Big League Talent

In the old Australian Baseball League, over 100 of the players who played in it went on to play in the Major Leagues. When you think about it, that is a lot of players over a 10 year period who's careered blossomed from time spent in Australia. Already 2 players from last years ABL season went on to make their Major League debuts. Those 2 being Liam Hendriks and Shane Lindsay.

If you look at the rosters for all ABL teams from last year and this year, you will see that their is handful of players who have tasted the Major Leagues.

Sydney Blue Sox
Chris Oxspring - San Diego Padres
Dae-Sung Koo - New York Mets
Richard Thompson - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Trent Oeltjen - Arizona Diamondback, Los Angeles Dodgers
Brad Thomas - Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers

Adelaide Bite
Chin-Lung Hu - New York Mets

Melbourne Aces
Jason Hirsh - Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies
Brad Harman - Philadelphia Phillies
Justin Huber - Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins
Shane Lindsay - Chicago White Sox

Perth Heat
Luke Hughes - Minnesota Twins
Liam Hendriks - Minnesota Twins


To go along with all the players who haved played in the Major Leagues, there are a lot of players on the cusp of getting the call up. The Perth Heat roster is littered with AA talent, and we just acquired Brandon Barnes who has spent time in AAA with the Astros and has earned an invite to big league spring training in 2012. Everyone should get familiar with some of these names in the ABL, you could see them playing in a Major League ballpark in the near future.

Trent Oeltjen, Brad Thomas, Rich Thompson, Chris Oxspring