The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

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The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by Fat Nige » Tue Oct 08, 2019 6:43 am

The Far East Baseball League is supposedly the UMEBA's A ball league, the lowest level you can enter the UMEBA ladder. Is it currently the best environment for our rookies and youngsters to join though. There are currently 284 actively playing in the FEBL, 39 of those (including 21 30-somethings) are aged 26 or older. Extend that to 24 or older and you get 113 players, so around 40% of all the players in the league fall in this age bracket. Now with the first ever UMEBA draft due this year we will be dumping a load of teenagers into this setup, how will their development fare when they are constantly coming up against players that have 10-15 years of pro baseball experience and have played in many UMEBA games?

Studies by the leading BBA researcher, Professor Collins, have shown that it does nothing for their confidence or development if they are continually watching 30 somethings hurl 95 mph fast ball past their heads or watching their best pitch vanish over the fences propelled by beefy players who are in their second decade of power development. One of the UMEBA's main problem is an aging population, most of the teams are composed of players who are either very close to 30 or in most cases over-30. This has obviously been a consequence of the UMEBA's main source of players, that being the old worn out BBA players. In theory UMEBA can attempt to tempt the younger element who never made it all the way up the BBA ladder but not many are interested in a distant lower league out in sandy deserts. So it is vitally important that the UMEBA teams do everything they can to develop their own players, and that should include destroying them by pitting them up against gnarled veterans day after day. Some will obviously call for a Rookie League to be added below the FEBL but that IMO would add a lot of unnecessary effort, time and expense. It would be far easier to clean up the FEBL either by a voluntary age cap or a league imposed one. There should really be no need for any players over 23 to be in A ball, above that either you should be attempting the next rung of the ladder in Triple-A or in all honesty considering if baseball is really for them. Hoarding 35 and 36-yr-olds in A ball is destroying the credibility of the FEBL. So wake up UMEBA GM's !! Let's clean up this mess and give our first draftees a clear and confident passage through the leagues all the way to the top ! Your 17-yr-old #1 pick pitcher will thank you that the 36-yr-old ex-BBA slugger will no longer be hitting his 82 mph fast balls 450ft.

Talking of the first ever UMEBA draft, the teams better be breaking out the barbies and tubes of Fosters because of the 398 players that have declared themselves currently eligible for the draft, 394 are young Australians. So we'd better all learn that basic Australian phrase "G'day Sheila, fancy a Fosters?"
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Re: The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by bschr682 » Tue Oct 08, 2019 9:42 am

Isn’t this the second draft?
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Re: The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by DugoutDesperado » Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:32 pm

Interesting read. Although I have a 25, 26 and 27 year old on my A team, my over/under number for A ball is 24 years old.

Back in my pre-Brewster days when there was also a AA club for each team, my A-ball max target age was 22 with my AA max target age being 26. Without the AA level, I am not sure how attainable the 21 year limit is.

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Re: The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by RonCo » Fri Oct 18, 2019 9:10 am

Having played in a couple different leagues with limited minor league levels, I admit it's often hard to both manage to age as well as keep back ups around. It will be interesting to see how this environment alters over the next couple seasons as GMs get their own take on who they should play and not play.
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Re: The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by recte44 » Fri Oct 18, 2019 10:53 am

There will be a AA level added next year

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Re: The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by DugoutDesperado » Sat Oct 19, 2019 2:58 pm

recte44 wrote:
Fri Oct 18, 2019 10:53 am
There will be a AA level added next year
Has there been any discussion on whether the UMEBA teams should keep extras on the minor league rosters this year or will it be up to picking up a butt load of free agents on minor league contracts in the next off season?

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Re: The Far East Baseball League, is it fit for purpose?

Post by recte44 » Sat Oct 19, 2019 4:09 pm

Next season.

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