It’s Day 20 of the GLBL Inaugural Draft and the 12 GM’s have either wrapped up their personal involvement, scaled it back, or have delegated the finals selections to their staff.  Well, all but two, that is.

                                                                                                    

The midnight oil burns late into the night in faraway Australia as GM Mike Trigwell refuses to be outdone by that young GM up north there in Thunder Bay.  Dan Courcelles continues to scour the available players looking for any edge he can find.  His most recent selection (Round 45), Ed Robinson, from Winchester VA. is a player known for his old fashioned values.  Scouts may or may not agree on whether there is enough movement to his pitches but one thing they do agree on is that Robby has 4 pitches to choose from when he is on the mound.  Whether or not Courcelles’ extra effort will pay off remains to be seen but, he’s caught the attention of the league with his hard nosed ‘stick-to-it-ism’.

Meanwhile, Trigwells’ last pick was Edison Hickman, another SP.  Edison is another of the high work ethic players that Milwaukee hopes to parlay into a 4th or 5th slot guy in the rotation.  Hickman commands three pitches, has good stamina, but tends to lack movement.  When you are a fly ball pitcher that can be trouble.  He’s 22 years old and comes from Toronto, Canada, so the time line might be pretty short on this youngster.  Yet, that’s what player development budgets are for, right?

Trigwell or Courcelles?  Who will be the last GM standing?  From my seat all bets are off.  Good luck gentleman as we wrap things up.

In the year 2012 the baseball entrepreneurs from the Great Lakes area made the decision to form a 12 team baseball league with the franchises equally divided between the countries of Canada and the United States.  All twelve franchises would be located on the waterfronts of their cities.  The year 2015 would be the first season of play.

The league idea seemed like a natural in many ways as one of the owners operated a cruise ship line on the Great Lakes, one was a CEO of a firm that specialized in ball park construction, while another individual was a magnate in the recreational travel business.  With summer weather abbreviated in the northern section of the hemisphere the decision was made to limit the regular season to 140 games ensuring that the open air ball parks would offer relative comfort to the guests throughout the season.

The minor leagues were established at two levels with 132 game seasons.  The lowest level, the Youth League, would function with players 23 years of age or younger.  Teams are also allowed to sign International Free Agents as the hope is for the predominately all Canadian and American foundation to ultimately portray a more diverse segment of the population in the leagues.  The minor league locations were spread throughout the Great Lakes area without regard to proximity to the home team or to a Great Lake waterfront, yet clearly within a short traveling distance from the  coastlines of one of the Great Lakes.

The inaugural draft of players began unfolding in January of 2015 with the Hamilton Mounties owning the first selection.