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Nugget699 · 04-08-2020, 01:42 AM

VIII. 1899 SEASON (PRE-SEASON)

SUPER LIGAN

Following the start of the Baseball Meisterschaft in Günsovölk, Thomas Petersson called an emergency meeting of Super Ligan team owners to discuss how the two leagues would (or wouldn’t) co-operate. The discussions were generally positive towards working with the GBM in allowing trades between the two competitions. This was done formally in the backroom of a pub in Shoof, where Thomas Petersson met with Leon Schreiber and Marcel Fuhrmann and signed the Southern Union Baseball Agreement, in which teams were allowed to freely trade players between competitions but with one major stipulation which prohibited teams from trading newly signed rookie players for 365 days. The “SUBA” was not an association, and merely allowed the trading of players to maintain their service time to professional baseball.

Not everyone was happy with the agreement. Max Lunde, the owner of the Conneaut Centurions was incensed when he learned of Druten Stadt adopting the same nickname as the owner Sixt Petersen was a keen Centurions fan. Despite threatening legal action, Lunde eventually dropped the plan and instead pushed for a draft during the following off-season at the annual Owner Meetings. Last discussed in 1896 by Warlocks owner Vilgot Forsberg, the plan of securing the best Koanian talent at a young age gained immediate support by Blidområde, Sandford Stad and Vizhune, who all feared the GBMs founding could unsettle players and see them move to the Baseball Meisterschaft for better wages and conditions.

The growth of the sport within the Koana Islands was continuing to such a degree, that Super Ligan owners feared another competition within the Koana Islands might even threaten the monopoly the Super Ligan has on young players. A Junior Draft as it was proposed, would ensure that the best young prospects out of school and colleges (which were fast forming leagues of their own) were tied down to Super Ligan teams for at least 4 years. The original proposal was for 5 rounds, but after strong opposition from Titans owner Kalle Thunberg gained support, this was eventually reduced to 1 round, allowing each of the Super Ligan teams a guarantee to one amateur player on base wage. Following the Amateur Draft as it was eventually called, all amateur players could enter free agency if they chose and could be signed by any team, either locally or abroad.

This proposal was voted through narrowly 7-6, with Thomas Petersson getting the deciding vote. Grenada Kings owner Matthias Svan believed this proposal did nothing more than keep the status quo, quoted as telling newspaper journalists outside his office: “What is the point of having a draft when we still need to negotiate with the players, and we still need to battle with teams with deeper pockets than mine?”.

Unfortunately, his outburst to the media did little to change the opinions of his fellow team owners. They all rejected his brothers team based in Safir Kust to become one of two new teams to join the Super Ligan next year, and also put plans into action to potentially change the way clubs stayed in the league. Uckford Ducks owner Alexander Mednick explained to the Koanian Dagbladet: “Having a closed league ensures teams like Grenada can do the bare minimum to put a product on the field, like their dismal record last season suggests.

“We are considering a couple of options for this league. Firstly, teams who finish will need to be re-elected to stay in the competition, such an idea is already in use in English Football. The second is to form a second tier, or division, in a process where teams are transferred between tiers based on their performance for the completed season.”

Despite the support from dozens of clubs around the country to join a second division, promotion and relegation was put on hold for the foreseeable future, with Commissioner Thomas Petersson suggesting the league needed to work closely with other competitions such as the largest amateur league: The Koanian Baseboll Förbund.

At the completion of the Owner Meetings, two new teams were officially elected into the Super Ligan. The first team was the Körsbärstad Devils who had seen baseball grow exponentially over the years with Humoor, Ny Aucklanda and previously Viksida all using the city as a rest stop between series. The second team to be announced was the Thomassmåstad Eagles, owned by an eccentric American businessman who previously lived and worked out of Conneaut and became disillusioned with baseball within the city following the introduction of the Centurions. He bought Thomassmåstad Baseboll from a retired butcher and rebranded them for a possible entry into the Super Ligan several years ago, playing in the local Bergen Ligan.

1899 Season Preview
The Grenada Kings either listened to their rivals over the off-season, or had a solid plan all along following their dismal season in which they seemed to go backwards. They stumped up the cash and locked down former-Vipers pitcher and 1897 winner of the Pitcher of the Year award Lage Gulliksson to a 6-year deal. The good news kept coming for the Kings, who also strengthened both the infield and outfield by capturing 2B Otto Alenius and then signed RF Torkel Koch just before the first ever Amateur Draft in which they selected youngster SP Knud Christensson who deferred to College. Despite these big movers joining the Kings, they are still expected to struggle with another 12th place finish on the cards.

