Niihama, Japan – December 3, 2032

“Ivan won’t be joining us, gents,” Vanessa spoke loudly but calmly, settling the pre-meeting clamor the players seemingly couldn’t help themselves from igniting. Her video feed, replete with Niihama-shi Ghosts imagery in her office backdrop, kicked on smoothly as she began the 2032 season players report meeting. The meeting was traditionally held online to ensure players needn’t return to Niihama – or Japan for that matter – to receive the in-house update that was meant to be a convenience for the players in the first place. Much of the clamor was about the recent rumors of managerial change, as well as unexpected player moves. Recently, the Ghosts active roster had been wiped out from a combination of retirements, releases, trades, and designations for assignment. The latter category cost the team its beloved Captain in Seishiro Kokura, as well as the not so beloved Mitchell Drewry, and the players were none-too-pleased. The managerial rumors, however, had a quality of cheer to them as the players discussed them. Vanessa had intentionally let the players wait for her in the team’s virtual meeting space so that she could listen in as they discussed the recent moves freely among themselves. She had a good rapport with most of the team – she found it easy to speak with players, having grown up as a baseball insider due to her father’s coaching career – but would never deny herself the opportunity to help foster that rapport further. Her announcement cut through the cacophony with ease, however, as the players were eager for her to confirm rumors of a managerial change.

“Ivan Maes has been released from his contract and will not be managing the Ghosts next season,” Vanessa allowed the players a moment to comport themselves, noticing several smirks from members of the 2032 register. “We know everyone, Ivan included, put everything they had into the 2032 season, but we believe we’ve found a better fit in Luke Hall. He will be reaching out to players individually throughout the offseason, so please be sure to speak with him as much as possible. He’s a guy that wants input from everyone, and he’s smart as hell, so we’re very excited to see what he can do for the team. We will also be welcoming former Badgers and Lions manager, Victor Bruno, as bench coach. Victor has 31 years of experience and knows how to maximize talent.” Nods from the audience gave Vanessa the assurance that neither hiring was immediately hated, which was all she could hope for at the moment. Time would tell if hiring another unknown as manager alongside a significantly older and more experienced bench coach would pay off, but at least the players were willing to hit the reset button after the team’s disastrous 2032 campaign.

“So let’s talk, guys. I could give you a rundown but I don’t want this to be a one-sided, announcement style meeting. I want to hear from you. What are your questions? What are your worries?” Vanessa waited patiently for someone to speak. The players seemed a little uncomfortable with the suddenly flipped meeting, and it was a long, short silence before someone spoke up.

“Ok, I’ll start,” the heavily accented voice broke the silence and carried a subtle but distinct edge, “I’ve played a whole bunch of places, and I’ve never had less fun than I did last year. Coach Maes was kind of a dick, but it wasn’t his fault we lost so much. How we gonna be better this year? We tryin’ to lose again?” Jose Vargas, one of the few veterans in the meeting, was among the cadre of team leaders that fought to keep the chaos under control during the Ghosts losingest season in history.

“Good, let’s get this out of the way. Thanks for starting, Jose. At no point have we asked any of you to lose. At no point. I know some of you were surprised to find yourselves playing at this level last season. Some of you weren’t ready, some of you were. We will have less of that as we can send some of our Rule 5 selections from last year down to complete your development. But here’s the rub, Jose, and this goes for just about everyone, you can’t hit .171 and come to me complaining about losing. That’s bullshit,” Vanessa was unforgiving in her tone.

She let that sink in for a second before continuing, “That said, our expectation was not that we could compete at a high level right away. To your point, we did trade guys that were doing well – B-Gon and Figgy and the obvious examples. That may happen again this year, but I’ll tell you this right now – we EXPECT to win a HELL of a lot more games next season. There will be new faces and we expect them to be able to contribute heavily, but winning comes from every player on the team. None of you are losers – if you were, you would not be on this call. We expect literally every one of you to contribute to the ascension of the Ghosts and that ascension starts now. There will be no waiting until next year unless we’re forced to do so by on-field results.” The crowd was silent. The challenge was heard, and the subtext was clear – contribute or expect to be replaced.

“So if we’re winning a come July, the Ghosts won’t pull the plug on the season by trading the best of us?” Vargas was equally cool and uncompromising as Vanessa in his reply.
“If we’re in line for a playoff spot, you can be damn certain we’ll sprint for the finish line,” Vanessa lied, knowing full well her boss would act without the least bit of concern for any promises she made here. She did, at least, believe that it was true. If the Ghosts could climb from the worst of the worst and somehow, miraculously, compete within the Rising Sun, she honestly believed Vail would buy at the deadline.

