[ArquimedezPozo]

This post is the second of five counting down all 48 NABF teams. Each entry will include vital stats, a short history, and its best players and season. This entry will cover teams #36-#25.

36. The Austin Pioneers
Overall Record: 2237-2383, .479
Conference Titles: 5 (D4W 2010, 2012, 2030-2031, 2034)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2010, 2012, 2034)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 3

Here’s how you know we’ve entered a new tier of team: Austin has as many championships (3) as every team above it has, combined. In the first two cycles of the NABF, Austin looked like a team on the march: after a dreadful inaugural year, Austin became a champion in 2010, winning 94 games and defeating Miami to capture the franchise’s first title; they got their second two years later, and earned a bump up to Division 3. But they lasted in D3 only two cycles, including an awful five year stretch between 2014 and 2018 when the team lost an average of 90 games a season, finished in last place four out of the five years, and was relegated back to D4. Things weren’t much better there for a while: over the next 11 seasons, the Pioneers finished last in the Conference at least once in three straight cycles, and finished Cycle 6 as the worst team in D4W.

A few things started to go right for the club at the turn of the 2030s, the most notable of which was the debut of LF Jeremy Almy, who has been Austin’s best player since his first full season in 2030. Almy won the MVP in 2035 and has taken home three Gold Gloves and seven All-Star appearances. His debut coincided with CF Bill Ebron’s rise to prominence, though the CF has since left Austin. On the pitching side, Tim Lank has been a sonsitently excellent frontline starter, who gave Austin its only Pitcher of the Year in 2028 and has amassed over 50 WAR in a Pioneers uniform. The franchise has only had one losing season since 2030, and won the Conference title in 2034; their window with this core is closing, though, and we’ll see if they are able to capitalize in Cycle 11.

Best Position Player: Hall of Fame Shortstop A.J. Brown was a star with Austin before the NABF, and was one of the Federation’s best early players. He won Austin’s first MVP in 2010, putting up 8.7 WAR with 48 homers and 120 RBI while leading D4 in Slugging. His 229 homers in Austin is still a franchise record. Almy could easily take this title from him in the next season or two, however.

Best Pitcher: Lank is the easy selection, with the most WAR of any player - pitcher or not - in an Austin uniform. Lank’s 2,515 strikeouts are almost 1,000 more than Mike Hathaway in second place, and Lank is responsible for the team’s only Pitcher of the Year hardware.

Best Season: nothing like the first. Austin’s 2010 Championship campaign is their best season in terms of outcome as well as win total, with a franchise best 94 wins. It was also - and not coincidentally - A.J. Brown’s best Austin season, and an MVP one.

35. The Albuquerque Dukes
Overall Record: 2184-2438, .474
Conference Titles: 7 (D4W 2014-2015, 2022, 2025-2027; D3W 2028)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2015, 2025; D3 2028)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Current/Highest Division: 3

This is a tale of two Albuquerques. The first Albuquerque is one of only a small number of teams that has had instant success upon promotion to a higher division, and that success came within a run of four straight Conference titles, a feat only 8 teams have managed. It’s a team whose average win total over a five-season span between 2025 and 2029 was 89, with two Division Championships. The second Albuquerque, though, is the one that exists outside that span: one that experienced very periodic success surrounded by a boatload of failure. If you ignore the amazing late 2020s run, Albuquerque has only had four winning seasons, one of which, the 2015 93-win championship squad, was surrounded by sub-.500 years. Since the 84 win season following its shock D3 title in 2028, the most wins it has earned in a season is 74, with an average of 88 losses including a 102-loss 2034. As a consequence, Albuquerque has the fifth-worst total W/L record in NABF history.

Their amazing late 2020s run can be summed up in two words: Brian Tate. Tate is an enigma, still, in NABF history: an 8th round pick by Milwaukee in 2019, Tate was poorly regarded by scouts until a trade to the Dukes after the 2020 season. He kicked around the Dukes’ minor league system for a couple of years, but then in 2022 started to blossom. He was called up for 2023 and had a rough year, but started turning things around the next year, and then… in 2025, he was suddenly the best pitcher in D4 and maybe in anywhere, and he stayed that way for five years - five years in which he led his Division in WAR, K/9 and BB/9, ERA, FIP-, and lots of other stuff. He won two Pitcher of the Year Awards, and probably should have won at least one more. It’s absolutely not an accident that Albuquerque’s great seasons coincide with Tate’s - he was just that good. But for whatever reason, after 2028… he wasn’t, anymore. He was still decent that season, and most saw it as maybe a speed bump, but everything stopped working after it, and Tate was out of the game by 2032, inexplicably. Albuquerque’s fortunes shriveled with him, and haven’t recovered.

Best Position Player: Jeremy Raiche is seen by some as a possible Hall of Famer, though he wasn’t named to the inaugural 2036 class. He was an outstanding defensive CF who put up four excellent seasons at the start of his career before settling into a career as a light-hitting defensive whiz.

