[ArquimedezPozo]

5. The Nashville Sounds
Overall Record: 2476-2146, .536
Conference Titles: 8 (D4E 2009, 2028, 2031-2033; D3E 2010, 2014, 2031-2033)
Division Championships: D4 2031-2033; D3 2014)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 3

There is a lot of evidence that the three-year promotion/relegation cycle has the exact effect the founders of the league intended, to prevent smaller market teams from being relegated too quickly after a promotion, giving time to build and develop their markets and fanbases. But Nashville would point to itself as evidence to the contrary: how, they ask, is it fair for their club to have won more games than all but three other teams in the Federation, yet still be in Division 3?

Nashville was an early NABF success story, emerging from a chaotic D4 East with a promotion after Cycle 1. The team was powered by Hall of Fame 1B David Fernandez, already a star in Atlanta and then Nashville in the Southern League days. Fernandez was 31 when the NABF began, and was an eight time All-Star with the club. Nashville was the first NABF team to win 100 games in a season, hitting that mark exactly in 2009, though they lost the championship to the Salt Lake dynasty four games to 1 (their one win ending in a walk-off homer in Game 1). After promotion, they found early success in D3, winning D3 East in their first season there before being beaten by the Padres in the Championship Series. Finally, in 2014, they climbed the mountain all the way: after an 81 win Conference title season, Nashville beat Seattle four games to two for their first championship.

That season proved to be the last for Fernandez, who signed off on one more year with Austin before hanging it up at age 39. The Sounds had trouble recovering; in 2015 they finished barely above .500, then had their worst period, with three straight last place finishes during Cycle 4 - the only times the club has ever finished dead last in a conference. That got them demoted, and they opened Cycle 5 in Division 4.

The next four cycles were frustrating ones for the Sounds, as the club wasn’t bad - far from it, averaging about 80 wins a season and finishing lower than third place only twice over that twelve year span. But that was the frustrating part: the club finished in second place four times, and came as close as three games from capturing the Conference, but only managed to do so once, in 2028. Those years were headlined by LF Paul Marquis, a perennial All Star and on base threat who hit 378 homers for the Sounds over his 15 years with the club.

2028 was important in another way, too: it was the debut season for shortstop Ivan Castillo, now a two-time MVP who looks to be on a clear path to the Hall of Fame. Castillo wouldn’t truly demonstrate his greatness until the 2030s (winning two MVPs in the process), but he would form the core of the incredible Sounds teams of the next few seasons. So too would LF Bobby Cook, who debuted in 2030 and won an MVP the following season. So too would Mario Guzman, who came up to Nashville in 2026, had his first quality season in 2028, and has served as the most important part of the rotation since. Indeed, by the late 2020s the team was stacked, and it began to show quickly.

In 2031, the start of Cycle 9, the Sounds won 92 games. Cook’s MVP was a highlight but the team was dangerous in every way, leading the division in homers and slugging, scoring the third most runs of all D4 teams, and allowing the fewest of them all. They won their second championship and first in D4, rolling over Austin in five. They were even better in 2032, as Castillo started a two year run as the best SS on the planet; he won the MVP and a Gold Glove in each season, totalling 16.4 WAR between 2032 and 2033 while hitting a combined .292/.347/.532. The Sounds won 97 games in 2032 and an amazing 105 in 2033; no non-Baltimore team has ever won more. The club dismantled Sacramento in two straight Championship Series - in six games in 2032 and in a sweep the following season. Cycle 9 belonged to the Sounds, and they moved up to Division 3 for Cycle 10.

By most reasonable measures, the Sounds would have moved up at the end of Cycle 10 as well; after all, they won 94 games and the Conference in 2034, losing to Sacramento in seven (the Solons, as we’ve seen, moved up out of the West that season as well). They won 87 in 2035, and an even 100 in 2036, the team’s second 100 win season in their last four. They finished third in 2035, though, and just a game out of first in 2036 despite the new presence of star CF Mel Irving. The Sounds were victims of an outstanding Detroit Stars club whose two Conference titles and 2036 D3 Championship kept Nashville out of D2.

So the Sounds go on - one of just three teams to ever win 100 games in three different seasons, and one of just six teams to win 100 without winning a Conference; the winningest and greatest team that’s never played in Division 1. Maybe someday. Maybe soon.

Best Position Player: in a choice between the Hall of Famer who played out the end of his career with Nashville at the start of the NABF, and a likely member who is still writing his story, we’ll go with… LF Paul Marquis, who was the often unheralded heart of the team in their Division 4 days, debuting in 2019 and retiring in 033, spending every game he played with the Sounds and leading the club in most major offensive categories.

Best Pitcher: Mario Guzman continues to produce for the Sounds, and has won two Pitcher of the Year Awards, the only Sound to do so.

