The first year is always hard
It’s always hard moving to a new team, you have anywhere between 100-150 plus players to learn and gauge their worthiness. It’s harder if you’re moving into a new league as well, you’ve got a shed load of new teams to evaluate and work out just where your players stand in relation to everyone else’s. The real hard move is to a new team in a new league, that’s also an expansion team. Then you really do have no idea, it’s virtually a case of grab anyone that looks as though they can swing, pitch or catch. You then spend the first year trying to work out exactly what you have got, the one good thing is payroll space and cash in hand is usually plentiful, so you have no worries about shipping out the busts with the million dollar contracts you over enthusiastically gave them on the strength of their agents carefully crafted highlight reel.
That’s where the Red Crescents are at the moment, we’ve grabbed or were given a whole roster of aging BBA vets, they overspill into our minors meaning that they’re not very age appropriate and won’t be providing any exciting replacements for a while either. The 2046 draft will help with getting the rookie ball team back towards an age appropriate level but not by all accounts a talent appropriate level. I don’t mind that so much, I’d rather lose 100 games in rookie ball by playing 16-18-yr-olds that might at least improve enough to develop some above average organisational solders rather than have the roster populated with a pile of washed up vets who are just getting a paid holiday.
While searching through the stack of minor league player scouting reports you do occasionally find a hidden gem, or at least one who might actually earn his corn and that’s what I’ve done this week. Tucked away in Double-A Santiago was 26-yr-old Guillaume Martin, a player I had in Wichita. There he was a power-hitting DH who had two years in the BBA but couldn’t stick as there was seemingly always one kid better than him coming up the ranks. That eventually cost him his job, squeezed out by the pressure of players coming up behind. Here he’s already hit seven homers & 24 RBI in 35 games with the Tabaqueros along with a slash line of .348/.433/.644. I got him straight on the plane to Riyadh, I fully expect him to be a success at DH up here in the UMEBA.
The rest of it is just tinkering with the lineups, the rotation and really moving everyone around to try and find something that works, someone who stands out and becomes the face of the new franchise. Masaki Sato has shown early on with eight homers and 24 RBI, the knock on him as far as I’m concerned is that he’s not very good at fielding his position. I like my players to be able to flash the leather, even at first base. Catcher Mike Schofield is the first Red Crescent player to 10 homers, at any level of the franchise even though his batting average is way down at .210.
Sean Gardner having been “adequate” in the rotation will get a go in the stopper role at the back of the bullpen, his 19/8 K/BB might help him there. Meanwhile Bert Hackworth earns a major league deal by being promoted from Triple-A Port Elizabeth. He posted a 6-1 record there in eight starts with a 2.24 ERA; he also has an UMEBA track record. Not so good last year going 5-16 with Bagdad but in three years in Istanbul he had a 31-21 record in 79 starts and his first year in Bagdad, 2044, he owned a 12-10 record as well. The pitchers might not be living up to their ratings yet but nine out of the 12 on the Riyadh roster have currently poste a positive WAR.
The results haven’t quite been there so far in Riyadh’s inaugural season, but to be honest I don’t think many thought they would be, this season is all about establishing an identity, a path to future success. Once we find out our glaring weaknesses the money and cap space is there for us to aggressively go out and improve those areas in the 2046/7 off season.
