 seasons within the majors as a utility infielder, largely with the San Diego Padres.

This shouldn’t be too stunning. Australia isn’t within the very prime echelon of baseball nations with the U.S., Japan, the Dominican Republic, and so forth, however it’s very a lot a second-tier energy within the sport. Australia has figured in each World Baseball Traditional; in 2023, the Aussies beat South Korea en path to their first-ever berth within the knockout levels of the match. Australia additionally gained the silver medal in baseball on the 2004 Olympics.

Sadly, baseball doesn’t precisely observe the multi-sport custom of giving every Australian nationwide crew an lovable, often marsupial-based nickname. On Wikipedia’s listing of 88 such nicknames, the nationwide baseball crew is listed because the Southern Thunder. Exterior corroboration for this moniker is (places on thick Australian accent) sparse. Furthermore, Southern Thunder is merely a much less evocative model of the Thunder From Down Below, a nickname at present occupied by an all-male cabaret dance troupe. Given a pair extra years, Nike and Fanatics may convey baseball to that time finally, however we aren’t there but.

However again to the unique level: There’s no scarcity of Australian gamers within the majors. Or not less than that’s what you’d suppose. Grant Balfour was a extremely good reliever. So was Graeme Lloyd. Damian Moss had one actually good yr again within the day. Between Peter Moylan, Ryan Rowland-Smith, and the one time Liam Hendriks spent a complete inning swearing right into a scorching mic, there’s a proud historical past of Australian pitchers turning into high quality broadcasters as nicely.

However these are all pitchers. And consider it or not, based on Baseball Reference, there have solely been 34 Australian-born main leaguers ever, relationship again to Nineteenth-century infielder Joe Quinn. From Quinn’s debut in 1884, he was the one Australian to play within the majors till Shipley got here alongside 102 years later.

The SABR bio for Quinn tells fairly a narrative. His dad and mom had been Irish refugees who each traveled to New South Wales, the place they met, within the mid-1850s. They married, had their first little one in 1857, had been displaced by a flood and moved 600 miles to Queensland in 1860. Child Joe was born in 1862, and when work dried up, the household moved again right down to Sydney and finally to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1873. So within the span of about 20 years, these two got here approach nearer to circumnavigating the globe than Magellan ever did.

Quinn discovered to play baseball as an adolescent in Iowa, and finally performed on each one of the best and worst groups in main league historical past in his 17-year profession. However he didn’t hit a lot. Nor did Shipley. Of the six Australian place gamers since Shipley to register not less than 80 profession plate appearances, a 3rd of them have hit price a rattling, and a 3rd of them have been named Trent. There isn’t any overlap between the 2 classes:

The jury continues to be out on Mead, who’s 23, held his personal in his first (albeit extraordinarily restricted) confrontation towards main league pitching, and simply bought ranked at no. 31 on the worldwide Prime 100 Prospects listing.

However with simply 24 main league video games on his CV, Mead has a methods to go earlier than he catches Nilsson for the title of finest Australian place participant ever. Nilsson had a stable eight-year profession behind the plate, in addition to at first base and within the outfield corners, for the Brewers within the Nineteen Nineties. Nilsson’s remaining season was amongst his finest: He made the All-Star crew and hit .309/.400/.554 in 115 video games. Even within the Nineteen Nineties, that was a 137 wRC+, and he made 91 begins at catcher that yr.

If something, Nilsson’s profession is extra spectacular than it seems to be, as a result of he was performed within the majors after that outstanding 1999 marketing campaign. Nilsson is Mr. Australia Baseball — on the finish of his taking part in profession, he spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} of his personal cash attempting to construct up the Australian Baseball League right into a sustainable skilled group. After retirement, he managed in Australia, and is at present the supervisor of the (coughs into hand) Southern Thunder.

Nilsson wished badly to compete within the 2000 Summer season Olympics, which had been held in Sydney, a lot in order that he left the Brewers for a short and unsuccessful spell in NPB. MLB sat out the Olympics and despatched solely minor leaguers, however the Chunichi Dragons promised to launch Nilsson throughout the match. Australia completed seventh of their house Olympics, and whereas Nilsson was nonetheless round for the silver medal marketing campaign in Athens 4 years later, he by no means made it again to the majors.

There’s one thing extremely romantic and endearing about placing one’s skilled profession on maintain with a view to chase nationwide crew glory — I saved ready for star hockey gamers to bail on the NHL for a yr when the league wasn’t sending its gamers to the Olympics, however it by no means occurred. However whereas Nilsson most likely misplaced just a few WAR off his profession complete by chasing an Olympic medal, he’s nonetheless by far one of the best Australian place participant ever.

A top-five draft place would set Bazzana as much as not less than problem Nilsson for that distinction. And it invitations the query: Why are many of the finest Australian ballplayers not simply pitchers, however reduction pitchers?

The identical purpose many of the world’s marsupial species stay in Australia and I’m most likely by no means going to see Ball Park Music stay: Australia’s actually far-off.

I’m not going to behave prefer it’s simple to be a reduction pitcher, however it’s not as complicated an artwork as taking part in a subject place, and even beginning. It’s definitely not as developmentally reliant on getting taking part in time towards equally expert opponents — you’ll be able to arrange a radar gun and cameras in a warehouse and get many of the strategy to skilled competency as a one-inning fastball/slider man. That’s as true in Wollongong as it’s in Washington State.

Till not too long ago, if an Australian place participant wished to face off towards high-level beginner or minor league competitors from a top-tier baseball energy, that meant a 5,000-mile flight to Korea or Japan, or a 7,500-mile flight (if no more) to the continental U.S. And American scouts and faculty coaches don’t have the sources to scour the Antipodes for the following huge factor.

However because the revitalization of the ABL as a winter league that mixes Australian gamers with gamers from the North American minors, the cultural change between the U.S. and Australia has grown stronger. Mead was a semi-regular within the ABL at 17. Bazzana truly performed within the ABL beginning at age 16, on a Sydney Blue Sox crew that featured three former or future main leaguers. That’s the way you get examined towards high-level competitors, develop to the purpose the place you’re able to beginning on a nationwide championship contender as a freshman, and get seen by the proper individuals.

As streaming media and pitch monitoring know-how put extra data in additional palms than ever, I’d anticipate the baseball world to proceed to shrink. And whereas Australia is so far-off we nonetheless gained’t get to see Gang of Youths tour North America each summer season, I’d guess that we gained’t wait as lengthy for the following Bazzana as we did for the following Nilsson.