Best Pitcher: It’s Tate, because of course it’s Tate.

Best Season: The Dukes won a franchise-best 99 games in 2026, and maybe if they’d won the championship that would be the best, but as it is, we have to give it to the 88-win D3 Championship season, one of only a few times a team has been promoted and immediately won the championship in the higher division.

34. The Indianapolis Clowns
Overall Record: 2241-2379, .485
Conference Titles: 3 (D3E 2009, 2011-2012)
Division Championships: 2 (D3 2011-2012)
Last Place Finishes: 6
Original Division: 3
Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

The Clowns had a great run early in their existence that they’ve never been able to replicate. Between 2009 and 2012, they ruled Division 3 behind legendary Hall of Fame hurler Malcolm Bush, winning the Division 3 East three times in that span and taking back-to-back Championships in 2011 and 2012 against the Salt Lake Gulls. Corner OFs Mitch Rolling and Edward Bosman were at their peaks, while the young Bush put up two of the greatest pitching seasons ever in his first two full years as a starter. Where the Clowns really thrived was in run prevention: Bush, of course, was the major piece of that puzzle: a 7.1 WAR in 2011 with 231 strikeouts in 199 innings of work, followed by his legendary 2012 - 266 strikeouts against just 46 walks, giving up 8 homers, with a 45 FIP- and a 9.7 WAR that remains the second highest WAR season of any pitcher. The Clowns also deployed an excellent bullpen behind closer Greg Hudson and bullpen ace Jerry Munoz. The back to back 2011 and 2012 titles earned them promotion to Division 2.

Since then, the Clowns have wavered between a mediocre and bad team. Despite Bush’s brilliance, they were never able to build an offense to support him, and though they lasted four cycles as a middle-of-the pack team in Division 2 a disastrous 2024 in which they lost 98 games was enough to earn them relegation before Cycle 7. Then things got even worse: they treaded water in Division three for a cycle, but two straight last-place finishes in 2029 and 2030 dropped them once again, this time to Division 4. In all, the Clowns have had just two winning seasons in the 20 seasons following their 2012 championship. But there is hope for the franchise: three straight second place finishes in Cycle 10, including an 88-win 2036 - not enough to earn them promotion, but a step in the right direction. And again it’s young pitchers leading the way as the Clowns build their next strong rotation behind Jason Stanfill and 2034 Pitcher of the Year Aaron Cottrell.

Best Position Player: as we’ve established, the Clowns have never been an offensive juggernaut. Their two best hitters were the engines of their offense over the first two cycles of the NABF: Mitch Rolling and Edward Bosman. Of the two, we’ll go with Bosman, who spent more time in Indianapolis with four straight 6 WAR seasons between 2008 and 2011, his age 34 season. He began to decline after that year.

Best Pitcher: only the best there ever has been, Malcolm Bush. Bush spent the vast majority of his Hall of Fame career with Indianapolis and is by far their best all-time player: the 88.2 WAR he accumulated in Indy is more than twice that of Bosman’s 37.1.

Best season: 2012 - the team’s second straight championship, earning a promotion to D2, in which they allowed the fewest runs in the Division while winning 89 games (the franchise is one of only six that has never won 90 in a season).

33. The Cincinnati Tigers
Overall Record: 2260-2360, .489
Conference Titles: 3 (D4E 2027, 2030; D3E 2033)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2027, 2030; D3 2033)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 4
Highest Division: 3

For a long time, Cincinnati was a consistent bottom-feeder in the NABF: a few winning seasons in the first four years of play led to a prolonged losing streak of nine seasons between winners. In that period, Cincinnati finished last in the D4E in two consecutive cycles, and would have been relegated had a lower division existed; that included three straight last place finishes in 2015, 2016, and 2017 in which the club never cracked 70 wins. Good players came and went for Cincinnati - the great closer John Weisbrod spent the first six seasons of his career in Cincy, as did CF Antonio Savedra (who was promising for the Tigers before injuries derailed his career) and the former All-Star outfield Malcolm Harper, who ended his career with Cincinnati in 2018. But year after year, the Tigers never got going, rarely finishing above 4th. In 2025, they hit a new low, losing 97 games despite a solid season from starter Brad Catron. In 2026, another losing season, another 5th place finish. More of the same. And then… came 2027.

The Tigers scored 637 runs in 2027, and they gave up 635. No player had a season with more than 3.5 WAR, and were middle of the pack in every measure that mattered, except one: wins. The Tigers outperformed their expected record by six games, finishing 83-71, and though that wasn’t exactly a superteam, in the D4 East it was enough: the Cincinnati Tigers had secured the first Conference title in their history. And they weren’t done: the Dukes may have been the superior team between April and September that year, but Cincinnati beat them in six, with Tyler Burke mashing a homer and four doubles, diving in seven to take the series MVP. They were back again in 2030, this time rolling over Austin four games to 2 for their second title, this one earning them something they’d never had: a promotion. Three more winning seasons followed in Division 3, including their best: a 94 win 2033 campaign that ended in the Tigers’ third championship in a seven year span. In retrospect, that was the end of the era: The Tigers haven’t had a winning season since, and will start Cycle 11 back in Division 4. But there’s hope in the form of new ace Willie Rodriguez, who has emerged during that span as one of the most exciting young arms in the game, his 9.9 WAR 2035 arguably the best pitching season in Federation history. Will he lead the Tigers into a new era?

