Thunder Bay Champions by Year

Team Report

Brennan Davis, Jason Dominguez, Jordan Lawler, Matthew Liberatore, Nick Lodolo, Matt McClain

Power throughout the lineup; defense (especially up the middle and on the left side of the infield)

Starting pitching – the team’s depth was hurt with the opt-out by David Price and injury to Eduardo Rodriguez so could struggle after a quality 1-2 of Framber Valdez and Brady Singer

Significantly upgraded 3B and added a top bat to the lineup by acquiring Jeimer Candelario

Despite a down year for franchise cornerstone Ronald Acuna, Jersey will compete for a wild card this year, if not the AL East title. Their strong lineup and up-the-middle defense should provide more than enough support for their starting pitching.

Salvador Perez (crazy short-season stats will lead to monster year)

Framber Valdez

Team Report

Mick Abel, Matt Allen, Seth Beer, DL Hall, Austin Hendrick, Blaze Jordan, Jackson Kowar, Geraldo Perdomo, Zac Veen, Bobby Witt Jr.

Corner outfielders (Eloy Jimenez and Anthony Santander); farm system; general manager

Pitching – not enough arms so will see a lot of free agent pickups

The Louisville BATS are in for a long, long season as they are undertaking a massive rebuilding process that is anticipated to be in process for the next 3-5 years, ouch. The cornerstones for this process will be youth, youth, and more youth. If and that is a big if, they can become more prospects than suspects and added to Eugenio Suarez, Dante Bitchette, and Eloy Jimenez, and get a little luck with the pitchers, they might transform into more than a bottom feeder, in time.

The BATS minor leagues is stacked with youngsters such as Bobby Witt, Jr., Blaze Jordan, Austin Hendrick, Zack Veen, Mick Abel, Matt Allen, DL Hall, and Jackson Kowar. Both bats and arms in these young gems. Put them with Brendon Rogers, Carter Keiboom, Sam Huff, Leody Taveras, and their one “ace” pitcher, (hopefully), Dylan Cease, the base is there.

There will be some hard years ahead and some very good draft picks with much patience needed. In time, 3-5 years, this team will be a contender. Until then, it will be a joke, but at least a young joke with a plan.

In a flurry of moves, brought in Bobby Witt Jr, Dylan Cease, Isian Diaz, Luis Garcia, Sam Huff, Carter Kieboom, Jordan Luplow, Brendan Rodgers, Trevor Rogers, and Eugenio Suarez to give fans the promise of a bright future

Tearing down an average team to bring in the kids, 2021 will be a rough season with a likely last place finish in the AL East and the AL overall. The Bats won’t be there long though.

Eloy Jimenez

Dylan Cease

Team Report

Jose Castillo, Hans Crouse

Juan Soto; solid starting pitching from 1-5; bullpen

Protection in the lineup for Soto; best hitters have limited availability

This year we had very low expectations for the Rats as some key players like Matt Olsen (38hrs but .196 BA), Roberto Perez (.164 BA) and James Paxton (6.71 ERA only 55IP) had down years. Trey Mancini was out for the whole year. We weren’t a great team last year and things look worse. We are helped this year by the multiplier that makes players with low participation more useable (France, Luis Garcia, Edwin Rios, Miguel Rojas and Tellez). Our pitching is somewhat middling with 4 16 game winners (Lopez, Peterson, Dobnak and Fiers). Our one bright light on offense and it is a big bright light is Juan Soto (.351 36hrs) who may have been our best draft pick ever a few years back.

Given the writing on the wall, it seems like we are a middle of the road team, except starting the draft we had one thing covered, enough starts. This is a rarity as it seems that every year we are reaching for starts in the draft, many years deep in the draft. Having this covered, we concentrated on getting as much help in Relief Pitchers as possible. This is the key to how the season will go with us. To the extent that the bullpen can cover up for SP and close games will determine whether we can squeeze into the playoffs this year after missing the last couple. It has been fun getting high draft picks, but I haven’t really done much with those probably as good a reason as any for mediocrity.  Some recent first round picks; Villar is gone, Roberto Perez (mentioned above), Kikuchi (hasn’t really panned out), DeJong (fair at best). Wow looking at that, I have been pretty terrible. I hope that this year’s pick David Peterson breaks the string, although he is looking like he may be pushed out of starting rotation for the Mets.

Given the push for relevance this year, we pretty much ignored the any rookie picks. Best we did was some potential closers (Yimi Garcia, Blake Taylor, Weems) and a hope that Kirby Yates returns to form next year.

ON a side note, we have a real Garcia contingent (3) and have a relatively younger team (26 avg age).

