While no division in the Backyard League can be called easy, the Central is perhaps the least intimidating of the three. That’s in part due to the fact that each of the coaches in here has had at least one season in the past where they were less successful, and weren’t a total powerhouse. But that doesn’t mean that any of these coaches don’t know what they’re doing, and none of the teams in here should be taken for granted.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Coach profile: Jyknight joined the league in Season 4, where he coached two teams, neither of which was a total failure, but neither of which made the playoffs. His Marlins in Season 5 were more successful, coming one game away from claiming the division title in an upset and making it into the playoffs via wildcard before being defeated by the eventual champions. Jyknight has proven himself a solid coach, but he has yet to record a great success, and will undoubtedly be hoping to do so this season.

Team Analysis: In contrast to the teams in the AL East, which all had a focus on speed and seemed to be more built for offense, the Pirates here have a clear focus on a strong defense. Six out of nine players have fielding ratings of 8 or better, and seven of the players have stronger arms rated as a 4 or 5. Speed is a bit more inconsistent, but only one player has a running rating slower than 6, so none will take too long to get to the ball, and their ability to quickly throw the ball elsewhere combined with the naturally offense-hampering tendencies of Eckman Acres means that this team ought to frustrate their opponents and be able to hold them down to low scores.

The team also is built around solid hitting – only two players have batting ratings lower than 6, and five have batting of 7 or higher. While it lacks the strong running of some other teams, with only three speedy players and three slower than average, and the weaker hitters on the team could easily prove to be rally-killers, this is still a decent offense, and with the strong defense holding opposing teams down, it could easily be enough to get the job done.

But there are some concerning warning flags to be found on this team. One of their two weakest arms, Karen Donato, is stationed behind the plate, and the stolen bases surrendered to that weakness could prove critical, especially if opposing teams otherwise would be kept from those bases by the Pirates’ defense. The team also has atrocious pitching depth – the three strongest pitchers on the team are 8-pitching Brad Radke, 6-pitching Ezra Travolta, and 5-pitching Bret Olsen. Beyond that, nobody has a pitching rating higher than 3. Bradke is not the strongest pitcher out there despite being a pro pitcher, and if teams are able to get through him and start tiring out the other players on the team, this defense could deflate quickly. Time will tell if this weakness proves to be exploitable or not.

Prediction: Third place. The defense will win some games on its own, but I think others will be able to punch through it, and the Pirates’ offense starts looking pretty weak when compared with others in the division.

Players to watch: Coach Jyknight has reported that Kimmy Eckman has confided an intent to be on a sugar rush for every game. Between that and the fact that half of the team’s games take place at Eckman Acres to give her a stat boost, she will be unpredictable this season, and will easily be the most interesting player on the team to keep track of.

Mighty Tigers

Coach Profile: One of the original league members, GSchlim is one of the two coaches to have participated from start to finish in every season of BBL. He peaked in his first season, becoming the league’s first champion, but remained a strong coach in the following seasons, continuing to advance at least one team to the playoffs in each season. That streak ended last season, however, where he ended with a losing record in both the Lulu and Paste leagues. That season may have coaches singling him out as an easier target, but he’ll be looking to return to form and prove that he’s still got it.

Team Analysis: The Tigers appear to be a solid team in almost every category. Defense is perhaps their greatest strength – only two players with fielding under 7, and Jerry Winchell with a 3-rated arm stands alone as the weakest arm on the team. There’s a lack of true laser arms on this team, but every player can throw well, and so this defense should be able to effectively limit the extra bases that opponents can grab. While Whitney Singh isn’t a lockdown catcher like many in the league this season, she’s also a solid one and not too weak, and there’s enough pitching depth on this team that they shouldn’t have too much trouble in that department either. In addition to the strong defense, the Tigers are built with a lot of hitting – eight out of nine players have a batting rating of 6 or better, and while a couple of those come with the “low power” caveat, most of these players are truly strong hitters and able to send a lot of balls deep.

The one concern for this team comes from their lackluster running ratings. Four of the nine players have running of less than 7, and in particular the slowest three, with two 3s and a 4 in running, could end up becoming an Achilles’ heel on defense. Heather Quinn and Nicky Winston both can throw the ball well, but situated at the corners, their lack of speed could let more balls get by than should, and Jerry Winchell in right field moves slow and has the weakest arm on the team. If there’s a major weakness on this team, it’s the first-base line, and that – along with how well those big bats perform on a given day – may well prove to be where their games are lost or won.

Prediction: First place. The team is very solid and everybody can contribute on offense. I think the decent arms on the slower fielders will compensate enough that the Tigers will get the edge.

Players to watch: Nicky Winston and Heather Quinn both have nominally good bats but a slow 3 in running. In order to justify the picks that were used on them, they’ll have to provide the power and hit balls well to offset that weakness and drive others in. Meanwhile, a late trade deal resulted in former MVP and big-name player Jay Green coming to the Tigers. If he puts on another MVP performance, that could be a game-changer in this division.

