Baseball team selection not dependent on stats alone

Ben Jones Jr. waits for the pitch during the CNMI’s game against Guam in the 2016 Micronesia Baseball Classic at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield. The Commonwealth will form a baseball team anew to compete in the 2018 Micronesian Games in Yap this summer. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Saipan Baseball League coordinator Tony Rogolifoi said that statistics alone in the upcoming season would not guarantee a player spot on the soon-to-be-formed CNMI national baseball squad for the 2018 Micronesian Games.

The Saipan Baseball League is set to open its 2018 season next month and members of Commonwealth’s 21-member baseball team will be chosen from the pool of players that will see action in the 10-squad competition.

Rogolifoi is expected to again manage the national team and he said that although statistics would clearly show how great the skills of the players are, he would also look into how players would respond in certain situations when choosing members for his squad.

“I would also look into how the players would handle certain scoring and defensive situations during the actual games. I won’t necessarily rely on statistics alone,” Rogolifoi told Saipan Tribune.

“What they do on the field and how can they perform in other tight situations would also be a factor for me,” added the Saipan Baseball League coordinator.

The longtime CNMI baseball manager and the team he will form will try to end the CNMI’s gold medal drought in the region’s quadrennial sporting event. He led the Commonwealth to the gold medal win when Saipan hosted the 2006 Micro Games, as the CNMI bets won over Guam, 3-2. Rogolifoi’s wards then failed to defend the title in Palau in 2010, as they lost to the hosts and were again unsuccessful four years later in Pohnpei after bowing to Guam in the finals. After the defeat in Palau, Rogolifoi and the CNMI team went to New Caledonia for the 2011 Pacific Games and downed Guam in the finals, 8-4.

Meanwhile, players that saw action in the recently concluded SBL’s Under 25 division are considered candidates for the selection, along with those who played for the CNMI team in the 2014 Micro Games in Pohnpei.

Rogolifoi is looking to make the selection a few months before the Micro Games in Yap kicks off. Yap will host the regional event from July 15 to 27. The SBL coordinator added they may suspend games in the league to give the CNMI national baseball team the chance to train and practice.

“We’re going to stop the games in the SBL season for a while. It could be middle in the season or we may finish the season, depending on Mother Nature,” Rogolifoi said.