The Super Baseball League

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This morning I really worked on making a fictional league for the first time. My league is (mostly) completed, and it is called the Super Baseball League. I started it in 2002 and simmed the first three seasons to create a bit of history.


I have no minors, other than that it is standard MLB settings. I haven't been able to get all the uniforms loaded, so for now I have FaceGens turned off.


Here are the SBL teams w/ 2002 standings:


And the history:


Finances:


Saint Louis has one good team. They have made the Golden Bowl (championship) all three seasons, and are basically like the Yankees so far, as they have the best hitter in the league and the two best pitchers, two of which came from free agency.


I have a quickstart, but I'm not sure how to post it.

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Credit goes to the Nickname Project thread for 15/16 logos.

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Okay, I am taking over as the GM of the Seattle Emeralds. The Emeralds reached the playoffs in the 2000 season with a 93-69 record, but have not been back since then. In fact, records of 58-104 and 57-105 have landed them 15th and 16th place finishes, respectively. The attendance has almost been cut in half from the first season, ad ownership lost upwards of 10 million dollars last season.



3B Pedro Dixon had a nice season, but he is 38 years old and will become a free agent. Wants a 4-year deal, so no way is he coming back. I made offers to a few other FAs, but we are left with like 10 ML players and a ton of spending room. Should be fun.

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I let one player walk in arbitration, and offered it to Dixon.

I am going to try to turn around the boat as soon as possible, so I shipped my 26-year-old 1B to Chattanooga for a 31-year-old who hit around .300 last year.

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Well, Dixon took the 14 mil I guess. Sucks but at least it's not a total overpay.

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Made a whole bunch of signings in FA, we gained the most WAR this off-season of any team. Preseason Predictions have us finishing a down, but who needs preseason predictions anyway?

We have great hitting, but the pitching Sucks, with a capitol S. Two of my starts have no history, and the three who do have bad history. No money left to trade prospects for pitching.

We'll see how it goes.

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And it's not too bad. 14-14, good for 8th place.


Also, I have switched injuries to very low.

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It's draft day in the SBL, and we in 5th place at 33-27. (Top four teas make the playoffs.)


I had the #1 pick in the draft from last year, which I used on Pat Moore, a CF from High School who has crazy hitting potential, despite average-at-best defense.


We lost our 2nd round pick due to free agency, but with our 3rd round selection, I picked a speedy, defense-first shortstop out of college game Louis Gibbs.


Some observations from the standings (see above):
-It's still early, but right now St. Louis sits outside of the playoff picture. The end of a dynasty?
-San Francisco, the other really, really, really bad team last year, has climbed in the standings as well, but only to 11th.

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Three weeks from the deadline, I made my one and only trade of the season. We are 49-38, tied for the last playoff spot, and 3 games back of Columbus, the SBL Leader. The trade gave our rotation a big upgrade, as we got SP Rich Baughman for a catcher hitting .211, a decent pitching spec, a worthless 37-year old MR, and a 5th round pick (also worthless).
Baughman:

He does have a high ERA, but I think that is due to Boston's 14th ranked defense, so hopefully he'll shine with the league's #2 defense behind him.

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One month left, and we have fallen apart. 5 games out of the playoffs.

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There's two series left, we're two games out of the playoffs.


Saint Louis is looking to capture their first regular season title, although historically it is bad luck, as all champions have come from the 2 or 3 slot.

Columbus has clinched a 3rd straight playoff appearance.

OkC is a win game away from reaching the playoffs for the first time, despite a winning record every season.

Chattanooga is trying to extend their playoff appearance streak to three years, including a regular season title in 2001.

Seattle looks to get back to the playoffs for the first time sine the SBL's first season in 2000.

Billings will need to erase a big hole to keep from a two year playoff drought; however they have locked up their fourth straight winning season.

And Dallas will need a miracle to get to the playoffs for the first time since their Golden Bowl appearance in 2000.

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Missed the playoffs by two games. Still, a 31win improvement isn't too bad.


That means the Clippers have the tough task of taking on StL in the opening round, while the Catfish and Lobos will fight it out as well. I think the Angles will take it this year.

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So both the Angles and Catfish took care off business, knocking off their first round opponents 4-1 and 4-2, respectively, setting up for the most epic battle of the Titans the SBL has ever seen. Saint Louis is a dynasty; as it is now four years that they have reached the Golden Bowl. However, to just go 2-2 in Golden Bowl appearances would be a massive disappointment. Columbus stretched their payroll this year, and has fielded their best team ever.




