The North American Baseball Federation (Promotion/Relegation) - the first 30 years and beyond

ArquimedezPozo · 12-23-2022, 08:58 PM

This is my favorite league of those I've created over the years. I wanted to try my hand at a promotion relegation league, using market size among North American cities as dividers. I also didn't want to promote and relegate after every season, to allow teams to adjust to a new level, so I devised a formula to move up or down on a three-year cycle.

Every team has been given the name of a defunct or former baseball team - these are drawn from former AL/NL teams (Montreal Expos, St. Louis Browns), Federal League teams (Baltimore Terrapins, Chicago Whales), Negro League teams (Pittsburgh Crawfords, Detroit Stars, Seattle Steelheads), or former minor league clubs (Memphis Blues, El Paso Sun Kings). In some cases, such as for old Pacific Coast League teams like the Padres and Angels, it's the same name as a current club, but named for a wholly different franchise.

I started out as the Boston Bees (what the Braves called themselves in the 1930s) then switched over to Baltimore. Now I'm simming and looking at historical trends. So, what I'll do here is post, bit by bit, a "history" of the first 30 seasons of the North American Baseball Federation, starting with an overview and then a team-by-team ranking and a greatest players list. Once that's done, I'll start up the simming again and document results here.

Worth noting briefly as well that I owe a HUGE debt to all the amazing folks who created logos, caps, and jerseys for a huge variety of teams over the years. A lot of what I use in here comes from their work, with occasional modification. Others come from my own attempts to convert or re-create existing historical images; those are usually the worst of the bunch.

ArquimedezPozo · 12-23-2022, 09:05 PM

The North American Baseball Federation emerged from various regional leagues that had become, over the years, increasingly dominated by large market teams in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Montreal and elsewhere. Leagues had tried a variety of methods to improve competitive balance, but none had worked, and by the start of the 20th century fans had begun losing interest, attendance was down, and so was team revenue for a bulk of the franchises across North America.

Finally, a consortium of small and mid-sized market teams offered a choice: either accept a radical merger and realignment, or clubs would be forced to fold and entire leagues would collapse. The result was a dramatic merging and restructuring into a Federation: four primary Divisions, each split into eastern and western Conferences, which connected to each other using promotion and relegation for the most and least successful clubs. Teams would be assigned at first based on market size, with the largest market teams occupying Division 1, and the smallest in Division 4, with the goal of promoting more even competition.

Over the summer of 2006, while regional leagues were continuing play, owners, player representatives, executives, and others came together to hammer out the details. Some of that debate focused on the team assignments themselves: in order to obtain better placements, some geographically-close teams negotiated for mergers, while others argued over the precise definitions of their media markets. The biggest of these debates centered on the Brooklyn Dodgers, who maintained that they should be credited with an equal share of the New York market with the rival Giants; in the end, league leadership agreed, allowing Brooklyn entry into Division 1. The ownership of the San Diego Padres publicly called for a merger with their southern neighbors in Tijuana, a proposal that was considered but ultimately rejected; similarly, the El Paso Sun Kings argued - in this case successfully - that the Mexican city of Juarez be considered part of their media market, allowing the Sun Kings to become Division 1 members.

The final meetings, in August 2006, revealed operational details. Divisions would share a player and draft pool, schedule length, and ruleset. At the close of each season, Conference winners would meet for the Division Championships to end the season. There would be no cross-divisional play or postseason; though larger market teams argued in favor, a majority of clubs decided to keep all play, including ultimate seasonal championships, separate. This allowed smaller market clubs to establish themselves, and to find postseason success, on their own terms: fans always saw competitive level baseball, and that mattered.

League founders also wanted a league that rewarded long-term building rather than short-term sprints to promotion, so they devised a system wherein promotion or relegation would be done every three seasons, rather than annually. Promotion and relegation would be governed by a formula. Though the formula has been adjusted over the years, the core concept has remained the same: three-year winning percentage, with the most recent season carrying the most weight; number of first and last place finishes, and number of Conference Championships. After three years, one team from each division would move up, and one from each would move down, based on the points awarded by the formula.

The result, over the 30 years of Federation history, has been an association that has seen a mix of stable dominance and dynamic movement, while providing small market teams with the chance to see seasonal and postseason success - indeed, some of the most successful teams in league history (the Baltimore Terrapins, for example, or the Columbus Red Birds) have emerged from Division 4 to climb high into the ranks of the Federation. Others have seen their fortunes fade in similar ways.

This series will serve to summarize the first 30 years (10 cycles) of NABF play in a few ways: first, an overall survey of the major trends over that period; then a ranking of all 48 teams with discussion of team histories; and finally a look at the greatest individual players the league has produced. Once complete, the series will continue as a cycle-by-cycle recap of NABF action.

ArquimedezPozo · 12-23-2022, 09:29 PM

The use of three-year cycles allows for an easy periodization of the Federation’s history, and cycle numbers will be used throughout to reference those periods, beginning with Cycle 1, encompassing the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons, and Cycle 2, encompassing the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons.

The start of play in 2007 brought excitement and uncertainty in equal measure as, in 48 cities across four countries, the teams of the NABF prepared to inaugurate the new era.

Media coverage was instantly instructive. Though more coverage went to the large-market teams of Division 1, the compartmentalized nature of the league meant that deeper analysis and attention was given to smaller market clubs as well, especially those seen as contenders to move up. Despite this, the biggest small-market story of Cycle 1 was somewhat overlooked at the start: the Salt Lake Gulls would become the biggest success story of the early years, collecting the highest Cycle 1 point total of any team across all four Divisions by taking the D4 West crown and the D4 Championship in each of the Federation’s first three seasons. After promotion to Division 3, the Gulls continued to succeed, winning the D3 Western Conference in two of the three seasons to earn yet another move up. The Nashville Sounds, who came from D4 East to Division 3 after a monster 2009, similarly had success, winning a D3 East title in 2011.

Other promoted teams faced steeper climbs. The Detroit Stars and Portland Beavers, each promoted from their respective D3 Conferences after Cycle 1, faltered amidst stiffer D2 competition, with early last-place finishes. Still, both avoided immediate relegation back to D3, proving the possible sustainability of the model. The same can’t be said for teams that were promoted into Division 1: the Vancouver Mounties - winners of the first two D2 Championships with the best overall Cycle 1 win total - sandwiched an abysmal 2011 with mediocre 2010 and 2012 finishes, while the Havana Sugar Kings set the stage for the rest of their next 25 years by arriving in Division 1 and promptly failing to break the 60 win mark two seasons running before finding themselves back in D2.
Division 1 itself is one of the best examples of another trend of those early years: Western dominance. Indeed, during Cycle 1, 10 of the 12 Championship Series were won by Western teams, with only the 2008 D3 East’s Detroit Stars and 2011 D2 West’s San Diego Padres breaking through. On the Federation’s biggest stage, three different matchups - the Fort Worth Cats and New York Giants in 2007, the El Paso Sun Kings and Brooklyn Dodgers in 2008, and the Los Angeles Angels and Brooklyn Dodgers in 2009 - were each won by the Western entrant. This also set up a recurring theme that endured over Division 1’s first two decades: the persistent shared dominance of the Cats, Angels, and Sun Kings, who between them won every single D1 West title until 2024 (often dividing each cycle evenly between them with a title apiece).

For the most part, these wins were the result of powerful dynasties that arose among the western conferences of Divisions 1, 2, and 4. Division 4’s Salt Lake Gulls were chief among them, but the list also included the back-to-back D2 Champion Mounties; Division 4’s best Cycle 2 team the Austin Pioneers; the Angels, who won five straight D1 West titles and three championships between 2009 and 2013, and the incredible St. Paul Saints, who took over as D2 Champions from the Mounties in 2009 and won the next three years straight, becoming the Federation’s first 4peater. The Eastern conferences lacked such consistent winners, though that would change dramatically in subsequent cycles.

Some of the success of the Federation can be attributed, as well, to early stars, many of whom were already well established by the time of the NABF’s inaugural season. These included the great 2B Jim Maxey, who led the Havana Sugar Kings to a promotion following Cycle 1, setting a D2 record .349 average that stands today; RF Carlos Jara of the Salt Lake Gulls, who won the D4 MVP in 2007 and put up a cumulative 42.2 WAR and 264 homers over the first six seasons as he led his Gulls to two straight promotions at the ends of Cycles 1 and 2; the Toronto Maple Leafs center fielder Omar Arteaga, whose 2007 remains the highest WAR season in D1 history at 11, with a Division best 43 homers to go along with a .332/.429/.654 line; Dennis Sokol of the Los Angeles Angels, whose .486 OBP in 2010 is the record not only in Division 1 but in the entire Federation, and who stole over 700 bases in a career cut short by injury; and perhaps the greatest bat in Federation history, the great Max Hinkle who debuted with the New York Giants just before the merger, as a 21 year old phenom, and batted .320/.403/.537 with 23 homers and a 4.4 WAR, the beginning of a long and storied career with some of the greatest teams assembled by the NABF.

