Cubs and Canberra Cavalry forge unique partnership |
Baseball may be called America's Pastime, but it is undoubtedly becoming a worldwide game. From countless leagues in Asia and Mexico to the Carribean World Series and the Winter Leagues, baseball has been taking on a Soccer feel in recent years as a global game compared to being classified as America's pastime.
You started to see that more than a decade ago when the World Baseball Classic first became a thing, and since then, it has continued to grow into what many call the World Cup of Baseball. The more global this game becomes, the better it is for the game, and the Chicago Cubs are taking the global growth of this game to a whole new level. In case you missed it, Monday provided an exciting announcement from both the Cubs and the Canberra Cavalry of the Australian Baseball League. They have forged together a unique partnership for this upcoming season and are now a small affiliation for the Cubs in the Winter. There is a lot that needs to be unpacked from this announcement, but we know that two Cubs prospects will be heading to Australia in mid-November along with one coach. While the coach hasn't been named yet, one of the two players has been leaked, and Jordan Nwogu is expected to be one of the two prospects making his way overseas. The former third-round pick from the University of Michigan, Nwogu was once a top-30 prospect given his overall Raw but impressive skill set. Instead, Nwogu has struggled to find consistency at the plate and has compiled a .235 career average up to this point with 48 homers and 73 stolen bases. That includes this past season, when he hit a .231 with South Bend, to go with seven homers and 47 RBIs, as Nwogu has failed to get through AA. Getting him out to Australia is just another way to give him more at-bats in hopes of him tapping into his true potential. This may seem like a strange partnership for the casual fan, but the Cubs have done this in the past with Ed Howard as the most recent player to land in Australia, as he played with the Cavalry last season. Other former Cubs include Cole Roederer, who was with the team in 2022, Liam Spence, who was there in 2021, and Ryan Kalish, who spent multiple offseasons getting the extra reps. Shota Imanaga also spent time on the Cavalry when he was still pitching in Japan, so you can see the kind of reputation this team has and how many players are willing to give this league a shot to get the extra reps. It's unclear whether the Cubs players will spend the entire season there or just a short time, but they are expected to be there when the season kicks off on November 14 and will go from there. Although this is a far cry in terms of competition from the Arizona Fall League, which is currently underway, it is still a unique opportunity for players to not only fine-tune their skills but also spend time in a new country that many of us dream of visiting one day. Located almost equidistant from Sydney and Melbourne, the capital city of Canberra is Australia’s largest inland city and eighth-largest overall. In addition to those three cities, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth also host ABL teams. However, unlike a Spring Training lineup or even the AFL lineup, where most teams are separated by an hour or less, travel can be an issue as many of these teams are several hours away. For example, Perth is close to 12 hours away from Canberra, which shows how big the country really is. Unless you like long road trips, there is no way that trip would be possible without an off day built in between. Given that most of these games require flights to get from one place to the next, the Australian League plays its series, what they call Rounds, similar to the Minor Leagues, where they have a three—or four-game set each week before traveling to the next stop. With each team embarking on a 10-round season, this league lasts for nearly two months and can be visible online at its website.