Some other notes:
-The Angles are averaging 99.5 wins over the last two seasons.
-No team reached 100 wins this year, which is very unusual for the SBL.
-This is, I believe, the first ever 1-2 matchup in history.

So will, the Angles keep up their reign of dominance, or will Columbus capture their first SBL Crown? Got any predictions?

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Columbus jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the nine-game series, but Saint Louis took three straight to pull ahead 4-3. Catfish ace David Ramirez pitched eight and one third innings in a shutout game eight victory. It all came down to game nine. The Angles jumped out to a 2-0 lead early and lead 4-2 after seven innings. But Columbus scored two in the top of the eighth to tie the game at four all. Columbus closer Elroy Childers was called on to pitch in the bottom of the ninth, attempting to send the all-important game to extra innings. With CF Tom Jones on third and DH Will "Bad News" McCarthy on first and one out, Ed Cochran, who had come into LF as a defensive sub in the eighth for Angles' star Dalton Wilson, came up in just his eightieth plate appearance of the season. On the third pitch of his at bat, Cochran hit a fly ball deep to right, giving the Catfish no choice but the watch the speedy Jones run across the plate with the winning run.

So, Saint Louis breaks the curse on the #1 seed and wins their third Golden Bowl. They also become the first team ever to win back-to-back Golden Bowls and the first team to win both the regular season and postseason crowns. Interestingly, StL ace Michael "Goose" Reed (2.34 RS ERA) went 0-3 with a 7.85 E.R.A. in the Golden Bowl.

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So, I am going to expand the world somehow. I am considering either creating an eight team independent league and merging it with the SBL in a few years, or adding three or four minor leagues to the game. If I went with the second option, I'd look to put teams in some of the major markets without ones (new York, Philly, Los Angeles, etc.), but that might take some of the charm away from the league. Option two would mean I'd add two AAA leagues, two AA leagues and three A leagues. So that's a lot of work, since I want every team to have a logo and whatnot. I don't like the idea of one league at each level, since that's extremely unrealistic.

Thoughts?

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I wish I had time to build huge world like this:

Major League

Super Baseball League (SBL)--USA--16 teams


Class A

Coastal League (CL)--West Coast--8 teams

Atlantic League (AL)--East Coast/Midwest/Southeast--8 teams


Class B

Heartland League (HL)--Heartland/Midwest--8 teams, 2 indy

Cactus League (CaL)--Southwest-10 teams


Class C

Cape Cod League (CCL)--Cape Cod, MA--6 teams

Four Corners League (FCL)--UT, AZ, NM, CO, plus NV--6 teams, 2 indy

Sunshine League (SL)--Southeast, mainly Florida--8 teams, 2 indy


Independent

Golden State League (GSL)--California--6 teams (REP. 1)

Pan-America League (PAL)--2 Canada teams, 4 northern US teams (REP. 2)

New England Baseball Association (NEBA)--New England, 6 teams (REP. 3)


International

Canadian Baseball League (CBL)--Canada--8 teams (REP. 3)

Japan Premier League (JPL)--Japan--6 teams (REP. 3)

JPL2--Japan--6 teams

African Baseball Association--Africa--4 teams (REP. 0)

Europe Baseball Circuit (EBC)--Europe--10 teams (REP. 3)

Junior Baseball Circut (eJBC)--Europe--10 teams

Crown League (CrownL)--Great Britain--6 teams (REP. 0)

Caribbean League Baseball (CLB)--Caribbean--6 teams (REP. 1)

South America Baseball League (SaBL)--South America--8 teams (REP. 0)


Don't have the time though, plus it would take forever to sim.

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So, I wanted to try something crazy, making up this storyline:

The Emeralds were bought by a new owner, who decided to raise the low budget and go for broke this season. He instructed me to "bet the farm"--trade away our two good prospects for stars. Our new budget is $148,000, #6 in the league. Seattle has turned into a baseball crazy city, and is very excited. I had a lot of money to work with.

The first trade I made got me the best pitcher in the langue, Michael Reed from Saint Louis. I had to send a 1st round pick, our top prospect Clifton Ladds, and some other worthless prospects. Then, I was able to trade Moore, a SP, and another couple of bad prospects to San Francisco for RF Greg Christiansen and SP Danny Skinner. Big trade. Of course, I hate to trade prospects away like that, but this team is looking really good.

I have $11 million for FA. My only needs are a OF and a DH.

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I was going to do a season recap, but I'm so excited that I skipped ahead to the preseason. We made several minor FA signings, but no huge ones.

OSN says we are projected to finish second with 102 wins. Can't wait to see how it goes.