It was also a great off-season for Jonestan who nabbed CF Carl Ahlquist to a three-year deal, with a possibility of extending that until the end of 1903 with a player opt-out clause in place. They also saw marginal improvements throughout the line-up with Kim Moe returning at 1B, whilst former-Vipers Shortstop Nicklas Falkberg was joined by his old team-mate Jonam Nordlund in RF. The Broncos though are still expecting a lower-half of the table finish, losing some key players such as Catcher Aron Blomqvist to their cross-town rivals, Omfattandestad. Speaking of the Titans, they had a very quiet off-season by their standards, with RF Berg Amdahl the only other main acquisition. The lack of improvement in the line-up will prevent Omfat from cracking the top four, although their draft signing of SP Lars-Bjorn Thern could prove to be a solid signing, with the 20-year old expected to ply his trade in the bullpen this season.

Despite the loss of Gullicksson amongst others, Vizhune are still going into the season as favourites, off the back of CF David Olsen and 1B Mats Hultman continued offensive productivity. Vizhune did nab Lienhard Mast in the draft who might see some game-time following a strong pre-season training where he batted .340/.421/.480.

Blidområde lost their veteran 1B Ivan Kristiansen who signed with Humoor during the off-season, but replacement Marten Osterqvist comes over from the Titans with his power-hitting prowess, although Kristiansen’s batting average is vastly superior and will be sorely missed. Another player that the Wild might regret losing is Starting Pitcher Humfrid Sunberg who joined newcomers Körsbärstad in a 1-year deal. An extreme groundball pitcher, the 30-year old led the league last year in HR/9 with just 0.4, but the rotation of Neo Olsen, Leo Angstrom and Gunner Fredriksen is still potent enough to cause teams trouble, but winning the league could prove difficult this year.

Losing Torkel Koch could hurt Sandford Stad this season, but their contact-focussed hitting will still put them as one of the favourites this season. Simon Falk hasn’t hit a homerun since 1896, but that won’t matter to the Doggies faithful who have a stacked batting line-up including the speedy sophomore LF Dennis Szalkai and the slugging 1B Elias Forsbrand.

Conneaut and Embleton continue to be in limbo, with the former shipping Anton Strand from their bullpen for a 22-year old scrub (at least in the minds of Centurion fans) but Ivan Ackerstrom is likely to make his full debut in the rotation this year after posting solid numbers last year in relief. 3B Lorens Dalhquist (ironically coming from a trade with the Warlocks) continues his upward trajectory and should help Conneaut seek a mid-table finish. For the Gunners however, things are bit less optimistic. RF Lage Jensen still has another 6 years running on his contract with Embleton and remains the standout in the team. Expect him to lead the league in steals if he stays healthy. There is some interest in Centre Field this year though. Held by Matteus Tanner last year (who joined the Devils for this year), the spot seemed to be 21-year old Le Groutian Joffrey Delmas’s to lose, but the Gunners snapped up Ianoian slugger Stephen Paul in the draft who seems to be the better hitter, but a weaker fielder.

The two newcomers are expected to have a difficult life adjusting to the professional world of the Super Ligan, but Thomassmåstad did capture LF Ricard Almström and C Adrian Lillkvist to help the youngsters adapt, which includes the first overall pick of the draft, SS Leo Speltke.

For the Devils, they easily have the worst hitting in the league, emphasised by the four-hole going to 1B Jönn Stedholm. The 32-year old has sat on the reserves of Ny Aucklanda since 1896, having made just 65 plate appearances for Omfattandestad in the inaugural season. Don’t be surprised if you see SS Torbjorn Isaksson – selected second overall in the draft - make his debut for Körsbärstad before the season is through.

BASEBALL MEISTERSCHAFT

Following the historic meeting and signing of the of the SUBA, the Baseball Meisterschaft considered the first season a huge success despite the runaway Championship for Shoof and the high-scoring. Leon Schreiber and Marcel Fuhrmann laid out plans to stabilise the future of the competition, including no expansion for several years, whilst also ensuring finances were kept under control even if the Super Ligan could offer better wages to players.

Leon Schreiber formally stepped aside to give full control and Presidency to Marcel Fuhrmann following the season, whilst Schrieber announced that he would carry on as vice-President of operations behind the scenes. The first order of business by Fuhrmann was the introduction of an Amateur Draft, which he announced just weeks after the Super Ligan. Following the announcement, both leagues got in touch via telegram and agreed to run their draft on the same day; the 10th of December. However, both leagues couldn’t agree to a shared draft pool and instead insisted on being only able to draft players from within their own countries school system. Another key difference was Günsovölk’s system did not contain negotiations, and the teams owned the players drafted for four years.

