And so the new era of Twin Cities begins (2031-2)

[Fat Nige]

November 25th 2030

The Mission have finished their fall league adventure so it’s time to turn back to the real job in hand, lifting Twin Cities to their first ever .500 season. Former GM Blumstead had laid the foundations but in a month when the franchise was rudderless crazy decisions were made, some promising players were waived and some terrible free agents were signed.

Appeals to the office of the Commissioner brought back some of the errors but the damage was done to the clear plan and a lot of the team leaders and good players simply refused to talk extensions with the new management and declared their interest in testing free agency. Ronald White, Carl Pine and Ernest Shaffer were amongst those that turned their back on the franchise and in fact 18 players left for free agency. Monsters only had three players eligible for arbitration and all three were non-tendered. So Twin Cities will start December with just 28 players on the 40-Man roster and only three bullpen arms on the roster that are over 28-yrs-old.

24-yr-old English centre fielder Jaydon Harsnett, 21-yr-old left fielder Ray Cooper and 24-yr-old Puerto Rican third baseman Chris Limon will be the cornerstones that the Monsters are now built on in the field. 24-yr-old Reese Rayner will be the ace on the mound and 24-yr-old Caleb Benavides will close out the games. It probably is too soon for a lot of the Twin Cities’ players to be playing such a leading role in the MBBA but it’s sink or swim. It doesn’t seem that packing the line-up with ageing has-been or never-will-be’s through free agency is a wise policy. Help is coming, the rookie ball team, Cheyenne Bulls, went from 11-109 in year one to 51-69 in year two. The Triple-A & Double-A teams both won 69 games (both a reduction on 2029 due to their players now moving up to feature for the Monsters who improved by 20 wins to just 22 games below .500. And of course the San Antonio Missions won their Fall League Division and became the third franchise team to reach post season play, only Triple-A Duluth Freeze have championship rings after they swept Annapolis Sailors in The Big One at the end of their inaugural season.

The players that led San Antonio to the post season will now filter back to their teams filled with renewed vigour, looking to lead them to the playoffs. The experiment with young Jack Bates, moving him from first to second base, may will continue but with Roland White leaving there is now a vacant slot at first so it really depends on who the team can pick up in free agency as to where he will likely play in 2031. 22-yr-old pitcher Jesse Howard who got his MBBA cup of coffee in September last year, going 1-1 in three outings, posting a 2.16 ERA and a 10/2 K/BB ratio, will almost certainly be in the rotation for 2031 but now the planning starts, the scouring of free agent lists starts and the planning for the #1 overall pick in the first-year-player draft begins. With the payroll currently standing at just $17.4 million there's money overflowing in the coffers but it has to be spent wisely.

[felipe]

you're in a nice situation

[Fat Nige]

I equate it very much to the situation I had when I took over ATC in 2004, they had a blossoming farm system and went on to become a major force (although they didn't win it all till the year after I left lol, should tell me something)