Best Season: 105 wins and a D4 Championship in 2033 is hard to ignore.

4. The Los Angeles Angels
Overall Record: 2433-2188, .527
Conference Titles: 9 (D1W 2009-2013, 2016, 2019, 2029-2030)
Division Championships: 5 (D1 2009, 2012-2013, 2016, 2019)
Last Place Finishes: 2
Only Division: 1

Los Angeles was a legendary franchise even before the NABF - the most storied and accomplished team in the most popular league in the country, the Pacific Coast League. Los Angeles had long been the standard, winning 23 PCL championships in that league’s century-plus of existence. Of course, in the PCL they were by far the largest fish in an admittedly large pond, and the move to Division 1 matched them for the first time with teams that could equal their resources and reach. Despite that, LA has more than held its own: Los Angeles is one of four franchises - two in the east, two in the west - who have never left Division 1. Only El Paso has more Conference titles or Division Championships that LA, and despite all the great dynasties that have played in the senior circuit, LA is the only team to win five straight Conference titles there, and one of only two to win consecutive D1 Championships. The stars really do shine a little brighter in LA.

The NABF began at a transitional period for the Angels. Their last great dynasty had largely broken up by 2005, and while there were promising prospects on their way who would change the face of the franchise soon enough, the Angels roster at the Federation’s birth was not their best outside of star CF Matt Williams. Consequently, the Angels finished dead last in the D1 West in 2007 - their first last place finish in over 20 years - leading to predictable anger from fans at baseball’s massive reorganization. That anger continued into 2008, as the Angels improved but still finished below .500. What observers didn’t know was that the team was about to establish itself as the pre-eminent early power in the Division.

In 2008, the Angels debuted a young shortstop whose extraordinary speed and patience made him a feared hitter in LA’s minor league system. Dennis Sokol’s first season in LA gave more than just a hint of the promise to come: a .323/.420/.503 batting line, 20 triples (still a D1 single season record), and 84 stolen bases, the first of five consecutive seasons where he would lead D1 in steals. He also hit 4 homers, though even that low level of power proved a mirage: Sokol would hit only six more over his entire career. Still, the prototypical leadoff hitter had arrived.

The following year, two more players debuted who would, with Sokol and Williams, make the Angels the best team in the world. 1B Francisco Carreno had been drafted in the first round of the 2008 draft, but was such a complete hitter upon arrival in A ball that he moved quickly up the minor league system. Carreno opened 2009 with a few games in AAA, but so demolished pitching there that the club had no choice but to bring him up. They were rewarded with a fully formed star who won the Triple Crown as a rookie: 48 homers, a .361/.439/.699 line, and 148 RBI. He won the Rookie of the Year and MVP unanimously. Amazingly, though, he wasn’t even the best player on his team by WAR, as Sokol had another outstanding season at short.

The second player to debut in 2009 didn’t make quite as good an impression at first: young starting pitcher Ben Mettler arrived at the end of the year, and while he pitched well the team didn’t quite know what to do with his finesse/fly ball profile in a notorious hitters park that favored hard throwing groundballers. But Mettler would prove himself over the next fifteen seasons in LA.

Even without Mettler in top form, the 2009 Angels were world-beaters. While allowing the third-fewest runs in D1 (courtesy of career years by Chris Price and Jorge Medal, along with an outstanding pen), the 1-2-3-4 of Sokol, Williams, Carreno, and aging 3B Raul Hurtado produced runs by the bucketful. The Angels won 91 games, taking the Conference by 11 games before taking down Brooklyn in six for their first championship.

In 2010, it was Sokol’s time to shine: at age 25, the shortstop hit .353/.486/.453, that OBP not only leading D1 but setting a single season NABF mark that no one has even remotely approached since. He stole 93 bases while being caught just 16 times, and he walked more than he struck out; he finished third in MVP voting in an impossible year as New York’s Max Hinkle and Philadelphia’s Nate Hall both had outstanding seasons, but Sokol was clearly the best run creator in the game. Carreno hit 45 homers and Mettler had his first strong season as the Angels once again won the D1 West, this time losing the Championship to Philadelphia. They’d be back in 2011, after 102 regular season wins, an MVP season by Carreno, an MVP-level season from Sokol, and Ben Mettler’s first great season - 18-6 with a 3.18 ERA (3.26 FIP, 76 FIP-), though they would lose again, this time to the Giants. They wouldn’t lose in 2012 or 2013, as Carreno hit nearly 100 homers combined, driving in Sokol over and over while a rotation anchored by Mettler and young starter JP Warwick kept opponents off the bases. The Angels had their revenge on New York in 2012, winning in five, and then welcomed Boston to Division 1 with a sweep in 2013. The Angels were the greatest team on the planet, and with a powerful core in the heart of their prime there was no reason to expect it would change.