Among pitchers, few stood taller than David Miramontes, who split his career between the D1 Philadelphia Athletics and the D2 Atlanta Crackers, winning the first of his four Pitcher of the Year awards with Philadelphia in 2010 and his last in 2021 with the Crackers, at age 40. Antonio Venegas dominated Division 4 hitters during the early years with the Baltimore Terrapins, then the St. Paul Saints between Division 1 and Division 2, and though he missed out on the Terrapins’ incredible rise to Division 1 between Cycles 5 and 8, he remains the Division 4 WAR leader overall. Malcolm Bush of the Indianapolis Clowns had a relatively short period of dominance, but holds both the D3 single season WAR record for a pitcher with 9.7 and the Federation's career WAR record. Bush, a strikeout artist, is the Federation’s all-time leader in strikeouts (over 3400) and in the Federations top 40 in career K/9 (10.0).

One of the major fears of fans and commentators alike as the Federation began play was the possibility of the game's biggest stars flocking to Division 1 payouts, but early evidence at least demonstrated surprising and welcome parity among stars: players like Bush, Venegas, Jara, and others to remain as draws for D2, D3, and even D4 crowds. Many credit this to increased interest and competitiveness, and the numbers back that up. In the thirty years since the Federation’s inception, only a handful of teams have never left their original division, and in almost every case attendance, revenue, and market size has increased over the years.

So the early years of the Federation set much of the tone for the next decades: competitive balance that made both great ascents and rapid slides possible; and the development of incredible players, who were able to draw fans to ballparks at all levels, and who remain among the greatest to have ever played the game.

NEXT: Greatest Seasons, 2007-2012

ArquimedezPozo · 12-26-2022, 09:19 PM

Hitters
Ramon Rodriguez, Division 3 Calgary Outlaws, 2009: Rodriguez didn’t age gracefully, but in 2009 - his age 24 season - he put up arguably the greatest single season by a position player in NABF history for the D3 West Outlaws, leading the league in all three slash categories with a /339/.426/.688 line while smashing 50 doubles and 40 homers to lead the Federation at 375 TB. He combined that line with a Gold Glove season in RF to hit 12.2 WAR in 2009 - no player at any position has come within 1 WAR of that mark, before or since.

Francisco Carreno, Division 1 Los Angeles Angels, 2012: A contender for the greatest offensive season in NABF history, Carreno’s second Triple Crown came along with 51 homers, 151 RBI, and a slash line of .365/.458/.704. His Slugging percentage, along with his 1.16 OPS, are both D1 records. Carreno, along with SS Dennis Sokol, led the Angels to five straight Division titles in the period between 2009 and 2013, and Carreno - whose 2011 was nearly as good, with a still-D1 record 54 homers and NABF record 167 RBI - was the greatest offensive force of the team.

Omar Arteaga, Division 1 Toronto Maple Leafs, 2007: Though the team itself finished 20 games under .500 on its way to a fifth place finish in the NABF’s inaugural season, it had a legitimate star in the 25 year old Arteaga. The best season of his short but illustrious career saw him hit .332/.429/.654, leading the league with 43 homers and a .654 SLG, but also dominating on the basepaths with 26 steals and a league-leading 11 triples. He won the D1 MVP easily, racking up 11 WAR, which remains a D1 single-season record. While Arteaga posted 9.6 and 9.5 WAR seasons in 2008 and 2009, his 2007 remains the pinnacle of his career.

Carlos Jara, Division 4 Salt Lake Gulls, 2007: Jara was already an established star when the NABF opened its doors in 2007, but then he blasted those doors clean off with a 9.5 WAR season in which he socked 54 homers, drove 131, and batted .349, all league leaders. His .744 SLG and 1.164 OPS remain the highest single season totals in NABF history, as do his .491 wOBA and 231 wRC+. Jara was a huge factor in the Gulls dynasty that propelled them into D2 in their first six years, a period in which Jara posted 40.8 WAR. But this, his first, was his greatest.

Dennis Sokol, Division 1 Los Angeles Angels, 2010: the greatest shortstop in the Federation’s history hit marks no one else has overcome in 2010, with a record .486 OBP that remains the highest in Federation history, and 93 steals, eclipsed only once since… by Sokol himself, with 94 in 2012. His 9.8 WAR is easily the highest recorded by a shortstop, as he walked 101 times while posting the highest OPS and RC/27 of his career (.950 and 11.0, respectively). He also hit two of his career 10 homers as the Angels took the D1 West, their second of five consecutive Conference titles.

Pitchers
Oliver Chase, Division 3 Las Vegas 51s, 2010: Chase, one of the all-time greatest hurlers in Federation history, was a workhorse for the 51s in the early years. While his 226 innings didn’t lead the league that year, his incredible 1.75 ERA, 44 FIP-, 10.2 WAR, and 291 Ks all did, with his WAR still the highest of any pitcher in Federation history. His Triple Crown, Pitcher of the Year season was highlighted by his no-hitter against the Cleveland Spiders in late April - with 14 strikeouts and no walks, one of the most dominant outings ever, and the only no-hitter of his career.

Malcolm Bush, Division 3 Indianapolis Clowns, 2012: The greatest season by the game’s greatest pitcher. Though it incredibly (and controversially) did not win him the Pitcher of the Year Award, it was a vastly superior season to Oliver Chase’s (which did). Bush struck out 266 in 219 innings, with a 45 FIP- and 1.52 ERA, the lowest mark in NABF history. He allowed just 8 home runs all season, as he led his Clowns to their second straight D3 championship, lifting them into D2, where they would remain for the next nine seasons. Bush owns the best career WAR, strikeout total, and FIP of any pitcher in the 30 years the NABF has been in operation, yet one just a single Pitcher of the Year, in 2015. His 2012 should have as well.

Antonio Venegas, Division 4 Baltimore Terrapins, 2009: Venegas starred for the Pins before their golden age, and between that and his career dominating the weakest Conference in that period of the NABF (the D4 East), he can be overlooked. But don’t, because he was astounding: in 217 innings of work in 2009, Venegas struck out 232 against just 63 walks, while allowing a mere 6 home runs. His 53 Fip- was the best of his career and among the lowest marks for any D4 pitcher (or any NABF pitcher). 2009 was one of Baltimore’s three first place finishes in the decade plus before their superhuman run of the 2020s, and Venegas was the single biggest reason why.

Randy Alcala, Division 2 Ottawa Champions, 2012: Alcala’s 2012 is among the greatest power pitching seasons ever, as the Champions righthander used his devastating fastball/change/slider combo to overmatch 315 hitters - at the time an NABF record and still higher than any recorded outside Division 2. The same can be said for his stellar 13.3 K/9. It was Alcala’s only great season, with an 8.2 WAR far higher than the runner-up, a 3.9 mark the next season. He was the only thing that went right for Ottawa in 2012: the team was relegated to D3 for Cycle 3 and Alcala opted out, signing on with the Angels, where he was a piece of three D1 Championship teams.

Mike O’Neill, Division 1 New York Giants, 2012: O’Neill’s 2012 set the standard for D1 pitching, in a Division that has been defined far more by its prodigious offensive talent. O’Neill’s 8.3 WAR is the highest for any D1 season, driven by his 2.16 ERA, 200 strikeouts, and 1.03 WHIP, with a 2.58 FIP (58 FIP-). It was the only time O’Neill won the pitching Triple Crown in his career, and it resulted in the first of his two Pitcher of the Year wins.

Two-Way Players
Ryan Little, Division 3 San Diego Padres, 2008:
Ryan Little did something no one in the NABF has ever done since in 2008: he won the Pitcher of the Year and the MVP in the same season. No, not like that - two pitchers have won the MVP, recognizing the value of their pitching seasons, in the 2030s. No, Little won the Pitcher of the Year, throwing a D3-high 232 innings with 242 strikeouts, a 0.91 WAR, 5.5 K/BB ratio, and a 63 FIP- with 7.5 pitching WAR… AND THEN ALSO won the MVP, batting .277/..357/.537, with 31 homers, a 170 wRC+, .383 wOBA, and a 6.1 WAR, for a grand total of 13.6 - the greatest single season combined WAR ever. Another way of putting this: the Padres roster in 2008 earned a combined WAR of 43.5. Little, alone, was responsible for 31.3% of that. Oh, and he did this all at age 23. It is the best all around season in NABF history, and it’s hard to imagine any ever topping it.

Next: The Quiet Years (Cycles 3 and 4)

ArquimedezPozo · 12-27-2022, 09:55 AM

The excitement of a new baseball model had become commonplace by the time Cycle 3 rolled around. The new Federation was a clear success: after six years, attendance and revenues were up, small-market teams were advancing, and a new crop of stars were setting the pace. But the mid-2010s - Cycles 3 and 4 of the NABF - have come to feel more like treading water: a quiet space between the excitement of the early days and the dynamic 2020s. That’s a shame, because under the surface a lot was changing in the NABF - changes that would come to fruition in those epic runs of the next few cycles..

