Aussie Travis Bazzana’s History Playing Cricket Has Helped him Succeed In a Unique Way in His Rookie Season. Stopping His Bat Mid Swing For Hits
“Slider” might be one of my favorite words said with an Aussie accent
Sloihdahs
Oi, it’s Poida
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I’m pretty sure Liam Hendriks’s thick Perth accent saying Slider (Slydah) is his only nickname on B-Ref.
The amount of extra letters that Aussies sneak into the (presumably simple) word “no” will always be my favorite
“Naur.”
I’ve always wondered if this was a viable strategy. Sometimes the outfield is playing so deep, it seems like a guy with decent bat control could rack up hits by hitting it intentionally shitty in the air to no-man’s land.
Probably easier said than done and I’m sure defenses would adjust eventually, but it feels like something you could pull off
Arraez has made a career out of it
That’s the thing though, Arraez still takes his full swing and tries to get some oomph behind it, which results in a lot of lazy fly outs.
I’m thinking that’s proof enough that it isn’t viable though. If it was, surely he of all people would be the expert at it
He has 1st percentile swing speed, and has every year since they started measuring it in 2023. He absolutely is not trying to get “some oomph” behind most of his swings. He’s just getting the bat where the ball is and putting it in play.
“Some oomph” being relative lol.
I just mean he’s not literally stopping his bat, I’ve never seen him intentionally swing without a follow through
For sure. I thought about saying as much in my first comment lol, no reason to stop your bat when you’re barely moving it in the first place
Literally just baseball before the dinger era. Ty Cobb used to bitch about home run hitters all the time for not being skilled enough to place the ball in gaps.
That’s a good point, I always just assumed he was talking about line drives between infielders
Ted Williams was offended when they invented the shift against him, because it implied he couldnt choose exactly where he wanted to hit the ball.
Hit .406 that season
.383 career BABIP for Ty Cobb. The all-time leader. He was uniquely skilled at hitting it where he wanted.
You might have some people who only read stat sheets complaining about exit velocity or hard hit rate but yes this is a totally viable strategy. Hit em where they ain’t.
It makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? If everyone is trained to use powerful swings, and the philosophy is to go for the longball, then you can logically see where the ball is likely to go unless they make weak contact and ground out. If as you suggest someone focuses on contact and just lobs it over the infield, then the strategy would be workable, especially if you can put pressure on pitching and defense.
Let’s face it, homeruns, strikeouts, and walks don’t cause stress. Hit after hit after hit wears the whole defense down. How many times have you seen a pitcher give up a longball and then just get back to work?
I don’t think this is intentional as a strategy, I think they’re defensive 2-strike swings that turn into muscle memory from a cricket background. (notice every clip is 2 strikes against a LHP)
10 years ago choking up with 2 strikes and “getting your bat on the ball” would be a completely normal thing. There were a ton of high OPS guys in the 90s and 00s who got loads of hits like this. It’s only real “strange” to us because of the way the offensive game has looked in the last 10 years or so.
(Also, note that the Rays are one of the best teams in baseball and once again they’ve found an edge over other teams partially through a lot of hits that look like this)
Bazball is dead. Long live Bazzball
Super underrated comment, cricket fans be grinning
I’m an England fan so I’m not grinning about Bazball.
Not even safe here smh
Sorry for your loss. I’m an Aussie fan, so I be grinning I guess.
Bazball just died a few weeks ago when England lost a home test series against New Zealand. So yeah, Long live Bazzball!
That’s pretty cool. Didn’t know those were intentional
Bazzana has said that he doesn’t know why it happens. But I just think it’s slap hitting Guardsball infecting him.
Otherwise officially known as the Slap-hitting Shit Goblins.
Anyone watch that video of Harry Brook (England vice captain) at Phillies spring training.
The cricket background helped him hit some outrageous pitches like happy gilmoring a fastball because that’s footwork from cricket.
Modern cricketers who’s hand eye coordination let’s them ramp 90mph deliveries means they can adjust mid swing.
