The Highlander Herald

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Garrett Pack
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The Highlander Herald

#1 Post by Garrett Pack »

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The Claymores finally have their man. The team has been looking for an American to continue to direct the team’s future in Scotland. After some searching they found a promising find in Garrett Pack who has worked as an assistant in many front offices, but has not had a change to take the helm of a big-league club.

Unfortunately, the press conference in Edinburgh got off to a rocky start. After being introduced as the new GM, Pack started off stating, “I’m thrilled to be on the other end of the pond with the opportunity to drive this club to a title. First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Leprechaun Day and hope you’re enjoying a couple of bottles of Guinness today.”

The conference as quickly ended and the new GM was rushed off the stage as the gathering had quickly become confused and upset at Pack’s ignorance. The ownership quickly realized that the new hire may know the game of baseball, but would need to be schooled on the history of the region before being put in front of the public again.
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#2 Post by Reg »

Hehehehe. Nothing like making a good first impression to your fan base :grin:
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#3 Post by Sandgnats »

:clap:
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#4 Post by Morris Ragland »

Boy. Our American GMs abroad are getting off to rocky starts.
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#5 Post by Leones »

One is left to speculate whether the club he was talking about was a wood or an iron. :-B
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#6 Post by Garrett Pack »

Spring is coming…

Opening day has finally arrived as the cold grip of winter departs and fans are excited for another year of baseball. The crack of the bat begins the drama of seeing if this is the year the team makes the run for the title. It’s a time for franchises that have been watching the postseason from home to participate in October baseball and grab some hardware for the fans. That time is going to come to Edinburgh, and the Scots will see their team rise from the ashes!

This, sure as hell, is not the year. Matter of fact, it is going to be awhile.

In fact it is going to be a while before winning ways come to the Claymores. The team is coming off the worst season in franchise history winning only .400 of their games. They also had the 2nd lowest run production in a season in the history of the PEBA in 2024. There is going to be a lot of work to do in Scotland to attract fans to the stadium. The sales team has come up with the slogan, “It’s a great year to see the best of the PEBA as they come to visit The Castle!”

Let’s take a look at the team’s starters for 2025.

Lineup
C Pepe Espinoza
1B Edgardo Medina
2B Tony Brown
SS Tony Meade
3B Bobby Watson
LF Salvador Rodriguez
CF Shoin Yamaski
RF Francisco Torres
DH Pedro Valdes

Not much to look at. It’s a lineup composed mostly of players over 30 who are looking forward to a paid vacation to Scotland as they work through their final years in baseball. I mentioned the dismal run generation from last year and this year is not looking any better.

Pitching Staff
SP Terry Dumont
SP Chad Stewart
SP Katsuhiko Yamamoto
SP Manuel Barrios
SP Soichiro Ogawa

RP Eijiro Nakagawa
RP Aaron Lee
RP Fernando Vega
RP Kojuro Ogino
RP Kiyonobu Hironaga
RP Angelo Gonzales
CL Hector Gallo

Better than the Claymores lineup, but not an imposing group. Terry Dumont is the “ace” of the rotation and should do well, but would not be an ace in other clubs. Hector Gallo would be putting up some impressive Save stats if he was put in situations where that was possible. The bullpen is decent, but it is likely the game will have been decided by the time they arrive.

Down on the farm
Unfortunately, the farm system will not give any relief in the future. This is the main focus as the club tries to pull in some talent and eventually get them to the show, but this going to be a long process to create. It is going to be a hard sell to tell an audience that insists the team is playing cricket the wrong way that they should stick around for half a decade before the games get exciting.

The front office has decided that maybe Billy Bean has the right idea and they will also stop watching live games. It’s just going to be too painful.
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#7 Post by Reg »

Looking at the team after 6 weeks of play, and they aren't necessarily championship material right now, but they are actually hanging in there and doing alright! They have a winning record so far in May (6-5) and Salvador Rodriguez is cranking home runs at a healthy clip!

I am interested to see how this team does as summer arrives.
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#8 Post by Sandgnats »

Trendsetters wrote:Looking at the team after 6 weeks of play, and they aren't necessarily championship material right now, but they are actually hanging in there and doing alright! They have a winning record so far in May (6-5) and Salvador Rodriguez is cranking home runs at a healthy clip!

I am interested to see how this team does as summer arrives.
Heck yeah. My heart is with them this year.
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#9 Post by Vic »

The Claymores had issued an invitation to both local and national/world news organization. A new announcement about the direction of the organization was to be made. As the press seated themselves, they noticed a large, theatre-like screen that had a countdown, it was slowly ticking down from 1:00 minute. A soft, barely audible melody started drifting in from the bose speaker...dun du dun....dun da dun...the numbers now read 00:15 and the music began to grow louder...guess who's back, back agin...dun duna dun dun...as the music grew, the lights went out and the timer hit 00:00, suddenly small firework displays located on the edge of the stage began shooting sparks into the air...Shady's back, tell a friend...a smoke machine began to fill the room in a hazy surrealness...as three figures slowly marched onto the stage....guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back...a spotlight light the figure furthest to the audiences left. A shirtless, kilt wearing man, with a face half painted and blue and wielding a very large and somewhat dangerous looking claymore, was none other than Cooper Scott. On the far right the spotlight lit up a sharply dressed man, the audience gasped as they recognized Tsumemasa Morimoto, PEBA's all-time home run king. Then in the middle, in a sloppy, ill-fitting suit Paul Tanner stepped up to the podium and smiled reassuringly. The music faded out, Tanner raised his hands, spread them wide and proclaimed, "Claymores...welcome to your future!!"
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Re: The Highlander Herald

#10 Post by Vic »

Angus McHaggis sits down with Tanner to discuss the Claymores:

"Splooooshhhh", Tanner made a dropping motion with his hands and mimicked an explosion. That was his reaction when the press asked his first impression of the Claymores organization. "It's a total rebuild. I wish I was just pessimistic and playing some long game about lowering expectations...but the truth is ugly for the Claymores."

The Claymores are in last in their division and have the worst pitching staff of the imperial League currently. So maybe Tanner isn't so far off. But surely there are some rays of hope.

"Have you seen the report on our minor league system? Not one prospect in the top 100...and the prospects that are listed as being top in the Claymores system...well they simply aren't that good...and don't project to ever be that good. I mean our scout doesn't like them, they aren't producing statistically, this is a long haul climb and it will probably get worse before it gets better."

This year the Claymores tried to fill some holes and be more competitive by signing some veteran players to modest contracts...every single one of them has spent time on the disabled list, some like catcher Pepe Espinoza, the time has been extensive. Return on investment has been pretty low.

Tanner has been a part of successful teams and he has also overseen some difficult stretches in his time as a GM of the Trendsettese and Ghosts. And because of this, he knows there is no magic formula or trick to open the road to success.

"I promise that I will put in the work and take the right steps to help this ship get headed in the right direction. But I won't guarantee early success and
fans may not appreciate the pace of getting competitive."

Time will tell, but for die-hard Claymates, the picture is looking pretty dim for the near future.
Vic Caleca
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