During the 2011 and 2012 seasons, a new force had begun to make itself felt in Division 2. The Boston Bees had spent the first four years of their existence as a middling franchise: stuck with some holdover mid-range talent, they spent Cycle 1 building a farm system that would soon begin to bear serious fruit when combined with successful trades and strategic free agent signings. By 2012, they were two-time Division 2 East winners, having won 102 games (at that point tied for the second-highest in Federation history, behind only the 105 win 2011 Saints). That was more than enough to vault them into the top division, where they proceeded to dominate: the Bees took the D1 East in 2013, losing to the Los Angeles Angels in the Championship, then finished second to eventual D1 Champs Montreal in 2014 before storming back to a dominant, 101-win 2015 that saw the franchise claim its first title, defeating Fort Worth.

The Bees came into Cycle 4 with a powerful young core of players: 1B Nick Brod had collected 4 WAR with 34 homers in 2015, and young C Alex Afan was coming into his own. But the biggest stars were free agent RF George Smith (acquired in a trade from Montreal in 2014) who would go on to win the 2016 D1 MVP, and young two-way star Hector Rayfield, who hit respectably at 2B while putting up 4.6 WAR and a 3.30 FIP (82 FIP-) in 204 innings as the team’s #2. The ace of the staff was fellow 25 year old Geoff Finnell, a first-round 2012 pick who had been Pitcher of the Year in 2015. Behind this core, the Bees won the conference in 2016, 2017, and 2018, claiming the Championship - again over Fort Worth - in 2017.

The Bees were not the only new dynasty riding a young core to victory. The Columbus Red Birds had spent Cycle 1 as the worst team in Division 4, but had begun to climb in Cycle 2, posting their first winning record in 2011. They burst onto the scene in 2013 to win 98 games and take the D4 crown, a feat they would replicate in 2014 before a second-place campaign in 2015.

Still, two championships was more than enough to move them into D3, and after a year of adjustment in which the club barely scraped above .500, they once again claimed the top spot: an 82-win surprise championship season in 2017 and a dominant 97-win championship season in 2018 guaranteed them another jump, matching the Salt Lake Gulls who had also climbed from D4 to D2 in the matter of six years. The Red Bids were led by 3B/DH Lorenzo Valenzuela, whose early career suggested an all-time great but who was sadly slowed by injury later in his career. Valenzuela won the 2013 D4 MVP while leading Columbus to its first title, and he would remain on the team through 2020, though 2018 was his last productive season.The pitching staff was fronted by Josh Ellis and Jamie Voelker, strong righthanders who put together good if not great careers centered on their time in Columbus. Unlike the Bees, the Red Birds lacked genuine star power, but they had a deep roster that was skilled in run prevention, allowing them to win four championships in six seasons.

It was more of a mixed bag for Nashville’s Sounds; their 2009 D4 East-winning campaign had been the highest-win season of Cycle 1, and they won D3 East their first year after promotion, then held on with decent seasons through 2012. Then in 2014 they became the first NABF team to win a Championship after promotion, beating Seattle in six games after an 81-73 season headlined by star 2B Cameron Bright. But by Cycle 4, Nashville had fallen apart, posting the three worst seasons in franchise history, finishing last in each, and finding themselves back in Division 4.

Cycles 3 and 4 were good ones for the Mexican teams of the NABF. The Tijuana Potros ownership had taken heat at the Federation’s formation for not accepting an offer to merge with San Diego, and those criticisms grew louder with San Diego’s repeat D3 championships in 2009 and 2010. But the Potros spent those years building, and emerged in Cycle 3 as a powerhouse, winning the D2 West in each of the three seasons, with a championship in 2014 over Atlanta. That run was powered by 2014 Pitcher of the Year Jose Santos, who put up 8 WAR with 245 Ks in Tijuana’s championship season, after a 7.5 WAR campaign in 2013. His career would slow down after 2014 but he was a critical figure in Tijuana’s ascent to D1 at the start of Cycle 4. The Potros struggled in the top Division, but held on, and have not fallen from it since.

The Monterrey Industriales followed suit in Cycle 4, with their own threepeat as D2 West winners. Their 2014 and 2015 Championships, over the Ottawa Champions and the Havana Sugar Kings respectively, helped vault them into D1 by the end of Cycle 4. Another primarily offensive club, the Industriales MVP was CF Brett Perry, an Indiana native who put up 20.5 WAR over Cycle 4 with a combined 62 homers while taking home a streak of Gold Gloves.

The El Paso Sun Kings, who drew heavily from Juarez over the border, continued to establish themselves as a perennial D1 West favorite; though they had struggled in Cycle 2, even losing 102 games in 2011, by 2014 they were back on top. They won their second D1 Championship that season, over the Expos, with a potent offense led by leadoff man CF Bruce Tussey (.291/.376/.472 with 38 doubles and an incredible SB rate, with 41 thefts against just 5 failures at age 24. Tussey’s subsequent El Paso years would not be as strong, leading the club to deal him to Boston for star 3B Luis Limon in 2018.

Meanwhile, some of the standouts of the early years saw their fortunes reverse. The Salt Lake Gulls had moved steadily up through Divisions 4 and 3 over the first six years of existence, never losing more than 68 games in a season. But a combination of Division 2 competition and an aging core brought them low: in 2013, their first season in D2, the Gulls went 72-82 to finish 4th; they dropped further in 2014, finishing in last place with 59 wins and a .383 winning percentage. Though they rose to second in 2015 it was more the result of a weak conference than a strong team, as the Gulls still posted a losing record at 75-79. It was good enough to keep them in Division 2 for Cycle 4, but not for long: the Gulls finished last in the D2 West in both 2016 and 2018, and 5th in the intervening 2017, to be knocked back down to D3.

Similarly, the St. Paul Saints came into Cycle 3 seeming like an unbeatable powerhouse: winners of four straight D2 championships, they now looked to continue their success against D1 competition. But the Sun Kings, Angels, Cats, and others had something to say about that: The Saints finished in 5th in each of their first three seasons in D1, then dropped to last place in 2017 and 2018 to be bumped back down to D2. As much of this if not more can be pegged to a decline in production than to the move up: LF and former MVP Manny Lopez, speedster 2B Andrew Pierre, RF Josh Curran, and SP Chris Knipp all experienced career swings that ended their productive years during Cycle 3, while ace Jared Butcher signed with Monterrey after 2012.

In all, the mid-2010s proved to be a hold-steady period for the NABF. Looking over the record books, it’s notable how few Federation or Division records remain that were set in those years. Though the period saw the heydays of some major stars (Boston’s Rayfield, the incredible LF John Hansen, 1B/SP Jose Martinez of the Chicago Whales, and Havana’s ace Jim Betz among them), it is overshadowed by the excitement of the Federation’s early days, and the dynamic 2020s.

Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2013-2018

ArquimedezPozo · 12-27-2022, 11:55 AM

Hitters
CF Casey Smith, Ft. Worth Cats, 2015
Smith, almost unquestionably, was the greatest star of the 2010s. A Rookie of the Year winner with Ft. Worth following his stellar age 22 season, averaging 8.4 WAR over the next five seasons. That included his greatest season, 2015, in which he won his second D1 CF Gold Glove while hitting .318/.422/.585 with 32 homers and 40 steals. He led the league in OBP, Slugging, WAR, triples, RC, wRC+, and wOBA, and was a unanimous choice for D1 MVP. And though his Cats lost to Boston in the Division Championship, it wasn’t because of Smith, who gave his club a .385/.467/.615 batting line with a homer and a double in the six game tilt.

LF Jim McCabe, Havana Sugar Kings, 2016
McCabe was, during his career, one of the most criminally underrated players in the game - he was a 12-time All-Star, but won just a single Platinum Stick and was otherwise unrecognized by his peers despite retiring with over 73 WAR, a top-20 total among position players and 4th among all left fielders. That Platinum Stick came in his 2016 season, in which he powered his Havana Sugar Kings to the best season on their history (to that point). McCabe hit 20 homers, stole 30 bases, and led the league with a .327 BA and .437 OBP, to go along with a .540 Slugging percentage. He lost the award to John Hansen, who made headlines with his 47 homers, but McCabe was the superior player.

CF Omar Arteaga, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2014
Arteaga’s 2014 was hardly the equal of his electrifying 2007, nor did it match his incredible 2008 or 2009 campaigns. But it was still the best of any D2 player in 2014, and the last great season of his short but brilliant career. His career-best 46 homers (tied with his 2009 total) was also tops in D2, along with his .605 SLG and 185 wRC+. Arteaga would play just three more seasons, but his performance in 2014 was a major factor in returning Toronto to Division 1, where Arteaga began and ended his career.

SS Craig Wilson, Calgary Outlaws, 2013
Wilson, among the greatest shortstops in the history of the NABF, won his only Gold Glove in 2013 and was the only true bright spot in a dismal Calgary season. At age 29, Wilson put up a line of .310/.402/.460 while shining defensively, adding up to an 8.4 WAR campaign that netted him a narrow second to Seattle’s slugger Danny Diaz.