Terrence Weller, the owner of the Ahnüü Otters sold the team to friend and Ahnüü local Vinzenz Roth following a tough season on the field where they finished with a 61-79 record. Weller cited the financial pressure as one of the biggest reasons he decided to pull out of team ownership.

1899 Season Preview
After the dominance of Shoof last season, free agency seems to have closed the gap, but also rocketed Ledigstadt to joint favourites with the Pirates having finished last in 1898.

The reigning Champions lost some solid starters to free agency including CF Dirk Breslau who moved to the Mustangs in a whopping 8-year deal whilst 2B Lazarus Lauffer will join his former team-mate at Ledigstadt in a two-year deal. The Pirates also saw last seasons walks-leader 3B Ricardo Brown leave for free agency before eventually signing with the Anglers but did pick-up former Boxers pitcher Barney Rose and plugged the hole in Centerfield with Theodor Horn (.303/.402/.595) who plied his trade in Druten Stadt last season.

Ledigstadt was easily the busiest team in free agency, also grabbing the services of strikeout-king Rocky Kohler. The 40-year old signed a one-year deal in an attempt to win the Championshop before retirement, being joined by fellow veteran Stephan Schult in the rotation from Jueman.

The Hüll Clippers lost their slugging 1B Marc Wanneck to the Otters but did snap up Druten Stadt’s star pitcher Odell Myers to a 6-year deal that turns the Clippers into a very potent pitching unit along with Ernest Arnold. The same cannot be said of the Centurions who now have arguably the worst pitching corps in the Southern Union. Rutger Klah plugs a major whole in the rotation after signing from the Mustangs but outside of SS Lazarus Knapp, Druten Stadt have a very long season ahead of them.

Küstestadt Boxers managed to strengthen their lineup during the off-season, with the acquiring of contact-hitting RF Arnim Martin and veteran 3B James Pfrommer from Jueman and Druten Stadt respectively. Keep an eye out for Kellan Grant, whom the Boxers signed in the inaugural Amateur Draft, the 22-year old speedster has real batting assets and can play across the whole outfield, which should see him given plenty of action filling in for injuries.

