Start play tomorrow with a loaded, 88 win Montreal team (see below). But first, understand the world and decide if it's where you want your HBD time spent:

Why Major Leagues?
Reason #1: In the old days when there were enough players to fill all HBD's worlds, there were differences among worlds, sure. But the differences were small (compared to today). It made sense to hunt around for the optimal team.

Today, when there are more available teams than HBD'ers looking for teams, the differences among worlds are bigger. Obviously, some worlds don't fill and have to merge. Some worlds take a really long time to fill. And a select few fill immediately season after season. In this environment it makes more sense to look for the optimal world than the right team (after all, your team will be what you want it to be in a few seasons...the world is the thing that provides your HBD experience).

Reason #2: You're sick of waiting 10 weeks for worlds to fill, sick of public worlds, and sick of mergers where you lose all your historical records. You want a world that's going to fill fast and start soon after rollover..year after year.

Major Leagues Starts Within Hours Of Rollover...how do we do that?

Reason #3: We work very hard on recruiting, we start on it very early, and we involve a lot of people in it (most of our new owners come in as referrals from current owners)...not just the commissioner

Reason #4: Because we work recruiting hard and always have HBD'ers wanting to get in, we enforce our private world rules tightly, which of course helps retain good owners (yes, we occasionally have a team miss the MWR and we always boot 'em).

Reason #5: Active blog with lots of contributors at http://mlbbhbd.blogspot.com/. Here's what our owners have to say about the blog:

• "Man do I think all the blog content is awesome. Thanks to all who contribute!"
• "I agree , the blog adds an element to this world that none of the other worlds I've been in have."
• "Big props on the blog. I know how time consuming it is and you're doing a really great job."
• "Agreed. A good blog makes a world and right now, this blog is by far the best."
• "Wow! Nice write-up. It's as if my thoughts were put down on paper by osmosis! .....really though...nice job analyzing the roster...you have a keen eye for talent and a great way of conveying the message on the blog. Kudos to you!"

Reason #6: Exceptional ownership group with 91 world Series titles spread over 23 owners.

Reason #7: Most owners are pretty active in the world, so there's lower turnover than in many worlds.

Reason #8: We play defense. Major Leagues averaged 699 runs per team last season, and the average team had a fielding percentage of .985. Nobody plays Manny Ramirez at SS, and guys like Benito Olivio and Carson Matthes (Season 40's GG winners at SS) get long-term contracts and good trade return. Matthes Could be your starting Shortstop -- Seattle is one of our available teams! Also, we averaged 70 plus plays and 27 minus plays last season.

Montreal Expos
88-74 last season, 25th pick in draft
The Expos improved 13 wins last season, narrowly missing out on the 2nd wild card spot. Definitely a lot to work with here. Enrique Amaro had 54 HR and 15 RBI and was the NL Silver Slugger at 1B, Elmer Bassett is an above average SS (84/88/93/90, 7+ plays while not starting everyday) and there's a very balanced pitching staff that had 5 members each reach 10 wins -- and the Fireman of the Year Troy Griffith who converted of 29 of his 30 save opportunities. An instant contender.

Montreal finished 4GB out of the playoffs, and has the 25th pick in next years amateur draft.


Toronto Blue Jays
Our second Canadian offering, the Blue Jays are poised for a quick rebound. With the 3rd pick in the upcoming draft, and extremely promising prospects in Kennie Ramsey (LoA), Paolo Gomez (HiA), and stud pitcher Ernest Erving (AA -- Stam 74, 91 Control and his L/R splits are 87 each. Right now. The cupboard isn't bare at the MLB level either, Geoff File is a 24 year old 3B who hit .309 with 34 HRs in his 2nd full season in the bigs and Luis Oliveres had a 1.26 WHIP over 227 Innings. Joakim Paniagua is sat at AAA read to play SS as well -- 84/83/93/91. The best part? Last Year's AL North division winner had 81 wins, a good owner can get this team into the postseason this year.



Texas Rangers

The Rangers were one win shy of that magic 100 number last season, earning themselves a bye into the ALDS where division rival Tampa Bay beat them in the decisive fifth game. They've been a playoff team each of the past four years, winning three division titles, but haven't been able to break through and win a playoff series. The Rangers had the 2nd best AL pitching staff last year with 5 pitchers who won at least 11 games, but the real strength of the team is their offense. The best offense in Major Leagues last season Texas averaged 5.4 runs a game led by rookie of the year RF Miguel James (.276 44 HR 141 RBI), DH Patrick Collins (.296 36 HR 98 RBI) and 1B Clay Stewart (.285 29 HR 106 RBI.) Are you the owner to finally win a series in Arlington?



Kansas City Royals
Kansas City is in the midst of a rebuild, last year's first overall pick, SS Jeurys Asencio already looks to be ready to hit in the Majors but needs some time to improve his fielding. The offense does have LF Shunsuke Tamara (.306 15 HR 93 RBI), RF Butch Evans (.271 25 HR 70 RBI) and 1b Jarret Boyd (.286 24 HR 98 RBI) to either build around or swing a deal and get some prospects. They do have another top 5 pick here to start putting your stamp on the Royals.


Seattle Mariners
Seattle was 94-68 last season winning a Wild Card and losing to the Minnesota Twins in the Play-In round 3 games to 2. Seattle gave up the least amount of runs in the AL last year and had the 2nd best fielding percentage in the league, led by Gold Glove SS Carson Matthes. There's offense too, 1B Red Dilone (.270 32 HR 100 RBI and is still on his entry contract) and 3B Julio Crespo (.275 35 HR 98RBI.) A few nice pieces in the minor leagues too!



Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians have been taken.



If you're interested in a team please let me know via sitemail (faster) or post in this thread. Thank you all for checking us out!

In my short tenure with the world, I haven't seen this many openings. If you're a fan of any of these teams IRL then I'd scoop them up while you can - good chance they won't be available again any time soon.

Go Astros!

This is a awesome league to be a part of and there is a ton of great owners to battle against and learn from. Not to mention there is great diversity in the competition level. My team won the most games in the league during the regular season and was sweep in the playoffs. Never know who will come out on top. Join the fun.

The National League has won the World Series for five consecutive seasons. We really need some good owners to build strong AL teams to challenge those smug NL owners.

This world has averaged 38 trades/year over the past four seasons.

Blue Jays have been taken.

Sitemail me

Interested in Rangers

The Astros are in the NL in this league. In other words, all is right in the world.

Best league I've ever been in, hands-down.

I cannot believe crabman left Seattle.

This is really simple now guys, grab a competitive Montreal team and we roll as soon as you do.

is Montreal still available?

Sitemail sent