Best Position Player: the most important offensive force during the Tigers’ 2027-2033 run was 3B Eric Hicks, whose 31.5 WAR as a Tiger is the highest in franchise history. Hicks was a major factor for the Tigers in the 2027 and 2033 Championship Series as well, and holds Tigers records in Slugging and Home Runs.

Best Pitcher: despite Willie Rodriguez’s recent brilliance, the title of best ever Tiger has to go to Brad Catron, the long time rotation anchor who was far and away Cincinnati’s winningest pitcher (201 career victories, with Armando Silva’s 99 in second place). Catron ended a career spent entirely in Cincy after the 2036 season, with a 3.93 career ERA and over 3000 strikeouts, good for ninth most in NABF history.

Best Season: 2033 - the Tigers’ third championship, and their best, after a 94 win season.

32. The Vancouver Mounties
Overall Record: 2200-2421, .476
Conference Titles: 4 (D2W 2007-2008, 2025-2026)
Division Championships: 2 (D2, 2007-2008)
Last Place Finishes: 6
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 2
Highest Division: 1

As the NABF began in 2007, the Mounties were probably more prepared to get off to a hot start than any other team. Vancouver was a large market, and had just barely missed the Division 1 cut (thanks in large part to the El Paso-Juarez merger, which most credit as being responsible for Mountie fans intense dislike of the El Paso franchise, though perhaps it has more to do with the latter’s dominance). They had been the most recent champion of the Northwest league, and had a number of stars in their primes, most notably starter Josue Garcia, SS Sam Miller, and the great closer Eli Grajeda. They had a strong farm as well, with RF Fernando Morales making his debut in 2008 to join 24 year old Glen Reagan in a powerhouse OF. They won two convincing championships in 2007 and 2008, and won 90 in 2009, though they were denied a threepeat by the rising St. Paul Saints dynasty. Still, they earned promotion to D1 after Cycle 1. But once in D1 they struggled against the dynastic Cycle 2 Angels, and powerful Cats and Sun Kings; after a couple of third-place finishes in Cycle 2, things fell apart. Between 2014 and 2021 they never experienced a winning season, finishing last in the D1W in 2021 with a franchise-worst 97 losses and falling back into D2.

During Cycle 6, however, some of the draft picks from their prolonged cellar-dwelling began to bear fruit: LF George Allred put together several All Star seasons, as did young 1B Elijah Hatcher, while phenom Danny Pierson won the Pitcher of the Year in just his second season, leading Vancouver to an outstanding 94 win 2025. That season ended in an epic seven game loss, in crushing fashion, to the rising Baltimore Terrapins, and the same matchup produced the same results in 2026, but the Mounties had won back-to-back Conference titles again and headed back to D1… where once again, they struggled. Since the 2028 season, the Mounties have had just a single winning year (2035), sinking back to Division 2 before the 2034 season, resigned to wait for their next crop of young stars to bring them back to the promised land.

Best Position Player: Fernando Morales, who debuted with the Mounties in their second championship season in 2008, saw all the highs and lows of those seasons and was a consistent performer in both D2 and D1. His 39.2 WAR is a franchise record.

Best Pitcher: four players have won a single Pitcher of the Year with Vancouver, but of those Josue Garcia had the best career - already an established ace with Vancouver before the NABF, Garcia was the best player on either side of the ball for Vancouver’s dominant Cycle 1.

Best Season: the best, in this case, is also the first: 2007, in which Vancouver won the inaugural D2 Championship with a 97 win season.[/B]

[B]31. The Toronto Maple Leafs
Overall Record: 2282-2338, .494
Conference Titles: 3 (D2E 2014, 2033-2034)
Division Championships: 2 (D2 2014, 2033)
Last Place Finishes: 6
Original/Highest/Current Division: 1
Lowest Division: 2

So much promise, so little to show for it over the first 30 seasons of NABF play. Toronto entered the NABF as the top single market (with New York split between the Dodgers and Giants), and with the great Omar Arteaga at the heart of their order. But their relegation at the end of Cycle 1 began an up-and-down history that has seen Toronto shift between Divisions 1 and 2 four times, unable to build sustained success at the D1 level. After their initial relegation at the start of Cycle 2, Toronto was a middle of the pack franchise for Cycle 2. Arteaga, LF Steven Moss, and CF Kasey McCoy (acquired for the 2013 season only) drove an offense that regularly scored more runs than D2 opponents, but lacked pitching. With the emergence of the young John Filler and the acquisitions of SP Ron Nelson and closer Chris Wright, however, Toronto was the second stingiest club in 2013, matching their incredible offense. The result was a 96 win club that easily took the D2 East over Atlanta and went on to defeat the 101-win Potros in a close series. The season was followed by two more good seasons, though neither led to postseason play - still, the result was good enough to lift Toronto back into D1 where the club maintained respectability through Cycle 4.