So, of course, it did. In Spring Training 2014, Francisco Carreno suffered an MCL tear that would keep him on the bench for the entire season; while he was still a skilled hitter when he returned, his power was diminished, leading to a decline. Toward the end of 2014, Dennis Sokol suffered the first of two major injuries, a bad groin pull on a steal attempt that kept him out for the remainder of the year; the following Spring Training, he was hit on the elbow by a fastball, breaking a bone that kept him out for all of 2015 and contributing to the decline of his career. The Angels, now hobbled, lost 82 games in 2014 and 76 the following year. The dynasty was over.

But the Angels reloaded. These were Ben Mettler’s best years; the starter won the 2016 Pitcher of the Year, while the offense was rebuilt around free agent acquisition Raul Romero, who had been a star in Atlanta. Between Mettler, Romero and a recovered Sokol, the Angels returned to the top in 2016, winning 93 games and defeating Boston once again, four games to one, for their fourth trophy. They would add a fifth in 2019, as Mettler and Warwick held down the rotation, young LF Jose Guzman won his first MVP, and Romero continued to thrive in LA red and blue.

2019 would be LA’s last championship season. For the next nine years, despite the contributions of SP Bob Paul and others, the Angels would average just 78 wins a season, with no Conference titles to show. The franchise would return to the top in 2029 and 2030, winning consecutive D1 West titles behind young stars Julio Blea and catcher Matt Wood, on the way to establishing himself as the best catcher in the history of the NABF, but with Blea at the end of his career, and with Wood departing after 2033, the Angels have spent the last few seasons floundering, waiting for the next dynasty to begin.

Best Position Player: on a team with this many Hall of Fame and Hall-caliber players, it’s so hard to select any one star. Sokol leads the team in career WAR, but it has to be Carreno, who was the biggest star in the biggest market in the game for an incredible run between 2009 and 2013, and who is still remembered as the greatest Angel of them all, rightly or wrongly.

Best Pitcher: Mettler is the club’s only Hall of Fame pitcher, and though he was never dominant in the way other HOF hurlers were, he was an immensely skilled run preventer whose 65.6 career WAR is the tenth best mark among NABF starters.

Best season: that’s 2011 - though the team didn’t win a championship, they won 102 games with their greatest players performing at their highest level.

3. The Boston Bees
Overall Record: 2591-2030, .561
Conference Titles: 12 (D2E 2011-2012; D1E 2013, 2015-2018, 2022-2024, 2028-2029)
Division Championships: 5 (D1 2015, 2017, 2022, 2024, 2029)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 2
Highest Division: 1

It’s a little hard to define what has made the Bees so great. Their depth, certainly: the hallmark of the great Bees teams of the late 2010s and 2020s was the incredible breadth and depth of their talent, with players who might be stars on other teams riding the bench. Their defining players - Rayfield, Finnell, MacArtney, Brod, Afan, Combs, Redmond, Ayala. Their staying power. Maybe it’s simply all of these: a team that has found a way to marshal all its available talent, all the time, and win.
The Bees started in Division 2, a largely anonymous team that had never experienced much success in the Northeastern League. The team was sold before entering the NABF, though, and with a new front office came a new approach that included a slower, deliberate rebuild around SP Brian Stults, 2B Ricky Leon, and SS Calisto Cutileiro. And while Boston was by no means terrible in the early years, winning 81 games and third place in 2007 before a couple of seasons around the .500 mark, neither were they competitive.

That began to change in Cycle 2, as younger players picked up through trade or draft entered the lineup. In 2010, the Bees won 84 games, though they finished fourth in a tough Conference. Brazilian groundballer Alvaro Valmont won 15 with a 2.74 ERA, while Stults - at that point a team veteran at just 24, had his second strong season, putting up a 71 FIP- and 5.4 WAR. Leon was excellent at second, with a 148 wRC+ and good defense, and 25 year old LF Paul Hoffman hit well, especially after a midseason trade for former MVP Bears 1B Curt McKenzie.

In 2011, they took another big step forward, with a full season from McKenzie and a solid rookie campaign from SS Chris Cunningham, a future five-time Gold Glover. A couple of offseason trades added starter Dave Makeever and CF Justin Wiehe, both of whom helped Boston close the deal, winning their first NABF Conference title. In the Championship series, the Bees were trampled by the juggernaut Saints, a fate that also befell them in 2012 despite winning 102 games behind McKenzie, surprise MVP Malcolm Harper, and young 1B Nick Brod. The bullpen was held down by Hall of Fame closer Josh Suits, in the first season of his long stint with Boston. With two straight Conference titles, the Bees got the bump up to Division 1, and kept on going.

