A tough road

Fat Nige
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A tough road

Post by Fat Nige » Mon Jul 22, 2019 4:03 pm

June 17th, 2039

It’s tough to make your way in the new regraded Far East Baseball League for the group of teenagers trying to make it to UMEBA glory. Last season it was a Double-A baseball League but this season it has been reduced to an A Ball league. But has it really got an A ball profile yet ? To be fair the UMEBA teams have at least made some sort of an effort to field age appropriate players but there’s a fair way to go yet.

This week 234 players stepped on a baseball field in the FEBL to bat, field, pitch or just stand around. Of those 60 were actually teenagers (33 batters, 27 pitchers), at the other end of the scale 57 (30 batters, 27 pitchers) were 25 or over, an age range that should be seriously considering a Triple-A career if they want to make their name in baseball. That leaves 117 other players in the 20-24 bracket whose career is on that knife edge, poised to either accelerate down that slope towards Triple-A or perhaps even UMEBA, or to hit that big boulder and realise you’re never going to make it buddy and start practicing that Burger House flip.

In the top four sides in the two FEBL divisions 28 of the older guys were regular starters, suggesting perhaps that they were busy beating up on the youngsters. In fact, just three wins and five saves were posted by those 27 teenage pitchers and the 12 of the 27 owned an ERA of 9.00 or greater. Meanwhile the 33 teenage batters managed a surprisingly good total of 59 hits including 21 extra-base hits, only three of which went over the fences. On the other side of the ledger the teenage boys contributed 77 strikeouts.

Yes, of course it is a very small sample size, taking just one week in isolation, but you can see the way it’s trending. With the halfway stage of the league rapidly approaching the patterns are starting to firm up. With no rookie ball affiliated to the UMEBA, to have 177 players out of 234 aged 24 and under is probably around the level that is a good start. But it will serve the UMEBA well if the 57 25-yr-olds or older is reduced in 2040. There are plenty of decent (ok, half or quarter decent) rejects from the BBA floating around looking for a gig somewhere, go look for them. If we can reduce the profile of the FEBL to a mainly U22 or 23 league then in my opinion it will be a league that is really developing players capable of making their way in the UMEBA.
Nigel Laverick
(former GM of El Paso Chilis #WeWereShitty) ,
Now GM Riyadh Red Crescents #WeBeNotSoNewNow #WeAreJustAsShitty


Riyadh GM since May 2046

JL Manager of the Year 2000 (Baltimore Monarchs)
Nothing since


An MBBA GM since 1995 (off & on)

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Re: A tough road

Post by RonCo » Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:13 pm

We will need to watch these things and figure out what works best.
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Fat Nige
Ex-GM
Posts: 3982
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:50 pm
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, ENGLAND
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Re: A tough road

Post by Fat Nige » Tue Jul 23, 2019 5:45 am

I’ve done the decent thing and built an U23 side so it can be done. Admittedly for this first year it was a case virtually of the best of the worst but that will improve. It’s hard to improve that but there’s no point in having 28 or 30 yr olds in A ball. It’ll come
Nigel Laverick
(former GM of El Paso Chilis #WeWereShitty) ,
Now GM Riyadh Red Crescents #WeBeNotSoNewNow #WeAreJustAsShitty


Riyadh GM since May 2046

JL Manager of the Year 2000 (Baltimore Monarchs)
Nothing since


An MBBA GM since 1995 (off & on)

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