All in all, I think we can make it above .500 with some luck and make a run at playoffs in this strange year. Maybe Soto can carry us all by himself. He is only 22 so I will be able to enjoy him for years to come and enjoy the fact that he was a late round pick when he was just 18. Some other players to hope for during the 2021 MLB who are around the same age, Luis Garcia, Kiebert Ruiz, Sherten Apostel, David Peterson and Pablo Lopez.

Drafting David Peterson in the first round to be a strong #2 starter

The AL East will come down to the Rats and Damage, and the Rats pitching depth may be the difference maker. If not, a wild card spot is in sight.

Juan Soto (even if limited to 2/3rds of the season)

Pablo Lopez

Team Report

Jordyn Adams, JB Bukauskas, Michael Vargas

Lucas Giolito is a true ace; bullpen is deep and powerful; positional depth (though no player with superstar stats)

Starting pitching – Strasburg and Stroman injuries really hurt, many early draft picks were used to get to 162 games started; power in the lineup

Using early draft picks on starters to have a serviceable staff

Probably a .500 club (and 3^rd place in the AL East), which sounds right from a club with average offense, defense, and pitching

Rafael Devers

Lucas Giolito

Team Report

CJ Abrams, Colton Cowser, Riley Greene, Cristian Hernandez, Asa Lacy, Luis Medina, George Valera

Fernando Tatis (around for the next 14 years) and Manny Machado make for a formidable left-side of the infield; starting staff of Buehler, Lamet, Burnes, Gallen, and Gausman may lack name recognition but won’t for long and is the deepest from 1-to-5

A little more lineup protection around Tatis and Machado would be nice, but that’s nit-picking

Adding lights-out relievers Jesse Hahn and Matt Foster in round of the draft

It will be neck-and-neck between the Oil Barons and Capitals, but the pitching depth gives the Oil Barons an edge in every series and they take the AL Central crown by a few games

Manny Machado edges out Fernando Tatis this year, but that’s it

Corbin Burnes

Team Report

Michael Busch, Adrian DelCastillo, Nick Gonzales, Brandon Marsh, Kristian Robinson, Josiah Gray, Kumar Rocker

Starting pitching – Hyun Jin Ryu, Aaron Nola, and Lance Lynn will match or best anyone’s top three; star-studded infield and overall lineup

Tough to say that any outfield with Marcell Ozuna in it is a weakness, but it seems a bit weak besides him; bullpen needs more depth

Trading for Mike Mayers to steady the bullpen

The lineup and top 3 SPs will make Capital City tough to beat, but the Capitals will finish slightly behind Houston in the AL Central, and then wreak havoc in the playoffs as a wild card

Marcell Ozuna

Hyun Jin Ryu

Team Report

Deep bullpen; Yasmani Grandal will anchor the staff and lineup and play the most of perhaps any catcher

Another AL Central team with good starting pitching but not enough of it from those guys so will need to piece together starts; lineup will play strong defense but could struggle scoring runs

Adding Dane Dunning to a solid starting pitching staff with the #1 overall pick, then adding a starting center fielder in Cedric Mullins with the top pick in round 2

Could finish at or above .500 and still be in fourth place in this division (and there’s no shame in that)

Colin Moran

Brad Keller

Team Report

Vidal Brujan, Wilman Diaz, Shea Langeliers, Pedro Leon, Brendan McKay, Adley Rutschman, Andrew Vaughn

Shane Bieber is ridiculous, and he’s got help in Sandy Alcantara, Lance McCullers, and Jack Flaherty; great defense all around the diamond

While it will hit for average, the lineup lacks power so will often need a string of hits to produce runs; the solid starting pitching is limited in starts

Drafting Jake Cronenworth in the first round and slotting him into the #3 slot in the lineup

The Giants are not going to be a fun team to play and are going to make every series tough. Unfortunately, they’re in the same division as the Oil Barons and Capitals so it looks like their lot is a third place finish in the AL Central

Shane Bieber

Team Report

Maximo Acosta, Francisco Alvarez, Oneil Cruz, Reid Detmers, Tyler Freeman, Bo Naylor, Bryan Rocchio

Lineup will probably lead the league in runs with table-setters Chris Taylor and Whit Merrifield ahead of Trea Turner, Jose Ramirez, and Luke Voit and a deep bench at all positions; top 4 starting pitchers strong as well

Hate to say none, so I guess it’s a “problem” that a dozen or so starts might have to come from a guy that had an ERA over 4 – the horror!

