New Zealand ABL franchise to get help from every corner of the world

Good news for the new New Zealand ABL franchise. A top NPB club has agreed to send players to the team. With this move, the new club may be a lot more competitive. But there may be more help underway.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Baseball New Zealand chief executive Ryan Flynn stated that an unidentified club in Japan’s Nippon Baseball League, the No.2 professional league in the world behind Major League Baseball, had already agreed to send players to the New Zealand side every year.

Recently the ABL announced the expansion of the league from six to eight by adding a Korean team (based in Australia) and a team from New Zealand (which will likely play in their home country). As Korea is one of the world’s baseball powerhouses, you can count on it the team will be competitive. But baseball in New Zealand is still in its infancy and therefore the addition of Japanese professional players will be a welcome move.

Don’t expect those players to be the ones from the NPB itself. It is very likely the unnamed club will send players from its ni-gun (farm) team.

But there is more news to be told about the New Zealand based team. The organization was also in talks with former MLB pitchers John Holdzkom (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Scott Richmond (Toronto Blue Jays) about playing a role in the team. Holdzkom was the first New Zealand representative to pitch in the majors, while Richmond was the first New Zealand citizen to do so. The latter is questionable as the only information to be found about a Scott Richmond is about a career minor leaguer who was born in British Columbia, Canada.

7-year MLB veteran Josh Colmenter will likely join the team. In six of those seven years, he kept his ERA well below 4.00. Only last season, he didn’t do well with an ERA of 9.00.
Flynn is also talking to several MLB clubs to send some of their minor league players.
It is expected the team will carry twelve imports and ten kiwis on the roster.

It is expected the team will play its home games at the North Harbour’s QBE Stadium in Auckland. QBE stadium is a rugby facility which hosted the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It remains to be seen how a baseball diamond will fit in there but they will find a solution for sure.