04-08-2020, 01:42 AM	#20
Nugget699 Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Sydney Posts: 444	VIII. 1899 SEASON (PRE-SEASON) SUPER LIGAN Following the start of the Baseball Meisterschaft in Günsovölk, Thomas Petersson called an emergency meeting of Super Ligan team owners to discuss how the two leagues would (or wouldn’t) co-operate. The discussions were generally positive towards working with the GBM in allowing trades between the two competitions. This was done formally in the backroom of a pub in Shoof, where Thomas Petersson met with Leon Schreiber and Marcel Fuhrmann and signed the Southern Union Baseball Agreement, in which teams were allowed to freely trade players between competitions but with one major stipulation which prohibited teams from trading newly signed rookie players for 365 days. The “SUBA” was not an association, and merely allowed the trading of players to maintain their service time to professional baseball. Not everyone was happy with the agreement. Max Lunde, the owner of the Conneaut Centurions was incensed when he learned of Druten Stadt adopting the same nickname as the owner Sixt Petersen was a keen Centurions fan. Despite threatening legal action, Lunde eventually dropped the plan and instead pushed for a draft during the following off-season at the annual Owner Meetings. Last discussed in 1896 by Warlocks owner Vilgot Forsberg, the plan of securing the best Koanian talent at a young age gained immediate support by Blidområde, Sandford Stad and Vizhune, who all feared the GBMs founding could unsettle players and see them move to the Baseball Meisterschaft for better wages and conditions. The growth of the sport within the Koana Islands was continuing to such a degree, that Super Ligan owners feared another competition within the Koana Islands might even threaten the monopoly the Super Ligan has on young players. A Junior Draft as it was proposed, would ensure that the best young prospects out of school and colleges (which were fast forming leagues of their own) were tied down to Super Ligan teams for at least 4 years. The original proposal was for 5 rounds, but after strong opposition from Titans owner Kalle Thunberg gained support, this was eventually reduced to 1 round, allowing each of the Super Ligan teams a guarantee to one amateur player on base wage. Following the Amateur Draft as it was eventually called, all amateur players could enter free agency if they chose and could be signed by any team, either locally or abroad. This proposal was voted through narrowly 7-6, with Thomas Petersson getting the deciding vote. Grenada Kings owner Matthias Svan believed this proposal did nothing more than keep the status quo, quoted as telling newspaper journalists outside his office: “What is the point of having a draft when we still need to negotiate with the players, and we still need to battle with teams with deeper pockets than mine?”. Unfortunately, his outburst to the media did little to change the opinions of his fellow team owners. They all rejected his brothers team based in Safir Kust to become one of two new teams to join the Super Ligan next year, and also put plans into action to potentially change the way clubs stayed in the league. Uckford Ducks owner Alexander Mednick explained to the Koanian Dagbladet: “Having a closed league ensures teams like Grenada can do the bare minimum to put a product on the field, like their dismal record last season suggests. “We are considering a couple of options for this league. Firstly, teams who finish will need to be re-elected to stay in the competition, such an idea is already in use in English Football. The second is to form a second tier, or division, in a process where teams are transferred between tiers based on their performance for the completed season.” Despite the support from dozens of clubs around the country to join a second division, promotion and relegation was put on hold for the foreseeable future, with Commissioner Thomas Petersson suggesting the league needed to work closely with other competitions such as the largest amateur league: The Koanian Baseboll Förbund. At the completion of the Owner Meetings, two new teams were officially elected into the Super Ligan. The first team was the Körsbärstad Devils who had seen baseball grow exponentially over the years with Humoor, Ny Aucklanda and previously Viksida all using the city as a rest stop between series. The second team to be announced was the Thomassmåstad Eagles, owned by an eccentric American businessman who previously lived and worked out of Conneaut and became disillusioned with baseball within the city following the introduction of the Centurions. He bought Thomassmåstad Baseboll from a retired butcher and rebranded them for a possible entry into the Super Ligan several years ago, playing in the local Bergen Ligan. 1899 Season Preview The Grenada Kings either listened to their rivals over the off-season, or had a solid plan all along following their dismal season in which they seemed to go backwards. They stumped up the cash and locked down former-Vipers pitcher and 1897 winner of the Pitcher of the Year award Lage Gulliksson to a 6-year deal. The good news kept coming for the Kings, who also strengthened both the infield and outfield by capturing 2B Otto Alenius and then signed RF Torkel Koch just before the first ever Amateur Draft in which they selected youngster SP Knud Christensson who deferred to College. Despite these big movers joining the Kings, they are still expected to struggle with another 12th place finish on the cards. It was also a great off-season for Jonestan who nabbed CF Carl Ahlquist to a three-year deal, with a possibility of extending that until the end of 1903 with a player opt-out clause in place. They also saw marginal improvements throughout the line-up with Kim Moe returning at 1B, whilst former-Vipers Shortstop Nicklas Falkberg was joined by his old team-mate Jonam Nordlund in RF. The Broncos though are still expecting a lower-half of the table finish, losing some key players such as Catcher Aron Blomqvist to their cross-town rivals, Omfattandestad. Speaking of the Titans, they had a very quiet off-season by their standards, with RF Berg Amdahl the only other main acquisition. The lack of improvement in the line-up will prevent Omfat from cracking the top four, although their draft signing of SP Lars-Bjorn Thern could prove to be a solid signing, with the 20-year old expected to ply his trade in the bullpen this season. Despite the loss of Gullicksson