They won D1 East their first season there, a 93 win campaign with a breakout season from 3B Luis Limon, as well as great years from McKenzie, Cunningham, and Brod. Valmont was held back by nagging injuries - a constant for the rest of his career - but the rotation was capable enough to put Boston into the Championship Series again. This time they got cut down by the great Angels team of the era, though, and missed the playoffs the next year, winning “just” 89 games and finishing second.

All of that merely served as a warm-up, though.Boston had traded - controversially, given they had to lose Harper and regular catcher Tan-Ming Teoh - for future Hall of Fame RF George Smith. Smith was a disappointment down the stretch in 2014, but in his first full season with Boston he won a Gold Glove to go along with his 134 wRC+, hitting 18 homers and amassing 5.3 WAR. Brod hit a then-best 34 homers behind him, while Leon, now 32, put up arguably his best season. The player who really put Boston over the top, though, was young phenom pitcher Geoff Finnell. A first rounder in 2009 with the Leafs, Finnell opted for college, and was taken by Boston in 2012 instead. He moved through the minor league system fast and debuted at the end of 2013, showing promise. He was very good in 2014, but incredible in 2015, walking fewer batters per nine than any other D1 starter while getting groundout after groundout on his way to a 71 FIP-. Finnell was Pitcher of the Year that year, the first of his three. The other big story of the year was two-way prospect Hector Rayfield, whose first full season splitting time between 2B and SP resulted in 5.2 WAR, split between a very good pitching season and a mediocre but promising one from the plate. All of this added up to a team that had effectively no holes - they could pitch, they could hit, they could field. With a Hall of Fame closer, they didn’t lose many leads. And they rode that formula to 101 wins, finally taking a Division 1 Championship with a six game victory over Ft. Worth.

The four seasons beginning with 2015 were Boston’s greatest period. Over those four seasons, the Bees won four consecutive Conference titles, with at least 94 wins each year. They added another Division 1 Championship in 2017 after adding future Hall of Fame OF John Hansen in a trade with Houston. Hansen, already an established star, won the 2017 MVP and went on to hit 220 of his one-time record 619 career homers for Boston. Alex Afan - better known for his outstanding glove and mental game at catcher - hit .462/.481/.692 in the Division Championship Series to take MVP honors.

After a step back during Cycle 5 - a period that included a shift in front office staff and a new general manager - the 2022 Bees buzzed back, with a new core of outstanding younger players. CF Mike MacArtney had the best season of his likely Hall of Fame career at age 26, cracking 48 doubles and leading D1 in Total Bases while winning his only Gold Glove. Cuban import Ricky Garcia hit 30 homers. Starting pitcher Jamie Combs won Pitcher of the Year at age 24, with a 71 FIP- and 5.9 WAR, though traditional stats didn’t quite reflect that excellence due to a .312 BABIP. SS Raul Ayala won the second of his 13 Gold Gloves (more than any other player at any position). Somehow, Boston’s farm system had built yet another team of extraordinary depth and talent, and they won the franchise’s third D1 title over El Paso. The fourth followed in 2024, with yet another 100 win season sandwiched between.

The arrival of the Terrapins after 2027, and the excellence of that era’s Philadelphia teams, broke Boston’s stranglehold on the Conference, but they had one more run in them:they won the Conference with 98 games in back to back seasons in 2028 and 2029, and took home their fifth D1 trophy in the latter, now led by MacArtney and SS Travis Redmond (Ayala had shifted to 2B by then) along with Jamie Combs and Rayfield in a strong rotation. And after that… the team started to fade.

In 2030, Boston won only 74 games - its first losing season, incredibly, since 2008 and the first time it finished with fewer than 80 wins since 2009. In the ensuing 20 seasons, Boston had averaged an incredible 93 wins, with five championships, twelve Conference titles, and three 100 win seasons. But if 2030 seemed bad to Boston fans, 2031 must have seemed like a death knell. With its stars aging, the team slipped precipitously down the standings, finishing in last place for the first time in franchise history with 72 wins. Jamie Combs suffered a rotator cuff injury late in the season that would prove to be career ending, while Ayala and Redmond both moved on before 2032. MacArtney’s contract was up at the end of 2032 and the writing was on the wall. After Boston lost 89 games for its second straight last place finish, he was gone too. In 2033, the Bees lost 97 games, by far their all-time worst season, and slipped back into Division 2.

Boston hasn’t been bad, exactly, in the three years since. They’ve won more than 70 each season, even peeking above .500 in 2035. But for a team as proud as the one that played between 2010 and 2030, these have been difficult years. Only time will tell if they are reversible.

