A Question for Every SBL Team

The draft had happened and we are reaching the tail end of the offseason. Another exciting SBL season will soon start. Before that though, I am peeking into each team to see if I can find their top question in the upcoming season. Granted, I have not checked out what every player's been working on in this offseason, and it isn't the easiest task to imagine everything without a proper roster page for every team, so things might be a little off.

Dallas Drillers -- Can Their Batters Perform As Advertised?

There's an easy reason as to why Drillers were so bad last year -- absolutely horrendous batting. They scored an average 3.0 R/G and actually threw up 4.2 R/G despite drafting three pitchers to start their empire. They also had the worst average slashline of .231/.281/.343 of all teams. It's not only that their batters now have to bat as good as they are supposed to, but they have to provide some reasonable fielding boost to their starters as well or we are going to be in the long haul.

The spotlight will definitely be put on two of their batters: Gustav IsRealDaddy and Wade Landry. Wade Landry is potentially the MVP of SBLM, even though the awards are still in voting stage, but he is on a MVP level even if he doesn't get the trophy in the end. Gustav was picked first and will look to bounce back from a mediocre sophomore season in the minors. The arrival of Gustav forces Delgado to change position, so the team is probably going to be a focus on their batting more than fielding in the soon-to-come season.

On one side, it's unfair to just focus on the two. Their other two picks, Trade Assets and Ryoma Fukushima, will also need to bat decently or better than decently. Drillers have a lot to do in the next season, and it all starts with their batting.

Charlotte Cardinals -- Do They Have a Concrete Plan?

Cardinals are the most chaotic franchise in my opinion, as in it's hardest for them to figure out a plan moving forward. They have pieces, but just throwing them out without a concrete plan is not good for long term goal. So, do they have a plan? Even a short term one that doesn't say "let's just go out and see what's what"? Let's start by looking at their two drafts,

GMP: Rocky Mitchell - 1B
1.2 Caramel Delight - C
2.3 Domingo Rodriguez - SP
3.2 Dale Cooper - CF
4.3 Lucas Peterson - SS
5.2 Beatrix Ajax - SP

1.2 CHA Chien-Ming Wang - SP
2.2 CHA Home Run Kid - CF/LF
3.2 CHA Captain Hook - SP
4.2 CHA Jermaine Cole - SP

Caramel Delight has been very inconsistent on the batting front and completely relies on her pitch-calling skill to make a living in the major. Dale Cooper is one of the best outfielders in the world -- or let's just cut the bullshit and admit that he's the best of the world right now at that part of the game. But - there's always a but - he is most useful in a team full of solid batters so they can hide him at the 8th spot(or 9th if we are playing smallball with a pitcher on 8th so the 9th can hopefully kickstart the top part of the batting order) and uses his fielding to the best. Lucas Peterson has a down year but he's the two-way SS and one the most well-rounded in that position. Rocky Mitchell is a great batter and has shown potential on fielding at the 1B so he's no problem. Home Run Kid will be key here, if he can carry as the team's third bat, and then the pitchers perform decently, I can see Cardinals being okay.


Domingo Rodriguez, Beatrix Ajax, Chien-Ming Wang, Captain Hook and Jermaine Cole are 5 total pitchers so they don't really have a problem in terms of pitching in the short term. They just need one of them to accept a closer role and they will be running a pitcher in every key pitching position. Long term will be different though, as it will be clear by then who is the true aces and who only belong to the second tier, and the difference between a true ace and a second tier can be huge.

But still, I am still not sure if they have a concrete idea. Or a niche. I mean, I have said they can be a defense-first team, but until they actually execute it, I am just going to keep the cat in the box.

Indianapolis Invaders -- Can They Be The Bullets of SBL?

A little background story for those who are not in SBA. Brooklyn Bullets had been dominant for...the entire history of that league and we are currently at the middle of S48. So yeah, 48 long years of excellence. For Invaders, I am not even doubting them for this season. They have rounded up their pitching and I honestly don't see them at anything but the hot contender to two-peat in this maturing league. So I decided to just move the question ahead and look at it on a longer term. You gotta look at sport history at a longer term, because one-and-done is easy to do - like everyone have a shot as long as you trade your whole farm and one of your kidney for top-shelf talent that leaves a season later - but long-term sustainability is far more difficult. I mean no disrespect to Invaders but I personally don't put a lot of emphasis on the first few seasons. At this point, it's really who execute their draft better. I mean, it's still skill-based, but I feel like it's more difficult to navigate the landscape 10 years later. I am looking more to the S6 or so. I think that is the year where teams are going to be more complicated, with upcomers and veterans, free agency and so on.

That's not to discredit the Invaders though, they are starting with fire in this early years and really look to be dominant from now on. It's also important to note that winning in a row is much harder in OOTP as well, since the playoff games could be reallllly random. So if Invaders happen to two- or three- peat, you gotta give props. As of now, they are the team I expect to be in every world series.

Toronto Bighorns -- Can They Pick Up The Pace?

Bighorns had a close series with Invaders last season and knowing Pingu, I expect them to compete hard once again in this season. The team has added a couple pitchers and kind of improved the same way that Invaders did. So I guess the question is, did they find a way to move themselves ahead of the Invaders? At this point, Bighorns and Invaders feel like the Mohawks and Pioneers of the big league as they are the hot teams, on paper, to face off again in another world series this year.

The question is asked on multiple fronts. First, can their batters had better performance than Invaders? That would be key here as Bighorns' batters are close, but not close enough for Invaders. Flynn Fungo definitely played at a MVP caliber and his 70 steals to combine with his excellent contact-oriented batting spell trouble to every team, but baseball is so team-oriented that no one can truly get it done alone. Flynn needs help from all sides in his sophomore campaign to push Bighorns forward. That can be done in multiple ways: it can be Mekajiki finally getting comfortable and become the contact machine he once was in the minors. Or maybe the newly drafted pitchers could cut out the runs given and make Bighorns a much tougher team to beat Or it could be another batter like Donovan or Taylor having a breakout year.

Whatever it is, Bighorns need something. Stagnation will only hurt this team. They need to seize the momentum and push forward.