by Francis Ferry, NLN baseball beat writer

June 3, 2041: Asheville, North Carolina – The calendar turned to the first Monday of June as the annual PEBA amateur draft arrived, and this year for the Aurora Borealis it was a compact day that saw a reduced class after a busy 2040 draft that saw 24 players join the Organization. Aurora held on to their first-round pick – and picked one up, New Jersey’s in a trade with Arlington in exchange for, amongst others, Lucas MacHendrie – who is hitting .345 in limited action for the shockingly competitive and 1^st place Bureaucrats. Aurora traded away their 5^th round pick to Shin Seiki in the deadline deboccle Mike Rose deal last year, and the Borealis traded away the entirety of the second half of the draft for three picks – Kalamazoo’s 8^thand 9^th round picks and Yuma’s 9^th, leaving Aurora with 12 picks in this years draft – the fewest since the 15-player draft of 2027, that ironically included ‘Slug’, who was traded to Hartford along with Aurora’s 10^thround pick for Thibault Dejean (4-5, 3.52, while Clark was moved to Arlington and is 4-1 with a 3.12 ERA).

The 2027 draft was otherwise unmemorable.

When the time came for Aurora – 18^th overall, it was not a shocking act when they took closer Jin-haeng Yon from Aoyama Gakuin of the ICOL – a school who lost in the ICOL championship to Cambridge. During the Mighty Missionaries’ post-season run Yon threw 19-innings, allowed 7 H, walked 2, struck out 12 and allowed no runs. He also had 3-saves. For the year he was 1-2 with 17-saves, striking out 23 in 28 IP while allowing just one homer, while during his four-year career as closer he saved 61 with a 0.69 ERA with 106 K in 117 IP, walking 18 and surrendering 3 HR. Dominant stuff. He was a 2-time All-Star, twice reliever of the year (with the 2041 results pending) and was also the Pitcher of the Year last season – doing the double (pitcher and reliever awards), allowing just a run all season in 32-innings. ‘Bingo’ brings a +++ slider and cutter – both topping out at 98 mph. The scouts love his strong control and tout that he has ‘just enough stamina to be considered a starter – if he could master an off-speed pitch’. Expect Yon to begin the year at Mokule’ia, but this big, strong lefty might be on the fast track, as scouts also feel like he doesn’t have much else to prove.

Having two 1^st round picks for the first time since the 2032 draft that brought ‘Machete’ and Dave Hoffman(currently in AAA, who would subsequently be traded to Yuma in a deal otherwise involving cash and picks), and Aurora used the pick originally held by New Jersey (28^th overall) to select outfielder Jose Alnozo(not Alonzo). He is a switch hitting Spanaird who joins an Organization that has 5-switch hitters on the big league club. He was a 4-year starter at Aoyama Gakuin – thus teammates with Aurora’s top pick for four years, where he hit .292 with 25 HR. He was a 2-time All-Star in the ICOL, a Platinum Stick winner, and 2-time Glove Wizard winner – and was the MVP of the Missionaries’ 2^nd round playoff win this year, where he was 9-26 in their win over the University of Tokyo. Possessed with above average abilities to put the ball in play with tremendous gap power, we might expect a high number of XBH – if not homeruns. His average speed suggests a lot of 2B. Alnozo will begin at Short A – with the possibility of moving up to A Ball and joining 2040 draftees Won Pak and Jose Soto – both of whom are doing quite well (.324, 6 HR and .351, 9 HR, respectively).

With their pick in the 2^nd round (40^th overall) Aurora went for a catcher – the second straight year they took a catcher in the second round (Dan Hansen), as the club continues to bulk up on backstops in their system. It is the 3^rd time in the past 6-drafts (Karsten ‘Kracken’ Koetig – subsequently traded to New Orleans for Lorenzo Castanieda, and hitting .320 with the Trendies). The selection of Oliver-John ‘Lark’ Newton, who is arguably the top catcher in the draft, give Aurora a player who has a lot of defensive work ahead of him, with the intellect to absorb the lessons. Newton is a graduate of Blanchard High and he was a 4-year starter and 2-time All-Star for the Ligers. He hit .260 this year – and .257 during his 4-year career, with a career .785 OPS – his OBP and OPS were both 5^th best on the year for catchers – and he led all catchers in 2B and was 2^nd in BB. He will not knock the socks off anyone defensively, though he did not commit an error this year and threw out 30% of base stealers – and 45.7 for his 4-years, with just 6 errors in over 1,300-innings. ‘Lark’ – whose nickname comes either from his singing abilities as an active choir member in HS as well as in church at his home in Oklahoma, or as a reference to his grand-mother, Oliva Newton-John, who passed away but 40-days before he was born, and with his Great-Great Grandfather being a Nobel winning physicist, it is not surprising that his coaches call him one of the ‘brightest players they ever coached’. Oliver-John will begin his PEBA career at Montserrat under the tutaledge of one of the best catchers in PEBA history – Miguel Angel Galvez.

Aurora went back to the mound with their 3^rd round pick selecting right-handed reliever Doug Brown from South Caldwell High. ‘Crazy Legs’ – so named by his high school teammates by his gesticulations in his motion which have his legs going every which way, has been described by his coaches as a hard worker with a solid team-first attitude – highlighted by his putting up his best numbers his junior and senior years (0.43 and 1.40 ERAs) despite losing his job as a closer to Greg Williams.  Overall Brown was 5-6 with a 1.36 ERA and over 86-innings he posted a 0.91 WHIP and .190 BABIP. His 7K:3BB ratio could use some work on the control end, but he offers up a quality slider and sinker and has the stamina to find a role in the starting rotation if he finds a third quality pitch – say a strong fastball to go along with his sinker/slider that tops out at 99. Doug has a commitment to the University of Pittsburgh, and when asked o draft day what he might do his response was ‘I have commited to Pitt, so…’. And so we shall see if he heads to the Paradise League or if he takes the rest of the summer off and enrolls in an American Lit 101 class.

Versatility was the name of the game with the 114^th pick overall (in the 4^th round) as Aurora selected Akira Hoshino, a player who has won a Glove Wizard award at Waseda University – playing outstanding defense at 2B, 3B and SS, but is equally as good – if not better, across the outfield. Speedy, an astute baserunner, strong armed with great instincts on the diamond that allows him to get great jumps on the ball – all describe Hoshino. Akira was a 4-year starter for the Bear, and his senior year saw him hit .240 while he stole 21 bases in 22 attempts. One of the offensive things the scouts like about Hoshino is his ability to drive the ball into the gap, something the Borealis hope will translate into plenty of XBH as he gets a chance to work with his new manager at Mokule’ia – Pedro Ferringo – a player that those in the organization have frequently mentioned as a similar style.

The class of 2041 – for whom my colleague Ray D. Enze will examine in more detail, including Day 2 opening pick Antonio Hernandez (6^th round) and 8^th rounder Jose Ruiz, may be know for bringing some decent talent to Aurora’s system, but the test of any draft class is providing the major league club with dynamite talent – which Aurora has succeeded 50% of the time (depending on your criteria) – and of course the recent years are still to be determined, but in Yon and Alnozo, Aurora may well have succeeed in 2041.