Herts Baseball Club has announced that it will be withdrawing the Herts Eagles from the BBF Triple-A League.
The club clarified that they have lost a number of players since last season and although they have added a good number of new players this is not going to be enough to field four teams in the BBF adult leagues.
In 2015 the Herts Eagles were made up predominantly of students some of whom are also members of the various Great Britain National Teams. This resulted in severe shortage of players during the school holidays and during the weeks when players are called up to the GB Teams or have upcoming exams.
A club spokesperson said “We have six or seven fewer players compared to this time last year and we really needed to have three or four more than last year to be able to overcome the seasonal player shortage later in the year during the weeks when students are away.”
Given the unpredictable nature of player recruitment over the course of the season the club may suddenly find itself with too many players for three teams, but we understand that they are already considering ways of ensuring that the club can integrate all newcomers who decide to join the club in the coming months.
The last time the club had to go down from four league teams to three was in 2011. That step back was followed by two or three steps forward over the subsequent seasons as larger and stronger rosters bring many advantages which Herts will be hoping to benefit from in the coming season.