Available Teams:
NL South #2
Former Franchise: Durham
Previous Record: 72-90
Draft Pick: #9
Very little owner turnover, a solid team all around. Just needs a few key pieces to make a playoff run. This team is in a fairly equal division competition wise so it shouldn’t take much to turn it into a winner. One of its offensive weapons is 2B Rafael Andrus. Its pitching staff is very well rounded, with many quality starters namely Cliff Faulkner. The team has had quite a few high draft picks over the last few years and is stacked with starting pitching: SP Harry Harvey, SP Aroldis Mangual, RF Hughie Miclat, SP Enrique Escobar and SP Dan Dillon.
NL West
Former Franchise: Los Angeles
Previous Record: 88-74
Draft Pick: #22
Perhaps the best available team in the NL, has made the playoffs seven times in the last nine seasons. Only two owners in franchise history. An incredibly low payroll, roughly $30 million, so there is a lot of room to improve through free agency. One of its offensive weapons is speedster LF Omar Rodrigo. The bullpen is young and very good with quality players such as Brian Hutchinson and Willy Soriano. This teams draft history includes many good prospects such as: 3B Eduardo Moreno, 2B Brett Rose, SP Ernie Rowand and SP Allen Montgomery.
AL EAST
Former Franchise:
Atlanta
Previous Record: 100-62
Draft Pick: #29
Won the division 4 of the last five seasons. Great balance of pitching and hitting, with the team in the top 10 of most pitching and hitting categories. The pitching is led by
Jayson Lincoln and
Enrique Infante, who combined for a 32-12 record. The offense featured 7 20+ HR hitters, led by
Thomas Mirabelli and
Artie Whitaker. While a lot of team is getting older (30+), there is some young talent at the ML level, such as
Stu Wall and
Horacio Pulido. There's not a lot in the minors, but there's still time for this team to be competitive now for the next few seasons and maintain past that through drafting and IFA's.
AL NORTH
Former Franchise:
Salt Lake City
Previous Record: 79-83
Draft Pick: #13
This team has got a real good offense behind it (2nd highest team OBP in both leagues at .357), lead by OBP machines
Giovanni Burgess and
Howard Green. Pitching gave up a few more runs than the team produced. However, there are some good young arms up in the majors in
Damaso Gomez and
Sammy Azocar. There are some ML ready prospects in
Wandy Vasquez,
Rolando Ramirez, and
Naoto Yang. Deeper down the farm, last year's #9 pick
Victor Henry shows some great potential.
AL SOUTH
Former Franchise:
Jacksonville
Previous Record: 56-106
Draft Pick: #2
This team is stacked on offense:
Brian Posey,
Joseph Aoki,
Casey Backe, etc, etc. Pitching: Forget it. Pitching needs a complete overhaul. While there's some viable talent in the minors, there's no real surefire stud in the system. This team is a great team for anyone who likes a good rebuild project, since there are some great trade pieces to build a great minor system along with the #2 pick in the upcoming draft.
AL East #2
Former Franchise: Louisville
Previous Record: 64-98
Draft Pick: #5
A solid team, with minimal owner turnover. Only a couple coaches over the last 20 seasons. Improved its ML roster last season with some key acquisitions. The offense kept this team alive last season, thanks to 2x MVP and 3x All-Star Ray Dunn. Other note able ML players are: DH Ruben James, C Tony Martin and 2B/CF Ralph Benoit. This team has had MANY high draft picks over the last 6 seasons and will have another top 5 draft pick in the coming season. By MANY I mean the #6, #8, #5, #8 and #3 picks. So as you can imagine the minors are stacked. This consists of SP stud Darren Leonard, CF Dick Parker, LF Javy Bonilla, SS Ismael Mairena, CF Rick Snyder and 3B Roy LeBlanc.