9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

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9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

Post by RonCo » Sun Sep 22, 2019 10:10 am

Hype Machine News Complex Questioned

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Last January, the Yellow Springs Nine signed 16 year old Kazuki Ojima out of Tokyo and into a baseball contract that included a $3M bonus right off the top. Ojima had a swagger about him, you see. S’2”, 185 pounds. Scouts said he had a sweet, sweet swing from the left side of the plate and that he was good with the girls. The ratings (7/9/8/6/6) said “star,” the tabloids said “leader” as he reported into the team’s International complex.

But the development monster is a greedy guy, and the first hint of troubles came a month later when scouts said they didn’t think the bat would reach the gaps quite so good (9 > 8). The next report said that apparently the Lasix procedure didn’t work as well as expected, and the plate discipline wasn’t quite so good (6 > 5). In April, the complex’s hitting coach said he was thinking the power potential was over-stated (8 > 7).

This is when stories of journalistic manipulation started to surface.

Ojima, it turns out, is the nephew of Hashima Koto, multi-billionaire news magnate. Word started to leak out that perhaps Ojima had been hyped to the tune of $3M bucks. "He had the movie star looks," said one journalist. "The plan was to get him a baseball background to feed his aura. No one thought he'd ever actually play ball for long."

A week later, the club’s roaming scout reported to the executive row that Ojima’s projected contact/average was probably more like a 6 than a 7, and the gap power was still probably on its way down (8 > 7).

News was generally good for the next week, and tabloid stories settled down until June when it was noted that Ojima had siphoned $1M of his bonus cash to a Swiss bank account that was cosigned by his uncle. It was noted that Ojima rarely made it to the batting cage during his allotted time, and instead was spending his time in a local community theater troop. In July the team suggested that the kid’s contact and eye were both really kind of below par—the Contact fading from 6 > 5, and his eye dropping from 5 > 4. In August, the wire carried concerns that his ability to avoid striking gout was also probably over-stated, dropping the rating from 6 > 5.

The complex season finished with news that Ojima’s power was more like a middle infielder’s (7 > 6), and the Gap (7 > 6) and Eye (4 > 3) were looking like they’d be in line with a good AA guy.

Ojima, free of the complex, was seen in Indonesian night clubs and spending what had to be another million of his bonus. He was appearing in a night club doing stand up when a visit from team officials caused the club’s scouts to rejigger the numbers and suggest that his power was more like a 5 vs. the 6 they had him at, and that his swing, that was once sweet-sweet, was now maybe not so sweet-sweet (4 > 3).

This week, per his contract, the kid made a mandatory off-season session with a coach. The report was not good: Gap 6 > 5, Avoid K 5 > 4.

All total, it adds up to a 7/9/8/6/6 looking a lot more like a 3/5/5/3/4, which might dominate in little league in a good year.

“It’s been a good run,” Ojima was reported to say. “And I’ve still got a million buckeroos to spend.”
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Re: 9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

Post by HoosierVic » Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:54 pm

Sounds like he would have no trouble dominating in an Indonesian night club, though ...

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Re: 9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

Post by indiansfan » Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:22 pm

Probably be my team news next year
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Re: 9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

Post by ae37jr » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:33 pm

I feel like with IFA's, it's almost a better bet(at least mentally) to snag up multiple crappy players then one good one. The good one is likely to break your heart while the crappy ones can only get better.
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Re: 9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

Post by jleddy » Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:50 pm

ae37jr wrote:
Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:33 pm
I feel like with IFA's, it's almost a better bet(at least mentally) to snag up multiple crappy players then one good one. The good one is likely to break your heart while the crappy ones can only get better.
I concur...I was willing to spend big after seeing the relative success Yellow Springs has had over the years. But when I saw this year's crop, I was pretty underwhelmed, even to spread out my budget over several players. I wasn't going to go over $1M in any scenario, so I overpaid but stayed under budget for just one player with a few checkmarks in the "pros" column (position scarcity (catcher), at least one plus-potential skill (8 Gap), at least one plus-personality trait (high Work Ethic)).
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Re: 9-News: 40.013 - The Crushing of a IFA

Post by RonCo » Mon Oct 21, 2019 3:37 pm

This game really, really does not like this Ojima kid... It keeps on kicking and kicking him again and again. From 7/9/8/6/6 down now to 2/5/4/2/3. I mean, how much lower can you go OOTP?

That's a challenge, BTW.

Clearly a well-spent $3,000,002 (plus tax)
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