BASE CORPS AT THE CROSSROADS
Written By: Cole Ford and Steven Craig
Let's be real. It's rare to see the Base Corps in a position of any success. And, despite this, we still expect to see them succeed to some degree. With a pretty new-look squad, it's a wonder they could get anything done. Despite the supposed quality of the PBL of Drawkland, our national team has never done anything of relevance besides getting hilariously shit on when we're in the spotlight, if we even get that far.
So what do we have here? A chance at gaining actual relevance? A chance to fail even more spectacularly now that we have some expectations? Let's dive a little deeper into our WBC 47 run so far, and see just what we have going on.
THE NEW TEAM
With new stars rising from the depths of the league, DISC has decided to revamp the team with a set of promising rookies, hoping they can build a cohesive squad that can last for cycles to come. But since nobody knows much about this team, let's give a quick rundown.
The big power hitters on the starting line are Mark Fields, Abram Kavana, and Lane Kavana. Of course, everyone in the lineup is more than capable of going deep, Smart, Ford, and Jones the more notable, but the Kavana/Fields are the big 3. Lane in particular has taken the PBL by storm, hitting a record number of homeruns for a rookie.
Of course, there's more to the game than hitting homeruns on offense, and the importance of contact hitting and baserunning cannot be overstated. Roger Madison, one of the lone veterans on the team, is indisputably one of the best examples of this on the team. While he spent most of his illustrious career at second base, in the past few seasons he's moved to shortstop due to a necessity in his domestic team and really began to thrive. In any case, his ability at the plate has been unmatched for years. Abram Kavana, while being a solid power hitter, usually opts for a contact-based approach, and succeeds. He has blistering speed on the basepaths, a real force to be reckoned with.
As far as pitching, the new-look rotation is also filled with promising prospects who have been dealing from the mound. The starting rotation features Leo Roy at the head, a multi-tool pitcher who usually throws a four-seam fastball, nasty 12-6 curve, and a change-up. However, he also had a cutter in his arsenal coming out from time to time. Darien Rodriguez has a classic 4-seam, slider, curve, in addition to a slurve to keep batters on their toes. Bruce Moore is the Corps' resident knuckleballer, who also has a blistering fastball and knuckle curve. Will Knight is a lefty pitcher, with both a two-seam and four-seam fastball to compliment his circle change. Rounding out the starting pitchers is Andrew Taylor, another lefty. His repertoire features a fastball, curve, and change-up.
The relieving corps is headed by Jack West, the most prominent primary reliever. His fastball and slider combo are deadly, but his occasional forkball and splitter also keeps batters on edge. The other primary reliever is Danny Jefferson, a lefty with a classic fastball, curve, and change-up. Andre Phillips and Matt Carter are the more specialist relievers, both with fastballs and curves. Phillips also features a solid sinker, while Carter also tosses a wicked change.
Finally, there's the closing staff, the setup reliever Carlos Gomez (four-seam, two-seam, slider, change-up), and the veteran Franklin Bell (who, despite his failure in the 10-3 game against Scootalove City, is still extremely dependable and has had a long, successful career). Bell has a brutal four-seam and change-up, in addition to a knuckle curve and forkball he uses more infrequently.
Despite the failures of the past, we can expect this squad to achieve some decent amounts of success.
THE CURRENT CAMPAIGN
This WBC sees the return of Casaran to the highest stage of baseball, which could've spelled either disaster or good fortune for the Corps. At least in Casaran if we begin underachieving we have the ability to play against inferior opponents to lift ourselves back up, rather than repeatedly having to play teams way above our punching level. Unfortunately for us, with 42 teams in the WBC, only 16 teams can qualify for the playoffs - and we're ranked #20. There would be no free playoff run for the Base Corps, as always.
The campaign started off with a tremendous victory - drawn randomly against an unranked team for the first series, we managed a clean sweep of the newbies in Joshenia, quickly elevating us to the top tier of the tournament table. Unfortunately, this earned us four dates with a Banija squad that has been catching fire lately. The clean sweep was returned right back to us, sending us to the middle of the pack. This set us up against the somewhat has-beens in Nova Anglicana, but their experience proved to be the winning element as they managed to sweep us as well.
The Base Corps, at this point, had just been utterly shut down after what looked to be a very promising start to the campaign. But, as aforementioned, with continued losses comes continuing opportunities to pull back up against lesser opponents. This turned to our favor in a heated series against HUElavia. Besides an unfortunate 10-inning loss at home to start the series, the Base Corps broke their 9-game losing streak to get right back into the chase. The most crucial moment of the series had to be in the final tilt, scoring 2 runs in the top of the 9th to bring the lead to the Corps. Despite giving up a run to tie the game, Lane Kavana managed to lead off the 10th with a solo home run to save the game, and Franklin Bell delivered a shaky two-inning save by shutting down HUElavia in the bottom of the 10th.
At the halfway point of the tournament schedule, Drawkland were still only floating around 28th, 2 wins from being .500, and 2 wins from being in a qualifying spot. Every series from now on is absolutely crucial, anything less than splitting a series could prove deadly to the Corps playoff chances.
With this in mind, Drawkland went off to face Aeprelh, what should've been an easy series against an unranked squad. However, disaster struck when Carlos Gomez blew a save in the top of the 9th by surrendering a 2-run homerun which put Aeprelh on top. With no offense to speak of in the bottom of the 9th, the series started off sour. Still, the Corps managed to patch the ragtag engine back together and win the next three to "take" the series. Finally, the Corps were at .500, but 10 wins and shoddy strength of victory kept them at #22 in the tournament.
The next matchup was to be against the fellow perennial underachievers in the United States of Devonta. Just like in the HUElavia series, a blown save at home led to a one-run loss to start the series off on the wrong foot. But, once again, like the HUElavia series, the Corps won the next three games of the series. Both games in Devonta were pitching nightmares, but exciting offensive barnburners. Drawkland scored 11 runs in both matchups, and managed to stave off late-game comebacks by Devonta that ended with them trailing by one and two runs by the end.
CAN THE BASE CORPS SUCCEED?
Now, with two series remaining, the Base Corps need to win both their remaining series, by sweep if possible. They now sit at #17 on the tournament table, tantalizingly close to the coveted playoff spots. In fact, with 13 wins, Drawkland could even be as high up as 14th on the table if not for their aforementioned terrible strength of victory. This is, unfortunately, to be expected, from a young team out of an underachieving baseball nation. Just look at the mere +9 run differential after 24 games, pretty much every win has been a tight affair.
The upcoming series is against The Sarian, a nation just recently returning to the sports scene. This same nation currently holds the last playoff spot currently available, and if Drawkland has any expectation of advancing to the playoffs, they need to win this series. A split could possibly keep them in contention, especially if nations above them fall, but a winning record is absolutely necessary. Obviously, we can't predict who our final series opponent could be, but it would be foolish to think that they would be a pushover opponent, especially if a playoff spot hangs in the balance.
If the Base Corps ever expects to escape the playoff bubble doldrums in the WBC, they eventually need to break the glass ceiling. The Net Corps did it, and they rocketed up to the IBC championship the same year they finally broke through. I won't say that's incredibly likely to happen again, but baseball is an unpredictable game, and the Base Corps has always had unpredictable luck. Someday, that unpredictable luck may be able to turn out for Drawkland's benefit, rather than detriment.
Against The Sarian, it's easy to say the Corps has a chance at getting a good set of results in and having their fortunes turn for the better. Or, they could just get completely swept and have their season ended for good! We are no experts, especially when it comes to the WBC. So really, all we can do is hope, pray, and say On Corps.
