By Myron Rolle, Rhodes Scholar

6/8/2009: Duluth, MN – Having reached the goal they set out to attain at a relatively early point in the season, the Duluth Warriors now look to the future for their next step.  With obvious talent deficiencies in almost every position on and off the field, the Warriors have much to do through the remainder of this season and in the offseason to prepare for the next year's campaign and its lofty goal of 18 successes.  But as minority owner Lloyd Banks intoned, the Warriors will neither run nor snitch but face their problems head on.

A large portion of Duluth's direction will be determined by the high-profile players currently on the roster.  Of these, the ones with expiring contracts will be of particular interest to the more knowledgeable fans from the Land of 10,000 Lakes (which also provides great dairy products).  José Alfonso (Ed.  note: career-ending injury since article was written), Manuel Rivera, Pedro Rosa, Derek Lamb and Tamasaburo Akiyama all play out the string this year, just to name a few.  "Obviously, we appreciate the contributions most of these guys made to the franchise.  It's going to be hard to say goodbye to some of the team's most popular players, but it's part of turning the franchise around," said a man eating noodles out of his lap in front of the Duluth front office.

"It could go one of two ways," said Jonny Cup-o-noodles.  "We could trade them all.  From the short-term, bottom line point of view, this may be the best option for the team.  Grab a few decent prospects and/or draft picks and clear some space in the budget.  Kirby Gibson, who has lowered his ERA more than a point and a half in his past three starts, also falls into line as a veteran who can help a team with a late season push.”  Clearly not dissuaded by a fact that an ostensibly homeless man should not know nearly this much about the inner workings of a baseball team, the Ramen Monster continued.  "Another option that a number of hoboes fail to consider is to hold onto the players until their contracts run out and then lowball them in arbitration.  By making an offer, the team ensures that it receives compensatory draft picks when the players sign elsewhere.  For a franchise that needs to build from within, that might not be too bad a thing."

Regardless of how accurate the prognostications of an alarmingly well-informed homeless man slurping Ramen from the front pocket of his poncho may be, it seems clear that a new day is a dawning in Duluth.  The old day, it would seem, lasted a little over two years and was marked by failure and frustration, but is no doubt best summed up by another word that begins with "f" and won't make it to print.  The new day will be defined on the shoulders of young studs like Pat Holman, whose shoulders are already pretty well defined in their own right.  For those of you who have been living under rocks for the past three seasons, Holman is the hero of Duluth, a 21-year-old catcher with thunder in his bat, sunshine in his smile, and – in light of his recent election as deacon at Duluth's First Baptist – orthodox doctrine on the brain.

Perhaps more pertinently to this discussion, Holman is the first in what the Warriors hope to be a cresting wave of young talent.  Following more deeply on Holman's heels are Nick Kuhn and Stan Gill, a pair of third basemen plying their trade around the infields of Duluth's minor league system.  Recently promoted to AA, this pair seems to be the future of the Duluth attack.  "We just moved them up to AA after some very good work at the A-ball level," explains Warriors GM Joel Dobney, also the area's leading Krav Maga expert.  "The plan is to get them up to AAA this year and evaluate them as major league prospects next spring."

With Kuhn and Gill being the jewels of the farm system, contention seems a long way off for Duluth's fans.  Even with that as a given, the Warriors faithful remain one of the strongest fan bases in the nation.  The outfield remains as a need that has been ostensibly filled through both the draft and the winter meetings, but it remains to be seen exactly how those prospects pan out.  Norberto Guillen, Duluth's first round pick in this year's amatuer draft, factors as an impact starter down the road.  Perhaps soon the season will dawn that sees Duluth bring home two or even three dozen victories for their hometown fans.