“So how do you explain waiving Seishiro? He was the heart and soul of the team and now he’s in Arlington,” Vargas continued.
“We lost Seishiro and we were pretty bummed about that, but as much as we all liked him, Seishiro hit .204. It’s just not goddamn good enough. We had room last year to let a lot of you guys find yourselves. Clyde, for instance, came to us from Shin Seiki, where he had gotten squeezed from the lineup, and since we could give him the chance he needed, he raised his OPS over 100 points. Miguel struggled to catch up to PEBA pitching but in July he started to catch up, hitting .268 that month. We love to see guys come alive. We like being shown how smart we are for having faith in your talent. But there’s no more room for that in 2033. We can’t have players struggling to perform all season. We’ll be more patient than most teams, but the results need to be there this season if you want to earn playing time at the major league level. End of story,” Vanessa heard her dad’s voice. She couldn’t remember how many times she’d heard a version of that speech from him, either directed at her or at one of a hundred players he coached or managed. Invisibly, she chuckled to herself for falling back to it here. She looked keenly, earnestly, into Vargas’s eyes – at least as directly as the camera/video interface would allow. He seemed to be doing the same thing, and waited out another long pause before replying, “Ok.”

Having placated, at least temporarily, the voice of frustration for the hopefully upstart Ghosts, Vanessa tried to shift gears, “So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, what else do we have?”
“Are we really trying to win now? Or are we just going to do anything to trade for more draft picks?” the question, blurted from the Ghosts’ new acquisition, catcher Archie Moore, marked a transition from reasonable and firm questioning of direction to, well, borderline whining in Vanessa’s mind.

“Everyone, meet Archie Moore, coming to us from Yuma. I’ve answered this question already, Archie, but to emphasize the point – you were traded for draft picks. That means, we gave up draft picks to get you. Your former teammates, Kyle Tatham and Peter Casey, will be joining us as soon. We traded more draft picks to acquire them. You’re a smart guy, Archie, so I’ll leave you with that.” Vanessa regretted that being her first interaction with the guy she and her boss hoped could hold down the majority of the at bats at catcher over the next few seasons, but one lesson that she’d never forgotten was her father’s intolerance of whining. You let one guy whine out loud, and it’ll infect the air. Soon you’ll be whining and you won’t even know why. Ever visit an animal shelter? One dog barks, they all start barking.

“But we’re in the Rising Sun division,” Archie continued, “three teams won a 100 games and another like 90. How the hell are we going to compete with that?”

“Is that a serious question?” Vanessa’s voice bordered on demand as she stared into her video feed. She wasn’t exactly sure where the cameras embedded into her screen were, so she just chose to stare at the player who asked such a question. Seeing his lack of enthusiasm for reply, or perhaps his refusal to take her rhetorical bait, she continued, “Generally we try and score more runs than the other team, Arch. That’s how winning works. You may be a little hazy on that, but I assure you, if you remain so, you will be replaced with someone that is much clearer on the concept,” the young man squirmed in his seat as her gaze burned through his screen in intimidatingly high definition. For a moment, she felt genuine anger. Many of these guys would have no shot at a roster spot with most other PEBA teams. They knew it, and for the most part, they appeared more willing to focus on why the person next to them wasn’t winning for them.
“Let me be very clear, when I look at this team, I don’t see a lot of star power. I don’t see a team of former champions or all-stars. What I see is potential. Every one of you has potential. When I look at Clyde, I see 30 plus home runs. I see Takuji and think – that’s a guy that could win 15 games and start at catcher in between Ws. I see you, Archie, mowing down would be base stealers game after game and Carlos? I see that 6 WAR season you just put up with Namuko and I KNOW you could do that here if you just… played. Stop losing before you step onto the field. You think you suck? You think the guy next to you sucks? You’ve already lost. Tell me now and I’ll find a replacement. I’ll do it in a heartbeat, gentlemen, make no mistake. But I SWEAR to you, that if you actually just show up for Spring Training in shape, and ready to EARN your spot on the team – you will be shocked at the results. Not just at our ability to step up against Toyoma or Neo Tokyo or those bastards in Shin Seiki, but at your own ability. I’m smarter than all of you. I think you’re each capable of putting on a SHOW. You would. Not. Be here otherwise.”

“Guys there’s plenty more demonstration of our intent to come, but for now, just let this sink in a bit: we just traded most of our high picks for guys that will be playing for us now. We’ve got a BOATLOAD of budget room and free agency is right around the corner. The 2033 Ghosts are not the 2032 Ghosts. We are as sick of losing as you are, so let’s all knock it off, eh boys?” Vanessa smiled dryly as she continued on, reviewing some of the more mundane topics including off-season training and conditioning check-ins and general off-season scheduling.