Early Look at the S2 Draft Class

The drafts had concluded recently but there's no harm in checking out the next draft class right now, and follow these players in the SBLM this year. While we can expect some of the minor league sophomore to be declaring for the next draft, there are news that many newcomers are following Eddie Donovan's approach and wanting to go up as soon as possible. These newcomers are totally unknown at the moment, we have not seen them play so it will be very interesting to see what they can do in their first and last SBLM season.


This man "daddied" the minor league in his first season and he is bound to be the true daddy once again this year. Arguably the best offensive leadoff of the SBLM right now, this man is bound to be picked very high in the upcoming draft if he continues to develop. After an amazing award-winning season, the man will now be playing in the toughest batter's park in SBLM and it'd be interesting to see if he can continue to produce at an elite level down at Chicago. In an essence, this is a series where he is here to challenge himself, and not really everyone else. As those great players would say, your greatest enemy is yourself. Gustav is at this stage now in the minors, as many of his contenders are already up in the SBL.

On one hand, Gustav is indeed the kind of player that will thrive in a pitcher's park. BB is absolute, as it is a consistent one base without hitting the ball into or out of the field. Gustav has 64 BBs last year, good for top 3, and he can easily produce just by being a super patient batter that frustrate pitchers and get on-base. Then, he can use his speed to pressure the opponent. As I said in a previous article, what makes a versatile player the foundation of a team is that they can perform at any given field in various ways.


Every league needs a loudmouth pitcher and the SBLM is honored to have Ezekiel Bridges, who had backed up all his trash talk last season and just a few votes from getting the Pitcher of the Year award. The man is looking to repeat that success this year and is currently the frontrunner for PotY on paper. I hate to repeat the same concept but this player is yet another one who moves from to a tougher field and will need to perform at a much better level to repeat what they had last season. This season will be the true test for Bridges as the harshest critics are always saying "he's only good cuz he's in Chicago". We will see if this man can prove them wrong.

With all that said, this man is still the most unsolved pitcher at the moment among all the sophomores. No one can really explain how the heck he hanged around 1+ ERA for quite a while last season. Everyone was betting to see him get smashed one game, like it will eventually come...but it didn't. He ended the season with an excellent 2+ ERA and no one could solve him just yet. The most controversial decision of Storm in the playoff is not playing Bridges as first pitcher. They lost without him even stepping up to pitch. Hopefully Bridges could be given a chance to pitch in the SBLM playoff this year, and show the world if he's indeed the real deal.


No one knows why or how, but Bridges seen old man Wang as his rival and this sure sounded like the top rivalry of this season. Storyline-wise, this is the top two pitchers of the league right now, experienced and looking to go up into the majors. They will be dueling their heart out in a Pitcher of the Year challenge this year. Also, Wang was drafted into Mohawks, the other finalist besides Pioneers. Mohawks and Wang are alike, they are the second place now and are looking to challenge their rival once again in this brand new season. If history is any indication, it will take more than one war between the Mohawks and the Pioneers to settle the score.

Like the two top draftees before him, Wang faces a change of scenary and will try to adjust to the ballpark of Mohawks. With the offseason still underway, it's hard to get a hold of what's the Mohawks fielding is going to be like. Mohawks' problem is not just the field, but they had horrible fielding around the field. A groundballer like Wang has the con of needing a good infield to get good result, or perhaps he just have to put up insane individual performance to try and challenge Bridges. We will see in time.


A little Chinese lesson of the day. The most common usage of Zheng Xiaojian - technically, zhen(no g) xiao jian in this case - in daily life is 真小件. -- "This apparel is too small."

As for the SBLM newcomer, Zheng Xiaojian, let's just say he's a flamethrower from the East and someone who can light up the gun on a daily basis. At such a young age, he had already shown that he can hit 100+ mph if he just tries to pitch as hard as possible without caring about control of the landing spot. This is a man full of raw potential and one who looks to go up to SBL as fast as his pitches. He ain't here to waste time, but to challenge the best.

Scouts rated his potential as a potential top tier closer with an A+ fastball. You never know with these young players so he might one day become a starter, but as of now, the man seems happy to dedicate himself to the role of a reliever and work to become the closer of a team.

With such raw power, how fast he can advanced on his pitching skill to hit the plate consistently while not losing speed will determine his success.


Rumor has it that this is not a man -- and I don't mean gender, but species. Some said that this dude is actually an escaped speciment in an Alaska secret lab who is a penguin-humanoid hybrid kind of thing -- I don't know, I am not a biologist or a mutant specialist. But I don't know, man, look at him, he is like a very friendly American Chinese parent who is strict to his children but not to everyone else. Is he going to transform into a penguin at night or something like that? No one really knows. Can he evolve like Pokemon? No one knows either.

What we know is that this man can play baseball better than an actual penguin in Winter Olympic. Liek Zheng Xiaojian, he is another fireballer who tops the gun on a daily basis and loves the K more than anything else, even W. I can totally expect a rivalry between him and Zheng Xiaojian in a West vs East storyline.

Like Zheng Xiaojian, McGraw is also looking to go up ASAP and try to KO everyone with his pitches -- and hopefully he doesn't really KO literally. We should check this penguinman's HBP count to make sure he's not going out of hand.