Tournaments through the Years

The numbers don't reflect the time, dedication & heart that goes into these posts. I have done 885 posts up to this point (with just under 157,000 hits on the site) and I can't tell you how many I started that didn't go anywhere, drafts that died before they ever seen the light of day. 

The most popular APBA Tournament post is GMABT IV: Nice Guys Finish First (Spatz & Zawadzki), a tournament piece that I done, which may not be among my best written, while I was not present at that tournament like most of my tournament pieces... 

but if you read them, you would have thought I was there, and that was the intention, I wanted these articles to be intimate like that. 

Here's a list of APBA Tournaments that I wrote about through the years...

(Click and read)

• Raise Your Glasses to the Glass City (GCABT-V)
• It's Tournament Season!
• Rolling Again in Michigan! (GMABT III Results)
• Rookies Shine at Chicagoland Fall Tourney
• Mosher's 1961 Yankees Wins Grand Rapids Tourney
• Smitten with APBA in the Mitten
• GMABT III - Divisions Announced!
• Say Yes to Greater Michigan (GMABT II)
• Fantasies Do Come True (Chicagoland Summer 2016)
• It's Always Sunny in APBAland (PA Hosts Two)
• Chicago World Series Fall 2015
• Brothers United ("The Spark") - Chicagoland 2013
• My Chicagoland 2013 Fall Results Game #4
• Another Success at Slippery Rock
• Twin Thumbs Up for Twin Cities

I wrote these articles not because I was asked to, I wrote them on my free will, because I loved my APBA community and the friends that came with it. These articles are never easy, but they were written to inspire others that loved the game of APBA to give face-to-face tournaments a chance.

AGBA Eastern League Setup (Robinson Division)

We continue the APBA Galaxy Baseball Association's (AGBA) league breakdown, and continue with the Robinson Division (named after Jackie Robinson) in the Eastern League.

Originally: I used to use the Atlanta Generals uniforms from Out of the Park Baseball, but when the Generals and Philadelphia Veterans uniforms were too similar, I momentarily went with the Atlanta Pilots.

Then a year ago, I finally fell upon a really cool uniform set in the Atlanta Firebirds. The uniforms were love at first sight, while the name at first kind of threw me. Once I read the creator's reasons for the name, the logo and fonts chosen, it all made a world of sense. The rising phoenix became a symbol of post-Civil War Atlanta, after nearly the entire city burned to the ground. It was used all across the city through many outlets over time. The block A at the top of the Atlanta Firebirds logo, and also as the secondary logo, is the same font used for the old Negro League team named the Atlanta Black Crackers. Add these two elements, the rising phoenix, the 'A' to the mix of old school Braves uniforms from the 50's through 70's and you have these beauties...

Team Makeup: The team is represented by players from the 1968, 1993 & 2018 Atlanta Braves, which are loaded with current and upcoming talent. The Braves made the playoffs in 1969, while the 90's Braves were starting to arrive, plus the talented group in today's team. The Firebirds should be in AGBA World Championship hunt for the immediate future.

Early Predictions: Like I mentioned above, a championship contender. The team does have the big three in Greg Maddux, John Smoltz & Tom Glavine, while the team also has Phil Niekro. Keeping the big three together over time will definitely be a challenge, and definitely will be expensive. The Firebirds had to make necessary cuts which watched Steve Avery land with the New Orleans Pirates & Felipe Alou playing in the outfield for the San Diego Tigers.

On the Farm: The Firebirds may have the best group of talent in the minors in Chipper Jones, Javy Lopez, Dusty Baker, Ryan Klesko, Ralph Garr & Max Fried.

Interesting Fact: The Atlanta Firebirds color scheme are similar to other Atlanta sports teams in the Falcons, Hawks & Thrashers, while also continuing the bird theme.

Originally: The Brooklyn Mets was the New York Gothams at one point, while I also thought of going with the Gothams uniforms that sported the old New York Giants color scheme. The more recent Gothams theme was basically the typical New York Mets uniforms, with the word Gothams in the place of Mets. Then I fell onto the Brooklyn Mets uniforms that teamed the old Brooklyn Dodgers uniform look with the typical Mets look, and it created a very interesting hybrid.

Team Makeup: The team consists of 1968, 1993 & 2018 Mets. The team's backbone is the strong promising rotation in Jacob deGrom (A&C-KZ), Tom Seaver (A-YZ), Jerry Koosman (A-Y), Noah Syndergaard (B-YZ), Nolan Ryan (B-XYW) & Zack Wheeler (B-Y). The talent among the position players are definitely in flux considering the weak hitting of 1968, and the confusing direction of the 1993 & 2018 players.

