[Syd Thrift]

So, I have this big bad habit of starting dynasties, taking *way* too much time writing them up, getting overwhelmed, and then stopping. Let the games continue!

Anyway, I'm doing a league that started in the year 1876 using real franchise locations/leagues/team movement/etc. but fictional players. I'm now early in the year 1887 and I wanted to Thriftify this bad boy.

As a whole, runs are *way* up this year, due to a MASSIVE increase in stolen bases over the season before (note: in real life this was because for 1887 only extra bases taken on hits were counted as steals; however, OOTP says "nope, those are just plain steals" and as a result players are moving from first to second as a matter of course). It's May 3 and as such still super duper early but both leagues are seeing a jump of at least 50 points to their ERAs, and ERAs jumped last year as well because of... reasons. I'm not totally sure why runs went up - I don't see any major rule changes in 1886 - but they did).

Let's take a brief look at the teams:

Baltimore Orioles (American Association): Perennial second division finishers since the AA was founded in 1882, the Orioles... kind of look like more of the same this year. 14 games in, they're "led" by '86 24-game winner Esteban Rivera (3-2, 4.30) who has as many walks as strikeouts so far. Their offensive attack is paced by 1B Ben Carlton (.333, 0, 12), who became the game's first .400 hitter when he hit .403 last year (220 hits in 546 at-bats).

Boston Beaneaters (NL): The Bostons have to be considered the favorites in the 1887 season after having acquired superstar CF Joe "King" Fletcher (.316, 1, 4) from the Chicago White Stockings. They did win the pennant and ultimately the World's Series without Fletcher last year, so we may not even see a close pennant drive this year. Their mound ace is the Dutchman Tobias "Stroopwaffel" Wakker (3-0, 2.70), who inexplicably has never won a Pitcher of the Year Award.

Brooklyn Grays (AA): Founded in 1884 the Grays have not had a winning season in any of their 3 seasons in the Association. They're off to a beastly 10-3 start this year, propelled by the fantastic pitching of Jason "The Test" Bechtel (4-1, 1.84) and timely hitting of 3B Danny Ludolph (.412, 1, 17). On the minus side, they are sporting checked jerseys that make them look like giant pieces of graph paper.

Chicago White Stockings (NL): Following a very tight pennant race in 1886 that saw the Stockings wind up on the losing end in spite of winning more games (83) than the Beaneaters (81) (they played like 7 more games), owner Al Spalding said "screw it" and broke the team up. It would be a major coup if the 5-time champs win more games than they lose this year. Rodger Rott (1-1, 5.68), who went 28-15 last year but who always seems more comfortable as a 2nd starter, is their de facto ace this season. The Sox hope that 1B Jeff Miller (.474, 2, 7), who led the league in RBIs last year with 96, can continue his clutch hitting without Joe Fletcher setting the stage in front of him.

Cleveland Blues (AA): The Blues are one of two brand new teams in the majors this year and so far their newness is showing. To be fair, much of their team is scavenged from the St. Louis Maroons, who disbanded after last season, but to be fair to *that* the Maroons were kind of horrible. Matt Cunningham (1-5, 2.15) spent all last season as a right fielder but has been transitioned back to the box this year, and much of the Blues' 1887 hopes rest on LF Jacob Bravenec (.358, 1, 9) hitting the way scouts say he did in the mysteriously unknown independent league he alighted from last year.

Detroit Wolverines (NL): From 1879 to 1885 the Wolverines had a nice little run, winning the pennant in 1881 and finishing 2nd 3 other times. Sadly it looks like their days as a second fiddler are about over, as they finished 61-65 last year, 25 games off the pace. Their "ace" is John Andrews (2-1, 3.12), a prospect who first played in this league at just 19 but who has never been able to capitalize on glowing potential. He'll turn 30 next year and has been a career loser (67-83). The lineup is secured by CF "Dynamite" Jimmy Walker (.290, 0, 5), who was acquired - some would say "stolen" - from the financially moribund St. Louis Maroons last year.

Indianapolis Hoosiers (NL): The other new entrant to the major leagues, the Hoosiers hope to succeed where two previous teams failed in providing baseball of the highest quality to the state of Indiana. "Highest quality" might be overstating things a bit; their top pitcher Ed Ortega (1-2, 5.09) was a 23 game loser for the Maroons last season, and their 3-hole hitter RF Takeo Umetsu (.276, 0, 3), a native of the far-off land of Japan, was barely able to hold a job for the now-defunct Kansas City Cowboys last year.