After making the playoffs in every season of their existence starting in 2005, the Halos’ playoff streak came to an abrupt halt after being eliminated by the Jersey Damage Inc. in the 2016 playoffs. They went on to win only 43-83-75 games in 2017 through 2019 as the rebuild seemed to be stuck in the mud. Finally, last season the pitching staff came together; and the Halos won 103 games and went on to win the Wild card series before being dumped from the playoffs by the San Carlo Aces. Despite the earlier exit from the playoffs then what they would have preferred, it was finally a major step forward for the franchise that had averaged 111 wins per season between 2006 and 2013. Therefore, there is a lot of excitement heading into 2021, despite having to replace 87 starts and 50-wins from last year’s starting pitching rotation. The former #1 overall pick and ace of the staff, Luis Castillo will return as well as a healthy Keuchel (limited to 19 starts in 2020). Woodward should take another step forward and provide 35 starts. Dustin May moves from limited bullpen work in 2020 to full-time starter with the rest of the starts being taken care of by more youngsters. The line-up returns everyone except Choo who we unfortunately had to cut and Sanchez who was moved for more experienced catching in Vazquez. Meadows who stepped up to MVP level last season is fighting injuries, so Taylor and Nimmo were brought in to add some pop. Hendriks again will lead an above average bullpen.

Rounded out an already strong team in a plethora of deals with the Gladiators to add Aroldis Chapman, Mauricio Dubon, Oliver Perez, Chris Taylor, and Christian Vazquez as well as adding Brandon Nimmo from the Louisville Bats

Jose Ramirez

Brandon Woodruff

Team Report

Hunter Bishop, Jud Fabian, Nolan Gorman, Hunter Greene, Emerson Hancock, Josh Jung, Jack Leiter, Royce Lewis, Marco Luciano, Heliot Ramos

Crazy good farm system; deep and powerful lineup will result in a lot football-like scores

Outside of Gerrit Cole and Spencer Turnbull, starting pitching quality is lacking; the bullpen may not help them out much

Aces are looking like a middle of the pack squad for 2021, several key players had down years, making runs a little more difficult to come by. Pitching, couple of solid guys at top in rotation, then not very good. Bullpen will get a lot of work.

Past few seasons saw Aces with 100+ wins, very unlikely this team reaches that goal. Too many had down years.

Off season trade saw Darvish get shipped to Springfield for Marco Luciano and Wacha.

 Luciano is now crown jewel of a solid farm system. Some bad news for San Carlos losing Royce Lewis to knee surgery. However, Ramos and Jung should be promoted to club in very near future. With others soon to follow in Luciano, Hancock, Greene, Bishop. this past draft brought in Jack Leiter and Jud Fabian, hopefully both advance as advertised.

While 2021 may not be the Aces year, the core is young enough and capable to return in 2022 and beyond.

Added to a deep farm system by trading Yu Darvish for top prospect Marco Luciano (and Michael Wacha)

Perhaps recognizing the Halos likely dominance and expecting rebound seasons from Bellinger, Yelich, and Shohei Ohtani, the Aces seem to be re-trenching a bit for a bridge year and prepping for 100-win seasons in years to come. A lot of runs in Aces games and a third-place finish seems likely, and unlike last year, the AL West will not produce three playoff teams.

AJ Pollock

Team Report

Chris Flexen

Starting pitching, although many can only go 3/4ths of the season; Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Corey Seager are the best 3-4-5 in the biz and the team’s lineup could lead the league in runs

Farm club for this win-now team; Betts’s error rate in right-field (251!) might move him to second base

Added impressive starting pitching depth by trading for projected best pitcher Yu Darvish and Kwang Hyun Kim

The Isotopes will have something to say about the Halos attempt to win the AL West and could end up with 100 wins, but that is probably still only good for 2^nd place in the West

Mookie Betts

Yu Darvish

Team Report

Kohei Arihara, Bryce Ball, Heston Kjertad, Austin Martin, Max Meyer, Garrett Mitchell, Joe Ryan, Bryson Stott

Farm system, including young carded players; top 2 of Max Scherzer and Zack Greinke

Pitching staff outside of Scherzer and Greinke; possible that no guy hits 25 homers

A bunch of inter-division trades with the Halos to add key building blocks for the future in Arihara, Stott, Michael Chavis, Ryan Mountcastle, and Gary Sanchez

It should be another 4^th place finish for the Gladiators in the West, but without 96 wins and last year’s mantle of best 4^th-place team ever (or even in 2021)

Justin Turner

Max Scherzer

Team Report

The strength of this team should be the starting pitching. Jose Berrios, Marco Gonzales, Ian Anderson, Jesus Luzardo and Taijuan Walker should do enough to keep the Confederates in most games. The bullpen with Tyler Matzek, Aaron Loup and Mark Melancon is serviceable at best. Scoring runs will be a strain as much will be expected of Jose Abreu, Travis d’Arnaud and Brian Anderson. The farm system has a sprinkling of top 100 prospects in Trevor Larnach, Grayson Rodriquez and George Kirby. The Confederates have a chance to finish around .500, but only if the starting pitchers perform close to their MLB numbers.