Best Position Player: MacArtney rises to the top of a crowded field, as a consistent presence as both team Captain (after Alex Afan’s departure in 2025) and perennial All-Star CF. MacArtney is the team’s all-time WAR leader, and also leads in hits, total bases, runs, doubles, and RBI.

Best Pitcher: Hector Rayfield had 32.3 WAR as a hitter for Boston, and ranks 6th on that list. So for him to also be the franchise’s best pitcher - over both Geoff Finnell and Jamie Combs - is stunning. And yet Rayfield owns most major pitching records for the Bees, including Wins, K’s, and WAR, and in many ways was the face of the franchise and its most popular player.

Best Season: with many to choose from, we’ll go here with the first championship - 101 wins and a trophy in 2015.

2. The Baltimore Terrapins
Overall Record: 2606-2014, .564
Conference Titles: 12 (D4E 2015, 2018, 2020-2021; D3E 2022-2024; D2E 2025-2027, D1E 2030-2031)
Division Championships: 8 (D4 2018, 2020; D3 2022, 2024; D2 2025-2027; D1 2030)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest Division: 1
Current Division: 2

The phrase “no one has ever done what the Terrapins have done” covers a remarkable number of accomplishments in the Federation’s history. No one else has ever won a championship in all four Divisions. No one else has ever come from Division 4 all the way up to Division 1. No one else has ever won 110 games (the Pins have done it twice) or had five 100 win seasons in a row. No one else has ever won eight Conference titles in a row. No one else has ever won 8 Championships, period. No one else has had as many MVPs (9) or as many Pitchers of the Year (11). No one else has ever come close to the dominance of the Baltimore Terrapins between 2020 and 2031.

The Terrapins were a bad fit for Division 4 from the start: though their market itself was just below the D3/D4 cutoff, Baltimore had always benefitted from a rabid fanbase and sellout attendance, giving them greater resources than every other D4 team, and most D3 teams. Despite the market size they’d long been competitive in the Mid Atlantic League, and had won a championship just two years before the start of the NABF, so fans and team ownership alike protested when Baltimore was assigned to Division 4 by Federation leadership. But despite bold predictions that Baltimore would quickly earn promotion, the club stumbled out of the gate, breaking exactly even over their first two seasons despite solid performances by established guys like RF Dave Dishong and SP Erik Leary. In 2008, the club traded for the great slugging OF Tom Faria, who was stellar for Baltimore toward the end of his career, but wasn’t able to pull them into contention.

In 2009, the club rallied behind a startlingly good season by young SP Antonio Venegas. Venegas, a Venezuelan native who had debuted with Baltimore pre-NABF in 2006, emerged as one of the best young arms in the game with a 17-8 season, striking out 232 against just 63 walks while allowing six homers all season. It was good for 8.7 WAR and a 53 FIP-, winning him the D4 Pitcher of the Year and helping the Terrapins to 96 games, good enough… for second place, as the Sounds won 100 and the Conference that season. Still, Venegas continued to astound: in 2010 he was as good or better than the previous season, winning a second straight Pitcher of the Year despite a down season for Baltimore. In all, the Terrapins were a wildly inconsistent and unlucky team in Venegas’s era, winning 95 twice without a Conference title while regularly underperforming their predicted record. Venegas won awards in 2013 and 2015, making him one of just three pitchers with four or more Pitcher of the Year awards, but after Baltimore’s first Conference title and a Championship loss to Albuquerque 2015 he signed with St. Paul to finish his Hall of Fame career.

The 2018 team that won Baltimore its first Championship, then, was a team without its biggest stars. With Venegas gone, and Dishong and Faria retired, the Terrapins were led by defensive wizard Vince Lorek, 3B Chris Forester, and SP Josh Hill, who won a (probably undeserved) Pitcher of the Year. Baltimore won 90 to take the D4 East, then defeated Sacramento in seven. It wasn’t enough to earn them promotion for Cycle 5, however, so they remained in D4.

A new front office took over after 2019, making major changes that would spur the greatest run in any NABF team’s history. The 2020 Terrapins were built on the 2019 club in critical ways, to be fair: team captain Vince Lorek remained, as did Fields, Forester, and much of the bullpen and bench. But the team made some major changes as well, the biggest of which was the signing of 2B/SP Doug Padgett, whose injury history made him a relative bargain. Baltimore scouts also discovered an independent league pitcher named Danny Rzasa, who came on board at age 24 and became the team’s ace immediately. They also signed future Hall of Fame catcher Jose Molina away from Phoenix, and traded for former Boston star Alvaro Valmont. It was an amazing flurry of activity, and it forged the Pins into a Conference and Division winning team. After 89 wins (the last time they would win fewer than 94 games for the next seven years), the Terrapins beat the St. Louis Browns in that team’s only Series appearance.

