BNN Weekly Report
This Week in the CBO
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
6 April 2303
Top Players and Prospects
The 2303 season is upon us, and the OSA scouts have turned the tables on who they believe the CBO's top players are. #1 at hitting in the CBO according to OSA is University Point's 1B Barker Cocoa. The top-ranked pitcher in the organization is Roxbury's Nuke Laloosh.
Cocoa, who finished 3rd in the South Charles Association in 2302 in the Nuka-Hitter Award voting, has been an overall great player for the Deathclaws since his arrival in the CBO in 2298. In 2302, he led the SCA in three categories: walks (140), OBP (.514), and OPS (1.132). His 140 walks set the CBO record, which he set the year before with 118. He currently holds career leads in OBP (.489) and OPS (1.069). Cocoa has won the Corvega Top Defender Award and the BosCom Positional Hitter Award at 1B the last three seasons, as well as being selected to the All-Star Game all three years.
Laloosh, the former 1st-overall pick by the Rad Sox in 2299, is entering his fourth season in the CBO and his second-straight season as a full-time starter. Packed with a bunch of natural talent, Laloosh has not settled on the talent, instead making it a goal to be the best pitcher in the history of the CBO. Last season, he began to show true ability, going 8-4 with a 3.25 ERA in 20 starts. His 1.4 walks per nine innings and 5.42 strikeout-to-walk ratio were tops in the SCA. He is one of the top ground ball pitchers in the CBO, which he showed by allowing only nine home runs in 2302.
The top prospects in the CBO are almost all dominated by hitters with the top 5 being on offense. At the top of them all is 2302 #1 overall pick, SS Stormin Normin MacDonald of the Lynn Fortune Finders (Oberland) in the GBRL. In his final season with the Circle Jerks of the BYDL, MacDonald hit .347 in 66 games with 16 home runs, 71 runs, and 54 RBI. Considered a player capable of leading the CBO in batting average and home runs, MacDonald could be the top offensive player ever in the history of the league if he hits his full potential.
Not a first-year pro, former 2nd-round draft pick by Nordhagen Beach in the 2299 Rookie Draft, Oberland's Odd Thomas Koontz is considered the top prospect at pitcher. Potentially with the T-51s to start the season as a reliever, Koontz is expected to eventually be at the top of Oberland's lineup. In the past three seasons with Beach Boys' BMU former affiliate, the Greentop Nursery Night People, Koontz compiled a 16-24 record with a 4.75 ERA in 54 games with 50 starts. Why the top pitching prospect? According to the OSA scouting report, the 23-year-old Koontz has shown progressive development in all five of his pitches: circle change, curveball, fastball, slider, and changeup. He has the potential to have elite stuff that can overwhelm batters with the sheer number of pitches he can throw at them.