1B James Keesler, Phoenix Firebirds, 2017
Keesler’s Triple Crown 2017 remains one of the few great moments in the long sad history of the Phoenix Firebirds. It tops Firebirds records in single season BA (.324), OBP (.422), SLG (.649), WAR (8.2), HR (48), as well as Runs, Hits, RBI, and Total Bases. With 88 wins, 2017 is the third best season in Phoenix’s history, and it’s not hard to see why, as Keesler put the club on his back en route to a third place finish, albeit one in which the club finished 16 games over .500.

Pitchers
SP Geoff Finnell, Boston Bees, 2017
The greatest pitching season in Boston Bees history belongs to Finnell in 2017, when - at age 26, he won 18 games with a 2.35 ERA, 2.81 FIP (league leading 67 FIP-) and 6.7 WAR. Finnell’s 2017 ranks as the seventh best by WAR in the history of the usually offense-first Division 1, and the highest of the Cycle 3/Cycle 4 era. He won his second Pitcher of the Year for his efforts in 2017, and hoisted a trophy at the end, though he wasn’t spectacular in the Bees victory over Ft. Worth, going 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA.

SP Ben Mettler, Los Angeles Angels, 2016
If Finnell’s 2017 is the best D1 pitching season of the Cycle 3/Cycle 4 era, Mettler’s is a close second, and perhaps the most important: while Finnell anchored a deep Boston rotation, Mettler’s backup was shallow as the Angels tended to batter opponents rather than smother them. But while the murderer’s row of Raul Romero, Dennis Sokol, and Francisco Carreno were the biggest factor in getting the Angels to the Championship Series, Mettler was next, putting up a 6.6 WAR season with a 2.86 ERA and 2.76 FIP while winning 13 games. In the Championship Series win over Boston, Mettler won two critical games, holding the Bees’ potent offense to just 11 hits and two walks over 17 innings; though it was ultimately Carreno who won the Championship Series MVP, Mettler had a powerful case.

SP Malcolm Bush, Indianapolis Clowns, 2015
2015 was the only season of Malcolm Bush’s incredible, criminally underrated career in which he took home hardware: the 2015 D2 Pitcher of the Year put up 9.2 WAR and a 46 FIP- with 11.9 K/9 (he struck out over a third of the hitters he faced) and won 16 games for the disappointing Clowns. While it wasn’t Bush’s last great year - he would top 5 WAR five more times in his career - it was his last legendary one, and somehow the only one that voters saw fit to reward.

SP Jim Betz, Havana Sugar Kings, 2016
Betz is on the NABF’s pitching Mount Rushmore: more wins (229) than any other pitcher, with the second highest pure pitching WAR, behind only Bush, and a career 3.00 FIP, tied for seventh all-time. He is also a member of the elite 3000 K club, alongside Bush, Oliver Chase, John Lawrenz, and other all-time greats. But 2016 was his greatest season, as he became just the second D2 pitcher to win 20 games while earning 8.6 WAR, the second highest total in D2 history (behind only Bush’s 2015 season, above). Though his miniscule 2.11 ERA was aided by a .250 BABIP, his FIP of 2.44 was hardly pedestrian, and went along with 264 strikeouts against just 59 walks. He was rewarded with the Pitcher of the Year trophy, the first of his three.

SP John Lawrenz, Washington Senators, 2013
2013 was a big year for the Washington Senators. For one thing, it was the first time the team finished above .500 in its history, after six years of failure: they ended the year in second place just five games back of the Charlotte Hornets. For another, it was the first truly great season authored by their greatest player, starter John Lawrenz, a power pitcher who ranks among the greatest in the game despite his anonymity. Lawrenz’s 2013 was a masterpiece that saw his strike out 276 batters to lead D3 for the first of five consecutive seasons, while putting up 7.1 WAR and a 63 FIP-. Lawrenz’s 274 Ks were the most of any pitcher in the history of D3 to that point, and the third most by anyone in the NABF. Lawrenz, who still ranks fourth all-time in strikeouts in the NABF, won the first of his three Pitcher of the Year awards in 2013 as he opened a new era for the Senators.

Two-Way Players
2B/SP Hector Rayfield, Boston Bees, 2017
None of Hector Rayfield’s numbers in 2017 scream ‘all-time great’ until you put them together. Rayfield hit .283/.346/.474 with 23 homers from second base, playing decent defense and collecting 3.5 WAR at the plate, but he also went 16-8, with a 3.69 FIP that was overshadowed by an ugly 4.73 ERA (the product of a .327 BABIP). Rayfield gave the Bees 187 innings of reliable pitching and 550 PAs of reliable hitting in the same season, and while he had better seasons on one side of the ball or another at varying points in his incredible career, this was the season where his two-way ability was most balanced and most valuable, giving the Bees 7.2 WAR in a championship season. And in the Division Championship? Rayfield batted .321/.367/.357, scoring nine runs while also winning Game 2 against Ft. Worth.

Next: The Rise of the Terrapins (Cycles 5 and 6)

ArquimedezPozo · 12-28-2022, 04:15 PM

Alongside the continued dominance of the Bees, Red Birds, and Industriales, few outside Division 4 noticed the first championship of the Baltimore Terrapins. The Terrapins had always been a strange fit for Division 4 - though their market was a small one the fanbase was rabid, and they outdrew most teams in the NABF on an annual basis with some of the best players in the lowest Division. So the surprising thing was not that they won it all in 2018, but that it had taken them that long. But the lone championship hadn’t been enough to earn them promotion, so they remained in D4 for Cycle 5, initially in disappointing style, finishing in 3rd place, 11 games out of first.

Ownership made a change that offseason: the GM of the Boston Bees had abruptly quit, and was actively seeking a Division 4 team. The Terrapins had the resources to get him, and his hiring sparked a flurry of activity. What emerged was a Terrapins team with some critical holdovers from the 2018 team - 2018 Pitcher of the Year Josh Hill, defensive wizard CF Vince Lorek, and star 3B Chris Forester especially - bolstered by new acquisitions. The most important of these were 2B/SP Doug Padgett, a power-hitting star with severe injury concerns who the Pins scooped up for a bargain and who proved invaluable to later success; C Jose Molina, at 28 just coming into his own as a top-tier offensive and defensive catcher; and independent league signing Danny Rsaza, who scouts had spotted in Florida, and who after a few adjustments became a near-elite starter. With this new core, the Terrapins surged back to the Championship, finishing 2020 with an 89-65 record and defeating the St. Louis Browns in 7 games. Padgett won the MVP that year, hitting .318/.366/.619 and leading D4 with 34 homers, despite two multi-week stints on the IL (including a elbow strain that kept him to limited duty during the Championship Series). He added 3 WAR of pitching value to his 5.9 at the plate.

That season launched an unprecedented string of successful seasons. Between 2020 and 2027, the Terrapins would win eight straight Division titles, with a D4 title in 2020, D3 titles in 2022 and 2024, and three straight D2 titles between 2025 and 2027 (which will be covered in the next section). Every move the team made paid off: Rsaza became a workhorse and rotation anchor, averaging about 4 WAR a season as the Pins moved through D4 and D3. In 2023, Baltimore traded for ace Mike Martinez, who was approaching his final arbitration year; Baltimore immediately inked him to a long-term deal and was rewarded with two straight Pitcher of the Year campaigns. Baltimore also acquired LF Steve Mauck from St. Paul at the 2021 deadline. Mauck would almost immediately emerge as the greatest player the Terrapins have ever had, a complete hitter who would win the Most Valuable Player award four times across three Divisions for the club, including his Triple Crown, 59 homer 2024. All-time great starter Jim Betz would add to a devastating rotation in 2023, with his best late-career season also coming in Baltimore’s 2024 106-win run - the first of four straight 105+ win seasons. As Cycle 6 ended, Baltimore seemed unbeatable - and as Cycle 7 would show, they more or less were.

As the Terrapins redefined success, three teams battled for supremacy in Division 1. The El Paso Sun Kings became the first team with four Division 1 titles in 2023, capping a run of three straight D1 West-winning seasons, as they defeated Boston convincingly in four games. El Paso was led by their outstanding young 2B Mike Smart, at the start of an all-time great career spent almost entirely with El Paso. It was the Brooklyn Dodgers who ruled Cycle 5 in the East though, as the club finished first and won 90, then 94, and finally 98 games between 2019 and 2021, finally taking the championship in the 2021 series against El Paso. Brooklyn was a well-balanced club with few holes, though also few stars: 1B Ian Garrison, who won Championship Series MVP honors in 2021, looked to be on the verge of stardom but fell off after that season, with a respectable but not superstar career, while starter Paul Walter also experienced his best stretch during the run.

The Bees finished a disappointing 4th in 2019, but in a bizarre move essentially swapped GMs with Baltimore: as Boston’s former exec went south, Baltimore’s GM - fired abruptly in the move - signed on with Boston. Both moves panned out, as Boston’s fortunes reversed immediately: the Bees finished a close second to Brooklyn in 2020 and 2021 before taking off in 2022. The immediate causes of Boston’s 99 win, Championship 2022 were the continued brilliance of LF John Hansen, who clubbed 32 homers at age 36 and finished third in MVP voting; and two younger stars - RF Mike MacArtney, who had his greatest season at age 26 in 2022, with 6.6 WAR, a league leading 48 doubles and 319 TB, a batting line of .336/.387/.565, and a Gold Glove; and SP Jamie Combs, who now holds Boston’s all-time pitching WAR mark and who won the first of his three Pitcher of the Year Awards in 2022. Backed by established stars such as Geoff Finnell, Hector Rayfield, and C Alex Afan, the Bees won it all in 2022 and 2023, with 101 wins in that second championship season, and took the D1 East the following year for a threepeat.

