Stay out of my way, or you’ll pay. Listen to what I say.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: YES, WE WILL BE HAVING FUN WITH SHOOTER MCGAVIN QUOTES ALL SEASON LONG]
Let’s take a look at another of our summer rookie franchises. One with a name from an old school favorite movie of ours;, Happy Gilmore. There are a few well known players in this team, and it is led by two players with rings in their fingers already; Ronak Jain (championship with 2018 HS, 2017 Savages) and Aasheesh Shravah (championship with 2017 Savages). Can they now duplicate that magic formula as the leaders of their teams?
Some people call this the Savages minor league team. That is patently false. Their players are from all over the league, and they are bringing in some new blood. Shooter McGavins, played in the Fall Ball of 2018. They were the 4 teams (out of 6) that made it into the playoffs before losing in quite a convincing fashion to Dynasty. It was a good taste of what the league offers and it was a good experience for the new franchise.
Ronak and Aasheesh set out a blueprint to set their team in the winning path, or at least what they think will win. A team where fun is mandatory and winning is something that is a byproduct of playing loose and being prepared. There was no team that laughed more in Fall Ball, but they also flamed out in the playoffs.
Team:
The two best players on the team is Mike Velez and Khurram Syed. Mike is making a return to the league after a one year hiatus and should be the LCF as well as hitting 3rd in the lineup. Khurram is joining the NL, where he should be one of the elite players who have all 5 tools. Surrounding them are some good, solid players in Irfan Musliwala, Waqas Ali, VJ Samaroo, Rich Yun, and Joel Enai. That is already 9 deep when you include Ronak and Aasheesh. We really like the core of this team, but let’s see how they all fit in paper. Can these players now be a key cog for a rookie franchise? They also picked up Gage from Dynasty who should definitely fit into the culture of the team, but was there no other NSA that could have given them a bigger edge?
The depth of this team is a lot of players who are joining the spring/summer league for the first time. We don’t expect any of the players (Mohammed, Yashraj, Jashan, etc) to jump out and surprise the league. But let’s see what happens.
The starting OF should be something along the lines of Irfan, Mike, VJ with a right fielder. The IF will be anchored by Khuram at SS, Waqas at 2B and Ronak at 3B. We expect to see potential breakout player Joel at 1B. Who will be pitching? Gage or Aasheesh? Defense is going to be OK. Their hitting is going to be very streaky.
Off season Grade: C+
There are no new rookies they have that we expect to have a huge impact. The players that are in the roster have played in SASL for a while and aren’t players that scare you. With teams like Bats, Scoobies Force, Dynasty, Hit Squad, The Ones, etc., this has the looks of a middling team. It is year 1, so let’s give them some time to grow.
Prediction:
They probably finish in the 5-8 range in the standings and promptly get swept away in the 1st round of playoffs. A good season and a lot of lessons learned.