In 2021, the Terrapins built on their second championship with an incredible 99 win season powered by Padgett. The 2B took two of the three Triple Crown categories with 36 homers and a .370 batting average, just percentage points from breaking Max Hinkle’s 11 year old record; his 8.4 WAR on offense combined with his 3.1 WAR as a pitcher to create an all-time great season. RF John Malcherek, who the Terrapins had traded for at the deadline in 2020, added to Vince Lorek’s career year and good seasons by Hill and Rzasa. But the biggest moment of the season turned out to be the deadline acquisition of OF Steve Mauck from St. Paul.

Though the Terrapins lost the 2021 Championship to those same Solons, they finally earned their promotion, and in 2022 hit Division 3 like a truck. The Terrapins stormed into the Division with 96 wins, built on Malcherek’s career year and the first of Steve Mauck’s great Baltimore seasons, in which the LF hit 47 homers and drove in 116, both D3 best marks. It gave Mauck his second MVP and the first of four with Baltimore; with Pedro Quiroz, he is the only player to win five MVPs in NABF history. The Pitcher of the Year Award, meanwhile, went to new Terrapin ace Mike Martinez, another trade steal out of Ottawa. Martinez used a lively fastball and one of the best changeups in the game to win 18 games with an 80 FIP-. The Terrapins won their third trophy, and the first for the club in D3, with a five game series win over Milwaukee.

And then… then things got silly. No two teammates have ever combined for the kinds of seasons that Doug Padgett and Steve Mauck put up in 2023; Padgett gave up pitching after a 2022 cut short by injury, moved to first base, and absolutely exploded on offense. Padgett accumulated 9.2 WAR, once again threatening a Triple Crown, leading in average (.347) and RBI (143), with only Pedro Quiroz’s mark of 57 eclipsing Padgett’s 52. Despite outstanding years by Mauck and New Orleans’ Quiroz, Padgett won the MVP unanimously. Martinez was joined by Hall of Famer Jim Betz, along with young phenom Austin Johnson, who - with Rzasa - formed the best rotation in the game. Baltimore won 101 games; it would be the lowest total they’d reach over the next five seasons.

2024 belonged to Steve Mauck. The left fielder hit 59 homers, chased .400 for much of the first three months of the season, and finished with the Triple Crown - an outrageous .344/.435/.708 line with 8.5 WAR. He won the MVP easily, while Jim Betz took the Pitcher of the Year with a 19 win season, leading the league with a 1.5 BB/9, 61 FIP-, and 6.7 pitching WAR. And in center field, a young converted reliever drafted in the lower rounds of the 2022 draft, Mel Irving, won Rookie of the Year with his own incredible campaign. Everything the Terrapins touched turned to gold as they won 106 games and defeated the Solons, once again, to advance to Division 2. It was their fifth consecutive Conference title, something only the Angels had done before, and it made them the only team to ever take first place three years straight immediately after promotion.

And it wasn’t even their pinnacle.

That came in 2025, still the greatest season ever by any NABF team. The Terrapins won 115 games.Mauck was once again named MVP, and seven players hit at least 20 homers. Betz won 20 and the Pitcher of the Year; Rzasa won 23, an all-time NABF record. Seven players had over 5 WAR. They won the conference by 23 games, and defeated Vancouver in what many rank as the greatest Championship Series in NABF history, ending in a walk-off game seven homer by Mel Irving with two strikes and two outs in the ninth. Baltimore was the absolute center of the baseball world.

And it kept going: 108 wins and a championship in Mel Irving’s MVP year of 2026. 112 in 2027, as Baltimore won their record seventh title. They were unstoppable - right up until they were stopped.

The Terrapins came into Division 1 the same way they had Divisions 3 and 2: on a tear. Mauck hit 41 homers in his first season back in Division 1, though injuries and age had begun to slow him down. Martinez, Rzasa, and newcomer Dave Haythe led a staff that allowed the fewest runs in Division 1. The Pins didn’t win 100 games for the first time since 2023, settling for just 97… but they came in second, a single game behind Boston. And 2029 was a disaster, the team’s first losing campaign since 2011, as Mauck’s decline began in earnest; not even newcomer Matt Rutz could rescue the failed season. Baltimore’s dream of becoming the first team with championships in all four Divisions appeared to be over for now.

Then, a miracle. Though Mauck was by 2030 confined to part time DH duty, Matt Rutz and Mel Irving led an offense that scored the most runs in D1 East, while Danny Rzasa led a staff that kept Baltimore in contention in what turned out to be his final season with the team. Baltimore won 88, but it was enough, barely, to take the Conference over the Philly dynasty of the period, and in an upset, the Terrapins beat Los Angeles in a seven game series for their 8th Championship over an unbelievable 14 year stretch. They won the conference again in 2031, but couldn’t convert against El Paso, and a 94 win 2032 ended in second place. Then Rzasa eas gone, to Memphis. Mauck was gone, to Boston. And Martinez was gone, to Sacramento. Eventually Irving was gone too, to Nashville. The Terrapins lost 94 in 2034, 86 in 2035, 88 in 2036. For the first time in the franchise’s history, they were relegated back to Division 2 for the start of Cycle 11.

