Jan 27, 2058
by Erwin Wardman for the Yellow Springs Journal
If you think the performance on the field in 2057 was bad, hoo boy, is this team going to surprise you in 2058 – and not in a good way.
My friends, in an off-season where GM Rob McMonigal seemingly can't get any agents to take his calls, perhaps because of the ill use of veterans like Dong-Po Thum and Roelof Klooster, we are down to the leftovers that other, better managed teams don't want.
One of my sources, now outside the team but still with strong contacts and knowledge, tells me that McMonigal basically just sits there and lets the team get worse and worse. In fact, he thinks the reason he was fired was because he was the only one brave enough to call out the actions of the man in charge. He's helping me with a larger story, but I'm not ready to share that yet. Clip this and save.
Delgado, in his new Nine Uniform
At this point, for a starting catcher, we are looking at 37 year old Felipe Delgado he of a career WAR of 13.7 despite being a 12 year BBA veteran. Now that's not to say he's a bad player, and I'm sorry if he reads this and feels slighted, but that my friends, is a good number two catcher being asked to play as the number one. Which feels like something we also associate with the number two.
This is a guy who hasn't been a starter since 2053 and that was in London. Where, I might add, McMonigal has ties. Well, if the goal is to make the Nine into a GBC team, McMonigal gets top marks. If the goal is for him to make the team better, well, I'm just not seeing it.
The only good news is that Delgado is only signed to a 1 year, $3,000,000 deal. So that means this mistake won't be long-term, and either McMonigal, or hopefully, his replacement, can move on after yet another season of failure.