Jeff Kent, Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto & Brandon Nimmo seem to be the only players in the lineup with significant upside.

Early Predictions: Hard to say, the rotation definitely gives them a chance to win some ball games, but the lineup needs love & luck. The team most likely will fall somewhere between 3rd & 5th place. Atlanta is too good, while Carolina has a great blend of pitching and depth... Not to mention, getting by Philadelphia and Washington won't be easy as well. The team's future could be a slow burn, but if they hold onto all that pitching, eventually things will bounce the Mets' way.

On the Farm: Jeromy Burnitz, Bobby J. Jones, Ken Boswell, Mike Jorgensen & Jim McAndrew.

Interesting Fact: The MLB New York Mets built Citi Field, in which the outside of the stadium is reminiscent of Ebbet's Field. The Brooklyn Mets play at New Ebbets Field in this universe, while the New York Knights will play at Citi Field.

Team Makeup: The team originally consisted of 10 players from the 2018 Tampa Bay Rays, plus 10 various 1993 players & 10 various 1968 players. A well-balanced team with a strong bench, good rotation, and bullpen.

Early Prediction: Carolina should make a strong playoff push with its competitive roster, while Gates Brown's strong J-3 card should be fun to watch everyday.

On the Farm: Not much... Brandon Lowe, Jake Bauers, Greg Garcia & Adam Kolarek are about it, but they do have a lot of young talent on the main team in Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Willy Adames & Austin Meadows.

Team Makeup: It really should go without mentioning it, but the team name and look for the most part is from the fictional team from the movie, 'The Natural'. In this day and age of custom logos and uniform-making, the internet had no problems doing their versions of the famed uniformed looks. I will be using those uniforms for classic nights, not to mention a Roy Hobbs edition for an alternate home look. The other uniforms at the top were originals created from the Out of Park Baseball community, by OOTP Uniform guru TXRanger... I can't say enough about his uniforms and logos.

I was going to go with New York Titans, a name used for the old football teams, while the Knights were supposed to be the Los Angeles Knights (representing mostly Angels players), but I decided to go with the Guardians. I felt with having the Los Angeles Royals, that the Knights would make it to much of a renaissance thing in the same city, plus we also had the Monarchs possibility as well, which then came at the last minute for Kansas City. 

The team has 10 players from each of the three eras: 1968, 1993 & 2018.

Early Prediction: The Knights will likely be at the bottom or near it, but it will be very exciting to see Japanese stars Sadaharu Oh and Isao Harimoto playing together on the same team, like they did for the Yomiuri Giants from 1976-1979 at the tail-end of their Japanese baseball careers in real-life.

On the Farm: Nothing but a fringe prospect in IF-Domingo Cedeno.

Team Makeup: The Philadelphia Veterans could have been named numerous things from Freedom, Patriots or Liberty, but in the end it was the Vets, not for its name though. The choice was for the logo and the uniform sets that I found in the Out of the Park Baseball community. The team consists of Phillies for the most part from 1968, 1993 & 2018, while the team landed outfielder Nick Markakis in the waiver draft.

Early Prediction: The team has a chance to be very competitive with outside shot at the division title, but likely will be fighting Washington for 3rd place, behind the N.Y. Pigeons and Boston Colonials. The team is built on a lineup & solid bench that can get on base, while the starting pitching is pretty good as well. The bullpen, and some pitching projects are the team's biggest question marks.

On the Farm: Brewers fans may recognize the two names in Larry Hisle & Don Money, plus Philly also has relief prospect Seranthony Dominguez.

Team Makeup: There was plenty of options for the Washington franchise. I wanted to get away from the Senators and Nationals, while I had options for the Generals, Capitols, Sentinels and Warriors. In the end, I went with the Maroons for numerous reasons. I enjoyed the look of its uniforms, plus I always got a kick from Bugs Bunny saying "What a Maroon." -- So yeah, it plays off the word morons, because let's face it, I think we can agree that the city of Washington is unfortunately populated by many morons in the federal government. The teams consists of 1993 Montreal Expos & 2018 Washington Nationals, plus various players from 1968. 

Early Prediction: The Washington Maroons will likely be in the middle of the pack, competing for third place. The Maroons are a talented bunch that are competing in a tough & talented division... but anything is possible, that's why they play the game.