By 2019, though, things had turned south again. Many point to the 2018 salary dump trade of Moss to Sacramento as the catalyst, but the truth was Toronto had failed to build behind their stars, leaving them with little talent as Moss and others passed into the back halves of their careers. Toronto hung on in D1 despite just a single winning season between 2019 and 2025, but at the start of Cycle 6 the wheels came off: Toronto lost 284 games over the next three seasons, finishing last in each and dropping back down to Division 2. The catalyst of their next turnaround, though, can be found in those seasons: Toronto’s abysmal 100-loss 2026 gave then the draft’s first pick, and they took Benni Phillips out of Ole Miss. Phillips was rushed to the big leagues, and struggled to find his footing, but by 2030 he had emerged as a star. From 2030-2034, Toronto was a winning and competitive ballclub again, with 2020 first round pick Aaron Felton, DH Jon Moore, and others driving a powerful offense while a deep rotation kept runs off the board. Toronto’s 2033 gave them their first 90 win season since 2013, and more importantly, their first championship since that same year. A promotion to Division 1 in 2034 was met with trepidation by fans, but Toronto responded with another strong season, as Felton won the MVP and the club won the D1 East. Though they lost the championship to Seattle, they had finally managed success in the Division many thought they would rule for years.

Best Position Player: This is a very difficult choice, as Toronto has produced four outfielders who are either in the Hall of Fame or seem destined to be. In the end, though, it can only be Arteaga: his years with Toronto at the start of the NABF are almost impossible to believe. Despite playing just about ten full seasons, Arteaga is the franchise leader in WAR, second in homers, first in triples, and leads in both OBP and Slugging. Few have ever swung a batter better in the entire Federation, let alone Toronto.

Best Pitcher: Not nearly as much to choose from on this list - while Toronto’s list of great hitters is an embarrassment of riches, this one is just an embarrassment. Raul Roman is the wins, strikeouts, and WAR leader, though, so he’s likely the best choice here.

Best Season: 2013 was the team’s first championship, and the Leafs won more than they have in any other year. Arteaga and Moss were both at their height, too.

30. The Ft. Worth Cats
Overall Record: 2236-2385, .484
Conference Titles: 6 (D1W 2007, 2015, 2017, 2020; D2W 2031-2032)
Division Championships: 3 (D1 2007, 2020; D2 2032)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 2

For the first half of their existence, the Cats could claim to be one of the NABF’s premiere teams. The Cats were one of the “Troika” with El Paso and Los Angeles - a nickname given by a prominent sportswriter to describe the monopoly those three teams held on the D1 West for so many years. As incredible as it may seem, no team outside those three won the D1 West until 2028 - seven full cycles where an entire Conference was represented by just three teams. And while the Cats were the least accomplished of the three, with “only” four Conference titles to their name, they were still there. The Cats’ first decade had its ups and downs: after an inaugural year championship behind ace David Miramontes (his only year with Ft. Worth) the team spent several years below .500 and finished fifth in the D1 West during each year of Cycle 2. In 2011, Ft. Worth used its number 2 pick to draft CF Casey Smith, however, and Smith became a centerpiece for the Cats in their greatest period, a run of 80+ win teams between 2014 and 2020 that gave Ft. Worth three Conference titles and their second championship. Smith was at the center of it, averaging 8.4 WAR between 2013 and 2017 while winning two MVPs before losing most of his 2018 and 2019 seasons to two horrific knee injuries. As Smith recovered, Craig Vest emerged as the Cats great offensive threat, hitting .331/.414/.519 with the first of his four 80-steal seasons and an MVP. Vest would play with the Cats for virtually his entire career, and retire after the 2036 season as the NABF’s all-time walks, runs, and stolen bases leader.

The 2020s, though, were unkind to Ft. Worth. Casey Smith, coming off three straight 4 WAR seasons following his injuries, signed with Division 2’s Crackers after the 2022 season, and Vest was traded before his 2024 walk-year, leaving the Cats in rebuild mode. But the rebuild largely fizzled, and the Cats spent the next few seasons as D1’s worst, winning more than 70 games in only one season between 2025 and 2028 and never popping above .500. For the first time in their history, the Cats found themselves relegated, to spend Cycle 9 in Division 2. A combination of weaker competition and a rejuvenated lineup (led by SS Omar Juarez, young CF Cody Lehr, and Craig Vest, who had returned to the team before the 2031 season) brought them to first in the D2 East their first year there. They followed up in 2032 with a title run, beating Pedro Quiroz’s Zephyrs to claim the franchise’s third title and a short-lived return to Division 1 - three straight last place finishes in Cycle 10 means Fort Worth has dropped back down to begin Cycle 11. Will they bounce back, or continue to fall?

