The Spokane Fightin' Fish have capitalized time and time again in leveraging their 17 Reserve spots by largely investing in starting pitching options with odds that one will hit big. That was just the case in 2023 as right-hander Bryce Elder's April 10th Waiver Claim turned into the 25th ranked pitcher in RDBL Regular Season scoring while helping lead the Fightin' Fish to their second Regular Season Title.
With the change to a bidding process in 2023, RDBL Front Offices were tasked with allocating their $100 in-season Free Agent budget as effectively as possible. Elder received a $7 blind bid from GM Michael Tirabassi which was matched by the Alamo Short Stacks. With the Fightin' Fish behind the Stacks in the standings at that time, Elder went to the Fish and didn't leave their Active Roster for the remainder of the year.
The burly right-hander produced a 3.39 ERA and 1.20 WHIP over 143 1/3 innings, producing nine 20+ point starts in the RDBL Regular Season while ranking 25th among all starting pitchers in scoring.
Alongside Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and others, Elder helped the Fish to a tie for the most team pitching points in the RDBL in 2023, matching the Lake Merced Goutfish with 2,900.0. It was the first time the Fish have produced the top pitching staff in Team History.
Elder is the first Waiver Claim of the Year for the Fish in League History, joining Josh Donaldson (2013), Zach Britton/Josh Harrison (2014), Marco Estrada (2015), Danny Duffy/Jonathan Villar (2016), Alex Wood (2017), Kyle Freeland (2018), Bryan Reynolds (2019), Cedric Mullins (2021) and Spencer Strider (2022).
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