In Division 3, the Detroit Stars accomplished a similar feat. In 2019, the Stars won the D3 East for the first time since their lone 2008 championship season, but this didn’t prove to be an outlier. Led by LF/SP Nick Goodwin, the Stars repeated their Conference title in each of the next two seasons, beating the resurgent Salt Lake Gulls both times to win promotion to Division 2. Goodwin spent just three years in Detroit, but they were the right ones, as he was a prime factor in both of Detroit’s Championships, hitting .278/.402/.697 with two homers in the 2021 series alone. The Stars were able to win the D2 East in their first season after promotion, though their fortunes began to slide thereafter.

Cycle 5 also saw the beginnings of the worst periods for three of the NABF’s longest-suffering squads: The Havana Sugar Kings, who had advanced to Division 1 after the first cycle but who had a 5th place finish and two last place finishes in Cycle 5, and another last place in D3 in Cycle 6; the Las Vegas 51s, who dropped from D2 to D4 with four last place finishes in six seasons while averaging 90 losses; and the lowly Pittsburgh Crawfords, arguably the worst team in the NABF’s long history, who would have been relegated from Division 4 had a lower division existed. The Crawfords remain, after 30 years, the only team that has never won its Conference, and one of only two teams (along with the San Antonio Missions) that have never left Division 4.

So Cycle 6 ended with three franchises clearly on top of the world: the Baltimore Terrapins, El Paso Sun Kings, and Boston Bees. Beneath them, the Dodgers, the Stars, and others battled for a piece of the pie, as the NABF entered its most divided and imbalanced cycle of play - one in which the Terrapins would nearly break the game itself.

Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2019-2024

image note: on the Terrapins image, the blank 2009 data (including playoff appearance) and the duplicated 2021 with the second blank are due to errors in promotion/relegation - hitting 'execute' too early can result in data issues

ArquimedezPozo · 12-28-2022, 07:58 PM

Hitters
RF Raul Romero, Los Angeles Angels, 2019
Romero has a strong case as the greatest player of the first 30 years of NABF history. His career 103.3 WAR is the best of any player, a true five-tool star with 283 career home runs, top 5 records in doubles, triples, and stolen bases, three Gold Gloves, and two MVPs 12 years apart. But his 2019 may be his most complete all-around season: Romero won the third of his Gold Gloves that year while leading the league in OBP (.417), stolen bases (54), walks (108), runs (120), and WAR (8.3) while leading the Angels to their second best season, a 96 win Championship campaign in which they bested the Brooklyn Dodgers in a thrilling seven game set. Romero collected ten hits including a triple, hitting .333/.429/.400 in the series, his second ring with LA.

LF Steve Mauck, Baltimore Terrapins, 2024
Mauck’s third full season in Baltimore will never be forgotten by anyone who experienced it firsthand. Muck shared a team with all-time greats - Betz, Padgett, Martinez, Molina - yet somehow stood head and shoulders above them as he chased impossible records all season - not quite reaching them, but in failing still putting together one of the three or four greatest offensive seasons to that point in NABF History. It’s easy to forget knowing where he ended, but the chase that captured fans’ imaginations at first was his pursuit of, first, .400 - Mauck maintained an average above that number almost into June - before attention turned to the home run chase. Mauck eclipsed New Orleans Zephyrs slugger Pedro Quiroz’s 57 - set the season before - with a full week to play, and pulled within one of Eric Bryant’s 60 for Kansas City in 2008 with five games left… and then stalled. A long fly on the season’s final day caught breath around the stadium, but it fell short. A groan, though, was followed the next moment by thunderous applause for Mauck: not only were his 59 home runs the new D3 standard (a record that stands to this day) but he batted .344/.435/.708, his SLG and OPS both still the highest in D3 history, and the .344 enough to net him the batting title. His 142 RBI also led the league, giving him the Triple Crown, and only his teammate Padgett’s total from the season before denied him that all-time D3 record as well. He won the MVP unanimously, and battered Sacramento in the Division Championship Series, hitting .409/.480/.636. It was the finest season in one of the finest careers in the history of the Federation.

1B Zach Markiewicz, San Francisco Seals, 2021
Markiewicz is a controversial player in discussions of all-time talent, but no one debates his exceptional 2021, a season capped by a monster performance - 2 homers, 12 RBI, .450/.532/.800 line and the Series MVP - to give his Seals their first and only Championship. Markiewicz was a huge reason they were there in the first place, too, winning the Triple Crown with a 59 homer, 152 RBI, .323/.440/.701 season from first base. Markiewicz played every game of the Seals’ season, leading D2 in Plate Appearances along with virtually everything else, and won the MVP easily. His 9 WAR in 2021 is his highest total by a good margin, though, coming at the center of a relatively short peak. Still, if any season can put a player over the bar into discussion of all-time greats, this is a good one to choose.

2B Doug Padgett, Baltimore Terrapins, 2023
Padgett was entering the final portion of his incredible career in 2023, the first season in which he gave up his role as a starter to focus exclusively on offense after missing most of 2022 to injury. The results were extraordinary: 9.6 WAR splitting time between 2B and 1B, while launching 36 homers and setting a D3 single-season Batting Average record of .370, just decimal points under Max Hinkle’s all-time NABF mark. He led the league in all slash categories, with a .427/.628 OBP/SLG to go along with his average, and 36 homers to lead the Division. The campaign won him the MVP, and helped deliver Baltimore the first of their five straight 100 win seasons. Both Padgett and the Terrapins underperformed in a losing effort against eventual D3 Champion Seattle, but especially given the successes in the future, it’s easy to overlook that and simply stand in awe of Padgett’s season.

1B Craig Vest, Ft. Worth Cats, 2022
Among the three or four greatest offensive players in NABF history, Vest was at his best in 2022, putting up 7.6 WAR (a career high) while leading D1 in WAR, BA (.331), OBP (.414), doubles (55) and Runs Created (143.1) to go along with his customary first place ranking in steals (86, one shy of his career best). Vest is the greatest base stealer in NABF history and the only with more than 1000 career swipes, but he was never better than in 2022, matching those 86 with only nine times caught. Perhaps the greatest moment of his season, though, came when he hit for the cycle for the only time in his career, in late September against the Seals, sealing a victory that helped ensure the Angels 5th place over San Francisco amid fears of coming relegation.

Pitchers
SP David Miramontes, Atlanta Crackers, 2019
By 2019, Miramontes was 38 years old, in his second season with his fifth and last team. He was widely regarded as one of the most consistent and solid, if not truly great, pitchers in the NABF, but had won three Pitcher of the Year awards earlier in his career and was a two-time D1 Champion. Certainly no one expected that he was about to have the best four year stretch of his entire career, or that he would see a jump in his K rate, a drop in his walk rate, and the best stretch of groundout rates of his career. The change had begun in his final season with Montreal, as he saw a reduction in his walk rate and got even more groundouts than usual. But once he signed on with Atlanta, things really began to change, culminating in an 8 WAR 2019 in which he struck out more than 200 batters for the first time (231), and allowed just six homers all season. He was overlooked in Pitcher of the Year voting, but incredibly would win his fourth two years later, at age 41, as he continued a career renaissance that would vault him into the upper echelon of all-time NABF hurlers.

SP Jim Betz, Baltimore Terrapins, 2024
Another pitcher with a late-career renaissance, Betz was already one of the most dominant arms in NABF history when he arrived in Baltimore from Tijuana via offseason trade before the 2023 campaign. Betz was just coming off a down season, and going into his age 34 season there was reason to believe he was headed into the twilight. But in 2024, with the tutelage of a Terrapins coaching staff that had already done wonders with Danny Rsaza, Betz honed his command with some mechanical tweaks and had a resurgent 2024, going 19-2 with a D3 best 2.44 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. His 6.6 WAR and 1.5 BB/9 - the lowest of his career - also led the Division, earning Betz his second Pitcher of the Year award and helping Baltimore reach its best season yet, ultimately winning his first championship.

SP Jeremiah Harris, Memphis Blues, 2024
Jeremiah Harris was a solid journeyman with only one great season to his name, and it came along when Memphis needed it most. Harris dominated D4 in 2024, with 234 innings of 2.15 ERA, 2.74 FIP ball, striking out 241 while holding down a Division-best 0.96 WHIP and 6.9 WAR. It earned him the Pitcher of the Year, and more importantly was the biggest factor in Memphis’ 91-63, D4 East title that secured them promotion to Division 3. Though Memphis lost the Championship to San Diego in seven, Harris’ season is still the best by WAR of any pitching season in Memphis franchise history. Harris suffered a series of injuries after that season, perhaps brought on by overwork, and astonishingly was out of baseball by 2028, but Memphis fans will long remember his finest hour.

