[mandersen]

The Baseball Time Machine will be an attempt at a dynasty thread to follow the early 1900's Chicago Orphans/Cubs franchise as they race toward greatness. It will be played within OOTP5 using the Lahman database. coaches and Scouts are off, trades set to very hard and favor prospects, injuries set to very low, everything else pretty much left as standard. As the Orphans/Cubs entered the 20th Century they were a very young team that was a few years away from being ready to compete. Offensively they're lead by 23 year old 1B/OF-Frank Chance and RF-Topsy Harsel, both who will be playing full time for the first time in their careers. CF-Danny Green will bat cleanup and has proven in his first 3 years in the league to be an effective power source. They will be surrounded by a mix of over the hill veterans and too young to really contribute rookies. The pitching staff is led by 22 year old Long Tom Hughes, a very promising rookie and 26 year old Jack Taylor who was 10-17 with a 2.55 era for a losing Orphans team in 1900. Mal Eason is a 22 year old rookie who may or may not make it. Bert Cunningham will be the closer after years of starting. He's clearly near the end of the road of his career. 33 year old Jock Menefee will round out the rotation as the 4th starter/sometimes swing man. Menefee has been around a while and never ammounted to much and really is just filling space until additional help arrives. The Orphans goal for 1901 is to finish at least .500 while developing some of their youngsters.