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.

National League West

Cleveland Indians
Coach: Ellman (Season 2 veteran, Season 3 champion)
Home Field: Playground Commons
First Draft Pick: Derek Jeter (#19 overall)
Last Draft Pick: George Coleman (#172 overall)
Why they’ll do well: Ellman’s put together another squad that’s solid all-around. There’s a pretty good balance of hitting and running – a couple who hit harder but run slower, a couple who don’t hit as hard but run really fast, but most of the players have a good mix and nobody’s a total dud on offense. Only super-speedster Star Moonbeam in left field has an arm with a rating lower than 3. There’s several mid-range runners, but only two with a rating below 6.
Why they won’t do well: Like the Hornets, the Indians don’t have any major strengths. Hitting is decent, but there’s not going to be much power. Most of the team is just average or below in terms of speed, and there’s only three above-average arms. The Indians’ fielding is a bit light as well, seven of the fielding ratings a 4 or 6, which could cause them to surrender some critical hits/runs on dropped balls. Pitching also has the potential to become a problem, with a pitching staff of only 8-rated Nancy Chin and 7-rated George Coleman. On the whole, it’s hard to see where the Indians actually get an edge over the competition.
The X-factor: No team in the league has as much pressure on them coming into the season as the reigning Backyard World Series champions who have the same coach as last year. Will the pressure cause them to implode, inspire them to succeed, or have no effect on their performance at all?

White White Sox
Coach: Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiis (Season 4 newbie)
Home Field: Scrapco Field
First Draft Pick: Sammy Sosa (#18 overall)
Last Draft Pick: Eric Lebeaux (#155 overall)
Why they’ll do well: The Pink Sox have a ridiculously good defense. All the arms are good, with four 5’s, two 4’s, and three 3’s. But the gloves and running skills are also good, with a lone 5 in each category the worst any kid has in either Running or Fielding. The Sox will be able to get to the ball fast, throw it around the field hard, and probably not make a ton of errors. AND they have Mr. Clanky, an amazing pitcher who will never get tired! AND they have four great hitters, as well as five weaker hitters who can use their decent speed to compensate for shortcomings there! It seems like the Sox can do everything!
Why they won’t do well: As mentioned, the Pink Sox do have a few weaker hitters – four players with 4’s and 5’s in hitting. In theory their solid speed should help overcome that weakness, but strong opposing infields could make these kids a problem in the lineup. And, of course, as with any team with a bunch of strong arms, there’s the looming threat of overthrows and throws that are just too hard to catch, which can cause problems of their own.
The X-factor: Is this too good to be true? On paper, the Sox might just be the best team in the league. Will that assessment hold true in practice, or is there some critical weakness that I can’t see during this analysis?

San Diego Padres
Coach: SDCore (Season 4 newbie)
Home Field: Tin Can Alley
First Draft Pick: Chico Pappas (#9 overall)
Last Draft Pick: Sophie Meyer (#187 overall)
Why they’ll do well: The Padres look to be capable of putting up a relentless offense. Every player has a batting rating of at least six, and only Billy Jean Blackwood and Pujols clone Sophie Meyer have speed below seven. That’s going to equal a lot of hard-hit balls and the speed to make the most of them, and especially when paired with a home field of Tin Can Alley, should help the Padres put up strong totals.
Why they won’t do well: While the Padres can put up a relentless offense, they’re not going to fare to well when faced with one themselves. Nobody on the team has a fielding rating higher than the “average” 7 rating, with five players well below that, AND five players have arms weaker than the average rating of 3! Speed can provide some respite here, and Jason Kendall’s clone has the critical position of catcher well in hand, but on the whole their defense is going to struggle to deny runs to opposing teams, especially when playing at Tin Can.
The X-factor: Two/three players – Billy Jean Blackwood, Olive Haldi, and possibly Arlene Perez, have decent hitting ratings but not as much power as one might expect from those ratings. Whether they can reach the gaps with their hits, and make good use of them to get on base and/or advance runners, will determine whether the Padres’ offense can be truly relentless or whether it will suffer from inevitable lulls.

Green Monsters
Coach: Yurya (BBL commissioner, Season 1-3 playoff coach)
Home Field: The Paveway
First Draft Pick: Davy Marian (#33 overall)
Last Draft Pick: Esther French (#193 overall)
Why they’ll do well: One of the most forbidding infields in the BBL. Each infielder has an arm rating of at least 4 and most have good fielding ratings as well, allowing them to get the ball from any location in the infield to any other very quickly and making strategies like grounderball a much more dicey proposition. Yurya’s also avoided putting anybody super slow on his team, with eight of nine players having at least a 6 in running and the other one having a 5.
Why they won’t do well: To be honest, once you get past the infield this team doesn’t look that threatening. The outfield looks relatively weak and all three outfielders have below-average arms – Yurya swears by Jim Kiley as a cutoff man but I’m not so sure that will work out. On offense, the team doesn’t look too intimidating, as five players have batting of 6 or below and the same goes for running. The Paveway is just the sort of field to get things done with that sort of offense, but it could still be rough sailing. And while there are three pitchers with ratings of 7, nobody’s better than that and this team’s pitching won’t be something for the opposition to worry about.
The X-factor: Were this a new coach, I could just dismiss this as a below-average team from somebody who hasn’t learned too much about drafting yet. But this is Yurya, who’s been dominating in the regular season for three seasons and whom I know is one of the most careful drafters in the league. He must know something about this team’s composition that I don’t see – what is it, and will it actually be a game-changer?

Eauxps’s Predicted Division Standings

4) San Diego Padres. SDCore’s team isn’t terrible, but when faced with two tough veterans in Yurya and Ellman and a hardcore newbie in Brian, the Padres will likely be swept away. They may be able to put up good totals, but opponents will be taking advantage of their weak defense to limit their wins.

3) Cleveland Indians. I don’t think the Indians are as strong this season as they were last season. It won’t be easy for opponents to find a big weakness to exploit, but Ellman has his work cut out for him to figure out how he can leverage this squad into a dominant force.

2) Green Monsters. Between Monsters and Indians, the Monsters have a more clear-cut advantage, and opposing teams who expect to be able to run over them will have a nasty surprise when they go against their infield. That said, with a weaker outfield and no immediately obvious powerhouse offense, I have a hard time seeing the Monsters as the dominant force they’ve previously been.

1) White White Sox. Brian’s the one newbie who I’m predicting to beat the odds and prevail against seasoned veterans (the Braves don’t count in that assessment, I’m not that good of a player). He can play some serious BYB as evidenced by his recent 112 point blowout, and has drafted himself an amazing-looking team to play with. Unless inexperience in the BBL proves to be a fatal flaw, this division is his to lose.