2048, the lost year
Mistakes were made at the start of 2047, chasing an improvement to our 70 wins, we didn’t overspend but we spent up to our budget. The players didn’t pan out though and we suffered for it, the fans deserted us in their droves and revenue sank like a stone leaving us with a $10 million loss. The crowd fell from a 19,000 odd average to barely 15,000 and the Sheikh cut our budget to a mere $47 million. Now the fans know we’re dead in the water and we look like we’ll be lucky to sell 5,000 season tickets and the money men now project us to lose another $10-12 million despite us cutting everything we can to get our payroll down to our new $47 million allowance. It doesn’t help of course that the two expansion teams are under the cosh anyway, getting almost $5 million less from the league for their media contract than any of the established teams, that is half our projected loss.
So, 2048 will be a lost year, while our batters slave away trying to improve an their 2047 where no-one managed a .300 batting average and only three players reached double-digit homers, our pitchers will be worse. Possibly two, maybe three, of the staff are UMEBA standard, the rest barely make Triple-A standard. We have spent the off season stuffing the minors with what 21-25 year olds we can pick up on a free, hoping maybe one, some, any of them might prove to be the proverbial diamond in the rough, extremely unlikely but sometimes miracles happen. We managed to pick up two Rule 5 guys, 23-yr-old Umar Mutemi, drafted from Jerusalem, may well make a decent DH. He has only played 52 games above A Ball in his three pro years but my people swear he’s improved and has the contact and power to be a good slugger in the UMEBA. Meanwhile 26-yr-old Vinnie Coalman, drafted from Cairo, will have to work hard to prove he belongs in the Riyadh outfield corp.. He’s spent several years in the Rupert Horn Memorial League (AAA) and failed to make much of an impression in four separate “cup of coffees” in the BBA. He signed a minor league deal last year with Cairo and posted 2.8 WAR in 62 games there, he could perhaps make the step up, but we have a multitude of very similar outfielders. He hasn’t got power, but he can play all three outfield positions and can work a walk or two. Trouble is that Torvald van Donkelaar can play all three positions better and Juan Martinez can play Coalman’s preferred LF position better too. It will be a real battle in spring training to convince us he deserves a roster spot.
