This Week in PEBA

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Reginald Tarquin
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This Week in PEBA

#1 Post by Reginald Tarquin »

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Welcome to a new column from ESPN written by me, Reginald Tarquin, the newly appointed PEBA beat writer. It will be my task each column to dig deep into the underbelly of the league, find the gossip and report those great milestones & trivia stats.

I first got involved in baseball as a young rookie reporter on Five Live radio in the UK. We did an 'Access all areas' program on London's home opener in 2016 and I was hooked after that. It was such a great day for all the presenters involved and our listeners liked it so much that we produced several more shows. After that opener in 2016 I got to interview London's fresh faced rookie GM Nigel Laverick who was straight off a two year stint in the LRS with the new sadly defunct Kuwana Steel Dragons. Who would have thought that seven years later he would be the newly appointed Commissioner of the PEBA?

That will be one of my first interviews for this column, an interview with the new Commissioner. Steel Dragoon to Commish in nine years, what a story ! You the readers can be helpful too, send me your tips, juicy bits of gossip or stunning facts of trivia and I've got a bag of CP's to pay you with. Look out for my first column in the very near future.
Reginald Tarquin
ESPN's PEBA Beat Writer

All tips, insider news & quotes paid for !!
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#2 Post by Dinosaurs »

Ha, love it. Welcome to the Show Reg.
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#3 Post by John »

Love it! And welcome, Reginald! ;-D
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#4 Post by Duane »

ooooo this could be real good. I will be checking in each sim to see what's new.
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Even though we fell short against Duluth in 2026 ... and SS in 2027 and 2029 8-o
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#5 Post by roncollins »

:)
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#6 Post by Cole »

Good stuff!
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#7 Post by Apollos »

I saw this new Reginald Tarquini fella and was curious who he was. Welcome Reg, look forward to reading your columns ;-D
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#8 Post by Reginald Tarquin »

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September 25, 2023
New York, New York

Shocking news coming out of Texas as we come to the final week of the 2023 PEBA season. In a press conference at The Cathouse at Petsmart Field in downtown Harlington, Texas the Rio Grande Valley owner Isabel Padilla announced that the ownership group would be pulling out at the end of the season and unless a buyer was found for the Ocelots team they would fold.

The franchise has already lost in excess of $11.5 million this season and in the last ten years has lost $167.5 million. “We cannot continue to cover these sort of losses” said Padilla “We were hoping the move [to Texas] would help us to become financially stable but after four years here we find ourselves in a $31 million hole again. I met with my backers last week and decided enough was enough.”

The Ocelots had just qualified for the post season as the Wildcard entrants and still have a chance of winning the IL Dixie division as they sit five games behind Florida with two three-game home series to come, one of those against the Featherheads. This will be their second straight PEBA post season outing after joining the league in 2020.

The franchise started life as the Yamato Battleships in the original LRS then in 2010 became the Kawaguchi Transmitters when the PEBA took control of the LRS. With the corruption scandal of 2019 changing the face of baseball the franchise was on the move again, this time to Harlington in Texas and for a new life as the Rio Grande Valley Ocelots. Now it seems after today's announcement that it was a short tenure and 2023 will be the final year for the franchise. They have never been that successful under the PEBA with just this year and last year producing post season play. They were however the last two champions of the old LRS before the league came under PEBA control.

A statement issued by the Office of the Commissioner read “We have been aware of the situation in Texas for a few months, we were hoping with in excess of $40 million possibly coming off the payroll at the end of 2023 the current ownership might give it a go but we were informed at the weekend that the intention was to hand back the keys and walk away. We feel that there are a couple of ownership consortiums out there we might be able to strike a deal with in order that the franchise might continue, be it there in Texas or in a new location. We are very hopeful that the franchise will remain an important member of the league going forward.”

