[j.tom]

(This is my first time writing a "fictional" story on this so if it sucks just let me know)



Arup Manushi has fired his agent after this tidy piece of business.






I'm going to chalk this up as this:
Arup Manushi is a really nice guy who...
- Isn't greedy
- Doesn't want to ruin the Brewers chances of getting back to the Major League by taking up their entire T-II payroll
- Really loves playing in Milwaukee.
- Feels some sort of responsibility for the team's relegation as its star player.

After all, he's made $338,000,000 in his career, and we're talking about a 26-year-old, 3-time Major League MVP who already holds the league record for career home runs. He isn't going to have any problem getting paid this offseason after he hits a zillion home runs against weaker competition and leads the Brewers back to the Major League. This isn't just one of the best players I've seen in this save, this is one of the best players I've seen in any save.





This is the contract Arup opted out of. In total, he left about $100 million on the table over the final two years.




And this is what he ends up doing it for...





India's greatest baseball player to date, from age 26 to age 27, in both performance and ratings, declines from Destroyer of Worlds to Just A Guy. Sure, he can still hit the ball hard, when he actually makes contact. He can still see the ball well, but good luck getting him to avoid striking out being too patient. It couldn't have come at a worse time. Less than a year ago, Arup Manushi was the most prolific slugger in baseball, and with a nation of over a billion cheering him on, he was arguably the world's most famous player. Now, he's quickly being forgotten about as those fans choose instead to watch India's newest Major League stars.

This is a guy who less than three years ago tied the single-season home run record for the second time, (At age 24!) only to heartbreakingly miss out once again on making the record solely his own.



If the last 374 at bats are any indication, the man who took mercy on his ballclub last offseason, will be begging for it this time around. This player has a place in the real world big leagues, one that doesn't have 30 other big leagues worth of talent feeding into it, one that doesn't have half as many teams, half as many roster spots, half as many dollars to spend.

Our world here is a bit more cruel. There's a place for Arup Manushi, sure, but it isn't chasing eye-popping home run records in the Major League that will stand for decades. It appears to be somewhere completely different from where he thought a year ago. From where I thought! (I fully planned on naming the ML MVP Award after him because surely he would retire with 1,000 home runs and a unanimous HOF induction) If you believe the OSA scouts (set to 100% accuracy), Manushi would slot in as a top-10 hitter in the T-III Continental League right now. In T-II, he's top-25. He's still a good player, but he's in an environment where "good players" are in every pocket of the world.

He might still get a multi-year Major League contract again next year. Odds are, it will never come close to the one with Milwaukee he ripped up.







(If you read this far, thanks! Posting this as part one because I'm not sure if I'll finish the story before I fall asleep.)