Kevin Sharkey's Predictions

National League

North
1. Chicago Smooth Horses
2. Rochester Raging Rhinos
3. St. Louis Birdnals
4. Cleveland Steamers

The Smooth Horses take over as the default king of the division after Rochester let go of three big horses from last years trip to the NLCS. The Birdnals retooled quickly this offseason with some big name signings & trades, and could take the division. They could also finish 4th. Lost amid the Rhinos losses and the Birdnals gains, Cleveland quietly had one of the better offseasons in the world, and 80-85 wins, while potentially a stretch, is also potentially possible.

East
1. Pawtucket Polythene
2. Norfolk Nomads
3. Huntington Cousins
4. Scranton Dunder-Mifflins

Norfolk had arguably the best offseason of any team in either league this year, but it may not be enough to overcame a 20+ game deficit in the division. Pawtucket shows no signs of slowing down, as it looks to win its fifth straight divisional title. The Cousins have been full of promise for seasons, but the sudden emergence of little man leader Bob Kennedy, coupled with Scranton's loss of all world 2b Steve Randolph, sets Huntington up to finally escape the East's basement.

South
1. Texas Tittyballs
2. Memphis Hound Dawgs
3. New Orleans Breeze
4. Richmond Moonshiners II

Put Memphis in the North or West, and they have a shot at winning the division. Unfortunately for them, they're in the South, where Texas, the NL's best all around team, resides. The Hound Dawgs may win 90 games anyway. The New Orleans Breeze are also a team on the rise, and if they catch the right breaks, they may find themselves buyers at this years trade deadline. Richmond looks to take a season to access the team and competition, but should not be taken lightly, regardless.

West
1. Colorado Springs AltiDUDES
2. San Francisco Sourdoughs
3. Tuscon Turbocors
4. Salem Dodgers

Colorado or San Francisco? San Francisco or Colorado? Last year's best NL divisional race returns, both teams a year more mature, and both teams looking to replace Rochester in the NL's fictional "Big Three." The AltiDUDES have had a stranglehold on this division for awhile now, and I don't see that changing this season. Meanwhile, Salem & Tuscon both sit quietly in the shadows, and both teams look to create havoc for the bigger boys.

Playoffs

Last Two Out: Memphis Hound Dawgs, Rochester Raging Rhinos

First Round:
#3 Colorado Springs over #6 San Francisco Sourdoughs
#5 Norfolk Nomads over #4 Chicago Smooth Horses

NLDS
#1 Texas Tittyballs over #5 Norfolk Nomads
#2 Pawtucket Polythene over #3 Colorado Springs AltiDUDES

NLCS
#1 Texas Tittyballs over #2 Pawtucket Polythene

The Nomads & Sourdoughs were the surprises of the NL the last two seasons, and the AltiDUDES look poised to become an elite team in the NL, but no teams are ready to compete with Pawtucket & Texas yet this season, except each other. Both teams can win 110+ games this year, while no other team is expected to hit triple digits. A playoff rivalry that will see its fourth series in five seasons, the Tittyballs will join the Polythene as two-time NL Pennant winners, as they return to league glory.

American League

North
1. Fargo Nines
2. Iowa City Kaysons
3. New York Moon Shots
4. Detroit Tigers

The Nines look to take that next step into the elite this year. Unfortunately, so do Iowa City & New York. Baseball's best division had a bit of a misstep last season, but all 3 top teams in this group should be above 85 wins once again. Detroit continues to make the right small moves to improve, but the competition is just too stiff.

East
1. Charleston Rebels
2. Charlotte knights
3. Atlanta City Slickers
4. Hartford Defenders

The Rebels, like Fargo, look to take one more step this season. After dominating the ALDS last season, the Rebels forgot to show up in the ALCS, and now their players are hungry. Charlotte has been infused with youth this year, and thinks it can compete for a wildcard berth. Atlanta is still competitive while rebuilding its once proud franchise, and should finish above .500. Newcomer Hartford is trying to find its identity, and for this season will follow Richmond's example, and just see what's up.

South
1. San Antonio Border Jumpers
2. Jackson Jaspers
3. Houston Aggies
4. Little Rock Big Rocks

This is finally the year, hopefully, that San Antonio makes that leap to the elite of the American League. Everyone has seen it coming for some time now. Jackson, the former Freezer Monkeys, is on the decline, but still has some good competition in them. Houston & Little Rock figure to finish in the Top 5 draft spots for this season, but you can bet that their owners know what they're doing, and they see the future of this division wide open for anyone to grab.

West
1. Kansas City Shuffle
2. Cheyenne Chillipeppers
3. Fresno Firedragons
4. Scottsdale T's

The division has been building to beat KC for so long, that it may now be the most loaded division in the league. A case can be made for any of Cheyenne, Fresno & Scottsdale, or all of them, to win 80-85 games, or more. Kansas City is still the cream of the division, but the gap is shrinking. And the Shuffle won't be able to beat up on its divisional rivals anymore. The West, like the North, could potentially claim 3 of the AL's 6 playoff berths this year.

