Canberra Cavalry series struck out as concerns linger for The Fort

The ABL's advice was there was less than a five per cent chance Canberra's air quality would improve enough to allow them to get any play in the four-game series between the Cavalry and the Adelaide Giants.

It's unlikely the games will be rescheduled, with the final ladder likely to be determined using winning percentage rather than number of wins.

The series was due to start Thursday night, with the final game scheduled for Sunday, but it was called off before the Giants flew to Canberra on Thursday.

It's the second time smoke has impacted games scheduled for Narrabundah Ballpark, with a game postponed against Brisbane two weeks ago.

That game was able to be completed the following day, but it did so without Cavalry infielder Gavin Cecchini - who quit the club due to concerns over the smoke.

The ABL used an air quality index of 300 as the threshold to call off that game - the same level used at the Olympic Games in China.

At the time of writing the reading in Monash was 4904 - more than 16 times the threshold.

While the ABL has cancelled this series, it's believed they've already started looking towards the next home games in Canberra.

The Cavalry host Auckland Tuatara at Narrabundah in two weeks.

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

"It's highly unlikely to get to a safe level for a few days," Baseball Australia chief executive Cameron Vale said.

"Our real decision was, 'Could we play at all over the series?' and, 'Is it better to have people there ready to play even if it's as late as Sunday rather than cancelling?'

"As the day's gone by the advice has been consistently the chances of playing by Sunday at a safe level was between zero and five per cent."

The ABL will announce further details on Thursday in regards to how the cancelled series will affect not only the ladder, but also things like the salary cap point system.

Each player is assigned a value and each club has only 150 points to use across the season.

It's believed both the Cavalry and Giants will have their submitted squads count towards that total - even though they didn't play.

Vale felt for the Cavalry because it's the second time they've had crowds impacted by the smoke.

"It will be very difficult to make up the games for a number of factors," he said.

The Cavalry also cancelled training on Wednesday after the smoke rolled in on New Years Eve and has remained just as thick ever since.

Cavalry manager Keith Ward said they'd managed to train on Tuesday morning before it arrived, but decided against risking their players' health the following day.

"It's been hanging around all night and all morning so I thought we'd just be a bit conservative and give the boys a day off so they can stay inside and avoid it," he said.

Ward had been looking forward to the series, which was set to pit the ABL's "best offence" against the "best pitching".

It was also the first time the rebranded Giants - formally known as the Bite - were to play in Canberra since the days of the old ABL when Ward was a player.

The Cavalry were also set to showcase the roster that would take them through to the end of the regular season.

San Diego Padres prospects Jordy Barley and Taylor Kohlwey, and Yokohama pitcher Kosuke Sakaguchi have returned home to be replaced by the returning Kelvin Melean and Robbie Podorsky.

"All reports I've heard about [Podorsky] is he's an absolute flyer on the base path, plays a good centre field so he's going to add a brand new dimension to our game and our line-up - given we don't really have any flatout burners in our team that can go out and just steal bases," Ward said.

The Cavalry are also in discussions to bring another pitching option to Canberra ahead of the play-offs.

"We're still looking at adding another bullpen arm to replace the Japanese guys as they depart," Ward said.

"We've got a few names that we're throwing around at the moment and over the next day or two we'll settle on the guy."