Assume you mean this video? I hadn’t seen it before, what a delight
Very cool. I have a distant memory that England all-rounder and former captain Ian Botham tried his hand at baseball, but I can’t find anything online about it.
It’s funny that day 1 he hits every ball to the off side. It makes sense as you would never hit a ball that far away from your body to the on side (I can’t even really picture that cricket shot in my head).
Then he watches a bit of BP on day 2 from the other players and he actually starts pulling the ball properly.
Very interesting swing. Ichiro vibes with that kind of control over his bat
Well down and away is essentially the main scoring area in cricket.
It’s the area you’d playing your drive shots. In T20 putting a ball outside around shin height would be considered a terrible delivery “in the slot”.
This is so cool
Fascinating, seriously.
Is it generally true that the Aussies who’ve played in MLB had a cricket background? Is that a Captain Obvious question?
In my previous life as a journalist, I once interviewed an Australian TV host and producer when they were in Milwaukee to do a feature story on David Nilsson. “Real Life” was the program, for any older Aussies among us.
Any Australian who’s gone outside in summer has some kind of cricket background, playing backyard cricket is the equivalent of throwing a football around or playing catch.
I learned that from Bluey.
Rusty is the GOAT
Such a beautiful episode. I was into it more than my kid lol
I thought so, but then thought it better to seek a response from an Australian. Thanks!
His adjustments from pitch to pitch have been impressive. His cricket background is paying dividends daily.
If only his cricket could help him on his defensive skills. It’s about the only criticism I have of him.
Take away his glove and he might be better
It should have, cricket defense mogs baseball defense by far. Lineouts that get cheers and clips in baseball would be considered soft dismissals in cricket (as in you just gave up an easy out). Of course, crickets field a lot more ground balls but slides and dives for catches in cricket are really only reserved for golden glove tier players in baseball. Additionally you have to field your pitchers as well so all 11 of your players have to be solid in the field.
Of course, the setup is a lot different. Cricket players don’t get asked to field then make a mid inning switch to being a bat.
BIP GOD
This is one of the things I love about Baseball. Everyone wants to hit for power, and this guy found a strategy that exploits defenses. It would be cool to see this catch on and then see how pictures and defenses respond. The cosmic ballet… goes on.
Does anyone wanna switch seats?
Bro, the puddle that started under that guy’s seat spread a few seats over too.
It looks like a “cover drive” or “cut shot” in cricket. Modern cricket players don’t use this shot as much as the past players. I love watching this shot, it requires really good timing. This is not easy to do and have this much control especially with a baseball bat which has less surface to make contact with the ball.
I’m sure there are things both sports can learn from each other. I remember few years back Shohei likes to work on his swing with a cricket bat.
Here’s a compilation of some good cover drives for anyone interested
One of the most elegant shots in cricket.
That’s cool as fuck, holy shit
Delly and Bazzy need to hang out and combine their Cleveland Aussie energy
Pretty sure they did when Delly was here for the Cavs playoffs
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Having brunch together. The ultimate hang
A new tool in the slap hitting shit goblin arsenal.
They really gave the shit goblins a cricket player lol
Really cool and unique baseball talent (ichiro did it for years)
However I would counter if he had better pitch selection he’d be able to take full swings. But as a bailout this is a great talent. Placing a baseball Is a lost art.
Slap hitters once roamed this planet in great abundance. The analytics fireball in the sky killed them millions of years ago.
One of the unique things about cricket is that batting (in test format) is essentially playing defense and bowling is essentially playing offense. Cricket batsman play in tight closed stance to protect the wicket. They are not looking to hit for power, they are more looking to drive the ball through the gaps in the field. Stopping the bat mid swing while on your front foot is the first thing you learn to do as a batsman.
Beaver
Check drives.
Pssh, I used to swing like this all the time in Baseball Stars for the NES 👴🏻
It was so cool seeing multiple backyard games of cricket being played by people in India and Sri Lanka. I need to get me a Virat Kohli jersey.