Jun 9th, 2035
Offen Sichtlich der Kunstgriff
Friends! I think you've heard me mention it before, but I LOVE getting new Crusaders. And now that the draft has moved, it's like Christmas in July! Or .. um ... June .. or May. When did the draft happen? . ... checking .... Yes, May! May is not a time when you used to get excited about new Crusaders. There are no free agents, or a trading deadline. But here we are! Middle of the season, and a bunch of potential new Crusaders! I say potential because negotiations haven't started yet, but we typically sign almost all of our players, so.... Anyway, here they are!
Odemar Cawston was selected with the 21st pick in round 1. He's an 18 year old right handed pitcher from ... Aruba?!? What is he doing learning a trade that bring him to the US? I mean ... just stay in Aruba. It's Aruba! Okay, questionable decision making skills aside, Cawston reportedly throws a cutter, a curveball and a slider. I hear there's also a change up that shouldn't exist. Okay .. another diatribe perhaps? Offie has always wondered why scouts bother to report on pitches that have no potential to be big league caliber. Many of these players were pitchers in high school. It's not like every scouting report says, "He also has a grade 20 fastball and curve". Just don't tell me about the grade 20 change up. No one cares. Offie certainly doesn't. I don't list, "Speaks Japanese, but only seven words" on my resume.... Anyway, there's one problem with Odemar. Someone said he was asking for EIGHT million dollars as a signing bonus. Um ... that seems a bit high. But you know what? I bet when he was drafted by our incredible Crusaders franchise that number came down. Who doesn't want to be a Crusader?
In the second round, with pick number 55, the Crusaders took Pat David. David is NOT from Aruba. He is from Skokie, Illinois. He should definitely play baseball to get out of Illinois. Offie remembers when he was a kid and Illinois just kept sending governor after governor to jail. And kept raising taxes while cutting more and more services. And kept losing businesses to nearby states that didn't tax as much. And people were leaving the state at an alarming rate. No one really believed that Chicago would turn into 1980's Detroit, even while gun violence was rising and the city was becoming more and more segregated and tourism declined because it cost $100 a night to park in the city and people were afraid of being mugged. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose ... Still, you'd think decades of economic and developmental policies that were only good for your largest city and ignored the rest of the state until it was an uneducated, dysfunctional, impoverished drain on the economy of that city to a magnitude that was unsustainable would be something you'd see coming. From miles away. I mean, people don't just ignore all the desperate and unhappy people around themselves and hide behind shiny expensive walls until those walls are eventually eroded and collapse from the outside pressure of the mess you've been ignoring while enjoying your wealth, do they? But I digress ...
Umm ... Pat David. Well, he's pretty fast, but not super fast. He's got a solid outfield glove, but maybe not a center field one. And he can kind of hit, but maybe doesn't have a big league level bat. He's 19 and hits right handed, by the way. Still ,there are a lot of things to like here, and if any of them get just a bit better, he could be a big leaguer! Welcome, Pat!
Francisco Hernadez is our third round selection. He's a catcher! He hits the ball gap to gap pretty well, but really only has middling home run power. He's also okay behind the plate. Not great, but okay. He played some first base on high school, too. Much like David, he's an almost big league level bat, but will need to surprise the scouts a little to get there.
I think I'm going to stop here. No slight to the rest of our new young potential Crusaders, but basically the rest of this class reads like the last description. No one is really exciting. They all will need some luck, or help, or SOMETHING to get to the big leagues. I'm sure they're all good people. I'll try to keep you updated on any exciting developments as the season goes on.
