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24-Year-Old Facing Existential Crisis
April 18, 2060: Marshall Islands – Tony “The Pearl” Munyiga arrived at the Atoll in 2058 as a 22-year-old kid with stars in his eyes. He proceeded to take the world by storm, posting a .377 wOBA in 385 plate appearances, hitting 13 homers and driving in 40 runs with is .328/.356/.539 slash, which—all total—was good for a 151 wRC+ value, which was augmented by 2.5 run base running value. It added up to 2.5 WAR in only 89 games started. Call it a 4 WAR season if it had extended all year.
Is Insurance Salesman
Munyiga's Next Step?No one really expected a complete duplication of that the following year, which was good because while his 18 homers and .282/.297/.498 in 130 games was solid, it was by no means spectacular. Still, not bad. Definitely seemed like he’d skipped the Sophomore jinx, anyway. Then came 2060, and the numbers sild again. At 24-years old, he started 140 games, and posted 14 homers and a .257/.288/.403 slash. Despite stealing 34 bases (on42 tries), a -.4 WAR said he was below replacement.
A fluke, people called it.
The Pearl is a player, they said. Wait and see. He’ll bounce right back.
Which bring us to 2061 and Tony Munyiga’s “age 25” season. After two weeks, the Pearl is hitting a tepid .182/.229/.295. he has managed a homer, so that’s cool, right? The result has been, literally, horrible. A 42 OPS+. A .227 wOBA. A 39 wRC+. In the field, despite progress in various development labs, his glove seems to be pure concrete. His 13 games in the field have produced a -1.8 ZR over a .934 EFF.
And so the question has to be asked: is Tony Munyiga playing himself off the island? How long can the team afford to keep running him out there? At what point does manager Kate Fiscus say enough is enough?
The answer, as they say, is blowing in the wind. But on the atoll, where the storms come every day, one has to assume that sooner or later, a Hard Rains’ A-Gonna Fall.
| Year | Age | HR | RBI | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2058 | 22 | 13 | 40 | 12 | 8 | 0.328 | 0.356 | 0.539 | 0.895 | 145 | 151 | 2.6 |
| 2059 | 23 | 18 | 68 | 23 | 2 | 0.282 | 0.297 | 0.458 | 0.755 | 104 | 103 | 1.2 |
| 2060 | 24 | 14 | 60 | 34 | 8 | 0.257 | 0.288 | 0.403 | 0.69 | 88 | 86 | -0.4 |
| 2061 | 25 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0.182 | 0.229 | 0.295 | 0.525 | 42 | 39 | -0.4 |
| Total BBA | 46 | 173 | 71 | 18 | 0.281 | 0.305 | 0.451 | 0.756 | 106 | 106 | 3 |
April 18, 2060: Marshall Islands – Tony “The Pearl” Munyiga arrived at the Atoll in 2058 as a 22-year-old kid with stars in his eyes. He proceeded to take the world by storm, posting a .377 wOBA in 385 plate appearances, hitting 13 homers and driving in 40 runs with is .328/.356/.539 slash, which—all total—was good for a 151 wRC+ value, which was augmented by 2.5 run base running value. It added up to 2.5 WAR in only 89 games started. Call it a 4 WAR season if it had extended all year.
Is Insurance Salesman
Munyiga's Next Step?
A fluke, people called it.
The Pearl is a player, they said. Wait and see. He’ll bounce right back.
Which bring us to 2061 and Tony Munyiga’s “age 25” season. After two weeks, the Pearl is hitting a tepid .182/.229/.295. he has managed a homer, so that’s cool, right? The result has been, literally, horrible. A 42 OPS+. A .227 wOBA. A 39 wRC+. In the field, despite progress in various development labs, his glove seems to be pure concrete. His 13 games in the field have produced a -1.8 ZR over a .934 EFF.
And so the question has to be asked: is Tony Munyiga playing himself off the island? How long can the team afford to keep running him out there? At what point does manager Kate Fiscus say enough is enough?
The answer, as they say, is blowing in the wind. But on the atoll, where the storms come every day, one has to assume that sooner or later, a Hard Rains’ A-Gonna Fall.
