The Brewster

Fulton Reed arrived to Belfast amidst substantial fanfare -- very rarely does a player who's achieved his level of success in America join an EBA franchise before their late 30s. The man who once led the MBBA in homers (with 46, in 2022) was now bringing his big bat to Belfast; would it live up to the hype?

Through his first eight games as a Northstar, Fulton Reed has exactly six hits -- and FOUR (no, not a typo) of those were long balls. The other two were doubles. He also drew three walks, one of which was intentional. While he'll be looking to improve his batting average going forward, there's no arguing with the fact that his .667 slugging percentage is exactly what Belfast was looking for when they inked him to a long-term contract.

Adam Dee reflected on Reed's early returns earlier this morning. "Fulton Reed is, without question, the most powerful hitter in Europe. I think he's right up there with anyone America has to offer, to be quite honest with you. He's a franchise player, and he'll be powering Belfast for years to come."

So far, Reed is joined at the top of the team's depth chart by Jon Higson, a hard-throwing outfielder with his own gaudy numbers: .366/.418/.598 is nothing to sneeze at. The Northstars are hoping that two other key acquisitions -- one-time MBBA Golden Bat winner William McIntyre and 3B Tommy Bender -- can improve their own work at the plate to give their stars some support.

Of course, even a talent such as Reed is awfully unlikely to maintain this pace -- finishing the year with 80 home runs is a tall order for anyone, even the bash brother himself. But his batting average will improve - if he can even inch up to the modest hitting numbers he posted back in North America, he'll be a leading candidate for the league's Hitter of the Year when all is said and done.

Hard throwing OF'er...ha

Madrid could only feel the cool breeze off all of Reed's swings and misses!

BTW...you outbid me on him by about 4 years...

That's some bass.

It'll be interesting to see if he puts up like 50-60 HRs if someone doesn't try to grab him back in the Rule 6 at some point - he's clearly a MBBA player.

agrudez wrote:It'll be interesting to see if he puts up like 50-60 HRs if someone doesn't try to grab him back in the Rule 6 at some point - he's clearly a MBBA player.

I'd be shocked if someone did. They wouldn't pony up 3-5 mill why would they pay 10 pp AND the cash?

Kinda like the old lefty geezer for Amsterdam who I'm drawing a blank on. He was probably better than 20+ relievers in the league but nobody wanted to spend 10 pp on a type of guy that's sitting on the open market each March. And there are big 1b/dh bats letting free agency most years

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

udlb58 wrote:

agrudez wrote:It'll be interesting to see if he puts up like 50-60 HRs if someone doesn't try to grab him back in the Rule 6 at some point - he's clearly a MBBA player.

I'd be shocked if someone did. They wouldn't pony up 3-5 mill why would they pay 10 pp AND the cash?

Kinda like the old lefty geezer for Amsterdam who I'm drawing a blank on. He was probably better than 20+ relievers in the league but nobody wanted to spend 10 pp on a type of guy that's sitting on the open market each March. And there are big 1b/dh bats letting free agency most years

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

Latrobe?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup

Sent from my XT1526 using Tapatalk

Yeeeaaaaaaah. 13 HR, 193 OPS+, .261/.389/.739 triple-slash in his first month of action.

The EBA leader in homers has 14 in 44 games. Fulton Reed is one back, with 13, in 26 games.

What, are you platooning him?

agrudez wrote:What, are you platooning him?

He signed him after the season started.

Yeah, Reed joined the EBA a couple of weeks in.