Hyvia Suomi
In their short time as an UMEBA franchise Riyadh have shown a petulance for taking a punt on players from obscure countries, for example Alba Gallino is the only full time Vatican City pro baseballer and they also have two of the only four Micronesian baseball players earning a living from the sport. This trend has continued with their selection of their first pick in the 2047 UMEBA amateur draft, the second overall pick. They have announced they will be selecting 19-yr-old Finnish infielder Jouo Rovanpera. There are currently 38 Finnish players up and down the various league systems, 13 of them on the Helsinki college roster, none of them on the BBA or UMEBA major league rosters. The Finish fans will be visiting grounds near you soon hollering their familiar “Hyvia Suomi” chant (literally “Good Finland” or more appropriately Go Finland).
Jouo Rovanpera, Edinburgh Highlanders
Rovanpera has just finished his only year at college in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 39 games there he had hit .278/.410/.785 with 23 homers & 48 RBI posting a 3.3 War. He led the team in average, homers & RBI as well as managing to draw 31 walks. He played all season at shortstop where despite making nine errors, he was fairly sound, delivering a +1.0 ZR with a range factor of 4.01. While he will play some games at short in the pros, the franchise see his longer term future more as being a second base man due to his arm not being the strongest. In any case he will get plenty of innings at both positions, probably in Taipei and finishing the year in South Guam as we have done with several of our top prospects. He did win two Batter of the Month Awards for the International Finishing Consortium C2 section as well as a Platinum Stick award at SS and came second in the IFC C2 Hitter of the Year Award. He also went 2-4 with a homer in his one post season appearance.