As part of the lead-in to Season 4, BBL News Center will provide previews of each division, doing analysis on each team’s 9-kid roster.

American League Central

Minnesota Twins
Coach: mbless1415 (Season 4 newbie)
Home Field: Eckman Acres
First Draft Pick: Leah Wayne (#4 overall; traded for)
Last Draft Pick: Joella Minotti (#207 overall)
Why they’ll do well: Strong offense. Bless clearly had a focus on speed when he drafted this team, with his last two picks, a 5-runner and a 6-runner, the slowest two, and five players with running ratings of 8 or better. That’s already pretty good, but he coupled it with strong hitting as well – six of his players have batting ratings of 8 or better, and nobody’s worse than a 5. Once he gets used to hitting with them, this is a team that I can see putting up some strong totals.
Why they won’t do well: Weak defense. There’s a lot of low fielding ratings on the Twins, which could translate into some costly errors. Leah Wayne has a 10 in fielding, but nobody else has fielding better than 7, and five players have ratings worse than that. The Twins at least mostly have decent arms in the field, but there are a couple of poor ones out there that might give opponents an easier time – especially the glaring weakness of Alexis Weis as a catcher.
The X-factor: Bless traded up to get the high-profile Leah Wayne on his team, moving several of his later picks lower in the draft. Will she be worth it and lead this team to success, or will she disappoint Bless the same way she disappointed Jibbo last season?

Mighty Mets
Coach: GreenDayEagles (Season 1-3 veteran, Season 3 Tier 3 playoff champion)
Home Field: Dubois Diamond
First Draft Pick: Ichiro (#13 overall)
Last Draft Pick: Linda Potter (#214 overall)
Why they’ll do well: Good defense. Raquel Cullen and Fred Benson deviate in being there mostly to boost the Mets’ offense, but almost every other player on the team has an arm of 4 or better, and fielding of 8 or better. The only other 3-arm is on the mound where that will matter least, and there are no bad placements in the AI defense. I can see this team being a lot like Eagles’ Rangers from last season, being a tough team to score against, but also…
Why they won’t do well: …being a team that struggles to score many runs. There are four good hitters, but then five who have hitting ratings of just 5 or 6, AND four of those hitters have ratings of 4 in running (the other has a 6). While there are no truly terrible hitting ratings on the team, the combination of medicore hitting and poor speed might make it difficult to reliably accomplish much with those hitters, and consequently to score much.
The X-factor: How they’ll do at their home field. The Rangers last season were undoubtedly helped in their defense by playing at the unforgiving Casa de Pablo. Dubois Diamond should be a bit easier of a field to score against the Mets at, but it’ll also boost Marky Dubois, likely making him another solid contributer on offense. Will it prove better or worse for Eagles on the whole?

Little Hornets
Coach: Ellman (Season 2 veteran, Season 3 champion)
Home Field: Cement Gardens
First Draft Pick: Wally Evans (#46 overall)
Last Draft Pick: Zoe Mallory (#215 overall)
Why they’ll do well: Like Ellman’s team in the AL Central last season, the Indians, the Hornets are a pretty well-rounded team overall. They have five above-average arms (including their best two at catcher and shortstop), six 7-or-above Fielding ratings, pretty decent speed on the whole, and five bats with a 7 rating or above. The Hornets can do some of everything, and don’t have any giant weaknesses.
Why they won’t do well: While the Hornets are well-rounded, they also don’t do anything particularly well. There are two 5-arms and three total 9-ball skill ratings, but that’s it as far as elite skill ratings. There’s also holes in each category – four mediocre to weak hitters, three poor fielding ratings and a poor arm, and four runners slower than 7. None of these are crippling, but combined together they could dull the Hornets’ stingers.
The X-factor: How well their pitching staff will do. The Hornets’ top pitchers are a trio with ratings of 7, which is pretty decent, but also leaves them room to do relatively poorly. If the pitchers can perform to their full potential, they should be fine, but if they all start to struggle, things could get nasty for the Hornets.

Oakland Athletics
Coach: ArGarBarGar (Season 4 newbie)
Home Field: Steele Stadium
First Draft Pick: Cheryl Reynolds (#12 overall)
Last Draft Pick: Mamie Skiumsby (#204 overall)
Why they’ll do well: Good bats and gloves. This is another offense-focused team, with a 6 and a 7 the two lowest batting ratings. Coupled with a home field of Steele Stadium, there might be a lot of home runs coming from this team. The fielding ratings are also pretty high for the team: other than pitcher Derek McCattery, everybody has ratings of 6 or above and seven have 7 or better in fielding.
Why they won’t do well: Mediocre speed and arms. There are no really fast players on this team, and while they do have a respectable five players with 8 or 7 in running, there’s also three with a 2 or a 4, which could pose issues later on. And while the A’s draft began with a trio of amazing arms, the follow-up picks left those behind some, and a trio of below-average arms could cause some fielding frustration during the season.
The X-factor: ArGarBarGar might be the newest coach of us all – he’s admitted that he never played Backyard Baseball before recently joining us! Will this lack of experience be too much for him to triumph against veteran players, or will he prove to be a natural and blow us all away?

Eauxps’s Predicted Division Standings

4) Oakland Athletics. In addition to ArGar’s complete newbie status which puts him at an instant disadvantage, the A’s are weak in speed and arms – the two stats that are perhaps most important in keeping a human player’s offense in check. I don’t think the A’s will be terrible, but I do think that their weaknesses will allow opposing coaches to take advantage of their defense too much for them to really prosper.

3) Mighty Mets. We saw a very similar team to this from Eagles last year in the Rangers, and the result was a team that went 5-9 and finished third in their division. I’m going to predict the same result for the Mets – they’ll keep opposition down well, but have trouble scoring enough runs to take home the victories.

2) Minnesota Twins. The Twins have a bit of a weak defense, but it’s not as bad as the A’s, in my opinion, and they should be able to pump out a good number of runs. I think Bless can do well for himself once he gets used to the team.

1) Little Hornets. Ellman had another good all-around squad in the Indians last season, and they did well. He’s probably only gotten better since then, and without those pesky Royals I think he can do well in this division despite the team’s weaknesses. Once again, I think that veteran’s edge will prove decisive in this division.