Playoffs

Last Two Out: New York Moon Shots, Fresno Fire Dragons

First Round:
#3 Fargo Nines over #6 Cheyenne ChilliPeppers
#5 Iowa City Kaysons over #4 San Antonio Border Jumpers

ALDS:
#1 Kansas City Shuffle over #5 Iowa City Kaysons
#2 Charleston Rebels over #3 Fargo Nines

ALCS:
#1 Kansas City Shuffle over #2 Charleston Rebels

Iowa City, who retooled this offseason, and is the only AL team to beat KC in the offseason, should give the Shuffle fits in a short 5 game series. The Shuffle have proved already to be susceptible to dominant pitching, and two good starts by newcomer Willie Tapies & Chuck Justice could be enough. For traditional reasons, I see KC winning this series, but wouldn't be shocked if they lose. A rematch of Charleston vs Fargo yields the same results as last season, as does a rematch of the ALCS. The Shuffle face their toughest competition in the LDS & WS once again.

The World Series
The most dominant team of the first 5 seasons faces off with what is likely the most dominant team of the second 5 seasons. Texas vs Kansas City. Kansas City will go into this looking to be the first repeat champion in league history, but before they won last years WS on pure willpower, they proved human. A 6 game loss in season 4 coupled with an embarrassing performance in the first four games of last years WS is all the amunition Texas needs to prove to itself that it can win this series.

The Tittyballs grab the NL torch from Pawtucket in the NLCS, and then a few days later take the league torch from Kansas City.


Tittyballs win in 5.

Spring Training Infirmary Report

Most teams were able to make it through Spring training w/o any major injuries - basically everyone's goal for the those early Spring games. However a few pitchers did not get their arms stretched out properly and have found themselves sidelined for the start of season 6 - all with shoulder injuries.

Cookie Martin St. Louis Birdnals Age: 26 B/T: R/R Born: Wichita, KS Position(s): P (P) View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Cookie Martin will be the first 17 games for St. Louis - a team hoping to get some positive vibes going in St. Louis after some agressive free agent moves

Dwight Selby Atlanta City Slickers Age: 39 B/T: R/R Born: Washburn, WI Position(s): P (P) View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Journeyman Dwight Selby will miss the first 25 games for Atlanta. Selby has already spent time on 6 different teams in his career - possibly one of the most used players in league history. He's the John Mayer of Sharkey's World if you will - he gets around.

Felipe Soto Cheyenne ChilliPeppers Age: 25 B/T: S/R Born: Palenque, DO Position(s): P (P) View Hardball Dynasty Profile

The worst injury happened in Cheyenne where Felipe Soto will miss about 3/4 of the season. Soto started 27 games last year posting an 11-10 record and boosts a career record of 46-30. Cheyenne fills Soto's roster spot with rookie Bart Singleton who was 12-11 in AAA last year.

Birdnal’s GM Looking to Soar To New Heights

Jordan McCloud

St. Louis Birdnals Beat Writer

5/28/08

St. Louis – As spring training draws to a close for the St. Louis Birdnals, GM Irish Fury can only look up to the sky.  For that is where he foresees the team he built this offseason to be come July 21^st.  “Tell you the truth, anything but a Division Championship will be very, very disappointing to everybody in this organization,” says Fury. 

 

Any why wouldn’t it be?  With the off season acquisitions of Steve Randolph, Frank Douglass, Morgan Strickland, and William Hobbes, there is nowhere for the Birdnals to go but to improve on their 66-96 record last season.  As Fury states, “We felt that our young prospects in the minors were still a few years away, but we wanted to start winning now.  That way we could bring those future All Stars into a winning atmosphere.  With the additions that we made, the organization is very confident that will become a reality.”

 

“Steve and Frank are really going to give our line-up that extra bit I think we were missing that past few seasons.  And obviously, Strickland and Hobbes are major improvements to our staff.”  But the GM would also like to remind us all of an often overlooked pick up, LF Henry Simpson.  “Listen this kid is going to help us tremendously against lefties.  We haven’t given up on Santiago, but he just wasn’t getting the job done for us in that department.  Henry will.”

 

At times though, Fury can’t help but dwell on the past, “The last two seasons (record of 61-101 in Season 4) were very disappointing.  I took them kind of personal.  I mean those were the teams I built and obviously I didn’t get the job done.  We, as an organization, knew those weren’t our years for a World Series run, but finishing a combined 35 games under .500 really was not what we expected.  I can’t see myself doing this much longer if I don’t get better at it.”

