Diary Of An Athens GM January 2043.

[Clayman]

*Note that any dates not involved within the game are based on 2020 and not 2043.

1st January 2043

Well I promised Millard Leach if he signed with us he'd get a shot in the big leagues and he could also write the story of my journey, up to now he's not been good enough to pitch in the major league level. However I can fulfill my promise of giving him my story, some people are not going to be happy when it gets published in fact their going to be far from happy.

I'd class it as a good free agency so far, good but not great. We signed Juan Rodríguez who pitched a few games in Phoenix last season, he could be a big plus in the rotation. One that may have flown under the radar pitching wise is relief pitcher Wayne Jackson, work shy, not to smart but I got a feeling.

The big acquisition as to be Yancy 'Cimmaron' Cravat not sure how Dudley will take it but they'll both get game time, if Dud's can't learn from a multiple gold glover and a Landis winner to boot then we're in trouble.

[Clayman]

Finally convinced Nate Wood and Gonzo to return to Athens, if they didn't it was going to be a dodgy Plan B. Sarge needs a breather now and again but I wasn't sure Jeff Melton was the answer as Sarge's back up, I was more convinced of Quint Coppard being a decent replacement for Gonzo despite what the scouts say about his glove the stats aren't bad.

Could have an headache with the 27 & 40 man rosters, pretty much everyone we've tried to sign have either signed or giving good vibes on signing with us.

[Clayman]

With the UMEBA opening up a rookie league system it's been tough going signing up youngsters to fill the roster in Shenyang, Haruto Teshima our chief scout came up with a great idea, send letters out to players who interested us give them a ticket to Shenyang and invite a load of them over. We expected a few but instead 20 turned up, we signed the lot in one go, saved our scouts days having to go to each of those players to sign them.

[Clayman]

We won over 50 games at home last season but lost the most important two games those being the last two, Piraeus Park was a fortress for us last year, this season it needs to be the home of Hades, I want teams to hate coming here so the fences have been pushed out. Outside of the franchise Yancy Cravat was the first to find out we were pushing the fences out, when I told him I think as a lefty that was the deciding factor him signing with us.

[Clayman]

Well I used a best line up every game for the first half of the season, mainly to see how the players would play in their first season in the UMEBA. After a good start we slipped off a bit, mainly due to the road games mounting up. Come the end of the season I ditched the pitching match up, I went with the team match up and came within 1 game of reaching the play offs. We surprised teams, we punched above our weight and we had the lowest payroll this season we have one the biggest payrolls and no surprise.

[Clayman]

Well after a few days thought and the UMEBA schedule makers screwing us with only 3 games at home in April, the decision was easy a totally new strategy. It took a few hours to finally work it out, now only time will tell if the work was worth it. If it pays of we could be .550 after April, if it doesn't pay of we could be .250 and back to the drawing board.

[Clayman]

Signed Eric Holliday another bullpen pitcher, depending how these guys look in spring training we could be looking at a new bullpen. With the lack of starting pitching the bullpen will be the backbone of the pitching. I've crunched the numbers and if we could shave .50 off the era of the bullpen and if the Gods of Greece look over us by knocking .75 of our starters era we could win the Bancroft.