Baseball scouts should look to cricketing talent

Sure there's plenty of talent going around in all sports. Most professional athletes have enough natural ability of some sort that they would have been able to succeed at a number of sports had they started early enough. The real question is whether it is worth the time and effort to convert cricketers into baseballers. There is a lot to learn and a lot of bad habits to break if you go down this path. Why would any professional organisation undertake this low percentage exercise instead of just scouting from the thousands upon thousands of talented baseballers all around the World? Furthermore, in the new 'Moneyball' age of scouting it is even less likely that a pro organisation would see a kid in another sport with the 'tools' and think it is worth the effort. The only real exception I could see to the rule is if a scout was on the lookout for cheap young pitchers to develop through their farm system. By the way, I'm no Mike Young fan but he did improve ground fielding in the Australian cricket team. I also don't think cricketers have anything on baseballers when it comes to fielding. It's purely because cricket has traditionally placed less emphasis on fielding than baseball. However, with the rise in popularity of 20-20 cricket... this may not be the case in 10 years.

Cricket is in a transition phase at the moment. The ACB are in a dilema like the english are about where to take the game. On the one hand they have a really popular fomat in 20 20, but on the other they have test which is dying. Do they bite the bullet and kill off test with 20 20, or do they just let things evolve with time. At the moment neither is happening for they are holding 20 20 back in fear of it killing test, which in my opinion it will eventually do. As far as popularity, 20 20 I think will one day be HUGE in Australia and around the world.

Arthur Pagonis, Did you enjoy playing both cricket and baseball equally or did you enjoy one more than the other? Also, I've wondered how well a major league batter would do at trying to bat in cricket. Besides the adjustment in swing mechanics from the horizontal oriented swing to the vertical orientation there is the adaptation to one long "at-bat" in cricket versus 3 or 4 short at-bats in baseball as well as learning when it is apporpriate to attack or defend in cricket and of course learning how to work in partnership with another batter. These would all be foreign concepts to a baseball player with no knowledge of cricket. What are your thoughts? Thanks

Judging by television ratings.... it is.....But it is being under threat and the threat is rising consistently......

Judging by television ratings.... it is.....But it is being under threat and the treat is rising consistently......

Australian cricket's biggest problem is that it is in deep, deep denial about how popular it is as a sport. It thinks it's one of Australia's most popular sports. Judging from attendances, it isnt.

baller, you cant disagree that the fielding of the Aussie cricket team improved dramatically whilst he was there though...

Loved the reaction to my piece. I was Mike Young's Assistant Coach on the first Qld team ever to win a Claxton Shield. I played Claxton Shield, coached the Ql;d Under 19 Cricket team under Carl Rackemann, coached Australian and Interstate teams in international competition here and in the USA, spent time in the USA with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Kansas City Royals and the Detroit Tigers organisations. I was Development Officer with the Qld Baseball Association from 1977-1982. I played District Cricket for Norths in Brisbane up until age 22. Dozens of young men that I was associated with in the 70's, 80's and 90's have gone on to play interstate and international cricket and baseball. Several have played Major League Baseball. I might be biased, but I think despite his foibles, Mike Young revolutionised the ground fielding, if not the catching , of cricket in Australia. It was once that cricketers did not throw as well as baseballers in Australia, but that has largely changed. The attention to drill and repitition is where American sports excel. Their athletes repeat the correct fundamentals over and over and so now do Australian kids. But in general I stand by my comments. I saw athletes at the WACA last week who were excellent and would adapt to baseball in a heart beat. I have seen similar individuals in every 20-20, 50-50 and Test Match I have seen this summer. If you can field balls and catch balls and hit balls and throw balls with that intensity, in front of tens of thousands of people, without a glove, and with a bat which has the same sweet spot as a baseball bat.....you are an athlete of considerable talent. And you will make the conversion to baseball in no time at all. Cheers.

I really don't think cricketers have great throwing abilities. While watching the BBL this year I watched some of the throwing abillities of playing and many of them would not cut it on a baseball field. The throwing style of cricket has too big an arc on it and lacks velocity. And when it comes to batting, cricket players struggle with the transition to vertical straight batting to the horizontal batting position of a baseball swing. I have played baseball and softball since I was 6 and I can't play cricket to save my life, because the skills are ingrained in me. Same with cricketers, you can always tell a cricketer when they come to baseball or softball. They cannot shake the batting style they have developed through hours in the batting nets. If cricket and baseball can be used alongside one another, like the Chappel brothers, then the skills can be used together. But I dont think it can if a person exclusively plays cricket.

i agree with everyone except the post about Mike Young, he coached me at state level and he used to sniff around Brisbane Baseball for a long time and i think he still does. ahh to remember him walking around with a bat jammed down his back pocket at Redlands baseball Club on a Friday night thinking he was the man .......those were the days. I think the guy is over rated and when i saw that he was the australian fielding coach i had to look twice cause he was the butt of a jokes for along time I think crickerters should pay more attention to how baseballers through the ball and more so how they set to throw a ball, when you see a catcher sit on his knees and throw a ball dead flat to centre field you understand the ballers know how to throw properly and i think that they learn to set themselves alot better

Correct Kev. Mike Young. And what happened when he left? Fielding went downhill... and FAST!!

When it comes to throwing a small sphere long and accurate, even in the Australian league, baseballers are pretty handy at it.

Unless I'm very much mistaken the fielding coach of Australia for much of the 2000s was actually a baseball coach teaching cricketers how to ground field and throw the ball in flatter, harder, faster and more accurately.

I really think you are kidding yourself... "They could throw the ball flat over 60 metres" So? Have you even seen elite baseballers (like you say)? the average MLB or even minor leaguer outfielder would be able to do this with ease.... its not a "special talent that would even raise an eyebrow of a scout. "Nathan Coulter Nile and Craig Whyte hit sixes that went over 100metres" Ok, so they would hit a deep flyball to left or be caught in center... Many of the sixes hit in this summer only travelled 70-85m... Again, nothing special and certainly not eyeopening.. I have seen many cricketers try and play ball, and they fail. However cricketers like Border and Chappel (Ian and Greg) were good baseball players who became great cricketers. I believe the skills baseballers are taught translate better to cricket than the other way around.. And one last point... Have you seen some of crickets "elite" try and catch a ball in the outfield? Most of them cant even judge the ball in the air, get themselves in a tangle and if they do happen to catch the ball, look VERY ugly in the process.