Best Position Player: When your two franchise players are as good as Craig Vest and Casey Smith, this is a near-impossible selection, but we’ll go with Vest: a tremendously popular player in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Vest is also an icon due to his skillset of speed, patience, and power. When he is Hall of Fame eligible after the 2039 season, there’s no question he’ll be selected.

Best Pitcher: Dave Barnes, while not a player with the stature of Smith or Vest, is Ft. Worth’s most accomplished pitcher. Barnes spent the entirety of his career in Fort Worth, debuting in 2009 and finally hanging it up with a 175-133 record, a career 3.87 ERA and 3.83 FIP, and 49.3 career WAR.

Best Season: the Cats won 91 games - their franchise high - in three consecutive seasons between 2016 and 2018, but in 2017 they underperformed while doing so, with an expected 94 wins. They also won the D4 West for the third time, though they lost the championship to Boston in a close 7 game series.

29. The Ottawa Champions
Overall Record: 2297-2323, .497
Conference Titles: 3 (D3E 2025, 2028-2029)
Division Championships: 2 (D3 2025, 2029)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original/Highest/Current Division: 2
Lowest Division: 3

Ottawa has been a remarkably consistent team over the years, but unfortunately for fans, they’ve been consistently mediocre. The Champions have finished in either third or fourth place - middle of the pack - in half of the seasons they’ve played, with just three first place and last place finishes. They have one of the smallest win differentials in the game, never winning more than 89 games in a season, or fewer than 60. They have no Hall of Famers (though you could make a case that closer Jeff Lasky should be wearing their cap, or that Alex Cardoza should earn induction). They spent their first few years in the middle of the pack before a rough 2011 and 2012 got them relegated to D3. Once there, they remained a solidly middle team. The most notable occurrence in that period was their trade of Mike Martinez, coming off a Pitcher of the Year trophy but entering his arb years. The deal from Baltimore wasn’t a disastrous one - starter Justin Kramlich and CF Frank Flanigan had some good years in Ottawa in the mid-2020s, with Flanigan hitting well in the Champs’ first title in 2025. But Martinez became a key piece in Baltimore’s fearsome rotation, won two more Pitcher of the Year awards, and could easily find himself in the Hall of Fame in 2039.

So, for the first six cycles of the Federation, the Champions were a notable team in their futility. They finally won a Conference title in 2025, one of the last to win their first. They made it count, going on to defeat San Diego on a Game 7 walk-off hit by Josh Henry, one of two Game 7 walk-offs in that amazing 2025 postseason. That walk-off announced the Champions’ only dominant era. From 2025 to 2029, they took three Conference titles, including back to back seasons in 2028 and 2029. The Champs were champs again in ‘29, this time with a convincing sweep of Calgary despite having won just 84 games to Calgary’s 91. The era was probably best defined by Paul Loomis, a former Pitcher of the Year who had come over from Brooklyn before the 2023 season and found success north of the border. Loomis won another Pitcher of the Year with Ottawa in 2026 and was generally a frontline starter throughout Ottawa’s best years. The 2028 and 2029 seasons earned the club a move up to Division 2, where they’ve remained through Cycles 9 and 10, again hovering in that gray space between good and bad, waiting for the next big move, good or bad.

Best Position Player: Josh Henry had the most important hit in Ottawa’s history, a walk-off double that won the 2025 Division 3 Championship. But beyond just that hit, he’s been Ottawa’s franchise player, spending his whole career in a Champions uniform while winning two Gold Gloves and being elected to eight All-Star teams. Henry holds multiple club records and continues to contribute for Ottawa: he hit the only cycle of his career this past season at age 36.

Best Pitcher: Champions fans wish they could go back in time to fix it up so Martinez could appear here. But since time travel hasn’t been invented yet, let’s put Jeff Lasky in this spot. Though he wears a San Antonio cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, he was actually marginally better with Ottawa in fewer games, winning three of his record five Reliever of the Year awards with the club.

Best Season: 2025, the first championship year, stands out. Not only did they reach the mountaintop, they had strong individual performances and the best run differential - if not actual W/L record - of their history.

28. The St. Paul Saints
Overall Record: 2156-2464, .467
Conference Titles: 5 (D2W 2009-2012, 2020)
Division Championships: 5 (D2 2009-2012, 2020)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original Division: 2
Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 3

Has any team in the NABF reached such highs, and fallen to such depths? It’s hard to find another that has done what St. Paul has done. The Saints have the worst record in the history of the NABF -worse even than the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who as you may recall were #48 out of 48 on this list. For nearly 15 years, the 2011 Saints held the record for most single-season wins of any NABF team; for the past ten years they’ve had the record for the fewest. They’ve had one Hall of Famer, and critically - disastrously - traded away another. They are a team of massive contrasts.