SP Oliver Chase, Montreal Expos, 2023
This is Chase’s second appearance on this list, 13 years removed from his first. That alone should give you a sense of his place in NABF pitching history. 2023 was his final productive year, at age 36 and at the end of a Montreal contract that never quite reached the value team owners had been looking for. But it did in 2023, as Chase was Pitcher of the month three times en route to a 6.2 WAR, 3.06 FIP season. Lacking the fiery stuff that had defined his earlier career, he now relied on guile and control, walking just 1.6 batters per nine, which helped to give him a league-lowest 1.12 WHIP. Chase missed out on what would have been his 6th Pitcher of the Year, but the five he does have is still the most in NABF history.

SP Armando Silva, Cincinnati Tigers, 2021
The man they called the Sheriff saved his best work in Cincinnati for his contract year, though fans had trouble noticing it at first: though Silva put up 6.6 WAR in 2021, he suffered a losing 8-11 record, a 3.77 ERA that, while above league average, was hardly extraordinary, and seemingly not much else, on the surface. What he did have, however, was a 2.36 FIP and a league-leading 63 FIP-, a career-best 4.8 K/BB, and a career-high 206 strikeouts, the only time he ever broke 200. Silva was coming off a D4 Pitcher of the Year trophy, but should have been in the conversation for two straight; instead, he signed on for a modest raise with the Tijuana Potros, where he spent his last five seasons - in the end a good solid pitcher with two great seasons, only one of which was recognized for what it was.

Two-Way Players
LF/SP Nick Goodwin, Detroit Stars, 2021
Goodwin’s 2021 would have been outstanding even if he’d never stood on the pitcher’s mound: the Detroit LF had his best season with the bat in 2021 to help the Stars to their second consecutive championship. Goodwin launched a career-high 39 homers to go along with a .308/.387/.618 line, in just 145 games. He set career bests in virtually every offensive category and was among the Division leaders in most as well, though he didn’t lead in any except offensive WAR (7.8). But, of course, he did set foot on the mound, and while he hardly competed for Pitcher of the Year he gave Detroit valuable innings at right around league average, adding another 2 WAR from the mound for 9.8 overall, the highest total of any year of his historic career.

Next: The 2025 Division Championships

ArquimedezPozo · 12-29-2022, 02:35 PM

Imagine:

It’s Saturday, October 11, 2025, the second to last day of the 2025 NABF season, and there are four games on today. At 1pm, you watch Game 6 of the Division 4 Championship series; it’s been a good one, with the Albuquerque Dukes leading the Charlotte Hornets three games to 2. It’s a tight contest through 7, but now the Dukes have the bases loaded, though they’re a run back of Charlotte. There are two outs, but the light-hitting shortstop Steve Willis is up; he’s only had two singles during the series and has struck out 7 times. The count runs to 2-2. Then, a fastball, away. Willis lunges and manages a bloop down the line - it’s fair! It bangs against the corner where the wall juts out and scoots just far enough to elude Charlotte LF Xenophon Korkoris. With one run already in, the runner at second is now being waved around - with two outs, he’d been off on contact, and now he dives, his hand sweeps over the plate as the tag comes in, and he’s safe! Albuquerque has taken the lead! They score twice more that inning, and it’s sewn up - Albuquerque takes the title in six.

You flip over just in time to catch the 4pm first pitch for Division 3’s Game 7. Another tight contest - this one a smashfest. You didn’t really have a rooting interest in D4’s ALB-CHR, but this one has a David and Goliath feel to it: The Padres are looking for their fifth Championship, and second straight after promotion from Division 4 in the offseason, while Ottawa - long one of the most hapless teams in the Federation - is here for the first time. You like an underdog, and they’re certainly that, but at the moment it doesn’t look great - after a few lead changes and almost as many pitching changes, San Diego is up by two heading into the ninth. We’re in Ottawa, though, so when ace Champions reliever Doug Klutz wraps up a scoreless top half, Ottawa’s top of the order comes due. Ottawa got here through pitching and defense, but they’ve turned on the power so far this series, so it feels like there’s a chance. When CF Nick Washington leads off the bottom half with a solo shot, the Ottawa crowd erupts, and no one sits down for the rest of the game. #2 hitter Herb Phillips Ks, and Frank Flanigan grounds sharply to third, but then the great Josh Randall steps to the plate. Randall signed with Ottawa in the offseason, as good a place as any to end a career, and then he found himself along for the ride. Randall has never won a Championship, and he wants it bad - he lines a single to the opposite field. Another single, this time from the speedy young 2B Lorenzo Escobar, and suddenly Ottawa has the winning run on first. Randall is lifted for a pinch runner as Josh Henry comes to bat. Henry is just 25, and didn’t even play a full season for the Champs, but was electric in the second half, and the crowd senses it. Henry doesn’t make them wait, turning on the first pitch and sending deep, into the RF corner - it misses a homer by inches and rolls toward the right fielder Gonzalez. One run is already in, and Gonzalez comes up firing but it’s too late! Escobar crosses home standing up, into a pile of his teammates - the Champions are Champions, and in walk-off style!

The exhilaration of that win almost makes you forget that the D2 Championship game 6 started at 7 - it’s already well into the third when you flip over. The Baltimore Terrapins had won an astonishing 115 games in 2025, easily the most in the Federation’s history, and their victory over Vancouver seemed an almost foregone conclusion, but they’d dropped the first game in Baltimore and had narrowly won the second. The Mounties crushed Danny Rzasa in Game 3, but the Pins came back to take the 4th and 5th, and now stood on the precipice of becoming the first team with championships in three different Divisions… but as you tune in, you see a 5-0 Mounties lead, already. This time they’ve victimized Martinez, who was brilliant in Game 2 but is on the ropes here. The Mounties add two more in the 5th, and another in the 6th; a Steve Mauck solo shot eases the pain in the 7th, but not by much.

The Division 1 game is starting up soon, and you figure you can flip back here and there - if the Pins come back somehow, you’ll catch it. They don’t, and you watch the Philadelphia A’s take all the drama out of their own Game 7, vanquishing El Paso 6-2 after a two homer performance by 1B Jake Haston - he hit two earlier in the series and is an easy selection as series MVP. You watch until he finishes his quick shoutouts, hoisting the MVP trophy while his teammate, the great catcher Corey Cerrone, holds the championship cup behind him. Then you switch it off and head to sleep.

So now it’s October 12, and only one game remains between baseball and the offseason: a Division 2 game seven between the best regular season team in NABF history, and a Mounties club whose 94 wins are hardly nothing, but still pale in comparison to that juggernaut. Or so people have said, anyway: here they are, now, one win away from an upset victory over a superteam. And it’s Rzasa, again: he’d had a terrible Game 3, which, if repeated, could mean a long offseason in Baltimore.

Rzasa hadn’t lasted past the second inning in Game 3, but in Game 7 he manages four plus before exiting, his Terrapins leading 6-4 after a Doug Padgett bases-clearing double in the third off promising young starter Danny Pierson. Philadelphia’s manager will take heat for starting the youngster in this series, you think. Padgett has given the Pins an extraordinary series so far, but once Rzasa left things have gone awry, and it looks like that effort might be wasted as Vancouver drops two on Baltimore’s pen in the seventh, tying it up. In the eighth, they finally get to David Linder, who has handcuffed them in four scattered innings over the rest of the series, and entering the ninth it’s 7-6 Vancouver.

Baltimore closer Matt Heitzman sits Vancouver down in order, as he has all series - in eight innings of work he’s given up only four hits. But the bottom of Baltimore’s order is up - 7, 8, 9 - and unless they get someone on for young phenom Mel Irving it will end there. 2B Gustavo Cortes lines the ball hard, but right at Vancouver’s rookie 3B Sam Webb, who snares it. SS Hector Delgado flails at an 0-2 slider out of the zone for the second out. But veteran catcher Jose Molina is batting ninth, and though he’s endured one of his worst seasons, he has a well-earned reputation for delivering in the clutch to live up to. He singles, weakly, through into right field, and Mel Irving steps to the plate.

Baltimore had already been good when Irving arrived in 2024, but the young CF was electrifying. He was, from the start, one of the best defensive players in the game, and he could flat out hit: in 2025 he slashed .300/.363/.507 with 23 homers to lead the league with 6.9 WAR. But he is still young, and has underperformed in the series, looking overeager, so the Baltimore crowd’s cheering has an extra tinge of desperation to it. Strike one goes past Irving, a fastball on the outside half. A curve misses, and is followed by another that Irving fouls back. Another fastball, also outside, but more so - Irving takes it and the ump signals a ball, with Vancouver’s ace closer Carter grimacing. The next one was supposed to be another fastball, also away, but this one misses the spot by two inches. It is still on the outer half, but hittable, and Irving connects - an opposite field drive. It’s not a no-doubter, so Irving sprints as he and the crowd and you watch, breathless… then erupt, as the ball lands in the first row of seats, ten feet to the left of the foul pole, and then fireworks as Irving rounds third, and then into the pile, and the greatest team in the history of the NABF is now the first to win in three Divisions and the second team in this one single shining postseason with a walk-off win in Game 7 - the first two times it had ever been done, and now with a homer from behind. What a game, what a postseason, what a game.

