AL East Team Notes

Tampa Bay Devil Dogs – 2-160

Best Players – George Bell, Ernest Strange

Team Rankings – 32^nd Pitching, 32^nd Offense, 32^nd defense

Team Notes – It takes a special team to go on a 140 game losing streak. A team who tells its pitchers on off days that they need to grab a glove and play third base since they only had 5 position players at the ML level. Its not all bad news for Tampa (the owner was obviously just testing extreme situations in HBD since he kept logging on) they do have some high quality minor league talent. They signed their first round pick 3B Jeffrey Donovan (#5 overall) who compares to Garret Atkins. Dean Ryan is a future ML 2b, Nicky Meachum has 45 HR a year written all over him, and Edgar Tejada will be a solid #2 or #3 SP in the future. They aren’t buried under bad contracts and have hope for the future.

Washington DC 86-76

Best Players – BJ Einerstein, Derrek Stuart, BC Ordonez

Team Rankings 11^th Offense, 9^th Pitching, 4^th Fielding

Team Notes – Season 2 Championship team, they had horrible luck this year. Their rankings would indicate this team was very successful, but it took a late season surge to assure they made it over .500. What they do next season is one of the league’s biggest questions. Many of the stars from their championship team are leaving for free agency. They will surely acquire many draft picks for these players and it won’t take long for them to rebuild. They only have $30M committed to player salaries next season so they will have plenty of options.

New Britain Hittin’ – 75 -87

Best Players – Carlos Martin, Sean Hammonds, Rafael Alicia

Team Rankings – 14^th Offense, 16^th Pitching, 7^th Fielding

Team Notes – A middle of the road ML team with a talented minor league system. Not buried under bad contracts, but still has it talented players under contract. The most exciting thing about this team is Rafael Alicia. He’s the odds on favorite to win ROY if he is brought up. It’s a great player when you have to look at his bunt rating before you see a flaw. His toughest competition for ROY could come from his own team in SP Justin Davis. Davis is yet another stunning prospect on this team. Next year is probably still a rebuilding year, but very soon this team will compete.

New York Mugger Funk - 99-63

Best Players – Tony Tarasco, Mark Ross, Clay Lincoln, Brian Bates

Team Rankings 9^th Offense, 3^rd Pitching, 3^rd Fielding

Team Notes - This team won’t soon forget the sting of a game 4 ALCS – the pivotal game in their 7 game series vs. the Mad Jesters. Down 8-2 in the 9^th inning they come back to hit a grand slam and tie the game, only to lose in the 14^th inning to a former Funk pitcher. What is scary about this team is they are so young they can only get better. Only two guys on this team were over 30. Tarasco is their first draft pick to really contribute at the ML level, but they have some others like Hogan, Brower, and Galvez that will make it to the big leagues. Revenge will be on their minds.