The Saints were one of the NABF’s early success stories. Their pre-NABF Great Lakes league had been dominated by large market clubs Chicago and Toronto, leaving St. Paul as a talented also-ran most seasons. Their 2007 was miserable, but almost immediately after they began to win: 92 wins, just a game behind ultimate the D2 champion Mounties in 2008, and then in 2009 the beginning of the dynasty: a 96-win D2 championship series in which they defeated Havana to close out Cycle 1. The team was led by 30 year old future Hall of Famer Manny Lopez, hard-hitting RF Josh Curran, and a dynamic young middle infield of SS Josh Bailey and 2B Andrew Pierre, whose 2009 is among the best ever by a 2B. The 2009 club scored 768 runs, topping Denver’s offense by over 100. Though the team took a step back in terms of wins in 2010, they still bested Atlanta in a six game set for their second consecutive D2 title. Their 2011 was extraordinary: the Saints broke Nashville’s single season NABF record by a full 5 wins, notching 105 victories as MVP Lopez, Bailey, Pierre and Curran led a 777 run attack while Jared Butcher and two-way player Chris Knipp held down a pitching staff that allowed the fourth fewest runs in D2. Lopez won Series MVP honors in a romp over Boston. Then, finally, 2012 sealed it: the NABF’s first four-championship streak included a 95 win season, Manny Lopez’s 4th straight 5+ WAR campaign, another outstanding run by Andrew Pierre, and another victory over Boston, this one a thrilling seven-game set. The Saints won four straight championships, a feat that has never been equaled.

And then, disaster. A promotion to Division 1 was a foregone conclusion, but Lopez, now 34, began a decline. Andrew Pierre had a solid season, as did Curran; younger players emerged as well, including RF Mike Gray and Manny Martinez, but to break through in the D1 West was a tall order, and Saint Paul was not up to the task. What might have been a top 2 D2 offense, with 700 runs, was middle of the pack in D1, and the Saints pitching - never a strong suit - was eaten alive: only the 96-loss San Francisco Seals scored fewer. Due in large part to SF’s futility, the Saints lasted two cycles in D1, but two straight 90 loss seasons in 2017 and 2018 got them dropped back to D2. The return seemed to do them good: that first season back was a winner, and in 2020 they seized first place again led by SP Antonio Venegas, who had been a standout with the Terrapins in Division 4 before signing with St. Paul, and a young slugging OF named Steve Mauck, who they’d drafted with the third pick in 2017. Mauck won the 2020 MVP as St. Paul once again topped D2 in runs on their way to a championship.

What happened next remains an open wound in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Steve Mauck was the future, many fans believed, but as the Saints struggled out of the gate in 2021, they dealt the young star down to Division 3, with the Baltimore Terrapins, hoping for some pitching depth and a star prospect. In return, the Saints got SP David Smith, who was solid for St. Paul down the stretch but who would leave as a free agent after the season; LF Matt Edwards, who spent two and a half decent seasons with the club; and CF prospect Chris Carter, who would get about a season’s worth of plate appearances with St. Paul and who was out of baseball by 2030.

Baltimore? They got a legend.

The Saints managed to win 80 games in 2022, but since then they have not had a single winning season - 14 years of futility or worse. They have averaged 87 losses in those 14 seasons, and the run includes a laughable 47-107 2025 that still stands as the worst season in Federation History. That season was their last in D2; they have spent the last three cycles in Division 3, never breaking .500 and never finishing higher than 3rd. Though they have avoided relegation to Division 4, many observers predict exactly that fate for a team that flew too close to the sun, and traded away the best player they ever had, before he had his chance to prove it.

Best Position Player: Their only Hall of Famer is Manny Lopez, who was already an established star in 2007 and who was the biggest factor in their four title run between 2009 and 2012. Lopez remains the franchise leader in WAR, OPS, SLG, OBP, HR, RBI, and BB.

Best Pitcher: While Venegas could take this - he’s the Saints’ all-time WAR leader as a pitcher - he’s far more associated with Baltimore. Instead, we’ll go with Paul Aldritch, who anchored St. Paul’s 2020s rotations, including that 2020 championship team (where he formed a great 1-2 with Venegas himself). Aldrich collected 78 wins for St. Paul, with a 3.83 ERA and 3.35 FIP while amassing 30.9 WAR.

Best Season: how could it be any other than their record 105-win championship season in 2011?

