Year End Conundrums for Pharaoh Brass
By Khepri Quraishi, Egypt Today Sports
September 1, 2047
Some things Cairo Pharaoh brass might be or should be thinking about as the end of the season looms large:
- Who’s going to replace Diesel Dave behind the plate? Dave is certainly overpaid, but 1) he hits some home runs for a team playing in a home run hell hole, 2) he’s a team captain, 3) he’s hellaciously popular and fan rating will suffer when he’s gone, 4) he’s very competent behind the plate, and 5) good catchers are hard to come by. But let’s face it – he’s gone. He has made it abundantly clear that he will test the free agent market. The chances of him resigning as a free agent range from very slim to none. Ed Cooper has done a decent job as a backup since being elevated, but he hardly looks like a candidate for the full-time job. And there is nothing else in the system.
- Should the Pharaohs offer arbitration to Wally Geoghegan? The best guess estimate for his arbitration value is $5.3 million. That’s a lot of shekels (or Egyptian pounds even). He’s a solid defensive first baseman but a defensive liability playing second base where he would be more valuable. If he plays first, then Lawrence Blanchard is pretty much relegated to backing Wally up and pinch hitting. The back up availability is important because Wally is not the healthiest specimen alive.
- Can Pavlushka Yalunin make the jump from AA ball and become the starting second baseman? We’ll have a better idea before year end because he’s getting a chance at that job real time during his September call-up. His performance might (will?) influence the decision on Wally’s arbitration.
- Should Han-i Kim get a shot in the rotation next year? This year’s first round draft pick has performed well at AA Agana in Guam. But he’s only 19. A further year of development in AAA seems the best course of action. Still, Kim will probably get a look in Spring Training. If he does well, what will the Pharaohs do?
- Will Dashiell Fairebon execute his $1.675 million player option? The 31-year-old flopped for Cairo (.149 in 37 games) but has seemingly reinvented himself in AAA (.315 with 33 stolen bases). If he could perform anything like that for Cairo, he’d be the perfect second baseman. But the club is supposedly secretly hoping he turns down the player option.
- Should the Pharaohs execute Miguel Ramos’s team option (for $1.36 million)? At 7-7, 5.56 ERA, he’s hardly been a bright light in the rotation. And he’s 36 years old. But someone has to start and he is an iron man. Best guess – see you later, Miguel.
- An overriding issue will be what to seek in free agency. With Diesel gone, the team will have a payroll of between $25.5 million to $33 million next year (depending on Fairebon’s player option, Ramos’s team option, and whether Wally gets offered arbitration). That translates to a probable pool of between $12 million to $19 million to spend on free agents. GM Joe Geoghegan has given no indication of how he would spend that money, but the prevailing opinion is that he won’t spend a bundle on one player since one player won’t a contender make. Of course, the Pharaohs also have to deal with the dynamic that many desirable free agents have no interest in relocating to the Middle East.
So stay tuned to this station as we while our way through September
That’s a wrap.