The Third Floor (48.09) Stars North, pt. 2

[mragland]

2.11.2047, Redwood City

“You gotta come back up here in April to check out Chandar,” says Lance between mouthfuls of breakfast burrito. Lance works at Stars North (Grant's half convinced that he lives here) in minor league operations.

“I saw some video of him, but not of him pitching, it was a kind of sizzle reel of his throws over to first base,” replies Grant, waiting for his Irish oatmeal to cool down. “I don't recall ever being all that interested in a pitcher's pick-off move before.”

“Dude's got a whip,” says Lance, nodding. “Good pick-off move, quick delivery out of the stretch, you just don't see righties control the running game like that.”

Lance isn't the first Stars North employee to tell Grant about Haravira Chandar, slated to start for the Rocketmen this year, for who knows for how long. The whole campus is in the midst of Chandar Mania. He's their golden boy, a product of the youth academy and, supposedly, proof positive that the Stars youth development machine is in good order. Grant's more dubious. Chandar hasn't yet shown he has any feel for the zone and he's already heading into his age twenty-one season. Player development insists that the sky's the limit with this guy (not really a kid anymore), but this ceiling hasn't translated into any encouraging stats.

“How, exactly, does a twenty year-old, throwing side-arm, from India, end up here? That's what I'd like to know,” says Grant.

Lance smiles and leans back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head. “Metro Stars, baby,” he says. “Mumbai wins the United Cup in '39 and the country starts going baseball crazy. Scouting department says Chandar is just the leading edge of a larger influx of Indian baseball players. We got lucky and poached him before a UMEBA club got hold of him.”

Lance takes a sip of coffee and continues. “Anyway, these Indian youth leagues started popping up in the early forties, but they needed instructors, so they brought in a bunch of guys from Japan and Korea. Chandar gets taught by a Japanese pitching instructor, and the Japanese, they're famously comfortable with a side-arm delivery, so nobody tried to 'fix' him. You put the same kid in California, somebody would have him in the three-quarters slot before he gets out of little league, but maybe that doesn't work for him. You know?”

“So we have scouts in India?” asks Grant.

“We must have scouts all over: India, Japan, Australia, China, Turkey, we've even got some kids in the academy from Iraq. Yeah, we must have scouts beating the bushes, but that's not really my department.”

Grant surveys the cafeteria. Pitchers and catchers wouldn't officially report until next week, but there is, possibly, four-fifths of the Stars rotation sharing a table. Grant would not have pegged Mike Dixon as a Froot Loops man, but there you go.

Lance stands up. “Time to head back to the office. See you around.”

'Back?' thinks Grant. 'It's 6:50 in the frigging morning.'

[bschr682]

Wow that Chandar guy is blowing up.

[CTBrewCrew]

Another minor league find….someday Madison will reel in one of these fish…

[recte44]

All this Valencia news is awesome.

[RonCo]

Indeed it is.

[Dington]

Very nice bumper.