27. The Charlotte Hornets
Overall Record: 2284-2336, .494
Conference Titles: 4 (D3E 2007, 2013; D4E 2023, 2025)
Division Championships: 3 (D3 2007, 2013; D4 2023)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original Division: 3
Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

Charlotte has experienced all manner of highs and lows in its journey through the NABF. They were one of the four original champions, taking D3 in the 2007 inaugural season while winning a franchise-best 95 games in the process, and suffered just a single losing season in the first three cycles. With a 2013 championship over Seattle, and two more winning seasons to close out the cycle, Charlotte was off to Division 2 to open the 2016 season. Though Charlotte was full of young, promising talent (SP Josh Fama, CF Jeremy Rodriguez, LF Tim Langley) and had spent on future Hall of Fame 1B Eric Bryant, D2 was tough on the club, and with two losing seasons they were back in D3 three years later. The relegation, too, triggered several opt-outs, including Rodriguez’s and Bryant’s. The team sold off others, trading Fama to Baltimore and letting Langley walk in free agency. As a result, the return to D3 was painful, as the club finished in last their first two seasons back. Though there was improvement in 2021 - a harbinger of things to come - it wasn’t enough to prevent another relegation, giving Charlotte three division shifts in as many cycles.

Once in Division 4, the draft picks the club had amassed over six losing seasons began to pay off. CF Phil Woolf, DH (later 3B) Brian Runnion, 3B Adam Woods and LF Brian Johnson all had breakout years for the club in 2022, and in 2023, joined by rookie SP Chris Roy, Charlotte won 93 games and the D4 championship, beating San Diego in five games for their second trophy. 2025 saw another Conference title, with Roy winning Pitcher of the Year, Runnion winning the first of his three MVPs with a monster 41 homer, 1.034, 8.3 WAR season, and Phil Woolf winning his only Silver Slugger, in his final strong season.

Unfortunately, that was the start of a downturn. Though Runnion was a star for Charlotte over the next several seasons, others never returned to that level: Woolf got off to a terrible start in 2026, and Charlotte waived him, with Phoenix picking him up (he later had a couple of productive seasons with Albuquerque before retirement) while Roy was productive for a couple more years, but started to decline after age 30 and was gone from Charlotte by 2028. So, too, was Runnion, who signed with the Angels for the last contract of his near-Hall of Fame career. Charlotte finished last in D4 East over Cycle 8, and has had just a single winning season since and not much hope on the horizon: while young 1B Ernesto Gonzalez shows promise (in fact, Gonzalez has the highest batting average among qualifiers of any NABF player in history, tough he is still just 25), few others do, and Charlotte’s farm system is ranked 8th in Division 4 as of this writing.

Best Position Player: Brian Runnion, who won three MVPs for Charlotte, is the clear choice. Runnion won’t be eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2039, but he should see support despite a relatively low career WAR - his prime was stunning, and Charlotte is not yet represented in the Hall.

Best Pitcher: Despite a short career and a lower WAR than Joh Kent, Chris Roy - winner of Charlotte’s only Pitcher of the Year and a star in arguably its best period of play, gets the nod here. Roy spent the first and best years of his career in Charlotte, winning just shy of 100 games for the Hornets.

Best Season: a tough choice, in the end. Charlotte’s highest win total was 95 in 2007, a year in which they won the championship, but they did overperform their expected W/L. They won 93 in 2023, actually slightly underperformed, and won the championship there as well with some of the best players in its history, so we’ll go with it here.

26. The Denver Bears
Overall Record: 2255-2365, .488
Conference Titles: 5 (D3W 2030, D2W 2033-2036)
Division Championships: 2 (D3 2030, D2 2036)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original Division: 2
Lowest Division: 3
Highest/Current Division: 1

How different it must feel to be a Denver Bears fan today than it did just seven years ago? Once one of the lovable losers of the NABF, the Bears have been maybe the most dominant team of the last two or three cycles, averaging about 86 wins a season. Some of the most exciting players in the recent history of the game have played in Denver, and they have risen from Division 3 up to Division 1, where they will begin play in 2037. No one watching Denver play at any point between 2007 and 2028 really could have predicted it: the Bears had only seen five winning seasons over that timeframe, and had lost as many as 101 games in a season. Denver had finished above 4th place only five times, and in second only three, never any closer than five games out. A few good players had spent some time in Denver - 1B Curt MacKenzie won the 2008 MVP with the Bears, and closer Josh Suits got his start in Denver (both found later success with Boston). But looking down Denver’s career leaders lists, it’s striking how many players there are who are either still on the team, or who played for the Bears only in recent years. All of that added up to years of futility, as the Bears became a punchline: near or at the bottom of Division 2 for three cycles, then being relegated and treading water in Division 3 for several more, not good enough to approach promotion, though not bad enough to fall again.