Colorado Rockies

Coach profile: mbless1415 has two seasons under his belt now. He struggled as a newbie in Season 4, but still managed a decent finish with a record of 6-8. His Twins struggled again early on in Season 5, but peaked late in the season, scoring a total of over 100 runs in the last three games of the regular season and winning the Tier 2 championships. If he continues on that trajectory, this will be a fearsome team indeed.

Team analysis: In contrast to the first two teams in their division, the Rockies have a clear focus on offense. Their first five players in particular showcase this, all either having low hitting but being speedsters, or else boasting a hitting rating of 10 and at worst average speed. The talent falls off some in the lower draft spots, but Bless clearly made an effort to maximize the team’s offense ability, each player being either decent-ish in both hitting and running, or strong in one of them, so that they can all very feasibly contribute to the effort.

He was also able to do this without completely throwing away defense. With the more offense-leaning draft, it was inevitable that some cracks would form, and the weak arms of the right half of the infield in particular could be a source of concern. On the other hand, Linda Potter can clean up balls that get past those two fielders, and any ground balls that go to the left side of the infield will be pounced on and zinged wherever they need to go in short order. The Rockies also have a strong catcher in Maynard McElroy. Pitching depth is going to be an interesting case – the Rockies have no really strong pitchers, but four “lower-average” candidates with pitching of 6 or 7. That could prove enough to hold down the team, but if it doesn’t and none of them hold up very well, then the team could be in trouble.

Despite the holes in the defense, it’s still solid on the whole. But it’s also clearly going to be giving up more runs than a lot of others in the league, and so it will fall to the dynamic offense to make up for that, by putting up high scores of its own.

Prediction: Fourth place. I like the top of the lineup, but the bottom four players are too weak to keep the rallies going that well and I think they’ll limit the Rockies’ output. That combined with a noticeably worse defense than the others in the division spells doom unless Bless can master his hitters.

Players to watch: Lindsy Felgate brings the best of both worlds to the plate, with 10 hitting and 10 running, but her average pitching and fielding, combined with starting on the mound for the AI team, could lead to her getting tired out and becoming a liability on defense. She could be this team’s greatest asset and its worst liability at the same time, and that certainly bears watching.

Crazy Indians

Coach Profile: Crazyei8hts is the third and final original coach playing this season, and the second to have participated all the way through every regular season. He was strong in the early seasons, finishing as World Series runner-up in the first two and making the playoffs with a strong team in Season 3. But that team was eliminated early in that playoffs, and a less successful outing in Season 4 resulted in the only time he failed to make the playoffs. He bounded back in Season 5, logging the best regular-season record in the Lulu league and finishing as World Series runner-up yet again in the Paste league to stay in a tie with gmchappe’s record for most championship appearances, and this season he’s looking to continue that success and finally get that elusive championship.

Team Analysis: It’s interesting that Crazy’s latest team follows in the vein of one of his least successful, built as a Bomberball team where speed is optional. They certainly will put the focus on hitting – six of the nine players are at least decent power hitters, and combined with a home field of Steele Stadium and their coach’s natural affinity for hitting bombs, the blimps should be floating by early and often. A duo of weak but fast 6-hitters, Wing Kwan and Paco Kaufman, will complement all the big hitters, with 5-hitting, 4-running Nate Kowalski the one odd-man out. But after a season where power hitting took a relative back seat, this team clearly attests that Bomberball is back.

This all comes at the cost of speed. Everybody goes at the same speed when trotting around the bases – but in other circumstances this team will be slow, and that could prove to be a crippling weakness. Four players do have running ratings of 8 or 9, but four others are slowpokes with just 4 in running, with a 5 rounding out the squad as a distinctly slow one. When the bombs stop coming, or Wing and Paco are stuck hitting with some slowpokes clogging up the bases, the Indians could be in trouble.

The good news for the Indians is that they have a superior defense to that of the Season 4 Giants. It certainly is a dynamic one – Sammy Sosa and his rocket arm are stationed behind the plate, Todd Helton at shortstop will zing any balls that he gets to around at lightning speed, and their pitcher, Frank Thomas, is one of the best in the league. On paper, it appears to be pretty solid across the board as well, with only two weak arms on the team, relatively fast left and right fielders that can throw balls in quickly, and sufficient pitching depth. At home, I think this team should do quite well on defense, as long as their lack of speed doesn’t prevent them from getting to the ball fast enough – that will be the true question for the team at home. On the road, though, there’s an extra factor – on fields with a deeper center field, will slow, weak-armed Petra Chekov become a death knell for the Indians, or will the otherwise-solid defense make up for that anyway?

Prediction: Second place. The Indians will get dragged down some by the slow runners, but in other games, the strong arms, home runs, and hard-to-crack defense will carry them to victory easily.

Players to watch: Todd Helton at SS may decide whether the Indians’ defense sinks or swims, based on whether his strong arm makes up for his lack of speed. And Wing Kwan was a late addition to the team on a post-draft trade – especially without any home-run power to boast of, he’s going to need to work to prove himself to his new coach.