Season 13 Preview - The El Paso Ultraviolence

Overview: Last year's squad went a surprising 95-67 in what was considered to be a rebuiling year. The post-season was short with EP being booted by the Patriots from the AL East in the first round.

Outlook: Bouyed by last season's momentum The Ultraviolence look to contend for the AL South title once again. Will the grooming of three key rookies be enough to allow The Ultraviolence to contend.

Key additions: El Paso was thwarted from adding a top of the line starting pitcher by the wild bidding on the few available stars. The team had to settle for SP Albert Castilla in the free agent market. The offseason also saw EP acquire RF Pedro Merced who should add some power to the lineup and brings the speed that El Paso covets.

Key losses: El Paso fan favorite Bob Fleming and season 2 draftee was not re-signed. Fleming averaged over 70 SB and 100 runs a season during his time in the red and burnt orange uniform.

Starting lineup

2B Al Mendez, NABCL record 197 SB last season - think Vince
LF Keith Sellers, the rookie will replace the aforementioned Fleming and add power to the speed
DH Andrew Lankford, 16th overall pick from season 8 makes his ML debut this year
1B Bump Boucher, his 131 RBI last year were below his first 3 ML seasons
3B Armando Garrido, has hit exactly .263 in each of his first 3 ML seasons, added 36 SB
RF Pedro Merced, expected to add some pop to the lineup, strong arm
C Mandy Michaels, hit .284 as a September callup last season
CF Carlos Rios, 5 straight Gold Gloves to go with 14 HR and 60 RBI
SS Tony Belliard, 3-time Gold Glover looks to rebound from off year

Pitchers

SP Diego Lee, season 4 IFA has accumlated 96 ML wins and a 3.97 ERA
SP Edgar Matos, season 12 Rookie of the year piled up 19 wins
SP Ricardo Santos, went 15-8 with a 4.33 ERA
SP Larry Browne, after opening his career with 3 winning seasons he fell to 7-14
SP Albert Castilla, went 7-10 with a 4.17 ERA for Las Vegas last season
RP Luis Moya, 3.75 ERA to go with his 120 innings
RP Juan Benitez, 38 saves and a 3.41 ERA
RP Trenidad Perez, the lefty was solid in his rookie campaign with a 2.96 ERA
RP David Guerrero, rookie lefty adds some bullpen depth

Prediction: 99-63, El Paso is a young team ready to push Jose's Jacksonville team for the belt in the AL South. El Paso by submission in September.

1st Annual NABCL Franchise Prestige Rankings

First, let me begin with a little background on this project. I was recently inspired by Dream League who compiles what they call a Franchise Prestige Ranking. I decided to steal the idea (while citing them of course) and create one for this league. I thought this would be a good time in the season to ponder the results.

The process was relatively simple. Basically, I went through and compiled team records, owner history, playoff history, and team names for every single franchise in the league since season 1 and put them in a spread sheet. I crunched the numbers and created a relatively crude formula which quantifies a franchise’s overall prestige based on this data.

The final overall formula is an additive index based on the franchise’s win %, WS Championships, Pennants, LCS appearances, Division Titles, Playoff Appearances, the number of winning seasons, and average place in the division standings. Franchises were penalized for high owner turnover, last place finishes in the division, and the worst record in the league.

Like I said, the formula is crude and I am open to suggestions. Suggestions that raise my franchise ranking will be given the highest preference :)


Please note that the table below only shows some of the data used to generate the overall ranking. I did not include all of the data for space reasons and only included some of the more pertinent categories. I will be happy to share the full data with anyone who requests it. TC if you are interested.

Enjoy!

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Rnk	Team	Win %	Playoffs	Division	Pennant	WS	Overall
1	Fargo Roughriders	0.559	7	7	5	3	145.5
2	Jacksonville Jackals	0.588	11	9	3	2	144.3
3	Arizona Arithmetics	0.554	9	7	2	2	123.4
4	Los Angeles Studio Kings	0.611	9	9	1	1	112.5
5	Chicago Beast	0.569	10	8	1	0	99.5
6	San Antonio Missions (Viva the Puffy Taco)	0.553	9	6	3	0	97.8
7	Kansas City Glasgow Kisses	0.493	6	5	2	2	68.7
8	Philadelphia Dead Milkmen	0.538	5	3	1	0	60.3
9	Portland Jacks	0.546	8	2	0	0	56.9
10	Scranton Scewballs	0.498	5	3	1	1	53.7
11	Memphis Maniax	0.507	6	5	1	0	52.8
12	Richmond Poor Men	0.502	4	1	1	1	50.8
13	Washington D.C. Federals	0.517	8	3	0	0	48.3
14	Boston Colonials	0.504	5	3	0	0	28.9
15	El Paso Ultraviolence	0.526	3	1	0	0	26.4
16	Anaheim Natural Disasters	0.497	5	4	0	0	23.3
17	Trenton Thrashers	0.504	4	3	0	0	21.9
18	Charlotte Queen's Men	0.488	4	2	0	0	15.6
19	Boise Hawks	0.497	3	0	1	0	8.7
20	New Orleans Crawdads	0.484	0	0	0	0	7.8
21	Helena Misfits	0.492	3	2	0	0	3.6
22	New Britain Block Heads	0.497	2	0	0	0	-2.3
23	Vancouver Loonies	0.458	1	1	1	0	-4.8
24	Seattle Salty Dogs	0.467	0	0	0	0	-5.3
25	San Diego Storm	0.450	2	1	0	0	-5.6
26	Charleston Tories	0.459	3	3	0	0	-6.7
27	Pawtucket Patriots	0.435	4	3	0	0	-7.8
28	Scottsdale Army of One	0.434	0	0	0	0	-10.4
29	Salem Raptors	0.469	2	1	0	0	-17.3
30	Wichita Pioneers	0.421	3	2	1	0	-17.4
31	Louisville Legionnaires	0.451	2	1	0	0	-25.3
32	Iowa City Shuckers	0.432	1	1	0	0	-29.5

**Win % - franchise's all-time winning percentage; Playoffs - # of playoff appearances; Division - # of division titles; Pennants - # of League Championships; WS - # of World Series Titles