NL South
The former
Charlotte franchise was in decline for a few seasons before an owner was finally willing to put time into fixing some deficiencies last season, and now the team is a division winner and on the rise. They have no bad contracts and a low payroll.
LF Lloyd leads the offense while
SP Cora anchors the pitching staff. They'll have the 20th pick in the draft.
The former Kansas City Franchise had a steady owner for 8 seasons. They are projected to have a medium-high payroll but are led by perennial MVP candidate 1B Gerut, SS Yashian, and P Campos. They will pick 9th in the first round this year. TAKEN
NL West
The former
Cheyenne Franchise has slipped in recent years but still has a medium payroll with some decent players. They also play in a weak division--they lost a tie-breaker for first place despite finishing 10 games under .500 last season, so you'll have a chance to compete right away regardless. There are no bad contracts on this roster, and they are led by
RF Lee, the young
SP Palmeiro, and
LF Hines. In addition, the team has a nice OBP machine in the minors in
1B Sojo, and recent first round picks
RF Buck, and
SS Wagner. They'll pick 13th this year.
The former Scottsdale Franchise also plays in the weak NL West and had one owner for 15 consecutive seasons despite never finishing over .500 in that time. There should be a lot of payroll flexibility here as there are seven arbitration eligible players and a low ML payroll. SP Bradley anchors the pitching staff and the young star IF North provides the pop in the lineup. Last year's first round pick RF Rijo brings some promise to the future, and so does this talented trio of SPs: SP Connolly, SP Mercado, and SP Chang, They will have the 5th overall pick in the first round of the draft. TAKEN
AL North
The former Cleveland Franchise is our best team available, having won 96 games last year and over 100 games the previous three seasons before that. Despite all that success, the highest paid player only makes $9.5M (RF Goodwin) so the payroll isn't ridiculously high AND they only have five players over the age of 30! Other notable stars are SP Whang, CF Sanches, SP Bell, and closer Lira. They will pick 27th this year. TAKEN
The former Fargo Franchise TAKEN
AL East
The former Boston Franchise has a downside in that they do have a few bad contracts (totalling under $18M for this season), but the bright side is that the payroll is still medium-low and they'll have the second overall pick in the first round this year. There are a few decent ML players young enough to make minimum salary for a few years, like 2B Murphy, and 3B Chang and there are some usable non-star players who could easily play ML ball this year stored in AAA, giving the new owner the ability to keep payroll even lower if they'd like to pursue IFAs and focus on high scouting budgets. Last year's #3 overall pick was SS Gonzalez. TAKEN
AL South
The former Jacksonville Franchise has finished under .500 for eight years in a row. They will probably have a medium level payroll and are led on the ML roster by SP Mordecai, LF Smith, SP Rosario, and utility man Torres. They had the #1 overall pick last year and drafted SP Lankford and the year before nabbed SP Lee in the first round. They also have SP Silva, SP Lee, IF Stewart, and SS Nunez as top prospects. In addition, they have the #3 overall pick this year. TAKEN
6/19/2016 1:58 PM (edited)