Most of the big changes this year come from Division 1, where three of their teams are either new or totally remade. They are also probably breathing a lot easier now that the competitive Zachrian Team is no longer in the league, as they are all standing trial on genocide charges. That being said, it will be very interesting to see the dynamics of this division, especially with teams that have such heavy different focuses (hitting, pitching, fielding). Division 2 is much more stable from last season, with 5 of 6 teams making three changes or less. Here are the team by team summaries.
Queynos Warriors: They have made the playoffs every year they have been in the league; the first three times they barely squeaked in, but last year they racked up a 17-9 record, which was good enough to win the West division and make it deep into the playoffs before being knocked off by the now defunct Zachrians. There have been no changes made to their roster, so strong pitching and overall solid offense are to be expected again. Tim Spooneybarger tied for the league lead in saves last year while ace Mark Mulder was a runner up for Cy Young.
Tuldarian Z-Slayers: Talk about a face lift. Despite a breakout year for the team last season, the Z-Slayers certainly are a changed team. After releasing 50% of their pitching staff (including, bizarrely, last year's Cy Young winner), the owners went hog wild adding big bats to their lineup: SS Jack Wilson from the defunct Elves, 2B Ken Harvey from the defunct Zachrians, and RF Ralph Kiner from the Marauders. Not to mention the big bats they had already: Albert Pujols, Carl Crawford and Jeff Cirillo, all who had All Star seasons. Kip Wells also came over from the Elves, and will try to lead a very shaky pitching staff. This will certainly be an interesting team to watch; will this offense on steriods (just a joke) be able to carry this incredibly unbalanced team?
Spartans of Bobia: For a team that has had up and down seasons (to say the least), there is certainly quite a bit of optimism around this team. With perhaps the strongest coaching staff in the league (made up of legends such as David Cone and Benito Santiago), the team has definitely revamped most of their key position players with a rash of free agent signings, most notably Greg Maddux, Lance Berkman, Edgar Martinez, Angel Berroa, and Charles Johnson. Although they lost Season 5 All Stars Mike Piazza and Benito Santiago to retirement, it appears that they will convince Tom Glavine to stay on the pitching staff for at least another year. Their All Star reliever Octavio Dotel will stay on to anchor a very solid pitching staff along with other Bobian original 5 season veterans 1B Travis Hafner, 2B Marcus Giles, and CF Juan Pierre. With one of the best defenses in the field, this team certainly sees an opportunity for glory this season, especially in a division that is very much up for grabs.
Meow Meow Dui: With the Keepsor Elves franchise closing after two unsuccessful seasons, Meow Meow Dui enters the league with a brand new coach from China. In stark contrast to the Z-Slayers, the focus here clearly has been on pitching. It didn't take long for last season's Cy Young winner, Carl Pavano, to find a new home, clearly intrigued by the possibility of being the undisputed star of the new franchise. Joining him on the pitching staff: his former Z-Slayer colleague Curt Schilling, free agents Kenny Rodgers and Russ Ortiz, as well as Keepsor stalwarts Keith Foulke and Kevin Gregg. The offense, while clearly not the focus of this team, will be composed of an interesting mix of free agents and journeyman veterans from around the league.
Alyxian Darkpaws: After winning Seasons 1 and 2, its been three disappointing seasons in a row for the original Alyxian team. The two big moves for the Darkpaws this season come in the form of adding Mike Piazza to play designated hitter, and Kerry Wood (a 2004 edition to complement a 2002 Kerry Wood already on the team) to strengthen the pitching staff. The problematic bullpen issues were not addressed, which will be all the more difficult to address in the future due to salary cap. One player who can have a huge effect on this team's performance is RF Mike Cameron; if he slumps, the rest of the team seems to follow.
JELLY QUEEN DREAM TEAM: The only change for this team was the name and the general manager. While Lindsay retains ownership of the team, Belly Jean will run the day-to-day affairs of the team. The team hasn't changed much from their Season 4 incarnation, where they managed to finish third with a 17-9 record. Unfortunately this is largely the same team that came in 13th out of 14 teams in Season 5, so it's anybody's guess how they will perform this year. Look for DH Rondell White and RF Shannon Stewart to have repeat All Star performances.