What goes up must come down, and no one has gone up with the speed and ferocity of the Baltimore Terrapins of 2020-2030. How far will they fall, and how fast will they bounce back?

Best Position Player: Steve Mauck meant everything to this franchise - the heart and soul, the fan favorite, the engine that kept them running. Four MVPs as a Terrapin, a Triple Crown, and memories to last a lifetime. Mauck will be selected to the Hall of Fame as soon as he is eligible.

Best Pitcher: The Terrapins have had multiple Hall of Fame or likely-Hall of Fame pitchers, but the pick of the fanbase would be Rzasa, who spent almost his entire career with the Terrapins. Rzasa’s signing was one of the first moves the team made before that 2020 season that began their incredible run, and Rzasa was the kind of player fans love. He was great, but beyond the numbers he is the most defining pitcher in Terrapin history.

Best Season: how could it be any other than the Pins 115 win, Championship introduction to Division 2, the greatest season by any team in the entire history of the NABF?

1. The El Paso Sun Kings
Overall Record: 2486-2134, .538
Conference Titles: 13 (D1W 2008, 2014, 2018, 2021-2023, 2025-2027, 2031-2032, 2035-2036)
Division Championships: 6 (D1 2008, 2014, 2018, 2023, 2031, 2035)
Last Place Finishes: 1
Only Division: 1

Death, taxes, and the El Paso Sun Kings. The greatest and most consistently good team in the NABF has taken the Division 1 West at least once in every cycle save 2 and 4, winning six championships, behind only the Terrapins. Aside from a bad 2009 (66 wins) and an abysmal 102-loss 2010 (the team's only last place finish), El Paso has never won fewer than 75 games - in fact, the team has only suffered a losing season five times in its entire history. This record of consistent excellence is enough to rank them here, above even a Baltimore team that on paper might be a better choice.

The story of the Sun Kings goes back to the pre-NABF period. The El Paso Chihuahuas were a relatively small market club in the Texas League, competing with larger markets like Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston, and they were nearing the end of a run with a handful of excellent veterans in SP Ernie Clark, SS Ken West, and RF Bobby Quezada. The club had not been massively popular, and were regularly outdrawn by even the nearby Albuquerque Dukes and Indios de Juarez. But the Mexican League was going under, and the Indios’ owner was looking for a way out, suspicious of the proposed new Federation. With the NABF looming, El Paso’s team President made the decision to reach out and attempt a merger with Los Indios to form a large, cross-border franchise whose official name - rarely used - became the El Paso-Juarez Sun Kings. The purchase was a major cash outlay, but the excitement it generated among Indios fans was enough to boost season ticket sales and push the Sun Kings into Division 1 to open play in 2007.

The club responded immediately, behind its three aging stars. Its final record of 83-71 was far from overpowering, but it was enough to secure second place, just 3 back from the eventual champion Ft. Worth Cats. The club made strides in the following year as 1B Adam Shin came into his own and veteran SP Ernie Clark had the best year of his NABF career, going 19-5 with a 2.19 ERA and 6 WAR. He would go on to win what would prove to be the franchise’s only Pitcher of the Year to date, and would be a key part of the Sun Kings’ first championship as they defeated Brooklyn in six games to win the 2008 D1 title.

The bottom fell out for the Sun Kings after 2008, and the franchise experienced its two worst seasons in 2009 and 2010. The now 37 year old West fell apart in 2009, experiencing arm trouble and slowed production; he would retire after the 2010 season. Quezada, too, was never the same player after the championship, though the causes were less clear; nevertheless, he left the club after 2009 and spent a few years in Sacramento in a part time role before retiring. And while Ernie Clark remained the team ace in 2009, at age 35 he too had little left; after a difficult and short 2010, he bounced between Indianapolis and Havana before retiring at age 38 in 2013. El Paso’s 2010 stands as one of the dozen worst seasons in NABF history, as the club went just 52-102, facing fears of relegation at the end of Cycle 2. But new faces such as Shin, RF Pat Dixon, 3B Ryan Snapp, and 1B Angelo Quintero emerged to put El Paso back in the conversation by 2012, in which they won 80 games and finished Cycle 2 well ahead of the Vancouver Mounties and relegatees Monterrey Industriales.

