[VanillaGorilla]

Two teams were added to the NL, Milwaukee and El Paso.

The existing teams left many big contracts unprotected and the expansion clubs gobbled them up and have instantly competitive teams. The teams don't look to be as dominating as when a similar thing happened in the previous league, but they are darn good.

The league had been EXTREMELY sound financially since contraction. Teams had let a lot of high dollar Free Agents sit in the free agent pool. With the addition of two teams, that dynamic should be altered.

The league now has 4 8 team divisions. I am keeping with the play-off format of division winners and no WC. I like the purity of playing to win, not shooting for a WC. The overriding factor in not having a WC is that OOTP does not handle the tie breaks properly and this does affect player points for post season appearances. There will be a much lesser chance of a three way tie occurring and being mishandled by the software without any WC. The integrity of the numbers used for the HOF process takes priority.

ADD: At the All-Star Break, El Paso is 61-21 with an 18 game divisional lead. I think that qualifies as instantly dominant. The had 8 players named to the ASG.

Milwaukee is 56-25, clinging to a two game lead. They had 5 players named to the ASG. I think this qualifies as instantly competitive.

ADD: The play-offs featured 4 expansion teams. Austin and Ft Worth came into the AL in 2059 along with Milwaukee and El Paso in the NL, this year. Elpaso won 124 games, but was swept by Milwaukee, who won 119. OK, Milwaukee was instantly dominant, also.

Milwaukee fell behind to Ft Worth 3 games to none, but came back to force a game 7, which was won by Ft Worth.

The upcoming HOF class is going to be a fun one, for me.