On the Farm: Victor Robles, Wil Cordero, Rondell White & Kirk Rueter lead the pack.

This concludes the Robinson Division of the Eastern League, coming soon will be a Central League breakdown of the Cobb Division.

Fighting Tigers' Early Picks from 2020 UAL Draft

The Traverse City Fighting Tigers played better at the wrong time to really knock itself out of the top three picks, but still had the 6th overall pick, and 6th pick in each round, plus two additional 2nd Round picks and one 5th Rd pick. There's a total of 9 rounds in the draft.

The Fighting Tigers landed the following...

• SS- Bo Bichette (TOR) - 6th overall, 1st Rd
• SP - Zac Gallen (ARZ) - 30th overall, 2nd Rd
• OF- Nick Senzel (CIN) - 31st overall, 2nd Rd
• RP- Nick Anderson (TB) - 41st overall, 2nd Rd
• 3B/1B - Yandy Diaz (TB) - 55th overall, 3rd Rd
• SP - Josh James (HOU) - 79th overall, 4th Rd

I needed a backup catcher who can fill in for at least 48 games, I almost drafted Austin Nola (C/3B/UT) instead of Diaz, and thought if he was picked that I could pick someone like a Jacob Stallings, but both were gone by the time I drafted Josh James.

A team offered me C-Russell Martin for one of my 5th round picks, so I made the trade in desperation of really needing a backup catcher, and the fact that my options in the draft were dropping off quickly.

Normally, I wouldn't trade a higher pick like a 5th round on Martin, probably more like a 7th round or lower pick, but I can't complain with the draft that I am already having.

Last season, I feel we landed the biggest steal in the draft by drafting starting pitcher Jack Flaherty 16th overall, and I am confident that I may have pulled another late diamond in Zac Gallen at 30th overall... Never would I have imagined getting either that late in either draft.

My SABR Story on Dave Machemer

Shining a Light on Dave Machemer

The game of baseball in many ways is like the vast universe around us. From a glance, you will notice the moon, the sun, bright and faint stars, and from time to time a planet or two. It is not until you explore the universe that you would completely understand how big the whole universe actually is, and how it all comes together & works together as one.

Baseball is the same, you have your obvious juggernauts in Babe Ruth, Willie Mays & Ty Cobb, and many others in the upper echelon of the sport. Then the next levels down of Hall of Fame players you have your players like Paul Molitor, Rod Carew, and Billy Williams. Then there is those hovering in the stratosphere that are just not good enough to make the Hall of Fame, or that should be in the Hall of Fame (depending on where you are in the debate) on guys like Dale Murphy, Dwight Evans, Don Mattingly, Keith Hernandez, Steve Garvey, Gil Hodges, Dave Parker and many others. Following those stars are players like Torii Hunter and Johnny Damon, durable veterans making huge impacts on their fan bases, putting together strong career numbers, with plenty of All-Star appearances, all while never sniffing any real consideration for the Hall of Fame.

My brother Chris and I, both enjoy playing a board game called APBA Baseball. The game is a baseball simulation tabletop game which each baseball player gets their own individual card, while their performance of the card depends a lot on how they actually performed in real life. The game also comes with boards for each on-base scenarios such as bases loaded or runners on 2nd & 3rd, while rolling the dice provide the outcomes of many variable scenarios. The game can be played face to face, or solitaire, which the latter is often the case.

We decided to start replaying the 1978 Major League Baseball season via the basic game version of APBA Baseball back on Easter 2019. We both live in different parts of Michigan, and thought it would be better done as a joint effort in which I would replay the American League games, while he played the National League, all solitaire. We would use the real starters from each game's box scores. He decided to do the actual starting lineups' batting orders, while I used the same starters but adjusted the lineups.

My reasoning for adjusting the batting order is that I needed to have that manager experience, while I could not see myself placing designated hitter Leroy Stanton as the Seattle Mariners' cleanup hitter for the first 30 games or so, when he had a horrible season (.182 BA & .514 OPS), so I batted him last. I definitely can see where Seattle manager Darrell Johnson was coming from, by placing Stanton cleanup, he was just coming off a good expansion season in which he batted .275 with 27 HR & 90 RBI (.852 OPS) for the M's, but for some reason Stanton was not able to come even close to repeating his 1977 season, while his lousy 1978 season would prove to be his last.

By playing this game, we would play guys that we obviously knew in Jim Rice and Ron Guidry, who both had amazing seasons in 1978, but we would also play guys that we would never have known about...

