Spring Recap and Pre-season predictions
The preseason is over, and its time to take a final look at the warm up games and see who the computer thinks will be at the top of the standings and fighting for promotion come season’s end.
It’s important to note that spring training games don’t mean much. The rosters are full of players who probably won’t be playing in the big leauges, and the stars are only in the games for a few innings. That being said, the final tally for the challenger league showed a few interesting things:
Right off the top, the Gaiam Wolves and Ionian Islanders both had fantastic pre-seasons, as they look to improve from bottom of the league teams a season ago. On the flip side, fresh off their late season collapse in the premier league, the Bulls still have yet to figure out how to right the ship as they had a dreadful pre-season. But maybe the biggest surprise is the Pailyn Panthers. The Panthers had a rough offseason, losing a few key players to free agency and not really getting any big names in return. It’s only spring, but the win/loss column might have some fans on Picon worried already.
Preseason Predictions
The Racers made some big free agency moves this offseason and are being rewarded for it by the computers, as they are picked to win the Challenger League. The biggest signing was former Panther ace Manus Emery, but they also snagged former Panther Gary Wilson. If those two pitch as well of Olympia as they did for Pailyn, the Panthers will be in good shape this season. The computers also apparently liked Gaiam’s spring, as they are projected to be near the top of the standings as well.
The experts and computers think Tauron City is in full rebuild mode, as it lists the bulls near the bottom of the pack. The same can be said for the Panthers, as the computers were not impressed by their poor preseason performance. Fellow relegation team Landson is projected to be near the bottom of the pack as well.
The Premier League pre-season was dominated by the Fateu Blaze and newcomers Argentum Silverstars. The Blaze, one of the best offensive teams last season, made some major pitching upgrades in the offseason. With two new starters at the top of the rotation and arguably the league’s best closer in Tom Hopps joining the team, the Blaze, well, blazed through the pre-season.
The biggest shock is the team at the bottom of the standings. Caprica City took a big nosedive from the Colonial Cup winning campaign last season. Again, its only spring, but like their rivals the Pailyn Panthers, this is a troubling turn of events.
The newly promoted Argentum Silverstars are the computers’ favorites to win the Premier League this season. Not only did they keep almost all of the talent that got them up to the Premier League in the first place, they were buyers this offseason. The Argentum front office was not afraid to spend the influx of cash the team would be getting from moving up to the new revenue stream of the Premier League. The addition of Keely Mobbs helps bridge the gap to closer Elton Berose, and sniping third baseman Steven Joseph from the C-bucs ads another bat to an already explosive Silverstar lineup.
The Kobol College Twins got a huge bump from the computers thanks to their offseason acquisitions as well. The late signing of Carl Conners adds an immediate ace to the staff, and picking up hard hitting first baseman Brice Brown from Caprica City adds a dangerous bat to the middle of the lineup.
The computers don’t think that the C-bucs will tank as hard as they did in the pre-season, but they are projecting out as a sub-.500 team. The theme of the above teams is all the players that Caprica City lost this offseason. The starting 4 will all return from last year, but if the C-bucs can put up the same offensive numbers remains to be seen.