A step back in 2013 resulted in a break-even season, but it would prove to be the last non-winning year the team would have for the next fifteen seasons. Their young core led the Sun Kings to the Championships in 2014, where they triumphed over Montreal in a tight, seven game series for their second Division title.

The Sun Kings missed the playoffs by a single game in 2015 and by two in 2017, by now bolstered by the free agent acquisition of star RF Max Hinkle, formerly of the New York Giants. Hinkle was outstanding in 2017, batting .346/.416/.599 (leading in BA and SLG) with 37 homers and a D1 best 137 RBI. Pat Dixon matched Hinkle’s HR output, and CF Eddie Trefz posted 6.1 WAR in what proved to be his only great season.

One surprising thing about the Sun Kings is their relative lack of truly great players: the inaugural Hall of Fame class, for example, doesn’t feature a single player with an El Paso cap (though Max Hinkle and John Hansen spent major parts of their careers there, and others have come through). The one exception there is middle infielder Mike Smart, who debuted in 2018 and would become the greatest player in Sun Kings history. Smart posted a 3.2 WAR while hitting .305/.353/.455 with 12 homers in 2/3 of a season, narrowly missing out on Rookie of the Year honors. But El Paso took its third Championship over the Boston Bees that season, with Smart hitting .391/.462/.691 in the series.

El Paso finished a respectable third over the next two seasons, but in 2021 began one of the great runs in NABF history. Between 2021 and 2027 El Paso won the D1 West every year but one. They dropped the Championship in 2021 to the Dodgers and in 2022 to the Bees, but had their revenge on Boston in 2023, as El Paso won in 5 to become only the third NABF team to win four titles, and the only to do it in Division 1.

By 2024, rumblings of a team sale had started to reach the clubhouse. By then the team was built around an established and accomplished core: while Max Hinkle had departed following the 2021 season, Smart, SS Mike Barton, CF Eddie Trefz, DH Warren Cherry, and workhorse starter Dennis Dahill remained. Despite the uncertainty, that core produced - El Paso won 88 games that season, though Monterrey took first after a brilliant campaign (amazingly, the first time the D1 West had been won by any team other than the Sun Kings, Angels, or Cats). By the end of the summer the news had become official: local real estate developer Bill Flores headed a group that bought the team. Flores promised investment, and demanded victory; he would live up to the former, and the players the latter.

Led by Smart, free agent pickup John Hansen (at the end of his brilliant career), Dahill, and young starter Juan Villanueva, El Paso took the conference each season of Cycle 7, though they met with defeat in each - twice at the hand of the Philadelphia Athletics and once against Montreal. 2026 was Smart’s finest season: now at shortstop, the heart of the franchise hit .332/.374/.522 with a career high 27 homers and 6.5 WAR, winning his only MVP.

2028 was a difficult transition year, and the club suffered its only losing season since 2011 at 75-79. But they bounced back with two straight second place finishes in 2029 and 2030 and, in 2031, their finest season yet: a 97 win championship season capped by a defeat of the Baltimore Terrapins. They returned the following season with a 93 win campaign, though they suffered a bitter loss to the Athletics, who had beaten them previously in 2021 and 2023. Still, the Sun Kings of the 2020s and early 2030s could easily call themselves a dynasty: a relatively stable group of players, the team won the D1 West eight out of twelve seasons, with two championships to show for it.

With Smart on the decline, and under the weight of contracts that were no longer useful, El Paso took a step back in 2033, only the fifth losing season in their history, followed by a solid but ultimately unsuccessful 2034. That was also the final season in El Paso for Smart and for longtime star Mike Barton as well. 2035 opened a new era for El Paso, with a new crop of stars leading the team to its sixth championship: 2C Mike Kepler (an MVP in 2036), 2B Chris Beardsley, and CF Joe Rison hoisted a trophy in 2035 and celebrated a Conference title (once again losing to Philadelphia in the Championship) after a franchise-best 99 win 2036. So as the NABF’s fourth decade dawns, it appears its greatest team is still going strong.

Best Position Player: Mike Smart is now and will be for a long time to come the face of the El Paso Sun Kings. Smart has played all 18 years of his big league career in El Paso, and holds virtually every franchise record. He will be lock for the Hall of Fame when eligible, though he is still trying to make it back to the bigs, having spent all of 2036 in the Steelheads’ minor league system.

Best Pitcher: it seems bizarre that a team this accomplished could have so few great pitchers, but this is a relatively short list to choose from. Dennis Dahill is the best selection, after a 17 year career spent exclusively with El Paso in which he won 201 games (9th all-time) with 46.4 career WAR and a 94 career FIP-.

Best Season: in 2018, the Sun Kings won 96 games - at the time a franchise record - and their third D1 championship; Max Hinkle won his second MVP and Mike Smart debuted. Tough to do much better than that.

Next: The All-Time NABF Team