Enter the California Angels' Dave Machemer.

I was replaying a game from May 20th, 1978 between the visiting California Angels (21-14) at the Milwaukee Brewers (18-17). The Angels' star second baseman Bobby Grich was injured sliding into second base, while he would be replaced by Machemer for the remainder of the game. For Machemer, it was his alternate reality MLB debut, his real life debut would not actually happen for another month (June 21st).

Machemer would make his alt debut a memorable one during my 1978 A.L. Replay, by hitting a three-run home run (in his 2nd at-bat) off Milwaukee starting pitcher Bill Travers during the 5th inning. The home run gave California a 4-2 lead, which would prove to be pivotal in their victory that day. Interesting fact, in real life, Machemer would also hit a home run during his MLB debut, but he would accomplish that feat on his very first at-bat, a deep fly to left off Geoff Zahn of the Twins at Metropolitan Stadium. The home run would go on to be his only home run of his brief MLB playing career, while making him one of 118 players to hit a home run in his first career at-bat.

The unique connection between the two home runs happening on his debuts for my 1978 A.L. Replay and real life 1978, definitely peaked my interest in learning more about Machemer.

I noticed like myself, that he was from the state of Michigan. The Benton Harbor High School product, born in St. Joseph, played his college ball for the Central Michigan University Chippewas from 1971-1972. He would be selected by the Angels in the 4th Round of the 1972 MLB June Amateur Draft. Machemer would spend some time in the minors, making his name as a speedster who would go on to steal 246 bases during his minor league career. Machemer made his MLB debut at the age of 27, while going on to play two short stints in the majors during 1978 & 1979 for the California Angels, and my beloved Detroit Tigers. Machemer's stay in the majors was short-lived, in which he would wallow in the minors as a professional baseball player until the end of the 1982 season. Machemer played his final seasons in the Minnesota Twins' minor league system for the Toledo Mud Hens.

Machemer's life in the minors would become his full-time gig, as he would establish himself as a minor league manager, managing in 14 different locations, all different levels, while logging 1,640 career wins. He accomplished his 1,000th career win as manager of the Double-A Harrisburg Senators on August 22, 2003. He would go on to win two league championships, his first coming off his 2nd season as a manager, by managing the 1986 Stockton Ports to the title in the California League. The second league title came 22 years later, managing the rookie-level Arizona Giants during the 2008 Arizona Fall League. Dave would earn his only Manager of the Year title in between the titles, for his work with the 1996 El Paso Diablos in the Texas League.

In 2007, Machemer's minor league career started morphing from managing towards scouting, while working for the San Francisco Giants. The team sent him on the road for 3 months with advanced scout & former Minnesota Twins outfielder Tim Uhlaender, concentrating on areas such as athleticism, arm strength, bat speed, while submitting reports.

Machemer would go on to join the Baltimore Orioles' scouting staff in 2014, in which for his first three seasons, he reported solely on players who were drafted in the first two rounds, all while reporting to team scouting director Gary Rajsich. Machemer acknowledged that although the Orioles depended a lot on sabermetrics by using analysis and computers, that he still put heavy emphasis on his veteran experience, eyes & heart on what makes a ballplayer. Machemer continued his scouting for the Orioles, until he and 11 other team scouts & officials were relieved of their duties by rookie General Manager Mike Elias; Elias was part of the Houston Astros front office from 2011-2013 that overhauled that franchise, transforming that team into a World Series winner in 2017.

Machemer reflecting back on his lone home run, "I hit it good and right down the third base line. It ended up going into the stands for a home run, and I was so excited that I missed touching first base. The coach called me to come back and touch the bag, and I did and then circled the rest of the bases. The first person to pick me up and hug me as I returned to our dugout was Nolan Ryan.”

Make no bones about it, Machemer's professional career does not echo any of the names that I mentioned near the top, nor does it warrant the attention of a Mike Bordick, Danny Valencia or even a Don Kelly. It's all part of the beauty of baseball and what I love most about it, is that all little pieces play a part in this larger baseball universe, much in the same ways that a gas cloud, random comet, or an asteroid plays in the universe around us.

You might miss Dave Machemer with a mere glance, but if you look closer, you will find an interesting life built around Baseball.

