The future in Fargo
The future is now for reigning Champion Fargo’s young prospect, Alfredo Tirre. Since being plucked out of the Dominican Republic at the age of 16, the talented second baseman has risen through the minors at a rapid pace. After spending a couple of years in rookie ball, he split time between A and AA last year, combining to hit .313/.388/.571 16 HR 61 RBI, ending the season with the SL Champion Jacksonville Suns. According to General Manager Andy Nemecek, he was to get a taste of the bigs during spring training, then be shipped back to AAA until he was ready to stay in the CBL permanently, later this year, or maybe next. A few injuries to infielders this spring has necessitated his rise to the top league earlier than expected, and to be honest, wanted, by the Nordiques’s. Having just turned...
Ve Ri Tas: Two Ivy Leaguers Search For Truth (Part IV)
[Editor’s Note: This is the final part (IV) of a IV part series. Read Part I, Part II and Part III.] The two players were as motivated as they’d ever been heading into the off-season. The improvements they’d made in just two short seasons gave them a real shot at one day making a major league roster. And Hudzik was genuinely curious about changing the way pitching was developed, because the old way of doing things hadn’t worked in quite some time. Hitters were dominating the league and had been for awhile now. The players spent the off-season throwing every single day. They followed a strict weight lifting regimen that was designed to maximize the pliability of their arms and shoulders. They played long-toss all the time. They threw with weighted balls. They had a s...
Ve Ri Tas: Two Ivy Leaguers Search for Truth (Part III)
[Editor’s Note: This is Part III of a IV part series. Read Part I and Part II.] The first thing Kevin Hudzik did when he arrived home for the off-season was begin his research. He had decided a few weeks ago that he would spend as much time and energy as he possibly could to understand the scientific reasons behind his pitches and throwing motions. It was a daunting task, to be sure. Especially with a Fiancee eagerly planning a 2034 fall wedding. Even she understood how important the next two seasons were, delaying the wedding more than a year. Sean Douglas, on the other hand, had a bachelor party to plan. They decided on Columbus, Ohio. Most people were coming from the Boston area or Indianapolis area (Hudzik’s hometown), and Columbus was sort of neutral ground. But Hudzik and...
Ve Ri Tas: Two Ivy Leaguers Search for Truth (Part II)
[Editor’s Note: This is Part II of a IV part series. Part I can be found here.] It had been an eventful first month of professional baseball for Kevin Hudzik. After the whirlwind month of June saw him graduate from Harvard and sign his first professional contract, July became even crazier. Hudzik had been used out of the bullpen for the Lake County Captains exclusively, with the organzation telling Hudzik to stop using his well below average changeup in games. “The staff in Lake County was really into the sabermetrics of pitching,” Hudzik tells me. “As a biomedical engineering major I certainly appreciated the attention to detail. They showed me that my changeup was getting rocked, even back to my Harvard days, among other things.” Joe Coleman and Corey Domel ...
Ve Ri Tas: Two Ivy Leaguers Search for Truth
How two former Harvard baseball players have started a pitching revolution [Editor’s Note: This is Part I of a IV part series. Part II, Part III and Part IV will be linked here when finished.] Fort Myers, FL – As spring training nears for the CBL’s 21st season, the Minneapolis Millers training complex is basically silent. Staff members will arrive over the next week or two to begin preparing for the spring season, but today, the complex has just two Millers minor league pitchers and a few personal trainers the Millers have granted access to the facility over the last few seasons. One of those minor league pitchers is Kevin Hudzik, a 6’3, 190 pound, 23-year-old biomedical engineering graduate from Harvard University. He also played a little baseball, too, throwing 15...
Bell the New Kingpin at 1B in Cambridge
Well it came down to “the wire” but the Pilgrims were able to sign first basemen “Stringer” Bell to a major three-year deal, adding a dose of high powered offense to their 2034 lineup. The negotiations with Bell were difficult as Stringer decided to represent himself, having recently brushed up with some economics classes at Baltimore City Community College. Quoting Adam Smith, Bell explained, point by point, why adding to his wealth would benefit the team. As the negotiations came to a head, some observers said that Bell had started using cheap throw-away cell phones for fear of being bugged, but Bell called those rumors “bunk.” With Bell installed at first base to replace the injured Don Smith, the Pilgrims certainly have more punch in their order than...