Louisville Colonels: The Colonels had, suffice it to say, a *weird* year last year. The AA pennant winners in 1885, they were in dead last as of July 1 last year before going on a torrid run to end the season. Sadly, this only collected a 69-71 record for them. Ivan Gomez (2-3, 3.15) and all-time wins leader Mitch Thomas (2-2, 1.06; career record 249-171) anchor the rotation, with 1B Brad Griffin (.294, 0, 5) making the best of an anemic offensive attack.

New York Giants (NL): The Giants have done a decent job of building up their team year by year. Last year they were the 3rd team in a 3-team pennant race, staying in there until late September. Roger Penaloza (1-2, 3.96) won Pitcher of the Year honors with a record-setting 37-9 season. Their secret weapon this year is 3B Steve Hall (.483, 1, 11), who was the "clean up man" for Joe Fletcher in Chicago for 5 seasons before being purchased from that club by the New York Nationals.

New York Metropolitans (AA): The Mets are clearly the second team in Gotham City, having never finished higher than 7th in the American Association. Last year they set a new AA record with 91 losses. Things don't look particularly optimistic for 1887 either. Blake Dittmer (1-4, 4.38) is the closest thing the team has to an ace, and he lost 22 games last year. The locals do enjoy 1B Keith Nitz (.298, 0, 3), who finished third in the league with RBI last year with 90 of them.

Philadelphia Athletics (AA): The A's led from pillar to post in the AA last year, only to be dispatched in 5 games by the Beaneaters in the World's Series. With one of their main challengers the Allegheneys having jumped to the National League, a second straight pennant seems all but in the bag this year. Justin Suarez (2-3, 3.16) won 68 games in '85 and '86 combined. Their stud CF Jim True (.262, 0, 5) led the league in HRs and finished 2nd in RBI in the AA and this year is being asked to move from right field to center, where he can take more advantage of his great range.

Philadelphia Quakers (NL): The other Philadelphia team had one of the all-time worst debuts (19-80) in 1883 and they've struggled to compose a good team ever since. Last season was a high-water mark; they finished out of the cellar for the first time in their history and wound up just 10 games under .500 (57-67). Justin Stefano (1-2, 5.79) is their ace, that is, unless control problems (he walked 160 batters in 318 innings last year) do him in. The Quakers hope that 1B Brandon David's (.400, 0, 7) 1886 season, when he raised his average more than 60 points to .320, was not a fluke.

Pittsburgh Allegeneys (NL): The Allegheneys, evidently frustrated by the dominance of the Browns and Athletics in the Association, jumped to the National League in the offseason, where they replaced the Kansas City Cowboys. Why they think their experience in the NL will be any better is beyond all of us. They did manage to nick ace Brian Everhart (1-1, 6.48) from the White Stockings in that team's fire sale; Everhart won Pitcher of the Year awards in 1884 with Providence and 1885 with Chicago. Their star SS Lorenzo Hernandez (.400, 0, 3) is also a bit of a cast-off, having been purchased from Brooklyn after being awarded to that franchise following the capitulation of the old Cleveland Blues.

St. Louis Browns (AA): After winning pennants in each of the first 3 seasons of the league, things have taken a slight turn for the Browns the past two years as they've "only" finished 2nd each frame. At that, last year's finish required a furious September to overtake the Allegheneys in the pennant race. Ace Joey Walls (4-2, 1.25) won 35 games last year and proved that his rough 1885 season (25-24, 2.24) was just a fluke. 3B Shawn Pierce (.379, 3, 12) looks like an early contender for MVP honors.

Washington Nationals (NL): As bad as the Nats were last year (47-78, 6th), they were still infinitely better than the previous Washington entrant inasmuch as they managed to complete the season (the 1884 Nationals wound up at the end of July of that year and forced the league to field a team in Richmond, VA for the remainder of the year). Matt Craft (0-1, 3.71) was an impressive 9-3 last year for Washington; he won't repeat that but it's a nice place to start from. LF Jesus Laureano (.368, 0, 6) is a former member of the Detroit Wolverines organization that they soured on. The Nats purchased him from Lowell last season.