Resources:

• Baseball Reference.com
• Wikipedia
• Axisa, Mike / CBS sports.com
• Krah, Steve / www.IndianaRBI.com 

AGBA Eastern League Setup (Ruth Division)

There were many questions on how I came up with the 36 teams, the geographical set up, and what the makeup of each team's rosters are.

The setup is as follows for the three leagues...

The evolution how all the team names came about was quite the process, some teams names changed a few times over.

Let's start with the Eastern League

Starting with the Ruth Division...

Originally: There was a debate whether the team would be known as the Baltimore Terrapins (the same name as the short-lived Federal League team) or the Baltimore Bombers. I decided near the end that I need a team with Red and Gold colors, and the Bombers bring that, plus I really love the logo.

Team Makeup: The majority of the players on the Bombers' AGBA team are Baltimore Orioles players from 1968, 1993 & 2018. The team is built on a strong rotation (which in this league there are plenty of strong rotations, thanks in particularly to 1968) which is led by Dave McNally, Ben McDonald, Jaime Moyer, Mike Mussina & Tom Phoebus. The team also has a stellar bullpen in Gregg Olson (A&C*-X), Moe Drabowski (A*-Y) & Eddie Watt (A*-X). The lineup has good pop, but lacks in average a bit. The team is one of the better fielding teams, highlighted by Brooks Robinson at third, Cal Ripken at shortstops -- two studs on the left side of the diamond who both will likely compete for a Galaxy Glove at the end of the year.

Early Prediction: The Boston Colonials & New York Pigeons are likely the two favorites in this division, putting Baltimore in 3rd or 4th place. The starting pitching has a chance to carry the club into a wild card situation.

On the Farm: Jeffrey Hammonds, Dave May & Merv Rettenmund.

Interesting Fact: The Baltimore Bombers was the proposed name for an NFL Expansion Team, which was rejected by the NFL.

Originally: The Boston Colonials were a slam-dunk choice, and one of the easiest choices for this entire project. I fell upon these uniforms on the Out of Park Baseball message board (at least the two uni's on the left, I designed the far right alternate uni), which are basically the normal Boston Red Sox uniforms with green thrown into the mix. The wordmarks are also in the same font as the Red Sox.

Team Makeup: Mostly Boston Red Sox players from 1968, 1993 & 2018, while having to shed payroll in trades. The team has traded J.D. Martinez, Frank Viola, Danny Darwin & George Scott while bringing in prospects (including Lourdes Gurriel, Jr) plus pitchers Robbie Ray, Archie Bradley & catcher Robinson Chrinos, which the team lacked a backstop (Carlton Fisk won't be on board until 1969, and that's only for a cup of coffee). The lineup is a beast with Carl Yastrzemski, Mookie Betts, Mo Vaughn, Reggie Smith, Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts & more...

Early Prediction: The lineup will be their calling card, it should give them a legit shot at the division title. The top three of the rotation in Chris Sale (A-KYZ), Ray Culp (B-X) & David Price (B-YZ) matches up well, while Aaron Sele, Roger Clemens and Robbie Ray will also get plenty of starts.

On the Farm: OF-Tony Conigliaro [NC], SS-Lourdes Gurriel, Jr & P-Tom Hall

Interesting Fact: I have used numerous Boston teams for APBA and Out of the Park, featuring names as such as the Shamrocks & Pilgrims. The Boston Colonials uniforms stemmed from a custom-made uniforms for the Boston Masons.

Originally: The Florida Rockets did have some competition in the Florida White Sox, but in the end I had to go with the NASA link to Florida, going with the Rockets. You may notice the Rockets' color scheme, very much similar to that of the Houston Astros. In fact, the guy that designed these uniforms, also had Florida Astros uniforms as well.

The White Sox had a cool Miami Hurricanes color scheme going, in fact, I also designed some of the uniforms to go with the creator's editions of the White Sox. I will have to show them off some time in a future blog piece.

Team Makeup: Two thirds of the team was Florida Marlins from 1993 & 2018, the other third (the 1968 portion of the roster) landed players such as Ken Harrelson, Bob Miller, Stan Williams, Jim Maloney, Lew Krausse Jr & Tommy Helms via the dispersal draft. The dispersal draft had overflow players from the 1968, 1993 & 2018 seasons to fill out remainder of rosters for teams such as the Rockets, that may not have had a 1968 MLB counterpart. The Rockets also landed Miguel Andujar, Sean Newcomb & Mark Carreon in the Waiver Draft.

