15 April 2312
SPA-CBO Discuss Future
As the 2312 Spring Training schedule begins, there are big talks about the future of baseball in Bradberton and Maine. While there have been no final decisions, CBO commissioner Nate Howard and Executive VP Jimmy LaRue have met with a contingent of executives around the Season Pass Association.
Some of the terms discussed include the state of youth baseball outside of the Commonwealth Youth League. One problem is that the players from the Bradberton Boys League and the Maine Youth Leagues are not remaining on SPA rosters with the influx of many good undrafted free agents from the Commonwealth Youth League.
Of the 12 players in the 2311 SPA Rookie Draft considered to be SPA-possible players, only four are currently on SPA teams: RP Magician Stea, (2nd round, 19th overall), RP High Sparrow Wallcrawler (2nd round, 30th overall), RP Edwin Echegoyen (5th round, 69th overall), and RP Nick Manne (4th round, 64th overall). Wallcrawler and Echegoyen are not with the teams that drafted them.
The 2311 1st overall pick, SP Josty Penguin drafted by Acadia, is a free agent after the Acadians cut him.
"We're having some money problems," Orange GM Jesse Radraine noted. "So we need the best players we can bring into the rookie league [NWLRL]. Our draft picks would just be at the end of the bench, so we want to level up the players already here or bring in better talent from the big youth league [CYL]."
The CBO has proposed taking over the youth leagues and potentially distributing a second youth team in the Bradberton region. Next year, there will be an elite youth team in Bradberton, meaning the talent in the BBL will be even lower than it already is.
"The truth is, we need the [CYL] to come to us and find a way to continue taking the scraps from that league," Radraine said. "We're seriously considering dropping the draft to save us a lot of scouting money that is being spent better around Boston."
The commission has committed to a June 1 deadline of coming up with a plan on what will be done. Radraine thinks that the least will happen would be reconsidering the draft and how the players in the youth leagues could be a part of an overall association.
"The answer may be to sell the youth league to the CBO," Radraine concluded.