2042 Nashville Bluebirds

[RonCo]

So down there in Music City they take their baseball seriously. Or, at least it’s right up there with most anything else there is to do about town—more important than eating, less important than long neck beer and Dolly Parton, who still looks fabulous and still sings a helluva tune. This means that it’s good for the general public the Bluebirds are getting around to being good.

And, let’s face it. Good players or not, the Nashville baseball club is on the rise, winning 90 games last year after being mired in the neverland of .500 ball for several seasons before. Just in time, I suppose. As a result of what has become a legendary case study of how NOT to build a ballpark, the new GM (Commish Matt Rectenwald) is STILL paying a cool $5M per year for Les Paul Field—but one more year and that albatross is gone. Meaning, those resources can go into keeping the team on the field viable.

Which makes this season so much of a focus, right?

It’s important for the Bluebirds to at least hold serve so they can keep the process—The Plan, as it were—moving. It’s going to be tough, but doable.

Last year’s 90 wins was no fluke. Despite of (or because of) a patchwork rotation, the team today is good. The team scored 928 runs last year while only giving up 834. That last ranking 5th in the Frick. As far as that rotation is concerned, Josh Brown is out, but Freddy Delgado is in, and Elliot Buckland has gotten through spring training healthy. Either of those guys should fit in just fine. Of course, it should be noted that betting lines in Rectenwald’s old turf have set the over/under for a Buckland boo-boo at May 5th. Take that for what it’s worth. It would be great, though, to see the guy get through a season, wouldn’t it? (The last time he threw over 170 innings in a season was 2034—which was also the only time he’s accomplished that). To round it out, Likiliki, Kim, and Kun should all be as good as they are. Ta-heng Hor should reprise his swingman/bullpen role just fine.

The team went out and got Edris Mtume to bolster the bullpen, but he went out and got hurt, so there goes that. This means Lorenzo de’Medici and Kidane Ata are the top arms in the pen—and that assumes Ata, who struggled in 46 innings last season—isn’t just sent to play All-Star quality center field full time. Regardless, they are good, but after that, thin. Manuel Orozco is another injury risk. One wonders how soon Rectenwald will go to the very few kids the team has in the pipeline, or which deals he’ll pull off through the season…because, let’s face it, the pitching here continues to be much more borderline than a Recte team tends to be. Workable, yes, but therein lie land mines and all that jazz.

Offensively, though, the squad is pretty much there.

Alberto Rodriguez dropped a 4 WAR debut at catcher in 2041. He’s 21-years-old, and looks to be a top 5 kind of talent there, perhaps better when you put together the whole package. If he can avoid the Sophomore slump, the club is good to go there.

Across the infield, Ernesto Souza, at 22, is now a grizzled vet who dropped 3 WAR last year and should just get better. Second baseman Jesus Yan is 21, and should be able to do 2 WAR. At 21, shortstop Francisco Otero is a Zimmer-quality defender who can hit from the left side of the plate. Look for him to platoon with veteran J. J. McQuade. Round this out by saying that it seems 21-year-old Tony Frost has supplanted Jerome Delage at third base. He’s a true switch hitter who did 1.4 WAR in a partial season last year.

The team added Mark White to the outfield this year, presumably in a platoon role and as a defensive replacement. Good player. Like last season, though, Gipper Kengos and Kidane Ata will get most of the ink, and for good reason. On top of these guys you’ve got an everywhere outfielder in veteran William Wood, and a good young guy in 22-year-old Nacho Mendez. You just have to root for a guy named Nacho, am I right? Stephen Lord, also 22, is a solid enough young guy, too.

So, there are chips here. The club should score runs.

I don’t know that they can win the division, but I don’t know that they can’t. I’d guess not, though. The problem is that there is a lot of competition here in the Heartland. Yellow Springs is who we are, and Chicago is really very good. Unfortunately, we can say the same for Loserville, though they seem to buffering from the San Antonio virus that keeps taking down their pitchers. I can hear the stories in the future … it came up from San Antonio, blew threw New Orleans like a fetid hurricane, and then ravaged Loserville.

Well, anyway.

Bottom line, I think this season is an inflection point for the club, and that success is measured in a little bit of a different lens. Sure, the fans want to tip a few cold ones and celebrate, but the core of the Nashville season remains in the build. Look for the work Matt’s been doing to build a bit of a farm system to progress, and look for incremental bumps to the pitching staff. Look for them to get through the one more season of tossing $5M into the ballpark drink, so to speak. If the club wins 85-90 games and keeps the financial wheels rolling, the rest of the 40s could be turning pretty Blue in the Heartland. A stumble, and the aura around the club turns a bit darker.

That’s the way of a rebuild, right? At some point it flips.

For Nashville, 2042 is that point.

My guess is that it all works out.

88 Wins, and a tail wind going into 2043.

[recte44]

Thanks! Pretty spot on