In surprise deal, Sifiye returns to Melbourne

[Bob_Meteors]

MELBOURNE, Australia- Just days after inking a 3 year, $37.5 million contract extension with the Buenos Aires Dolphins, 2B Tamirat Sifiye has been traded to the Melbourne Meteors, in exchange for 2B prospect Atílio Sobreiro, the WBA Times is reporting.

Sifiye is, of course, well known to Melbourne. He was drafted by the Meteors in 2103 (back when they were the Tokyo Samurai), and was named MVP of the Intercontinental Championship Series on the way to the Meteors' 2108 world title. A few years later, in the midst of the 2110 season, which saw the Melbourne pitching staff utterly decimated by injury, Sifiye was traded to Buenos Aires for Clifford 'Fudd' Mitchell, in "one of the dumbest trades of all time".

This deal comes as the Meteors, who had a historically terrible 51-105 season just last year, are making a surprise push. Part- more accurately, nearly all- of this resurgence comes from a series of deals made during the offseason, in which the Meteors acquired SPs Michael Smith, Jermão Vilardeb, and Bartholomous Wilmetz, 1B Harsendu Dhurvasula, 3B Iwo Cipinski, and OFs Goldofrede Zote and Bhuvanacandra Dwijen from the Santo Domingo Palmchats and the Mumbai Cobras. Assuming that Sifiye will take a spot in the starting lineup and replace 2B Dominic Underhay, that means only 2 of Melbourne's 5 starting pitchers and 3 of their 8 starting bats were on the team this time last year.

Despite the Huckleberry Predictor 3000™ (http://www.worldbaseballassociation.com/forum/index.php?topic=729.0) predicting the Meteors would be a lowly 67-89 in their final preseason rankings, Melbourne is (quite shockingly) playing above .500 and in a decent position for a playoff charge! Furthermore, the Meteors are actually underperforming their Pythagorean record, which is an indicator that they may actually get better as the season progresses. Tied for fifth in the ABL with the almost equally resurgent Paris Fleur-de-Lis (who went 64-92 last season), Melbourne is just 4 games behind the London Monarchs and the second wild-card spot. Tamirat Sifiye is sure to help that push- he doesn't hit many home runs, but is hitting .317 with a .396 OBP so far. It'll be very interesting to see whether, with Sifiye and the rest of their all-new lineup, the Meteors can make the playoffs this year.