This is the latest blow to the previously seemingly rock solid PEBA. After the league filled the void left by the collapse of the MLB it appeared that the league was going from strength to strength. The scandal of corruption in 2019 almost finished the league off but it survived that and came back stronger. Recently though rumours have been surfacing about the viability and health of several franchises and this is the first confirmation that maybe not everything is rosy in the PEBA's garden.
Reginald Tarquin
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#9 Post by roncollins »

This would be a sad moment. Understandable, but sad.
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#10 Post by Borealis »

Hopefully this is the beginning of what becomes a happy story for the Ocelots - do we have a night in shining armor on the horizon???
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#11 Post by Leones »

Wind Dancers wrote:This would be a sad moment. Understandable, but sad.
My thoughts too. Keep on transmittin' !
Kawaguchi_Transmitters_med.png

edit: used a smaller transmitter :)
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#12 Post by Dinosaurs »

Troubling news for the Ocelots, though that level of financial strain is hard to overcome. Would be quite the challenge for some new ownership group to take over, but understandable if nobody steps up.
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#13 Post by Simon »

Matt was running things very differently than any other GM, shuffling players around constantly. He would find a way to stay on top.
But at the same time the way team is build can be troublesome for the new owner ;)
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#14 Post by Reginald Tarquin »

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I was slipped this note by a trusted source yesterday and I don't know what to make of it? Disturbing facts or someone's work of fiction?
It was a very terse meeting in the New York offices of PEBA. It was early November during the PEC, the principle people in the meeting were the new PEBA Commissioner Nigel Laverick, RGV owner Isabel Padilla and a whole host of financial & administration flunkys on both sides. RGV had made it to the Divisional Series but had lost in seven to Kentucky. The $7.5 million that the play offs had provided was a welcome boost but couldn't stop the Ocelots losing nearly $5 million on the year.

Ms Padillla wanted to hand the franchise back to the Board, in their four years in Rio Grande the team had lost $21,338,802 and her financial backers were in the process of foreclosure on the Ocelots account. She had pointed out that the franchise expected in the region of over $50 million to come off the payroll this off season but the bankers were very sceptical about this. The loss of so much off the payroll would almost certainly lead to an inferior product on the field and therefore an increased chance of lower revenue in 2024 leading to another loss. The franchise through its incarnations as Yamato Battleships, Kawaguchi Transmitters and Rio Grande Valley Ocelots had lost a staggering $153,308,882 and they could not see any way of recouping their losses. They were of the opinion that the only way they would recoup any sort of return was to fold the franchise, sell off the assets and attempt to drag what they could out of Ms Padilla on top of that.

The Board of the PEBA held the balance of power, it was they who had the final say on the future of the franchise. There had been several rumours circulating that Ms Padilla wasn't the only owner that was struggling with a PEBA Franchise, the LRS scandal was really coming home to roost. The forced amalgamation of the LRS into the PEBA had diluted the product on the field particularly in the SL where three teams failed to reach even a 60-win total, two of them former LRS teams. The Board promised a package of measures in the off season to improve the value of the product and reinvigorate the league as a whole but it was looking to be not enough as the GM's of Tempe and Manchester walked away. With league concerns about the newly appointed Gms in Niihama and Duluth as well the talk in the corridors of power was all about contraction. With new Gms coming in throughout the year the league looked to have silenced the talk but now the gossip was that as many as four franchises could be closing their doors for the final time during the off-season. There had been no official word from the board but with as many as eight franchises struggling for a year or more the beat writers were voicing the writing on the wall whilst scanning the job pages.

The only good rumour that was being strongly backed in the press was that a Caribbean Island, angered by the publicity, visitors and hard cash that Cuba was receiving via the Havana franchise was in talks with the PEBA board about the possibility of rescuing one of the franchises in order to compete with Havana. No announcement has again been made but inside sources indicate that talks could be at an advanced stage, no details of the franchise involved have been confirmed but guesses range from RGV, Tempe, Marseille and a real outside bet gathering column inches is Crystal Lake where GM Brain Hazelwood has been very coy about his future and the Sandgnats have refused to confirm or deny any plans for 2024


What do you make of it?
Reginald Tarquin
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Re: This Week in PEBA

#15 Post by roncollins »

We think the Commish is playing games with us. :)

On the other hand, we could be preparing for a contraction draft in the backrooms of our Toyama hideout.
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