Manchester Out, Cambridge In
The Manchester Marauders have played their last game, a loss to the eventual champion, Fargo Nordiques, in an 11-4 Wild Card game route. The end of the 2033 campaign seemed to come a couple weeks before the game however, as the ball club continued to send player after player to the disabled list, leaving half of the Marauder line-up as essentially a AAA squad. An 11-month injury to Don Smith was the big blow, after Marauder management had angled for weeks to bring the powerful 1B in to add punch to the middle of the lineup. The other recent Manchester acquisition, #4 starter Bo Allen, joined Manchester’s top prospect Jose Calderon on the sidelines for the roll of the dice game against Fargo. As soon as the season ended, team owner J. Joe Ricketts Jr. confirmed what most fans already ...
Marauders in Playoff Hunt
It’s been a streaky season in Manchester. The team has consistently gone through up and down periods in which they alternated between looking like one of the best teams in the league and looked like a team that should be working on their putting and iron game during October. At just the right time, the Marauders ran off 11 in a row vaulting them into a strong position as the second (or perhaps even first) wild card. Just when fans were starting to look up at #3 ranked Golden State, Manchester was promptly swept by Mahoning Valley, the only team that could deny them a playoff spot. It could be touch and go until the end for the Marauders. Still, Manchester fans seem very excited about their club. All of the veterans will be back for 2034 including newly acquired 1B Don Smith, catcher ...
CBL’s Austin Bats Living Up To Nickname
In a recent study by Amazon Sports Network, it was revealed that the average CBL team goes through an astounding 34,000 baseballs per season, counting both game balls and practice balls. The Austin Bats, however, go through about 47,000 baseballs per season. Playing in a hitter friendly park with arguably the most powerful lineup in baseball history leads to a lot of souvenirs. Through 123 games, the appropriately named Austin Bats have hit 244 home runs, nearly 2 a game. The Philadelphia Liberty, possessing the league’s second best record, have hit 116 home runs. The Bats have more than doubled the Liberty, although with both teams excelling it’s clear there are plenty of ways to win in this league. Even with superstar third baseman Alonzo “Dude” Bennarivo missing ...
Sources: Millers promoting top prospect Juan Zarzosa
Following last night’s 3-0 win over the Las Vegas Aces, the Minneapolis Millers announced that they have purchased the contract of starting pitching Juan Zarzosa from AAA Columbus. The team designated veteran reliever Eli Clark to make room on the 25-man roster. Zarzosa has emerged as one of the game’s most intriguing pitching prospects this season, as the 23-year-old has simply dominated at both the AA and AAA levels. After going 3-1 with a 2.11 ERA in 9 AA starts, striking out 82 batters in 55 innings, Zarzosa was promoted to AAA Columbus, where he has dominated even more. The 6’2, 195 pounder made 10 starts in Columbus, going 9-1 with a microscopic 1.93 ERA. He added 79 strikeouts in 65 innings. Those numbers were enough to convince the Millers brass that Zarzosa could...
Moves in (and possibly from) Manchester
It was a wild draft this year in Manchester as the Marauder front office was working overtime, not preparing for their selections as much as trading them away. After engineering a swap of their first round pick for four later Minnesota picks, Manchester traded a couple of them and a reserve infielder for big Don Smith, the Panthers’ aging first basemen. Smith has so far settled in nicely with the Marauders, batting .351 with a 990 OPS since arriving and signing a contract extension to boot. Meanwhile, Manchester traded a 2nd and 3rd round pick to Charlotte for Bo Allen, who will settle into the rotation as a #4 starter. Allen, who is known for a cranky, outspoken personality had demanded a trade from the Knights. Upon arriving in Manchester, Allen immediately complained to his new manageme...
Meet Triple B
Photo by Levi Saunders on Unsplash Today we meet the voice of the St. Louis Sultans. The color commentator himself, Buffalo Bill Burgermeister (AKA Triple B). The former clown school graduate and one time wrestling announcer, was hired on by the Sultans to bring some comedy to the franchise. Why you ask? We asked ourselves the same question. So I was sitting at home drinking a Steel Reserve and watching reruns of Mystery Science Theater 3000, when i received a call from my old buddy Kayber. He asked me how i felt about Baseball? I told him it was more boring then a white wall in a hippies house and then he hired me. Bill has no background in baseball. Six years as a professional clown and 12 as a commentator in an Orlando wrestling federation. Burgermeister has no business doing baseball ...
