1920 Record: 96-48 (1st in the East Division)
1921 Prediction: 77-67 (3rd)
Notable Losses: SP Jared Way (Free Agent), 3B Tommy Glass (Free Agent)
Notable Gains: 3B Gavin Utter (Free Agent)
Obviously Jared Way is a huge loss to the Roosters.
Huge. It's not often you get to say that you've got the two best pitchers in the game on your team but the Roosters had and they took full advantage in romping their way to the inaugural title. They clearly weren't willing to match the extravagance of the Penguins so here we are.
The team that won the championship is still largely intact, sans Way. They lost Tommy Glass but arguably made an upgrade with Gavin Utter. The team is hopeful that Utter will be able to join the team in about three weeks. He should slot into 3B with Ripley going to 2B.
The top five of the batting order are all All-Stars. Gavin Utter would on be on the cusp of such a honour and Dex Kruys won the Great Glove award. Ripley was the Batting Champion last season, Bendig hit 50 home runs and led the league in RBIs, and Karabanov wasn't far behind him. This is a terrifying batting order.
And then we've got last year's unanimous pitcher of the year Max Steel who's gunning for another 400K season but it gets a bit dicey once you get past the #1 guy in the rotation. If the Roosters are going to have hope of repeating their 1920 success then someone in that rotation is going to have to step up.