amongst others, Vizhune are still going into the season as favourites, off the back of CF David Olsen and 1B Mats Hultman continued offensive productivity. Vizhune did nab Lienhard Mast in the draft who might see some game-time following a strong pre-season training where he batted .340/.421/.480. Blidområde lost their veteran 1B Ivan Kristiansen who signed with Humoor during the off-season, but replacement Marten Osterqvist comes over from the Titans with his power-hitting prowess, although Kristiansen’s batting average is vastly superior and will be sorely missed. Another player that the Wild might regret losing is Starting Pitcher Humfrid Sunberg who joined newcomers Körsbärstad in a 1-year deal. An extreme groundball pitcher, the 30-year old led the league last year in HR/9 with just 0.4, but the rotation of Neo Olsen, Leo Angstrom and Gunner Fredriksen is still potent enough to cause teams trouble, but winning the league could prove difficult this year. Losing Torkel Koch could hurt Sandford Stad this season, but their contact-focussed hitting will still put them as one of the favourites this season. Simon Falk hasn’t hit a homerun since 1896, but that won’t matter to the Doggies faithful who have a stacked batting line-up including the speedy sophomore LF Dennis Szalkai and the slugging 1B Elias Forsbrand. Conneaut and Embleton continue to be in limbo, with the former shipping Anton Strand from their bullpen for a 22-year old scrub (at least in the minds of Centurion fans) but Ivan Ackerstrom is likely to make his full debut in the rotation this year after posting solid numbers last year in relief. 3B Lorens Dalhquist (ironically coming from a trade with the Warlocks) continues his upward trajectory and should help Conneaut seek a mid-table finish. For the Gunners however, things are bit less optimistic. RF Lage Jensen still has another 6 years running on his contract with Embleton and remains the standout in the team. Expect him to lead the league in steals if he stays healthy. There is some interest in Centre Field this year though. Held by Matteus Tanner last year (who joined the Devils for this year), the spot seemed to be 21-year old Le Groutian Joffrey Delmas’s to lose, but the Gunners snapped up Ianoian slugger Stephen Paul in the draft who seems to be the better hitter, but a weaker fielder. The two newcomers are expected to have a difficult life adjusting to the professional world of the Super Ligan, but Thomassmåstad did capture LF Ricard Almström and C Adrian Lillkvist to help the youngsters adapt, which includes the first overall pick of the draft, SS Leo Speltke. For the Devils, they easily have the worst hitting in the league, emphasised by the four-hole going to 1B Jönn Stedholm. The 32-year old has sat on the reserves of Ny Aucklanda since 1896, having made just 65 plate appearances for Omfattandestad in the inaugural season. Don’t be surprised if you see SS Torbjorn Isaksson – selected second overall in the draft - make his debut for Körsbärstad before the season is through. BASEBALL MEISTERSCHAFT Following the historic meeting and signing of the of the SUBA, the Baseball Meisterschaft considered the first season a huge success despite the runaway Championship for Shoof and the high-scoring. Leon Schreiber and Marcel Fuhrmann laid out plans to stabilise the future of the competition, including no expansion for several years, whilst also ensuring finances were kept under control even if the Super Ligan could offer better wages to players. Leon Schreiber formally stepped aside to give full control and Presidency to Marcel Fuhrmann following the season, whilst Schrieber announced that he would carry on as vice-President of operations behind the scenes. The first order of business by Fuhrmann was the introduction of an Amateur Draft, which he announced just weeks after the Super Ligan. Following the announcement, both leagues got in touch via telegram and agreed to run their draft on the same day; the 10th of December. However, both leagues couldn’t agree to a shared draft pool and instead insisted on being only able to draft players from within their own countries school system. Another key difference was Günsovölk’s system did not contain negotiations, and the teams owned the players drafted for four years. Terrence Weller, the owner of the Ahnüü Otters sold the team to friend and Ahnüü local Vinzenz Roth following a tough season on the field where they finished with a 61-79 record. Weller cited the financial pressure as one of the biggest reasons he decided to pull out of team ownership. 1899 Season Preview After the dominance of Shoof last season, free agency seems to have closed the gap, but also rocketed Ledigstadt to joint favourites with the Pirates having finished last in 1898. The reigning Champions lost some solid starters to free agency including CF Dirk Breslau who moved to the Mustangs in a whopping 8-year deal whilst 2B Lazarus Lauffer will join his former team-mate at Ledigstadt in a two-year deal. The Pirates also saw last seasons walks-leader 3B Ricardo Brown leave for free agency before eventually signing with the Anglers but did pick-up former Boxers pitcher Barney Rose and plugged the hole in Centerfield with Theodor Horn (.303/.402/.595) who plied his trade in Druten Stadt last season. Ledigstadt was easily the busiest team in free agency, also grabbing the services of strikeout-king Rocky Kohler. The 40-year old signed a one-year deal in an attempt to win the Championshop before retirement, being joined by fellow veteran Stephan Schult in the rotation from Jueman. The Hüll Clippers lost their slugging 1B Marc Wanneck to the Otters but did snap up Druten Stadt’s star pitcher Odell Myers to a 6-year deal that turns the Clippers into a very potent pitching unit along with Ernest Arnold. The same cannot be said of the Centurions who now have arguably the worst pitching corps in the Southern Union. Rutger Klah plugs a major whole in the rotation after signing from the Mustangs but outside of SS Lazarus Knapp, Druten Stadt have a very long season ahead of them. Küstestadt Boxers managed to strengthen their lineup during the off-season, with the acquiring of contact-hitting RF Arnim Martin and veteran 3B James Pfrommer from Jueman and Druten Stadt respectively. Keep an eye out for Kellan Grant, whom the Boxers signed in the inaugural Amateur Draft, the 22-year old speedster has real batting assets and can play across the whole outfield, which should see him given plenty of action filling in for injuries.