Next: The Unprecedented Years (Cycles 7 and 8)

Note: unfortunately I never actually kept all the box scores and game logs from these games. What I remember from this - I was GM of the Terrapins - was that both the D3 and D2 series ended on walk-offs. I remember Irving’s walk-off homer very clearly, as well as the general shape of that series, but much of it is conjecture based on player postseason stats. The others are mostly fabricated based on whatever I remember (I’m like 75% sure it was Henry who hit the game-winner for Ottawa) and supplemented with info from player stats. Regardless, it was an incredible set of series, so even if this isn’t how it went down, the outcomes are the same and it’s close enough.

ArquimedezPozo · 12-29-2022, 04:22 PM

The years between 2025 and 2030 will be long remembered ni NABF history - the years of impossible feats, incredible finishes, fallen records, franchise turnarounds, and the greatest seasons for any team of the first thirty years of play.

Much like in the previous recap, we have to begin in Baltimore. The Terrapins had spent Cycle 5 tearing through Division 4, and Cycle 6 doing the same to Division 3. Only two other teams - the Salt Lake Gulls of 2007-2012 and the Columbus Red Birds of 2013-2018 - had accomplished the feat of moving from D4 to D2 in just two cycles, but both of them failed to capitalize, struggling against D2 competition as their core players either left or aged. So all eyes were on the Pins as they began play: their unique position as a smaller market team with strong financial resources had allowed them to replenish talent, keep stars, and cultivate younger players, and the resulting mix held a great deal of promise.

That promise was met and vastly exceeded. The Terrapins began the season with two straight losses, but then ripped off a dozen straight wins, and kept on going. Sluggers Doug Padgett and Steve Mauck were joined by star 3B Connor Carey, and that 3-4-5 combo delivered souvenirs to fans in bleachers at an extraordinary rate: over 100 homers combined, just between the three of them, with catcher Jose Molina, RF Kyle Marshall, and rookie 1B Josh Hinthorne delivering more than 20 each. Baltimore scored 826 runs over the season - not a record, but not far from one (though incredibly the team would improve on that figure in both of the next two years).

The even bigger strength lay in their exceptional pitching staff. Four starters had 4 WAR seasons, including Jim Betz, whose late-career renaissance hit its highest point in 2025 - 20-6 with a 2.29 ERA and almost identical 2.27 FIP, good for 8.3 WAR and a Pitcher of the Year trophy. Mike Martinez was outstanding behind him, while Danny Rzasa set the NABF wins record, going 23-3 while posting 4.3 WAR. The bullpen was easily the best in the business. The team had no holes, and their record reflected it, finishing with a 115-39 record that was nine wins better than the previous record, which the Terrapins themselves had set the year before in D3. They won the Championship in a thrilling seven game series (see previous section).

For the next two seasons, they kept almost the exact same core of players (though Betz departed after 2026), with similar results: the second and third best seasons in NABF history, with 108 and 112 win seasons in 2026 and 2027, to go along with two more championships: another thrilling seven game series win over Vancouver, and a five game rout of Seattle, to bring their championship total to seven, the most of any team. Promotion was not even a question.

Division 1 proved more of a challenge for the Terrapins, especially as their stars began the ends of their careers. Steve Mauck led D1 in homers every year of Cycle 8, but his overall production dropped, as did his health. The team shocked its fans by trading Padgett in 2029 as their season crumbled, finishing with a losing record for the first time since 2011. Mike Martinez remained productive into the 2030s, but could no longer be called an ace, and Irving - still an incredible defender - never had an offensive season like his 2025-2026 peak again. The powerhouse in D1 in 2028 and 2029 was a resurgent Boston Bees, not the fading Pins.

The team had one more run left in what remained, however, and a weak D1 East allowed them to take the Conference with just 88 games in 2030. Matched up against a superior Angels team, they pulled out that magic one more time, winning in seven to become the only NABF team with 8 championships, and the only to win at least one in each Division.

The Terrapins weren’t the only ones setting records in those years. In New Orleans, young slugger Pedro Quiroz began a run of dominance unparalleled in the NABF, winning the home run title every year between 2025 and 2032, across both D3 and D2. Over those 8 years he hit 423 homers, a total only 19 other players have ever reached in their entire careers; he averaged 53 a year, a total reached only 11 times by any player who wasn’t Quiroz. Among those was his stunning 62 home run 2029, breaking the all-time single season mark of 60 set by the Monarchs’ Eric Bryant 20 years earlier. Quiroz also set the single season Total Bases record that year, while driving in 136 runs. Other hallowed records fell in the same period, from fellow New Orleans Zephyrs player Bobby Usry’s 2027 pursuit of the all-time hits record (which he set at 228) to Danny Rzasa’s record 23 wins in 2025 to Baltimore closer Matt Heitzman’s 51 saves in 2026. And on the other side of things, the St. Paul Saints set a record in 2027 that no one wanted: 107 losses, the most in NABF history.

Outside of the record-setting Terrapins, Cycle 7 belonged to the Philadelphia Athletics, who overcame strong El Paso teams in both 2025 and 2027 with a deep pitching staff backing aging superstar RF Brent Byrd and young CF phenom Eduardo Garcia (winner of 2028’s MVP in D1). The wins were the second and third in Philadelphia’s history, and established them as a force in Division 1, though the arrival of the Terrapins and the resurgence of the Bees complicated things. Still, the Athletics placed 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd again in Cycle 8, keeping things interesting until the end each year.

In D1 West, it was El Paso: the most consistent team in NABF history closed out the best run in team history. Behind 2B/SS Mike Smart and a roster of outstanding hitters, the Sun Kings took three straight D1 West titles in Cycle 7, though they lost each time - twice to Philly and once to the Montreal Expos, who won their first championship.

The Albuquerque Dukes were able to build on their 2025 championship with two more Conference titles in 2026 and 2027 to earn promotion to D3. The team kept rolling there, winning the D3 Championship in 2028. Their period of dominance coincides with one of the saddest stories of the NABF: Brian Tate looked to be building an all-time great career as he led the Dukes in the last half of the 2020s, putting up four straight D4/D3 best WAR seasons between ages 24 and 27 while the Dukes took first place each time. But something changed during the 2029 season, as Tate’s fastball simply dried up. His strikeout rate plummeted and HR rate rose, and he was out of baseball by 2032.

In Cycle 8, things started to shift in the lower Divisions that would have major ramifications for the next six years. The Chicago Whales, Kansas City Monarchs, Denver Bears, and Cincinnati Tigers had long been among the most hapless teams in the game: Denver and Cincinnati had famously never won a Conference title, while Kansas City had only one to its name, all the way back in 2011. But in 2027, the Tigers snuck into first in the D4 East with an 83-71 season, and upset the Dukes to win their first championship. Kansas City was next, winning a championship in both 2028 and 2029 before a narrow second place finish in 2029; it was more than enough to launch them into D3 for the first time in their history. And the Chicago Whales, who had bounced between Divisions 1 and 2 for the first twenty years of the NABF with just two Conference titles and no championships, suddenly emerged as a powerhouse, with CF Kyle DuBell emerging as a star.

The biggest story, though, was the Denver Bears, long a league laughingstock, they suddenly started winning. 2028 and 2029 saw two straight 88 win seasons - the latter their first ever Conference title. They won the 2030 championship at home against the Miami Marlins in front of a massive crowd, sparking the biggest celebration Denver could recall.

So as Cycle 8 came to a close, records lay shattered, new heroes emerged, a dynasty was on its last legs, and several long-time losers looked ready to take their place.

Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2025-2032

ArquimedezPozo · 12-29-2022, 09:34 PM

Hitters

CF Mel Irving, Baltimore Terrapins, 2026
The Terrapins’ young center fielder’s greatest season came the year after he hit the greatest home run in Terrapins history, a walk-off, come-from-behind two strike blast into the right field stands at Terrapins Park. He followed up that homer with an MVP year: a league-leading 8.9 WAR, driven by his defensive value (resulting in his first Gold Glove) and a .320/.372/.523 line with a career-best 35 homers (the only time he cracked 30). His 190 hits and 340 total bases each led D2. While Irving remains one of the greatest defenders in the game, with 11 straight awards in center, his offensive game has never been as good as it was in that age 23 season, when he was the best in the game.

CF Kyle DuBell, Chicago Whales, 2029
Another young CF with one extraordinary season. DuBell was never the defender Irving was, but at his best his bat made up for that value, including in his only MVP season, 2029. DuBell hit .296/.364/.631 with 44 homers and 39 doubles, driving in 128 for the D2 champion Whales. His 8.2 WAR led D2 that year, and helped the Whales climb back to Division 1, where the franchise originated. DuBell’s 2029 was in the middle of his most productive stretch as a player, but he fell off a cliff after his age 29 season and has never regained his production, topping 3 WAR only once since 2031.

