Offseason Update: Poe out, Kemboi gone

[Bob_Meteors]

MELBOURNE, Australia: The Melbourne Meteors' quest to find an ace has been dealt two more blows. Everyone knows the story of Andy Stone, and he hasn't signed yet. But one of the Meteors' targets in free agency, starting pitcher Kipchoge Kemboi, just signed a deal elsewhere. Worse- much worse- is the fact that Kemboi sighed with league rival Rome Generals, who now have one, maybe two, top-five pitchers as well as pretty much the whole team who won the IBL last season.

Potentially even worse is that ace Ronald Poe will require Tommy John surgery- again- and will not play until August of next year, effectively rendering him useless. Now, the Meteors are still a playoff team without him, and he will play in the playoffs barring another setback (which everyone knows can never happen, especially to him). But there's no doubt that this will hurt the Meteors significantly.

Where do the Meteors go from here? We at the WBA Times have gotten tired of repeating the same story over and over, so here's the same information in a different form. This is our best guess at the Meteors regular season rotation, whether they get Stone or not.

Stone Scenario
SP#1- Andy Stone
2- Kvana Datar or Abdeljilil Abedi
3- Abedi or Datar
4- Janardan Shreerang or Imre Maxa
5- Shreerang, Maxa, Nasih bin Kamil, or Bob Pérez

No-Stone Scenario
1-Datar/Abedi
2-Datar/Abedi
3-Shreerang/Maxa
4-Shreerang/Maxa
5-Pérez/bin Kamil

Of course, there are rumors that Melbourne is pursuing Los Angeles Stars ace Serhat Karpat. If they acquire him, that could- would- disrupt this graphic considerably. Honestly, Melbourne has either acquired, lost, or both a new pitcher almost every week since being knocked out of the playoffs. At this point, updating the "projected rotation" is basically useless, but we'll do it anyway.

Marcus Comet and Phil Crater