Start play tomorrow with a loaded, 110-win 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 (for example, I am not the commish of Major Leagues).

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 over 100 World Series titles among us.

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 706 runs per team in a recent season, and the average team had a fielding percentage of .985. Nobody plays Manny Ramirez at SS, and guys like Ringo Frye and Roy Adkinsson (Season 35's GG winners at SS) get long-term contracts and good trade return.

Available Teams
Pittsburgh Pirates (AL East): Now in their 6th straight year of contention, they do have 1 WS Title in that run but also 5 years of playoff frustration at the hands of division rivals (Nats, once) and Mets (3 straight, oi!), and this year's champion Reds. Knowing I was retiring after this season, I cleaned out the farm system to go for one more title and brought in short-termers Tony Moya (who may well win the Cy Young at age 39), Chris Petkovsek (having a superb year at 34), Adalberto Cervantes (who's been un-hittable), and Felix Satou; and younger vets J.B. Hunter and Enerio Amaro. All have been good-to-great and we took the division with 110 wins. Now it's just a matter of the playoff crapshoot (lost in the NLCS in 7 to eventual champs Reds).

All the above players are signed for next year. I'd expect Moya to decline severely next season, so you're going to have a couple of bad contract years to deal with there, but all the others should have manageable contracts. Cervantes will probably go FA after next season (age 35), Satou has 3 years left, Petkovsek 2, Hunter 2 and Amaro 1.

The younger core consists of a pair of 26-yo infielders - Robert Esposito and R.A. Hollins; starters Roque, Watson, Baerga and Dunham; and relievers Johnson, Grichuk and Brinson. So the franchise is in good shape even after the wearing-out and departures of the older guys I brought in this year. The only significant free agent next year is SS Julio Rojas, who I kept on a 1-year contract this season to go for his record-setting 6th shortstop Gold Glove (he did win it). He'll sign another 1 year deal at $2.8 MM, but I'm going to leave that decision up to you; he hasn't had any ratings declines yet but will be 32 next season and will likely see some. He could still be a GG shortstop for another season though. At a salary of only $2.8MM he will probably be tradable...we have a SS at AAA who won't win any Gold Gloves but will be a competent defender (Mike Balaguert).

OK, that's the rundown. Shouldn't be too hard to keep contending for the foreseeable future, although payroll will be very high and there are no prospects on the way (other than Balaguert). This is one I can hand-pick a successor for, so tell me why and how you'd be the guy to make this team even better.

Milwaukee Brewers (NL North): TAKEN Seems like the Brew Crew has been in rebuild mode for about the last decade, but only effectively in the last 2-3 seasons (when they mastered drafting). Only a few pieces to build on at the ML level, but the farm system is really looking up.

1B Ricardo Pena has 238 HR's in his 7-year career; he's a nice player to build around (or trade for a quality prospect or 2), but that's about it for ML position players. The rest are somewhat comparable to LF Desi Vazquez - serviceable as long as they're minimum-salary, but not likely to be part of a contending squad.

The story is similar for the pitchers, although Lucas Gutierrez, Xavier Swihart and Tom Kingland look like longer-term contributors.

This year's #1 (and #1 overall) was Paul Verhagen; if he grows into a 3B defensively you've got a future potential multi-MVO winner. At worst he'll be a masher outfielder. Last year's #1 (and #3 overall), Rob Zoltan, is the ultimate rarity - a good defensive SS who can hit and hit for power (from both sides to boot). Season 36's #1 (#4 overall), Anthony Benningson, looks a little disappointing at this point...solid ML pitcher but not a star. Milwaukee also landed 7 1st-round supplementals over the last 3 years. They also played the IFA market this year and picked up OF Bill Wise and 2B/OF Edinson Corcino.

Milwaukee has $21.7MM committed to ML payroll for next season, and will pick 5 or 6 in next season's draft (before any Type D's are allocated).

About World Major Leagues

Major Leagues is a high quality-of-play HBD world with a Major League theme (static cities and team names based on real-life ML teams). We have a straight 1-season minimum win requirement of 55 and a general requirement to keep minor-league teams competitive.

What To Do
If you have an interest in talking with us about joining Major Leagues, add to the post below or sitemail blanch13

Guys, if you are looking for an amazing league, this is it. Great league, great owners, great blog, and a great commish. Also, there is nothing better than being in a MLB Theme world. It is so much easier to know the teams, players, and ballparks.

It's really nice having a team that rolls so quickly. It's a highly competitive world, but it's good spirited. There are no rants on the message boards, no drama, just great baseball, great sportsmanship, and great retention rate. I joined a few years ago with high expectations, and those expectations were exceeded.

Great league that doesn't have much turnover and rolls quickly, like same day quick so we can get going again! Blanch does a great job recruiting early so we don't have days or weeks to wait after the world rollsover

This may be the best-run league I've ever been part of. I have left all my other leagues and only play in this one now. Great owners, collegial, no drama, low turnover, quick rolls and competitive balance. Act now and you get to run the gosh-darn Milwaukee Brewers.

When I started looking for a second team earlier this year, this world was a perfect fit. We were scheduled and started same day as rollover and it is a super competitive, fun group of owners to be around. If you join the Brewers, there will be zero sitting around hoping to start managing your team at some point like other worlds.

Early on, I was active in 3 HBD teams and HD/SimLeague aspects of the site as well. I pared that involvement back a few years ago, but had to hold onto "my" Twins in this World.

I've seen enough problems in other circumstances to realize what a good World I get to be a part of here, and I don't intend to give that up anytime soon (35 seasons here and counting).

Plus, for me, the ML theme really adds to the enjoyment. I like seeing real team names in real parks, many of which I've been to. Reading a "HR that barely clears the fence" when the game is in Fenway or the Metrodome actually *means* something because I've seen that actually happen.

I know a guy

I sent you a sitemail, blanch13.

Is this still available!? I've always specifically wanted the Dodgers team in this world! Please!

And if you already promised it to someone else, I will pay them off!

I was told they already found a replacement, DodgerBlue.

i'm in if you take me...

Any openings for the white sox?

I still want in if you have openings.