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Travis Bazzana's love of cricket, passion for baseball turns him into Guardians top prospect
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- Travis Bazzana's love of cricket, passion for baseball turns him into Guardians top prospect
Travis Bazzana always knew he would always excel with a bat in his hand and a ball being hurled toward him.
The No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft by the Guardians always knew that bat would be more rounded and less flat.
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A standout cricket player growing up in Hornsby, Australia, a town 30 minutes northwest of Sydney, Bazzana also dipped his hand in baseball.
"I was always more passionate about baseball," Bazzana said. "I always saw more of a vision with baseball more than cricket. From the time I was 5 or 6 years old I always wanted to be a baseball player more than a cricket player. Cricket was more something to do hanging out with my friends from school. Baseball I always had a drive to do it for a living."
Travis Bazzanna takes questions from media members during the RubberDucks media day at Canal Park in Akron on Wednesday April 2, 2025.
Don't get Bazzana wrong, he loved cricket and still does, but for him the idea of batting once and not possibly getting a chance to again made baseball a more viable option.
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Travis Bazzana talks about the game of cricket during the RubberDucks media day at Canal Park in Akron on Wednesday April 2, 2025.
The involvement appealed to him as well as the fact baseball is more forgiving.
"It mirrors baseball in that you're seeing a ball about the size of your palm and trying hit it, trying to square it up," Bazzana said. "Cricket you have kind of a 360-degree room you're hitting it into, baseball you're hitting it into a diamond shape. I think the biggest takeaway on how it helped me was more hand-eye coordination reps and more bat to ball reps. It's different too, but similar mind/body reaction to seeing it and hitting it. It helped me learn how to control a bat through a swing."
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That's something Bazzana has done quite well since coming to the states in the summer of 2021.
By the time he left Oregon State , the RubberDucks second baseman set single-season school records in home runs (28), runs (84) and slugging percentage (.911) and tied the single-season record with 74 walks.
He batted .407, had 87 hits, drove in 66 runs and had a .568 on-base percentage. He added 16 stolen bases, 16 doubles and four triples on top of that.
Oregon State infielder Travis Bazzana throws the ball during the second inning against Kentucky, June 9, 2024, in Lexington, Kentucky.
In an abbreviated first season of pro ball last summer, Bazzana batted .238 as a member of the Midwest League champion Lake County Captains. He had a .369 on-base percentage and totaled three home runs and 12 RBIs in 27 games.
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"He's a student of the game," Ducks manager Greg DiCenzo said. "He cares about his craft. He loves playing the game. I think that's a priority for players is they need to love to be here and they need to want to be here.
"Baseball's a long season as everybody knows, it's relentless at times. It's really hard to ride that wave of emotion if it gets to you. And I think just in the brief snapshot that I've had a chance to kind of be around him, I've seen he's super cerebral. He seems like a guy that will be pretty even-keeled throughout."
He's already locked into players such as Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez , tries to follow the footsteps they took on their way to The Show.
Guardians 2024 No. 1 draft pick Travis Bazzana, right, shakes hands with the team's All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez before the Guardians played the Padres, July. 19, 2024, in Cleveland.
For the No. 1 prospect in Cleveland's organization and No. 9 overall prospect in all of baseball, it's as much of what they do on the field as off it.
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As for cricket, the game has never really left him.
That showed when 2019 International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year and World Cup champion Pat Cummins jumped on a call last year to congratulate Bazzana on being taken No. 1 by the Guardians.
"It was exciting talking to him," Bazzana said. "I grew up watching him every summer on TV and seeing him succeed. It was pretty cool to be able to see baseball provide me that opportunity. … They say that the Australian cricket captain is second in line to the prime minister. It's a pretty powerful role."
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @ bbournival
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians prospect Travis Bazzana starred in cricket, too, growing up
