The Auckland Tuatara have started off their first season in the ABL already showing plenty of promise, with three players in particular hitting the ground running for the new Kiwi side.
Despite sitting last in the Northeast League with a record of 4-7 (one win behind Canberra), the Tuatara have shown they aren't pushovers in the competition after claiming a series win over defending champions Brisbane at home in the second round.
They also finished their drawn series against Canberra with a big 9-1 win in Auckland on Sunday.
Leading that effort on the offensive side has been Chinese prospect Guiyuan Xu who currently owns the third highest batting average in the competition.
The 22-year-old, who is currently a first baseman / outfielder in the Baltimore Orioles' farming system, has 13 hits in 34 at-bats so far this season, giving him a .382 average with two doubles and five RBIs to boot.
Helping Xu in the line-up is American talent Eric Jenkins who after three rounds is second in stolen bases for the season with six already to his name.
Jenkins sits only one behind ABL leader and Melbourne third baseman DJ Burt, but the big difference between the pair is how many times they've been caught trying to swipe an extra base for an out.
While Burt has seven stolen bases to his name, he's also been caught stealing five times. Jenkins on the other hand has six stolen bases but has yet to be caught.
With promising signs already there in the offence, the Tuatara also have an ace arm in their pitching staff.
While plenty of talk made about the signing of former Major League hurler Josh Collmenter, young Kiwi prospect Kyle Glogoski has been lights out for the Auckland franchise as a starter so far this season.
The 19-year-old has thrown 14.2 innings in three starts this season, giving up just one run on three hits in that time while recording 16 strikeouts.
It's left him with an earned run average (ERA) of 0.61 which is third-best for starters so far this season.
More impressively, the Phillies prospect leads all starters in another category - walks and hits per innings pitch (WHIP) which measures how many runners a pitcher tends to allow on-base each innings. So far this season, Glogoski's WHIP sits at an astounding 0.41.
Xu, Jenkins, Glogoski and the Tuatara have one more home series before they hit the road again, hosting the Sydney Blue Sox for a four-game series later this week starting on Friday with a 3pm game.
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