Team Report

Team Report

The Knights will be calling on their bullpen often, and hopefully it can keep the team competitive. The thought that the bullpen will be the Knights bread and butter leaves the prospect of a playoff run in great doubt. When Mike Yastrzemski and Maikel Franco are the most threatening bats it makes one wonder if this team can avoid a triple digit loss tally. In order to score runs consistently, the Knights will need to capitalize often on their opponents’ errors and lead the league in men scoring from 3^rd due to passed balls and wild pitches. Max Fried and Ryan Yarbrough will be counted on to keep the team close and hand the game off to the bullpen late. The Knights are hoping that Taylor Trammell, Ha-Seong Kim, Michael Kopech and Forrest Whitley will establish themselves as solid big leaguers this year. The team will most likely struggle to win 70 games as scoring runs is going to be challenge. 

Team Report

Team Report

From GM: The Cyclists did not draft any new prospects this year after holding onto 9 aaa players from last year. LHP Mackenzie Gore looks close to making his MLB debut. Domingo German will spend this year in aaa as the Cyclists hope he can return to his 2019 MLB form. We have high hopes for infielder Jordan Groshans, and maybe a star down the road in OF Erick Pena.

From GM: The Cyclists’ rotation was devastated from last year, but they actually managed to improve themselves through the draft. They are strong defensively up the middle with Ahmed, Albies, and Bradley. Eddie Rosario and Nick Castellanos provide power, though Castellanos’ average and OBP took a dive this year.

From GM: Our everyday third baseman is Erik Gonzalez. ‘Nuff said. The Cyclists don’t really have a number one catcher, and the bullpen has a lot of question marks. The staff is heavily left-handed, which could spell trouble against right-handed hitters.

From GM:  The rotation needed retooling and the Cyclists gained some decent starts with Alec Mills, J.A. Happ, and Brett Anderson. Jedd Gyorko and Joe Panik will fill utility infielder roles. Siouxland’s DH will be 38-year-old Miguel Cabrera, who still murders lefties. A late trade brought closer Ryan Pressly and catching depth in Tony Wolters.
Prediction: The division hasn’t been great the last couple years, and the Cyclists finished second last year. Their best hope for playoff contention is to win the division, but another second place finish is probably the ceiling for this team.
 

Team Report

Team Report

Team Report

Let us start out with my offense:  Offensively the Cannons should be able to hold their own, we have a good core of players and some bench players that should contribute throughout the year. We have some power up and down the line-up which should keep our opponents guessing.  We should be able to surprise teams with our speed and smart running.

Cannons defense has some holes but there is hope for some of those players regain their form from past seasons.

Pitching, especially the starters need to step up for the Cannon’s to contend. Our bullpen will be our strength going into the 2021 season. Our manager will have to pay close attention to the bullpen as to not overuse them.

I am looking at a playoff run this year and I am confident we will surprise some teams.

Team Report

Team Report

Team Report

Team Report

I have no idea how to value players this season other than looking back to 2019.  The season was such a short spring that there were a lot of aberrations particularly among pitching stats.  Beartooth will likely hit the snot out of the ball but who is going to record outs is very much up in the air.

Roster:

C:  Very happy with the tandem of Will Smith and Yaddy.  Tyler Stephenson will likely kick Yadier to the side next season but……

1B: Big hole on this team – CJ Cron, Wilmer Flores – not much else, not sure how 2021 will go for these two, but Hiura will enter the mix next year.

2B: Kolten Wong, Robinson Cano (lots of DH time) and Hiura who will back up 3B as well.

3B: Chapman and Hiura – Chapman’s glove and power are always valuable just wish he could get on base more.

SS: Andrus – likely to see a bit of a bounce back this year and Anderson Tejeda will fill in this slot for the year

LF: McCutcheon and Aaron Judge will bring the lumber, Josh Naylor is lurking around

CF: Trout and?????

RF: Bryce Harper and that is all!

DH: Cano, Naylor, Cron, Hiura

SP: Do we have to have someone on the mound to start the game?  Bundy, Porcello, Paddack, Mize, Anibel Sanchez, others?????

RP: Bunch of nothing really

AAA:  I really like this group.  Torkleson will add some power to this already powerful lineup soon, he is the up and coming 1Bman (not sure what to do about Hiura). Julio Rodriguez should be up sometime this year to start hitting the snot out of the ball too.  Potentially a crowded outfield situation.  I like Arias and Pauson at SS but they are aways away.  Severino should be back sometime this season.  I like Ryan Weathers but don’t know how many innings he will get in SD this year.  Jaden Hill is a high reward lottery ticket, it will be fun to watch his spring outings for LSU.  I don’t know what I have in Mlodzinski.  He had a great season on the Cape in 2019 but then Covid hit and who knows.  High risk lottery ticket.

Overall I think this team will struggle due to lack of pitching talent and depth.  It will fun to see how many runs Beartooth can put on the board though.