Team Report

Team Batting

Jeter

Nunez

McGehee

Wallace

Morel

A.llen

Team Report

Team Batting:

Hardy

Izturis

Youkilis

Teixeira

Kelly

Ortiz

The 2012 Halos have set several goals for this season. The 1st goal is reach 900 wins this season which seems very likely to occur as they currently sit at 836 wins leaving them only 64 wins short. The 2nd goal is to reach 90 wins this season which would keep the perfect strong of 90+ wins alive at 9 straight seasons. The 3rd goal is to win the American League East for the 4th consecutive time which would tie Kentucky for the most consecutive division crowns and most crowns overall. This 3rd goal is certainly achievable but by no means a sure thing as despite the fact that California has shipped some big lumber out of their lineup (Beltre, AGone & Bautista) they still have a very formidable pitching staff and Houston looks like they may have one of the more potent offenses in the league with Berkman, Upton, Swisher, etc. The final and most important goal is to win their 2nd World Championship! Since moving to the AL in 2008 the Halos have lost 4 straight League Division series (2008 Carefree, 2009 Philadelphia, 2010 & 2011 California) and have not won a playoff series since beating the current champs, the Lincoln Tunnel Rats, in the Sub Division Series in 2008. On paper, the Halos appear to have the bats (Ortiz, Granderson, Tex & Hardy) and a deep bullpen (Rivera, Betancourt, Pestano, Downs, Oliver, Luebke & Perkins) to offset a less than dominating SP rotation (Sabathia, Lewis, Morrow, Nova & Peavy) and return to the playoffs. That is when the big question will be answered ... will someone finally step up in the playoffs and lead this team to a championship?

Team Report

Team Batting:

Plouffe

Weeks

Seager

Davis

Tejeda

Swisher

Thome

Team Report

Team Batting:

Carroll

Ackley

Johnson

Overbay

Kennedy

Giambi

Team Report

Team Batting:

LeMahieu

Sanchez

Betemit

Howard

Nady

The Emerald City Bombers are not looking to do much better this year, as the draft was more focused on 2013 and beyond.  The few bright spots offensively will be the C position and the pop of Ryan Howard.  The pitching staff was a patch work this winter to try and get enough innings to complete the season.  Team management is hoping that at least 1 or 2 of this years draft picks will pay off in 2013, with the highest hopes on Danny Hultzen and Salvador Perez.  If Henderson Alvarez and Blake Beavan show a full season of what they flashed last year, and Dallas Braden returns to form, the rotation should actually be formidable in 2013.  A bounce back from Chris Coghlan and Aaron Hill will provide some some added potential stability to the line-up as well.  But as mentioned, the future is where the focus is, as the old GM left the team in shambles, and a lot of draft picks.  The goal is to play .500 in 2013, with a potential playoff hope in 2014.  Good luck everyone, and take it easy on us.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Castro

Beckham

Gamel

Morales

Callaspo

Carter

After 2 straight seasons of losing in the ALCS, and several aging veterans, Volcanoes ownership made a few stunning off season moves to bring in some young talented players. Trading away over 110 hrs is tough, but adding some young promising talent might just of be worth it. Newcomers 21 yr old SS Starlin Castro will anchor the infield for years to come. Aaron Crow and Chris Sale will throw out of the pen for Volcanoes this year but soon could be potential SP next year, Adam Dunn was brought in hoping on a bounce back yr, shoot anything would be improvement over last season, we're hoping for .240 20hrs and OBP over .370, and new staff ACE Tim Lincecum, will lead a rotation with ROY Jeremy Hellickson, Zach Greinke, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mike Minor.  The 2012 draft was focused on future, adding Christian Yelich, Wily Peralta, Jon Schoop, Nestor Molina, Oscar Tavares, Cheslor Cuthbert, whom all hope to help the club in next few years.   While 2012 will be a rough year in California, Volcanoes feel very near future could be a return to recent glory days, with huge potential bounce backs from Kendry Morales, Jayson Werth and mid season return of Jorge De la Rosa, plus Mat Gamel, Andrew Cashner getting extended looks and some off the farm making their debuts, there high hopes in California.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Furcal

Downs

Reynolds

Votto

Rolen

LaRoche

Hafner

Team Report

Team Batting:

Escobar

Johnson

Polanco

Huff

Stewart

Butler

Team Report

Team Batting:

Rollins

Punto

Roberts

Helton

Wigginton

Evans

Team Report

Team Batting:

Scutaro

Zobrist

Aviles

Murphy

Cairo

Hinske

Team Report

Team Batting:

Bonafacio

Keppinger

Ramirez

Lee

Moustakas

Baker

Team Report

Team Batting:

Matsui

Aybar

Pedroia

Blake

Konerko

Dominguez

Francisco

The Colorado Gladiators return in 2012 with  some flashy, new, and excellent, up the middle ballplayers with Erick Aybar and Dustin Pedroia on the infield, Chris Young in centerfield and, a full season from young star Carlos Santana behind the dish. We are looking to build on a team record of 74 wins in 2011. Beyond that, perhaps a winning record and, gulp, maybe even a playoff berth are possible? We'll give it our best shot!

Team Report

Team Batting:

Reyes

Uggla

Wright

Gonzalez

Alvarez

Rizzo

I am not sure what to expect from my first TBBL season.  I have a very strong team after the trade for Bautista and AGone, but I don’t know what to expect from the other top teams.  I am guardedly optimistic that it will be a fun season, but don’t think we will win the World Series.  Some of you have put together meat grinder lineups with un-hittable pitching staffs.  About The Trade: I hated giving up a guy who is CERTAIN to win at least one more Cy Young at some point.  Lincecum is a transcendent talent and I hated giving him up.  Starlin Castro is a very talented young player at a premium position.  I didn’t want to trade him, but with Reyes also at short, I didn’t think he meant as much to me as he would to someone who needed a franchise SS.  I think Crow and Sale are both superb young arms, and I know I will regret trading them sooner AND later.  But they tipped the scales to get me two guys I needed to be a lot better this year.  Dunn was the wild card in this deal.  If he returns to his career average numbers, I will lose this deal…big time.  But if he is not going to bounce back, I think the trade is a dead heat in that it is mutually beneficial to both of us.  I wanted AGone because I think that he is one of the bright young stars in the game.  Though his park factor should usually work against him, he should contribute All Star level offense and Gold Glove level defense for a while.  Bautista is the other wild card in this deal.  I wanted his big bat for this season’s run.  I am afraid that he will regress to be closer to his career average than this last two year spike.  I hope he doesn’t as I am now one of his biggest fans.  If he stays at 90% of his 2012 production I will come out ok on this deal.  The former owner left me in great shape for a long time with the pitching, young stars and solid prospects on this team.  The only area I needed to improve immediately was the offense and I think that the trade did that.  I think this team is better than average on both sides of the ball this season.  And though I am biased, I think that we should be good for a while.  We will get NOTHING from Crawford this year but think he will bounce back next year.  Pedro Alvarez looked like one of the worst players in the game last year.  He should rebound nicely and any improvement will be welcome.   We had big injuries to Wright, Reyes and most of all Posey.  If those three can get healthy and stay healthy this year I think that our core will stay solid going into next year.  When I came into the league the most mentioned player in your “welcome to the league…how about trading me…” emails was Mike Stanton.  I think he might well turn out to be the most valuable player on this current team when we have played until 2027.  He has power that reminds me of a right handed Reggie Jackson.  If you want to trade for him, you have to understand that I don’t undervalue him.  I think that the biggest theme in this draft was restocking the minor league system.  That was the one area that was most glaringly empty when I took over the team.  I think I picked up future power bats in Brentz, Roache, Bell and Trahan.  Most are a long way from the majors, but I don’t think I will be able to draft very highly next year, so I needed to lock them up and sit on them for a while if I was ever going to get them.  I think that the pitching prospects are closer to the bigs than those baby bats.  I feel like Kelly and Ramirez are close and I think Wacha will be a guy who moves through the minors quicker than most young SPs.  The other reason to draft Wacha is that I live less than an hour from Texas A&M, so I should be able to watch him play this season in the newly-refurbished ballpark in College Station.   

