A quiet offseason for the Haymakers?

Troy, NY: As the NASBL teams work on finalizing their protection lists for the upcoming season and the flurry of trades are posted in preparation for the highly anticipated draft, the Haymakers front office has been very quiet, prompting some questions about a winter hiatus.

"No, our office has been open," says GM and Manager Ken Anderson, "We just have just been doing some planning for our upcoming season. Plus, our team this season has not really left us with much to move this off-season. Our plan is coming together though."

Some have been trying to find out what that plan actually is. Even with a successful first season as GM of the franchise, the team has never finished out of last place while losing over 103 and 90 games over the last two season. "We did have a 12 game improvement over the 2008 campaign," says the GM with a smirk, "And we are looking to be even better next year."

Is he even taking this job seriously? With really only one starter going into the draft, one wonders if he cares about winning. Anderson's record with starting pitching has not helped the team too much. The manager has a tendency to allow the pitchers to get beat-up while nursing the pen, and their history has shown that. Over the past three seasons the bull-pen has an ERA almost two runs lower than the starters, and it tends to create some ill-will from the starters. Scott Olsen, the only starting pitcher to play for the Haymakers for all three seasons, posted a 19-36 record with a 5.89 ERA. "I'm not going to say it's all his fault," says Olsen, speaking of Troy's manager Ken Anderson, "But he'll just leave you out there when you don't have it while the guys in the pen are playing cards or watching TV in the clubhouse. It's just not right."

"I can't think of one game where he actually 'had it'." responded the manager, "You can bet your ass he's going to be gone...in fact I just cut him now." That will leave Huston Street, as the only pitcher on the original Haymakers in 2007.

It's true the the team has had some bad luck, or bad scouting, with pitchers since their inception in 2007. The team had high hopes for the likes of Olsen, Clay Hensley, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Jesse Litsch. All have either been traded, had long term injuries or were just plain bad. The only pitcher to seem to finally come around has been Jered Weaver, and that still is yet to be seen.

"All I can say is that we have a plan for the team and we would like the support of our fans and reporters," said the GM. Well, you have to win to have the support. We shall see....