Several things changed in the late 2020s that brought about a new Bears. The first was T.J. Hardcastle: the 25th pick in the 2021 draft hit Denver the next season and had an immediate impact. Hardcastle’s personality never matched his name - he was as laid back as they came. But at the plate he was all business, and effective: in his third year, just before Denver’s golden age began, Hardcastle hit .304/.348/521, topping 20 homers for the first time and adding 43 doubles after leading D3 in that category the previous year. Hardcastle led the Denver offense for the next few seasons, until the arrival of Clemens Young, a German player discovered by Bears scouts in 2020. Young won Denver its second MVP in 2028, the first of two for the DH, and he and Hardcastle formed a devastating 3-4 in Denver’s lineup. The previous season, journeyman starter Chad Martucci joined Denver and had a renaissance in his age 31 season, with a 73 FIP-, 6.1 WAR season in which he narrowly missed a pitcher of the year. Denver was on the map, and when new owner Kevin Robinson - a meddlesome, impatient, and caustic personality to be sure, but one willing to spend cash - took over, Denver took off. In 2029 they won 88 games, the most in their history, coming in second. In 2030, they collected another 88, but this time they won their Conference for the first time in team history, and then did what Denver fans thought they might never see: they won the D3 over Miami for their first title, and earned promotion to Division 2. The transition barely phased the Bears: they finished 2, then 1 game out of first in 2031 and 2032, and in 2033 they were triumphant, taking the D2 East, the Conference in which they had once served as punching bag. They have won that Conference each season since, as Young, Hardcastle, SPs Nate Mefford and Bobby Hardy, and DH Donovan Bryant drove them forward, establishing the Bears as the premiere franchise of the 2030s. Finally, in 2036, the Bears defeated the Tampa Tarpons, becoming D2 champions and earning promotion to the biggest stage. Denver will open 2037 in Division 1, and though there are fears that their stars are on the decline and Denver will not fare well, they’re there; their fans doubted they’d ever see it.

Best Position Player: Hardcastle takes it over Young - he’s the soul of the club and has been there longer than anyone, with most team offensive records. He’s very close to entering the top three all-time in doubles as well.

Best Pitcher: While Chad Martucci’s late transformation into an ace is a great story - and it was such an incredible transformation that he actually leads Denver in pitching WAR - we’re going with Nate Mefford here: deeply underappreciated due to a persistently high BABIP, Mefford has actually been one of the game’s most dominant starters for several seasons. Mefford is a strikeout artist, and has led his Division in strikeouts every single year of his career except one, striking out nearly a third of the batters he’s faced for his entire career. He’s the NABF’s active strikeouts leader, and he’s just 32, another 200K season away from third place all time and two away from eclipsing Malcolm Bush for the top spot.

Best Season: for the Bears, the best is also the most recent, as they finally won the D2 crown with a 90 win season, tying the franchise record, to earn promotion to Division 1.

25. The Cleveland Spiders
Overall Record: 2304-2317, .499
Conference Titles: 1 (D3E 2016)
Division Championships: 1 (D3 2016)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Only Division: 3

Six teams in the NABF have never changed Divisions. Four - the Angels, Sun Kings, Dodgers, and Athletics - have never fallen out of D1, but each of them would have been promoted a couple of times had there existed a higher league. San Antonio is in the opposite boat: never good enough to escape D4, but they would have dropped down if a lower division existed. No, only one team has been nondescript enough to never, ever move from their spot, and that team is the Cleveland Spiders.

The Spiders finished last in 2007, the first season of the NABF. It was the only time they would do so until the 2030s. It’s probably not a coincidence that the next season, 2008, was the debut of Nick Landa, Cleveland’s only Hall of Famer. Landa was a first round pick in 2007 that Cleveland brought up the next season, and he was an immediate sensation. As a rookie, he led D3 in Slugging at .601, hitting 38 homers and getting the first of his 13 All-Star nods as he racked up 6.7 WAR. Landa went on to become a two-time batting champ with exactly and precisely 500 homers, though he hit the last 20 with Albuquerque in 2022, his only season outside of Cleveland. Ironically, Landa’s worst season was Cleveland’s best: in 2016, the Spiders went on a magical run that brought them to the top of the D3 East for the only time in their history, and then to the championship after defeating a superior Calgary team 4 games to 1. Landa hit an awful .230/.336/.398 that season, and was clearly playing through leg pain through most of it. But when it counted he showed up, going 7 for 19 with two doubles and 4 RBI in the Championship Series.

Since that season, they’ve… existed. They’ve won about as many games as they’ve lost. They’ve finished second, third, fourth, fifth. Even last a couple times, in 2033 and 2035. In 2019, Tony Jimenez won a Pitcher of the Year for the club, but he probably shouldn’t have. While wearing a Cleveland uniform, Reliever Phil Williams became only the second reliever to win a fourth Reliever of the Year award, in 2023.

Maybe it’s fitting that we arrive at the middle of this list with the most middling team in the Federation’s history. Maybe Cleveland will surprise us - build a juggernaut, or become a laughingstock. Maybe they’ll just be the steady rock of mediocrity on which the rest of the Federation turns. Time will tell.

Best Player: Landa wins this going away. No one is close. Fun Landa fact: he is one of only ten players who ever hit 4 homers in a single game.

Best Pitcher: this one is much harder. Manuel Martinez is as good a choice as any though, having played all but two years in Cleveland, with the most WAR of any pitcher they’ve had, along with the most wins.

Best Season: another easy one. 2016 is the only possible choice - though they’ve won more than that season’s 84 wins five times, this was their only first place finish, and only championship.

Next: Ranking the Teams, #24-#13