SALT LAKE BEES
Projected: 91-69
Last Season: 91-70, 1st (#3 seed in NL)
Beat Colts 3-1, lost to Astros 4-2
Payroll: $127MM (32nd)
Major Additions: C Kole Cottam, RF Victor Robles, SPs Michael Pineda and Shane Watson, RP Brian Gadsby
Major Losses: SPs Matt Andriese and Matt Boyd, LF Mike Spooner
Top Players: 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B Morio Ishihara, SP Jack Flaherty
Not quite sure how to preview my own team, but I'll try to do it in the same manner as the other 59. Guerrero and Ishihara are two of the best players in the whole National League, and the rest of the lineup is made up of solid, but not overpowering complementary pieces, most notably CF Victor Victor Mesa and C Kole Cottam, acquired in a trade from Oakland. Jack Flaherty and Joey Lucchesi are a pretty even 1-2 at the top of a pretty good rotation, and the bullpen is only about average. This team has made 4 consecutive playoff appearances but has only won 1 series in the past 3 years, so we're trying to shake a reputation as chokers here.
HOUSTON ASTROS
Projected: 81-79
Last Season: 90-71, 2nd, 1 GB (#5 seed in NL)
Beat Burros 3-1, Bees 4-2, lost to Beacons 4-1
Payroll: $233MM (4th)
Major Additions: SPs Felix Hernandez and Max Scherzer, 1B Greg Bird, LF JD Martinez and Mike Spooner
Major Losses: 1B Paul Goldschmidt, CF Lorenzo Cain, RF Wil Myers
Top Players: C Buster Posey, SP Clayton Kershaw, LF JD Martinez
A rotation of Kershaw, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, King Felix, and Scherzer sounds pretty amazing, doesn't it? Well, it is actually quite good, but not quite as good as it might be IRL. For one, it's 2023, so all five are on the wrong side of 30 and three on the wrong side of 35. Scherzer actually looks like he's going to start the year in the bullpen despite being paid $35 million over the next two years. Overall, this projection seems a handful of games low to me, I would think Houston is set up to win about 86-88 and really challenge us for the division. Posey's still got it despite being 35 years old - he's been an all-star every year of this save and has three Silver Sluggers to boot - and there are several quality hitters on this team not already mentioned, like 2B Andrew Vaughn and CF Zach DeLoach.
NEW MEXICO SUNS
Projected: 81-79
Last Season: 87-74, 3rd, 4 GB (#8 seed in NL)
Beat Flyers in tiebreaker game, lost to Pirates 3-2
Payroll: $100MM (42nd)
Major Additions: none
Major Losses: none
Top Players: SS Brice Turang, SS Antoni Flores, 2B Scott Fitzgerald
Another team with a strange log jam in the middle infield. Antoni Flores, New Mexico's second-best player, is set to play about once a week at short and come off the bench to pinch hit. Neither he nor Turang is going anywhere either, as they're 22 and 23 years old, respectively, so a trade would have to bring back a lot to be worth it for NM. The rest of the lineup is about average, so the Suns will be a decent hitting team, but the team's strongest unit is the bullpen, with Roberto Osuna closing out games.
SAN ANTONIO MARSHALS
Projected: 77-83
Last Season: 81-79, 4th, 9 1/2 GB
Payroll: $67MM (60th)
Major Additions: RF Jimmy Herron
Major Losses: 3B Jake Armstrong, 2B Vinny Garcia, RF Jorge Bonifacio, RP Michael Kirkman
Top Players: 1B/3B/SP Triston Casas, 2B Tyler Malone, SP Tim Perez
Triston Casas is the type of player that only really shows up in OOTP. (He is a real player, but I'd be shocked if his real career looks anything like this one.) Casas is San Antonio's best hitter, a mashing 1B who's hit 96 HR in three major league seasons, but he also became a starting pitcher as of last season, going 10-15 with an ERA in the high 4s. I don't think any actual MLB team would even think of letting him do that when he's so important to the lineup and when his pitching stats are so middling, but it does make him a must-watch. The rest of the team is largely forgettable to be honest - 2B Tyler Malone, their next-best hitter, is starting the season on the IL with a broken shoulder blade of all injuries.
OMAHA THUNDER
Projected: 71-89
Last Season: 73-87, 5th, 17 1/2 GB
Payroll: $153MM (15th)
Major Additions: C Francisco Cervelli
Major Losses: SP Drew Pomeranz, CL Wandy Peralta, RP Wade Davis
Top Players: 3B Nick Senzel, SS Tim Anderson, CF Grant Witherspoon
A very middling team throughout, the Thunder have never finished in first place or in last place in this Central Division. Similarly, this Omaha team doesn't really have any big stars, just a bunch of players who aren't exceptional but also aren't terrible. OOTP picks Senzel as the headliner, but it could just as easily be Anderson, Witherspoon, 2B DJ LeMahieu, LF Adam Hillman or C Hunter Oliver. All about the same. Omaha's pitching is the weaker side of the ball, and it's the reason they'll probably finish below .500 for the third year in a row, but again, not actually that awful compared to a lot of other teams.
WEST TEXAS BLACKBIRDS
Projected: 70-90
Last Season: 72-88, 6th, 18 1/2 GB
Payroll: $77MM (55th)
Major Additions: none
Major Losses: RF Charlie Tilson
Top Players: LF Mike Trout, RF Johnny Rizer, 2B Joe Batch
Here's Mike Trout, if you've been looking for him - I guess it's no surprise that he's mired on a losing team, but the Blackbirds are worse than the Trout Angels have been. Here's probably why: Trout is making over 29 times as much as any of his teammates are, and significantly more than all of them combined: $45.5 million per season when the team payroll is only $77 million. He's also the only player on the team whose contract is actually guaranteed beyond this year (he's in El Paso through 2026). It's fully deserved, and he's every bit as good as that money indicates, but it's both incredibly surprising that WTX signed him to that deal in the first place, knowing what the finances were going to be, and incredibly disappointing that we don't get to see him destroy people on the postseason stage. Rizer is a decent player, and the bullpen is OK, but the rotation is probably the league's worst, and there's not a ton of hope.