Team Report

Team Batting:

Escobar

Kendrick

Jones

Sanchez

Young

Moreland

Based on the current roster, SMC will consider a .500 record to be a successful season. Having to contend with Newark and San Antonio regularly is going to be problematic. A team will only take you as far as your starting pitching and SMC SP is suspect at best. If the offense can provide enough punch and the SP can throw its share of quality starts the bullpen ought to be able to nail down shut down teams most of the time.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Drew

Kipinis

Headley

Kotchman

Hannahan

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Expect another year of treading water while management waits (hopes, prays) for the youngsters to develop.  Much of the draft was spent plugging holes caused by injuries last year, but a few intriguing prospects (Javier Baez, Garrin Cecchini, Matt Szczur, and Keyvious Sampson) were selected in the later rounds.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Tulowitzki

Kinsler

Encarnacion

Freeman

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Hosmer

Team Report

Team Batting:

Barmes

Turner

Chisenhall

Freese

Descalso

DeRosa

The Mammoths are rebuilding, or more honestly, starting over from rock bottom. Last year was a complete disaster as we miscalculated on usage and ended up taking some penalties, costing draft picks in the process. Smith Mills management has pretty much written this season off and has tried to sign some veteran players (like Clint Barmes, Reed Johnson & Javier Vazquez) to buy time for some of the younger players (like David Freese & Desmond Jennings) to further develop. Realistically the Mammoths are going to struggle to score runs, even if veterans Josh Willingham, Geo Soto and David DeJesus play to their full capabilities. My best guess is that we are a 70-75 win team this season.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Lowrie

Casilla

Lawrie

Loney

Harrison

Guzman

Team Report

Team Batting:

Pennington

Giavotella

Longoria

Pena

Lombardozzi

Morneua

Team Report

Team Batting:

Gonzalez

Barney

Wood

Jackson

Bell

Pujols

Team Report

Team Batting:

Theriot

Cano

Beltre

Dobbs

Viciedo

Posada

The offense with Robby Cano, Adrian Beltre, Carlos Beltran, Gerardo Parra and Carlos Lee will put some runs on the board.  There is still some room for improvement as GM Tom DeCola is looking to bring on a full-time 1B and Catcher to shore up a few holes and get this team to the playoffs.  Defense will be an issue, but Moon is looking to cover up as much as they can with a starting staff that has a chance to do some special things.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Andrus

Phillips

Rodriguez

Fielder

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Parmalee

Beartooth is thrilled to field their most competitive team ever.  The key to this team is Ex defense that should start every game this season at both 2B and SS.  The primary starting 3Bman is a VG defender and our OF defense shows a VG in LF, Ex in CF, and Av in RF.  The defense at C is rather poor but if we don’t allow many base runners, that shouldn’t matter too much.  I don’t think I can emphasis enough how much this defense is going to positively impact the pitching staff.  The offense shouldn’t be too bad either with Fielder, VMart, McCutchean, and Gordon headlining it.  The bench is deep with bats with which to pinch hit.  SRod will platoon fulltime with Arod at 3B and we should have reasonably strong offense there.  The pitching staff is the strongest part of this team.  The rotation with Cliff Lee, Cueto, Hanson, Carpenter, Leake, and Baker should be more than enough to compete with anybody.  Once the playoffs role around the rotation will be pared down to Lee/Cueto/Hanson/and Carpenter.  The bullpen is super strong as well.   In the draft, we alternated picking for the future and filling out our bullpen and bench.  I was particularly happy to land Nicasio for the rotation/pen as well as Thornton, LeCure, Belisle, and Hawkins.  Parmalee and LeHair provide two exceptional bats for PH duty.  Andruw will start either in RF or LF against every LH starter we face.  At the same time the team managed to bring in Dylan Bundy, Jake Marsinick, Kolten Wong, Blake Swihart, and Noah Syndegaard to add to Harper, Arenado, Marte, McGuire, and Wheeler for an extremely talented MiL roster.  Good replacements abound for the future or for trade chips as needs come up during the season.  Having already traded for Mesoraco and promoted Austin Romine provides young talent to back up VMart behind the plate.  All in all this is the best edition ever of a Beartooth squad.  Now to make some noise in the NL and go deeper into the playoffs then ever before.

Team Report

Team Batting:

Crawford

Hudson

Zimmerman

Cabrera

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Smoak

Team Report

Team Batting:

Cabrera

Weeks

Sandoval

Trumbo

Hairston

Carp