Red Clay Aces: With a league leading 18 wins last season, the Aces believe that they already have the recipe for success and have changed almost nothing from last time. The only exception to this being that the Aces won the Paul Quantril sweepstakes, adding the very solid reliever who was released by the Marauders. Interestingly enough, the Aces will be the only team this year to have a bullpen composed of 6 pitchers. Once again, the solid offense will lead by All Stars 1B Paul Konerko, 2B Alfonso Soriano, and SS Miguel Tejada. This year they will be without their utility fielders, who mostly left to play for Meow Meow Dui.
Mao's Tycoons: The reigning champs look to take home gold again for the third season in a row. That being said, they will be looking often to LF Jeremy Giambi to power an offense that sometimes really struggled last season. Last year Giambi had a lead leading 34 RBIs (in just over 20 games, mind you), but there clearly has not arisen anyone to play second fiddle to the prolific outfielder. Expect lots of pressure on his very high salaried brother 1B Jason Giambi perform; otherwise freeing up that salary could give Mao a lot of cap room to be creative to jump start his offense. The only change for the Tycoons this offseason has come in the form of adding Steve Trachsel who was released by the Darkpaws. Trachsel will be a very strong third starting pitcher behind the juggernauts Randy Johnson and Brad Penny.
St. Louis Cardinals; In their first season, the Cardinals had a decent enough run to make it as a wildcard playoff team, before being beaten in the first round by the #1 seed Aces. With no changes to the team's roster, the biggest change might come from other teams treatment of RF Larry Walker, the leagues highest paid player, who had a whopping 28 RBIs. With the rest of the offense prone to slumping, look for more teams to intentionally walk him and rather deal with the likes of CF Ray Lankford and DH Mark Grudzielanek.
Tenbil Town Green Sox: Since their champion ship season in Season 3, this team has produced nothing but disappointing results. A relatively strong starting pitching staff has done their best despite being backed up by a shaky bullpen and a sometimes anemic offence. So which part of team would you spend you available cap room improving? If you answered anything besides starting pitching, then you aren't using the same kind of logic that the Green Sox used this offseason. The only roster change was adding starting pitcher Joel Piniero who will most certainly be their ace. Unfortunately this came with a huge price tag and did not leave any room to improve the weak offense, although it is interesting to note that the team produced a good number of home runs last season from the likes of LF Magglio Ordonez, RF J.D. Drew, and C Jorge Posada, but most being low RBI yielding solo shots. Due to the way this team allocates its points, any substantial changes would more or less need to rearrange most of the team. If this team gets off to a rocky start, its possible that we might see quite a few heads roll in Green Sox land.
Melmegetian Marauders: "We have gotten away from what this team is all about," said heavily accented Dr. Vindaloo, longtime owner of the Marauders, "Very clearly we can see a negative correlation between the performance of this team and the increasing use of players not from the 2003 set." This might explain some of the bizarre moves made by this team this offseason; despite good Season 5 performances, Dr. Vindaloo gave pink slips to reliever Paul Quantril, RF Ralph Kiner, LF Ruben Sierra, and long time 1B Brad Fullmer, as well as some others who did not perform last year. Replacing these players will be: free agent 1B Fred McGriff, starter Freddy Garcia from the Bobians, reliever Buddy Groom from the Z-Slayers, and free agent OF Melvin Mora, who played for the Marauders in Seasons 1-3. With all their offensive All Stars gone, we will have to see if Vindaloo's strategy of 2003 Series Purity can propel the Marauders back into the playoffs.
Maxion Bombers: In the best Maxion tradition, there have been no changes made to this team. Despite their regularity, the teams results have been all over the place. Since their performance was so disappointing last season, perhaps the ownership is convinced its only natural for this team to swing back to its winning ways this season. Crucial to their lack of success was the anemic offense that couldn't provide run support to the first class pitching staff, lead by Roy Halladay, Andy Pettite, Omar Daal, and Ryan Franklin. Besides the offense, an eye is to be kept on the bullpen, whose weakness perhaps was masked by their lack of use.
