Karachi Outfield and Catching

[Karachi_GM]

 Karachi:  Assessing the Outfield & Catching

by Hasan Khan, Sports Editor (Karachi Dawn)
15 September 2104

Dissa and Data

• One week to go in the season and Karachi is dead tied with London for the second round draft pick.  Heard in the dugout: “We’ll be trying to win some games; the third round pick won’t be so bad.”  Karachi has won seven of their last ten.
• Shuncho Kan hurled seven plus scoreless innings against Tokyo on September 12th to record his eleventh win against just three losses.  He lowered his ERA to 3.09.
• Karachi and Tokyo both scored three runs in the first inning on September 13th.  Then it was scoreless until the eighth when Karachi got two more to win it 5-3.  It was a nice win over Tokyo ace Da'ud bin Abbas.  Reliever Lukyan Enohin got the win in relief of Fyodor Rislyakov

Here is the promised review of the Karachi outfield and catching roster with pitching to come in our next update

Left Field
Sun Gai has played here for most of the season.  He has some power: 35 home runs last year and 22 this year, but he hit just .209 last year and .202 this year.  He will be 35 in a few days, and he is most likely going to be around next season as he has a guaranteed contract for an exorbitant $7.5 million.  He can pretty much kiss the $7.5 million team option for 2106 good-bye unless he improves his performance dramatically in 2105.  In the future we expect Erwin Beza to take over full-time in left.  A top prospect at age 21, he will probably require a full season in AAA at Faisalabad before he is ready for the show.

Center Field
Luis Rivera has the center field job locked up.  He sports a +20 zone rating in center and is having an excellent power season with 30 home runs.  In August he had three homers in a game against London.

Right Field
Sami Tumaini makes way too much money at $2.4 million thanks to an ill-advised two-year free agency deal offered to him by Karachi prior to the 2103 season.  Karachi could release him and avoid the contract automatically renewing for 2105.  But he has the best OBP on the team (over .400) and he did hit .270 with 13 home runs.  He is likely to be the starter next year even with his negative zone rating.  The new Karachi management really would like a better defensive option, but the alternatives for better defense have offensive liabilities.

Outfield Reserves
Atindra Kaisch and Octavian Gheara are the current reserves.  They are OK defensively and marginal offensively (despite Gheara’s .353 batting average this year, a number that seems totally illusionary).

Catching
This is one spot where the Falcons seem well positioned for the future.  Trigana Chioke (age 26) has excellent power, and his batting average has improved every year up to .268 this season.  Further improvement is possible.  Alas, he is not the defensive whiz you would like behind the plate.  Also 26, Zelalem Luzige is marginally better defensively but lacks Chioke’s power.  He could hit for a higher average as evidenced by his .308 this season in limited action.  Tsadik Shukrani at Faisalabad looks like a slightly younger (24) mirror image of Chioke.  Perhaps a trade waiting to be made?