Bear Trap: Bauer Interviewed at Spring Training – 64.01

[neugey]

Bear Trap: Bauer Interviewed at Spring Training

by Lem Piker, Sr., esteemed BBA/GBC columnist

The full assortment of Moscow players have now settled in at Spring Training (ST). The ST roster currently sits at 43 for the Thunder Bears - a number that may also increase slightly as ST commences, and more signings occur. This dawn of 2064 baseball gave me a chance to sit down with Moscow GM Mike Bauer. Without further ado, let’s get to our interview.

PIKER: Welcome to Spring Training? How does it feel?

BAUER: It feels new. During my last GBC stint with London, I left for the Edmonton job before the GBC offseason got underway. But things are going great.

PIKER: How so?

BAUER: Going into this, I felt like so many of the middle-class free agents would be immediately picked over by BBA teams and the GBC teams would be left with scraps. That really hasn’t been the case. There’s been plenty of talent available, even if it isn’t the high-end variety coveted by the top BBA franchises.

PIKER: That seems fortunate. So what do you like so far about the 2064 T-Bears?

BAUER: Our youth and versatility. We’ve made a concerted focus to get younger, even if some of the players take their lumps in their first few GBC seasons. It’ll pay off later.

PIKER: Speaking of “paying”, you laid out a very handsome contract for new LF Hector Porrett. Did you overpay for a player that hasn’t set foot at the major league level?

BAUER: I don’t think so. As far as the contract, I feel we had to be aggressive with our offer to land him. I don’t think we’ll regret it. With Porrett and (Isacco) Aglietti, we’ve now got the left-handed hitting tandem locking down our corner outfield spots.

PIKER: If Porrett is playing left field, what will happen to Godofredo Chucha?

BAUER: Chucha will still start some games in left, particularly against southpaws. He’s also going to factor into our 1B and DH rotation. When we need his speed, we’ll try to work a way to get him into the lineup. Our new skipper Dan Caldwell likes his players to run.

PIKER: What about the middle infield? That position looks very different than last year.

BAUER: Indeed, we’ve changed things up there. We signed 2B Ari Ernalia who had been rock-solid for Sydney. He’s a slap hitter and doesn’t give us much power, but that’s okay. We need offensive efficiency and some other players can provide the power. Over at short, we’re giving the job to SS Nicolai Pletnikov, who recently had a tiny bit of playing time with Cobble Hill but was delighted to sign with us and be closer to his home in Ukraine. He’s a switch-hitter and that helps us. We want to avoid having a roster where it becomes dominated by right-handed hitters and we don’t match up well sometimes. Backing both up will be Rich Moore, who we recently acquired in a trade. He has plus defense for sure. And we’ll still mix in our team captain Chia-kang Zhang as a pinch-hitter and secondary option.

PIKER: Also involved in that Moore trade was catcher Jesse Holman. What makes Holman ideal?

BAUER: He’s a switch hitter with considerable contact skills playing a premium position. We’re also changing a lot at catcher. We really need to improve our defense there. Our plan is to carry three catchers: Holman, Stan Ward and defensive specialist Ben Wilkins who we tried out at the end of last year. Last year our starting pitchers got hammered and we think the catcher position exasperated that problem. It’s conceivable Wilkins may start over half of our games. Doesn’t matter if Wilkins hits .100. We need to bring these staff ERA’s down pronto. The other two will not only back him up but get a lot of run at DH and possibly 1B.

PIKER: Hopefully that works out. Minus a few arms, the pitching staff doesn’t look much different than last year.

BAUER: Correct. We added Sam Landry to our rotation to supply a veteran presence. We think he’ll stabilize the rotation. Sam is a guy who has seen it all, having played a long time for Omaha/Brook Park in the BBA Heartland, which is as pressure-packed as it gets. Trevor Lawrence is going to get his first full season as starter and we’ll show patience. We think Siaosi Kane could still be our ace – he’s pitched pretty well so far for a guy who is only 20. In the bullpen, it’s all about finding the complimentary pieces to turn things over to our closer Riyadi Subandrio. Riyadi had a rough 2063 but things got better toward the end of the season. If he returns to his dominant 2062 form, the rest of the GBC will feel his presence.

PIKER: Yeah he was something else during that championship run. So what is going on at center field? I can’t figure out what the plan is.

BAUER: We’re trying to be flexible and hope the right player emerges. Safwan bin Kedar did okay last year, but some chronic back issues limited his effectiveness. We want Eng-hee Shen to stay on the major league roster this season, but how much playing time he gets is not known yet. We recently traded for another CF in Pablo Padilla, a talented AAA player who was blocked in Tokyo’s system. He’s a lefty, and we like the idea of starting an all-lefty outfield against GBC pitchers who are vulnerable to them.

PIKER: That leaves us with the “hot corner”. Any changes there?

BAUER: Not really. We have a solid starter there in Julio Flores. We hope he can take the next step and get more all-star vote consideration. Backing him up will Kozma Gizikis, same as last year.

PIKER: Well I think we’ve touched on most of the roster. What’s been cooking on the minor-league level?

BAUER: To be frank, I haven’t been the nicest boss for those guys. We have almost 60 guys allocated to our rookie level. When you consider the upcoming amateur draft, only 20 of those guys tops will make the final cut. People are calling it Squid Game down there because there are so many people and most of them will get cut. The same thing applies to other minor league levels; I’ll have some tough decisions to make once the season starts. It’s going to be brutal for all involved. But I’d rather it be this way than scouring free agent pools in a reactive mode when most of the good talent at key positions is already taken.

PIKER: Seems fair enough. What are your expectations for this season?

BAUER: A championship is not out of the question, not at all. We’ve put ourselves in a better position and the organization is deeper now. There are only 10 teams in the GBC so I like our odds.

[BTuck2112]

I had high hopes for Godofredo Chucha when I drafted him. Hate to see him fall off so much