Robins Creatively Add Another Bullpen Stud
(Robins convert struggling starter into a dominating RP... with a new name)
Juan Jose Fuentes (9/7/6 Ratings) was always meant to be a Robins relief pitcher. When he was traded to the team in the deal that sent Rick Ward (9/5/6 Ratings) to Yellow Springs back in 2031, Brooklyn was in the middle of stock piling as many young starters as they could. The expectation was that some of the meddling guys, like Fuentes, would end up as RP conversions when the team was ready to compete.
After being knocked out in the Cartwright Cup in 2035, the time was right to convert Fuentes. He was coming off what the team feels was a career year and they wanted to use that momentum to carry over into the pen in establishing him as a great pitcher. Then one day GM Alan Ehlers fell out of bed, clunked his head and decided to convert Jorge Perez instead.
Perez had the vast pitch selection that makes the whole RP convert a lot more fun. But he was also considered to be a valuable young starter with higher upside then Fuentes. With Brooklyn's commitment to leveraging around a spectacular bullpen, and subsequently doing away with traditional starting pitchers. The decision was easier then it should have been and thus Fuentes was saved.
The success of Jorge Perez and the allocation of Brooklyn's innings lead to speculation that the Robins would convert another player that they really shouldn't. Fuentes name came up again as the obvious choice. The team went as far as listing a poll on thier website asking who they should convert. After the initial shock and awe of seeing the Robins list Mauro Flores (10/7/8 Ratings) in the poll. Readers settled on what Brooklyn had felt all along. That Fuentes was the guy for the job.
The paperwork was sent to the offices and the deal was just about done. If not for a delay in the processing, Fuentes would be a Robins reliever as we speak. Meanwhile in Jacksonville, GM Tyler Simmons was scrambling to find a 5th starter/swingman. So he decided to call up swing man depot(aka the Brooklyn front office) and try to swing a deal for Fuentes.
"Hmm, what should I offer?" Said Simmons to himself. " How about Jose Torres? He's got about 50 pitches. Maybe Brooklyn will be blinded by the thought of converting all those pitches that he will give up on a pitcher with superrior movement?"
The offer was sent and sat in the mailbox of the Brookyln GM for nearly a day. As part of a financial bailout plan, the Brooklyn GM must work as a short order cook during the winter months. Sundays are the busiest day for the brunch master. Upon checking his mail on the way home from work, the offer was intially laughed off. The issue seemed to be the difference in movement.
But after some further numbers crunching, the Brooklyn GM agreed to the deal. Torres was a team leader, was a few bucks cheaper, and had less service time. Also, his pitch selection would probably wreak the most havoc in the magical mystery machine that pitchers go through when a team waves the ominous RP convert wand.
The results are in and it looks like Brooklyn has hit another homerun in RP conversion. Just looking at the scope of VS RHB, Torres went from 9/6/6 ratings to 13/7/6. That's right. A four point spike in stuff and a one point bump in moivement too. The measley point in movement, which could have been closer then what it looked to begin with, was no longer an issue. Thus letting Brooklyn off the hook on being fleeced in yet another deal. Well, I guess that remains to be seen. Fuentes probably wins 20 games this year and goes Mario Mendez on us.
As for Torres, he becomes the 9th Brooklyn pitcher to throw 100 mph+ in what is probably the most under rated pitching staff in the league. He joins Ryosei Akiyama (10/5/7 Ratings), Jorge Perez, Bernard Keller (10/5/7 Ratings), Manuel Andres (10/7/5 Ratings), and Jonathan Frank (9/6/6 Ratings) as back of the game options. As for the starters, Brooklyn intends to use Mauro Flores (10/7/8 Ratings) and Francisco Ruiz (10/7/6 Ratings) in a more traditional manner and will fill out the rotation with some combination of Ken Bates (10/5/7 Ratings), Manuel Romano (9/6/5 Ratings), Kidanu Cherono (9/7/6 Ratings), Takeo Aoki (9/6/4 Ratings), Ingo Bennaars (9/5/5 Ratings), and bullpen days. A hybrid style that draws influences from tradition baseball, the cyclone, and the pitching platoon.
**Note that even the URL converter under rates our staff. Most of those 10 stuffs are really 12-13's**
