“Witam Czeslaw”
Welcome Czeslaw is the message to Czeslaw Bronkala, the young 19-yr-old Polish player, who Riyadh have just announced they have reached agreement with to draft him 13th overall in this year’s UMEBA amateur draft. Once more it’s a player from a little-known baseball country that the Red Crescents have gone for, he will become the country’s 13th professional player. Most of them play in the UMEBA farm system, a couple have made it to BBA farm teams and just one has made it to the major leagues playing for Jerusalem.
Czeslaw Bronkala, Warsaw Wyverns
For two years Bronkala has been playing in the International Finishing Consortium for the Warsaw Wyverns in his native country. Jouo Rovanpera hit three home runs in a IFA game and Bronkala is as good a slugger, hitting three against Seoul in a 4-8 effort that produced seven RBI. That was in his first year, 2046, when he also won the MVP award of the IFC Round 1 playoffs, won a Platinum Stick award at CF and finished second in the IFA C1 Hitter of the Year Award. He also went to the 2046 IFC All-Star game. His second year in the IFC didn’t see him win as many personal awards but he still picked up the MVP award of the Championship Playoff round and a Championship Ring as Warsaw won the Grand Prize.
There was no lack of form in the second year, he played 39 games each year, posting 2.3 & 2.0 WAR. His IFC career triple slash line was .278/.399/.681 with an OPS of 1.080. He has also shown he can be a patient hitter at the plate, drawing 55 walks in 295 AB’s. This season just finished in the IFC he showed he could hit against anybody hitting .923 OPS against lefties and .899 OPS against righties. He can play several different positions in the field, but undoubtedly centre field is his best currently. He has a good arm and has a speedy gait which gives him an impressive range around the outfield. He might well get a few innings at the outfield corners in Rookie Ball to see if he can pick them up as well, but certainly it is envisaged that Bronkala will remain in centre as his full-time position.
Riyadh has struggled so far in their short UMEBA existence with the long ball and so they hope that Rovanpera & Bronkala will change that and they may well become the 3-4 punch in the middle of the Red Crescents lineup in years to come.