 

How do his players feel about it all?  “We are ready to go as a team.  Us new old guys and these young old guys have gelled pretty well this spring, we feel like we can go the distance this year,” says Hobbes.  “This spring training has been so much different than any other one I’ve been involved with,” responds the Birdnal’s veteran presence, Bob Rivers.  “I guess its always better when you feel you can win.”

 

That’s the question isn’t it?  Whether or not the Birdnals will win this year?  One thing is for sure; it’s not your same Birdnal team this year.  

American League Rookie Of The Year Watch

Here are the top rookies in the American League this year. In order to qualify as a rookie for this list, a player must have zero years of ML service...

AL North:

Cristian Edmonds and Julian Valdes (Fargo), Yamid Navarro (Iowa City)

AL East:

Alvin Tracy (Hartford), Felix Pickering, Raymond Sellers, Stu Hull, Horacio James, C.J. Counsell, Russ Lankford and Andrew Bradley (Charlotte), Kevin Kobayashi, Joe Faulk, Javier Barrios, and Al Gonzalez (Atlanta), Leo Yeats, Otis Corino, and Esteban Cervantes (Charleston)

AL South

Mark Butler (Jackson), Max Sanchez and John Knotts (Little Rock), Scott Whiten, Sam Gonzales, Tony Westbrook, Kevin Nakano, Domingo Gonzales, Bonk Stuart, and Karim Matos (San Antonio), Ricardo Espinoza, Brian Cox, and Patsy Haney (Houston)

AL West

Miguel Herrera, Jumbo Javier, Kyle Donovan, Juan Carrasco, and Anthony Wolf (Fresno), Ichiro Nakamura and Ron Carpenter (Cheyenne), Wiki Guerrero, Larry Mullaney, and Tony Hocking (Scottsdale), Brian Morris, Flip Long, and Cesar Morales (Kansas City)

Projected Winner: Initially I thought Bonk Stuart of San Antonio was a shoe-in to absolutely run away with this award. That was until I saw Fresno's duo of Kyle Donovan & Juan Carrasco. Now I believe it's a 3 man race, and one that many people ought to be following, because these are the young horses who will eventually topple Kansas City's divisional & league dynasty.

Open the Record Book

Now that WhatifSports has opened up historical data we can dive into the record book and keep track of the best team records in Sharkey's World history. Can anyone top these records in season 6?

Most Wins: Kansas City 122-40 (season 5)
Best Team ERA: Pawtucket 3.26 (season 4)
Most Team Stikeouts: Pawtucket 1225 (season 5)
Most Team HRs: Texas 329 (season 2)
Best Team BA: Kansas City .315 (season 4)
Best Team Fielding %: .993 Charleston/Pawtucket/Kansas City/Cheyenne (all in season 4 - year of The Glove)

Does anyone feel a draft in here?

A quick look at how many young players have had their dream come true of being drafted and making it all the way to the big leagues...

There are currently 14 of the 32 season 1 first round draft picks on a ML roster (plus another 6 compensation picks in the bigs)
There are 10 first round picks from season 2 on a big league roster plus 1 compensation pick.
There are 3 first round picks from season 3 in the bigs
There are 5 first round picks from season 4 in The Show.
And no one has made it higher than AAA from last year's season 5 draft.

The memorial Mike Piazza award for lowest drafted player to currently be on a ML roster? That honor falls on catcher Jack Perry who was drafted in the 12th round of season 1 by the San Francisco Sourdoughs. 396 other players heard their name called before Perry but who's laughing now as he is poised to help San Antonio make a playoff run this season.

Jack Perry San Antonio Border Jumpers Age: 25 B/T: R/R Born: Bozeman, MT Position(s): C View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Sharkey's World Hall of Fame

The "Sharkey's World Hall of Fame" website is currently being built, and will debut this coming week. The general framework for the Hall has been laid out thanks to tons of suggestions by all of you. Now I need to ask a few more things.

I'll explain how everything works once the site is up & running. Everyone in the league with at least 1 year of service will get to take part in the final vote determining a players eligibility. Before that final vote, though, there will be a small committee deciding who is up for election that season. I haven't decided the criteria for this committee yet. It'll basically be decided by how much interest I get.

Total amount of work for being on this committee will range from 10-20 minutes per season, so don't shy away because of lack of time. If you're interested in being on this committee, please trade chat me and say so. I have an idea of who I want on there (mostly the people who took the time to trade chat me 5-15 trade chats with their ideas for the HoF). But I don't want to appoint anyone without their consent.

And also, if you have time, trade chat me what you think are the 5 greatest statistical seasons in Sharkey's World history. In order. Ramon Jang's season 3? Troy Harper's season 1? Any Nicholas Bryant year? Henry Mackowiak season 4? What's the 5 best ever.

This will tie into this seasons HoF (which will not only be about retired players). Thanks for all your help.

-KS