Growing old in Cairo (2041-6)

[Fat Nige]

Spotlight on the Tigers of Taipei

Back at the end of 2038 when I took over the Cairo franchise, their A-ball team, the Taipei Tigers, had just completed their inaugural season going 100-40. This was a bit misleading though as the UMEBA teams had treated A Ball like any other level and players of all ages were competing in the Far East Baseball League (FEBL).

So, the first thing I did was call the staff together and agree with them that Taipei would be an ‘age appropriate’ side, the maximum age of any of their players would be 23-yrs-old. It would be hard to maintain a full roster of any quality at that level given that drafting in the bottom positions won’t see many five star prospects heading there via the draft but we can but try.

The first season didn’t go too well with the team posting a 59-81 record, the mitigating factor was that the Exp. Record was -11 so they could have finished 70-70 and the total attendance was over 100,000 up on their first season. Their second year of their new restrictions, 2040, saw them hit their fist winning season under the scheme. Their record was 88-52 and they made the post season where they unfortunately lost in Game 7 of the LCS.

Now we are a couple of weeks into the third season of the new look Tigers. There’s 35 players on the roster, six are aged 23-yrs-old and there are 10 teenagers. 20 were holdovers that played for Taipei in 2040 (seven of those had been draft picks) and 15 arrived as minor league free agents in the last off season. The main problem with player development this year is that several of the UMEBA franchises just aren’t taking the FEBL seriously, there are a few incomplete rosters and a few more where any old player is shoehorned into their rosters. It’s a shame when teams do that and the league ought to investigate, it’s hard enough to eek out development as it is without playing against substandard sides.

As it is Taipei have opened the first two weeks of the 2041 season like an express train, winning all 12 games played so far. This includes a series where they swept Ho Chi Minh by a combined score of 58-4. The team are doing their bit, seven of the starting nine are hitting better than .350 while nobody in the rotation has obviously lost yet, and only one starter has an ERA over 2.80. Second baseman Jesus Martinez, a free agent signing at the start of April, has three homers and 16 RBI to his name. His triple slash is .436/.531/.739 with a sound defence of +2.2 ZR. Early days and small sample sizes but trees grow from small acorns.