1993 -- In with a Bang!

Gary Sheffield joins L.A. a little earlier than normal.

Happy New Years, it's 1993 -- Grunge is in, Melrose Place was starting to take off -- No one at this point (for most part) never heard of George Clooney, Bill Clinton is the man taking office, while yours truly (me), was in the middle of his sophomore year of high school. But no, really...  can you believe it has been 20+ years ago now?

So of course, like always, I have quite a few things in the works. I kicked off my Alternate 1993 project (MLB without anymore expansion). The players were picked by worst record in 1992 to sign the likes of Gary Sheffield, Dante Bichette, Andres Galarraga, Vinny Castilla & company. Sure Sheffield joined the expansion Marlins via trade, but like the mid-season transactions in 1993, they play for the team year around (just the same as a packet of APBA cards).

Gary Sheffield ended up being signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dante Bichette ended up in Kansas City, Andres Galarraga (a Met) & Vinny Castilla ends up with the California Angels (or I should call them the Platooning Angels, not many regular year-long starters, an influx of youth such as J.T. Snow & Tim Salmon).

There was some other interesting pieces to teams. Bryan Harvey adds even more depth to that Philadelphia Phillies bullpen. Chuck Carr leads off the Giants' lineup, with Darren Lewis possibly being trade-bait, for now he's a dependable backup -- and if Carr falters, Lewis will jump right in. Seattle drafted Robb Nen, who won't come around until next season, but we know that Seattle during this time period didn't have good bullpens, so they drafted the big gun.

Another thing that I am doing with this project of no expansion, there is no inter-league play, and all the teams that were in the original four division format are right back where they belong. So the Milwaukee Brewers will never be going to the National League, while Houston Astros stays in the N.L.

It will also put an interesting twist on rivalries, and division races. Can the Atlanta Braves duplicate their division dominance in the N.L. West, like they did in the N.L. East. The Cleveland Indians start to emerge when the Yankees also start mid-way through the decade; Remember -- with the four division format, also means the old rules, only division winners move on, we go straight to the League Championships. It won't be as easy for the Braves this time, with good Astros teams in the 90's, Giants, Dodgers, etc,

In this replay, I play the home teams' games, and play to the best of my ability to get that team to win. I will tell you already, the Pittsburgh Pirates are painful to watch & to play. Now I'm playing BBW, but to give you an idea, the Pirates have no B's & above for them -- all C & D's in both rotation & pen.

I forgot how good actually that 1993 Montreal Expos team was, everyone always goes straight to 1994, I knew they were up & coming in 1993, but they nearly won that division from Philly actually. So can Montreal catch Philly in this? It will still be tough, plus Philly has got off to a 4-0 start, while Montreal has lost their first four, and have yet to play each other. The Expos added Walt Weiss to their infield depth, and acquired Eddie Murray from the Mets -- due to their purchase of Galarraga, the Mets acquired Wil Cordero & a reliever (I believe) in the deal.

Now players will belong to teams during real-life durations, so Murray will only be with the Expos in 1993, and will sign with Cleveland in 1994. Another example, Jeff Conine played with the Marlins, the first time around from 1993-1997, with there being no Marlins, and Conine getting drafted in this Alternate 1993 League by the Detroit Tigers; Conine will play for the Tigers until 1998, in which he will join Kansas City, now Tigers can trade him, but he will still become a Royal in 1998.

The Dodgers who happened to draft Gary Sheffield in this weird universe had him from 1993-1997, the interesting thing is he joins the 1998 Dodgers. So the Dodgers could say, trade him even, and they would still get him in 1998.

Each season there will be a new free agent draft for the expansion team players, and there will be more when we ignore the existence of the Arizona Diamondbacks & the Tampa Bay Devil.. uh.. Rays. By the way, my grandparents bought me a Tampa Bay Devil Rays shirt during my senior year (1995), I thought I was so cool, having a shirt of a team that didn't have a roster yet.

Ron Gant has exploded batting .526, 5 HR & 11 RBI in 20 plate appearances for the undefeated Atlanta Braves, who by the way also has a 1.25 ERA, while batting .331 & +24 scoring differential. Their real-life NLCS rival Phillies, undefeated as well at 4-0, 2.00 ERA, leading the league with a .346 average & a +19 scoring differential. The Phillies, we know have Bryan Harvey (as mentioned earlier), plus Alex Arias, extra infield help. The Braves have Joe Girardi through the end of 1995, while adding infield depth with Rich Renteria.

The 1993 Chicago White Sox are playing good as expected, they have an amazing rotation led by Jack McDowell (13-YZ), Alex Fernandez (13-YZ), Wilson Alvarez (16-YW), plus rookie Jason Bere (13-XW). They just lost their first game against Cleveland, after a 3-0 start & are currently tied with Minnesota, who has won three straight (but that won't last since Minnesota is one of the weaker 1993 teams). In cards form, they are 3 B starting pitchers & 1 A starting pitcher in Alvarez. Their expansion additions were Richie Lewis (14-XW / B-XW) and a catcher (with awful defense, 6) that will add some pop off the bench in Danny Sheaffer (.278, 4, 32).

I will report more of what's to come in the following weeks, but for now here is the standings...