Early Prediction: The pitching is a bunch of rag-tags, while the lineup should be fun to watch led by Gary Sheffield, J.T. Realmuto, Jeff Conine, Chuck Carr, to go along with Harrelson's outlier season of 35 home runs from 1968. The team though will likely be competing in the bottom-half of the division behind the likes of Boston, New York, Baltimore & Pittsburgh.

On the Farm: The team has future closer Robb Nen in the minors, but not much else.

Originally: The best option I had for the Montreal franchise was the Montreal Royals or Montreal Royaux, but the Western League already featured the Los Angeles Royals. So the best thing I had left was the Montreal Voyageurs. In this project, I am using no current MLB team names, while I have used some old school defunct names such as the Milwaukee Braves, and was going to use the Kansas City Athletics, but that was changed at the last minute (more on that in a later post). So the Expos down the road, could be likely.

Team Makeup: One of the 6 Dispersal teams, which expanded the league. The team has players from all different teams over 1968, 1993 & 2018. The team features Roy White, Matt Carpenter, Robinson Cano, Ken McMullen, Dansby Swanson, Mark Portugal & Pedro Astacio.

Early Prediction: Will likely be fighting the Florida Rockets in trying to stay out of the cellar.

Originally: I believe the three original New York franchises that I had at the beginning was the New York Titans, New York Knights and Brooklyn Gothams. The Titans and Knights both almost represented the MLB New York Yankees players.

A year or so ago, I fell upon a story in UniWatch, which featured a fictional team named the New York Pigeons. The team was featured in tri-state lottery commercial, which the team was playing. There was foam fingers, jackets, caps, fan gear... the directors went all out on it.

Due to the buzz that they were getting, I decided to make some uniforms of theirs for Out of the Park Baseball. When I started diving back into this project last spring, I decided that the Yankees should be lovable Pigeons, because if you are going to try and tolerate the Yankees, you may as well make them somewhat enjoyable, right?! LOL!

So enter the Pigeons...

Team Makeup: Loaded with players from the 1968, 1993 & 2018 New York Yankees. The team's pitching is stellar in both the rotation and the bullpen. Mel Stottlemyre Sr (A-Z), Jimmy Key (B-YZ), Stan Bahnsen (A-YZ), Fritz Peterson (B-ZZ) & CC Sabathia (B-Y) make up the rotation with Masahiro Tanaka and Sonny Gray in the wings if needed. The bullpen features Steve Hamilton (A*-XZ), Lee Smith (B*-XYZ), Chad Green (A*-XYZ) & Aroldis Chapman (A*-KXYW).

Early Predictions: The Pigeons along with the Boston Colonials should be the two favorites from the Ruth Division.

On the Farm: Gerald Williams, Jonathan Loaisiga, Greg Colbrunn, Domingo Guzman & Tony Solaita, with future arrivals of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera & Jorge Posada on the horizon. 

Originally: The Pittsburgh Arsenal used to be my go-to in other APBA projects, I then bounced to another uniform set called the Pittsburgh Ironmen, that actually went away from the typical black and yellow Pittsburgh sports teams, and was using a Giants orange. The uniforms never grew on me, while eliminating the Ironmen name would save me trouble over time, on explaining "Yes, Pittsburgh is better known for their steel."

That's how the Arsenal came back into focus. Also the Arsenal will be using primary yellow compared to division rival New York Pigeons, who actually rely on mostly black and gray, with a splash of yellow. Most of the Pigeons' yellow comes with their Away-Commercial uniforms, while they wear black hats and helmets for both home and road games. The commercial uses more yellow than I intend for the Pigeons.

Pittsburgh in the original setup was in the Central League - Young Division, I jostled some teams around with Nashville going from Central-Young to the Central-Cobb division, while Twin Cities moved to Young Division. This also had a lot to do with the Canadian teams moving around and such, with the Toronto Reds playing in the Central League (Cobb Division), and the Montreal Voyageurs playing in this Ruth Division in the Eastern League.

Team Makeup: Loaded mostly with players from the 1968, 1993 & 2018 Pittsburgh Pirates. The team also took advantage of the Pigeons' salary cuts by acquiring SP-Luis Severino in the waiver draft, while the team also picked up 3B-Ken Caminiti.

Early Predictions: Pittsburgh has a strong rotation and plenty of talent, but not sure if its enough to hang with New York or Boston. Team likely has edge over Baltimore for 3rd place.

On the Farm: One of the better groups of prospects in Al Oliver, Richie Hebner, Dock Ellis, Freddie Patek & Kevin Newman.