[ayaghmour2]

Baseball is back! After a long, and relatively boring offseason, its time for Chicago Cougar baseball once again! Despite all the excitement in the air, this may be the first season since the 1938 season I didn't think we'd win the pennant. Of course, with just one pennant in that time, and plenty of third place finishes, I'd be surprised if we don't finish third yet again this year. Surprisingly, I'm one of the hardest on the Cougars, as half of the other 8 predictors think we'll finish first, and no one thinks we'll finish lower then 3rd. We're good, don't get me wrong, but our top four pitchers and hitters are enlisted, with plenty of other talented players out of service this season. The only thing working for us is the Cannons are really old, so rapid regression can hit, but this is the one season we won't have both a top offense and top staff. I think the staff may be one of the best, but a 3-4-5 of Rich Langton-Cliff Moss-Harry Mead isn't the scariest lineup we've featured. We still have plenty of protection, and a three headed monster in the rotation, and below are the 24 players ready to represent the Cougars in 1945:

RHP Ben Curtin
RHP Angel Lopez
LHP Dick Lyons
RHP Ken Matson
RHP Harry Parker
RHP Rusty Petrick
RHP Billy Riley
RHP Merritt Thomas
LHP Art White
C Harry Mead
C Mike Taylor
1B Dick Walker
2B Tip Harrison
2B Jimmie James
3B Steve Jones
3B Ken Mayhugh
SS Ollie Page
SS Skipper Schneider
LF Huck Hanes
LF Rich Langton
CF Don Lee
CF Orlin Yates
RF Chick Browning
RF Cliff Moss

BNN thinks we'll finish second in the CA, allowing the same amount of runs (520) as the Cannons, but while scoring over 100 fewer. They think we'll finish 92-62, very strong, but still 11 games behind a dominant Cannons squad. All three of our arms rank in the top 10, expecting excellent seasons from Billy Riley (22-12, 3.12, 138), Harry Parker (21-15, 2.90, 150), and Art White (20-14, 3.25, 51). Just two bats, both in the bottom five, with veterans Cliff Moss (.286, 21, 91) and Dick Walker (.255, 13, 57, 40) featured in their top 10. We have plenty of players in the OSA top 20 lists, with Billy Hunter (3rd), Hank Barnett (5th), Clark Car (12th), Skipper Schneider (13th), Harry Mead (18th), Pete Papenfus (1st), Donnie Jones (2nd), and Joe Brown (8th). The only two on the Opening Day roster happened to be the lowest ranked, Skipper and Mead, but I'm sure during the season we'll get new entrants and a drop out or two.

Our farm is much improved, and with a bunch of high draft picks we may push even higher. Surprisingly, we've jumped from 9th last Opening Day all the way up to 3rd, with Duke Bybee leading the way at #4. We now have 6 prospects in the top 50, with Bybee leading George Oddo (23rd), George Sutterfield (34th), Eddie Howard (40th), Bert Rogers (42nd), and Otto Christian (48th). Don Lee (63rd) is our only other top 100 prospect, with 20 in the top 250 and 42 in the top 500. With all these talented young arms, we can add stars at the deadline if needed, but unless a truly game changing player is available, we'll likely continue to stand to pat until what should be a crazy fun offseason.

We start our season at home, hosting the New York Stars for three. The Stars are expected to be much better this season, as they had a great second half and get a full season of Eli Panneton (9-9, 2, 3.11, 64). Dixie Lee, the first player to enlist, has returned stateside, giving them a solid #2 and they picked up Ed Cornett (1-1, 5.22, 23) from the Pioneers in the offseason to add rotation depth. While neither of these guys are starts, they are still above average compared to the rest of the active pitchers, and run prevention could be something they thrive at. The lineup has its holes, but Jim Honeywood (.366, 35) had a breakout season at 32 and they'll get another year of experience for Chubby Hall (.257, 15, 86) and Elijah Boudreau (.271, 7, 50, 6). We tend to play better at home, so I expect a series win to kick things off, but don't expect the Stars to roll over.

Quickly on the road after as we'll head to Montreal for three with the Saints to finish the week. Montreal is coming off another tough season, but they should see better production from young hurlers Pat Weakly (11-15, 4.32, 122) and Jackie James (8-9, 4.11, 52). The rest of the rotation has its question marks, but I doubt Jake DeYoung (5-14, 4.88, 77) will have another sub 75 ERA+ season with a K/BB above 2.5. Former 1st Rounder Hank Eason (.264, 3, 11) cracked his first Opening Day roster after a nice 19 game debut last season, joining some talented bats in Jake Hughes (.287, 50, 26), who finally shifted to third, and Bill Greene (.264, 8, 57, 24). Hughes is at third now because talented shortstop Gordie Perkins won the starting job, as the former 3rd Overall Pick and current #14 prospect will make his big league debut at 22. We definitely could have had a tougher start to the season, and I think we'll manage to pick up a pair of series wins to get things going.