LF Pedro Quiroz, New Orleans Zephyrs, 2029
Some of the highlights of Quiroz’s amazing 2029 are detailed in the previous section, and in truth this list could have replaced this year with 2028, 2030, or 2026, all of which ended with higher WAR totals than 2029. But 2029 was a season of legend, in which Quiroz cemented himself as the Federation’s greatest slugger, smashing the record of 60 homers in a season by two, and the total bases record by 1. Quiroz batted .313/.374/.664, and led D2 in at bats, plate appearances, hits, slugging, runs created, wRC+, runs, RBI, and OPS - though, incredibly, not WAR: his subpar fielding dragged his value down to a “mere” 6.5 WAR. Despite that, the season remains one of the most cherished and remembered in NABF history, a bit of New Orleans magic at the end of an incredible decade of baseball.

3B Brian Runnion, Charlotte Hornets, 2025
The only infielder on the list for these cycles is Runnion, who held down third base for the Charlotte Hornets through most of the 2020s. It’s almost impossible to choose between his 2025 and 2026 seasons, but the Hornets’ conference title in 2025 puts that year over the edge. Runnion was both the team and Division MVP in 2025, the first of his three awards, as he hit .294 while leading the Division in on-base percentage (.439), slugging (.604), OPS (1.034) and WAR (8.3) as well as a host of other categories. He was far and away the best position player in Division 4 that season, his 8.3 WAR amazingly close to double that of the next closest, the San Antonio Missions’ Sam Martinez, with just 4.8.

CF Bobby Usry, New Orleans Zephyrs, 2027
Just as his teammate Quiroz would do two years later, Bobby Usry captured the sport’s attention in 2027 with a record-breaking run as he targeted Jonathan Allen’s 220 hit record, set with the Salt Lake Gulls all the way back in 2010. He would do so successfully in the season’s final week, with the record-breaker stopping play in New Orleans as Usry - already an established star though in only his second season in the Big Easy - was honored by the club. He would go on to set the Division 4 single season hits record with 225 in 2031 while with the Browns; he would also set the all-time hits mark that season, a mark he continues to both hold and grow.

Pitchers

SP Jim Betz, Baltimore Terrapins, 2025
Jim Betz was 36 years old, in his third season with Baltimore. He’d just returned to Division 2, where he’d begun his career with the Havana Sugar Kings, a franchise where he’d had his finest years, and while he’d been excellent for the Terrapins in 2024 many doubted he’d be able to repeat it as Baltimore climbed the ladder. He didn’t: he blew 2024 out of the water with a sterling 20 win season in which he threw almost 220 innings and allowed only five home runs. Five. On top of that incredible figure, Betz put up a 2.27 FIP (57 FIP-) and 8.2 WAR while taking home both a Championship share and a Pitcher of the Year award. On a team of stars, it’s hard to say Betz was the biggest reason the Terrapins did what they did in 2025, but he was certainly in the inner circle.

SP Bob Paul, Los Angeles Angels, 2026
Bob Paul has now had two successful careers: the first between 2020 and 2028 as an ace starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, and the second as an all-time great closer with seven different franchises since 2029. This season was the finest of that first career, as he provided a struggling and in-transition Angels squad with its only true anchor. Paul went 16-6 for a losing franchise, striking out just under a batter an inning with a 2,81 FIP (64 FIP-). He walked just 5% of the hitters he faced that year, dominating a tough Division 1. He was denied a Pitcher of the Year Award - it went instead to Boston’s Hector Rayfield for an almost objectively worse season - but he was clearly the most valuable pitcher to his club, and maybe the only thing in those years that kept LA out of Division 2.

SP Brian Tate, Albuquerque Dukes, 2026
Tate had a short career, but a brilliant one. For four years with the Dukes, he was the best there was in both Division 4 and Division 3, leading in WAR each of those seasons while revitalizing a struggling Dukes franchise. 2026 was the second, and greatest, of them, as Tate earned 7.7 WAR with a miniscule SIERA of 1.59, a 54 FIP-, and an almost unheard-of 12.1 K/9, which at the time set a record among D4 starting pitchers and was one of the top all-time NABF marks. He also held opponents to just 1.4 walks per nine, also a D4 best. The season earned him the first of his two Pitcher of the Year Awards, the second coming in 2028, the year before his career fell apart.

SP Danny Rzasa, Baltimore Terrapins, 2025
This is an old-school baseball pick: if you put Rzasa’s advanced metrics up against his teammate Betz, or Paul, or anyone else on this list (and several off it) it doesn’t hold up. But there’s a place for record-breakers, even people who break records in stats as problematic as wins. Rzasa did that, with one of the most lopsided W-L records you’ll ever see: a 23-3 2025 for the record-breaking Terrapins. Rzasa’s ERA challenged for the league lead at 2.41, though the FIP of 3.30 was less dominant - an 83 FIP-. Rzasa struck out over a quarter of the batters he faced, but walked 6.5%. For many other teams it would have been an ace-level performance; for Baltimore he was a #3. But it’s his name in the record books.

SP Chad Martucci, Denver Bears, 2030
The Denver Bears had never won their conference before 2030, and no one deserves more credit for their victory that season than the journeyman Martucci. He never fit the mold of a Denver pitcher - he wasn’t a power guy, and wasn’t a groundballer. By this point in his career, he was 34 years old and a soft-tosser, a finesse pitcher with impeccable control and wily breaking stuff who piled up strikeouts without lighting up radar guns. When he came to the Bears he had never even appeared in an All-Star game, but something about that thin air worked for him, and he became a new pitcher. By 2030, he was a three-time All-Star who had led D3 in WAR twice and was about to do it a third time, with the best season of his career. Though his 4.13 ERA gave him his doubters, he struck out well over a batter an inning while walking just 46 in almost 220 innings of work. He was somewhat homer prone, but with few runners on base it didn’t hurt as much, and his FIP was a strong 3.14, a 68 FIP- with a 2.79 SIERA. The combination of big innings and few baserunners gave him a 7.0 WAR, the highest in his career and the pinnacle of his late career transformation.

CL Matt Heitzman, Baltimore Terrapins, 2026
It’s a sign of the Terrapins’ dominance that three pitching seasons wind up on this list, including the first by a reliever. Heitzman was an accidental closer, having stepped into the role at the start of 2025 due to a spring training injury, but he took to it immediately and was soon named the permanent closer. He saved 43 games in 2025 to lead D2 and hurled 9 scoreless frames in the 2024 D2 Championship over Vancouver. The next season, 2026, he set a new single-season record with 51. He struck out nearly 30% of the batters he faced - 10.6 K/9 - and allowed just 4 homers in 60 innings of work. His 1.7 WAR was top among D2 relievers, and he won the 2026 Reliever of the Year, even getting a handful of votes for Pitcher of the Year.

ArquimedezPozo · 12-31-2022, 10:22 AM

Finally we arrive at modern day, and two cycles which have upended the NABF in exciting and dramatic ways.

Though this was a period of change, some things stayed the same: the El Paso Sun Kings continued their reign of Division 1. Between 2031 and 2036, the Sun Kings won four Conference titles and two Division Championships, their 2036 squad winning 99 games, more than any other in franchise history. Their offensive core - CF Joe Rison, C Mike Kepler, RF Chris Beardsley - are all in their prime years, and though the solid pitching staff is older they have continued to be effective. Even 30 years in, El Paso was still able to mix veterans and developing players to create yet another winning ballclub.

It was not quite as easy a tale for the Ft. Worth Cats. Relegated to Division 2 for the first time in franchise history to begin Cycle 9, they were able to cut through a weak division, winning the D2 West in 2031 and Division 2 itself in 2033. But their fortunes began to fade in 2034, despite earning promotion on the strength of the first two seasons. Back in D1 for Cycle 10, they struggled mightily, with three straight last place finishes to head back down.

Replacing the Cats in D1 West will be Denver’s Bears - after winning the first franchise championship - or conference title - in 2030, the Bears clawed their way through Division 2. In 2031 they finished in third, but just two games back; the following year they came in second, a single game behind Fort Worth. But in 2033 they eclipsed the Cats to win the D2 West, losing to Toronto in a well-balanced series. They came into Cycle 10 the heavy favorites for promotion, with a deep team led by Chad Martucci, Clemens Young, and others. They won the conference in 2034 and 2035, then finally got over the hump (with the help of free agent signee SP Dylan Anderson) and won the D2 Championship, officially securing promotion to Division 1. What had once been the most disappointing franchise in the NABF will now be on its largest stage.

The Tampa Tarpons will join them there. Tampa has been one of the most successful franchises in the NABF, but with only sporadic success, and never able to move beyond Division 2. But in Cycle 10, they won two Conference titles and the 2035 D2 Championship (beating Denver) to earn promotion. Tampa’s current lineup uses a distinctive speed and contact style that promises to shake up Division 1.

The biggest story of the last decade of NABF ball, though, has been the Kansas City Monarchs. For 20 years, they remained a quiet Division 4 team: one lone conference title in 2011 and several last place finishes, despite stints by some of the greats (most notably slugger Eric Bryant). But in 2026 they started winning, consistently and convincingly. In the first year of Cycle 8, they won their conference, and for the first time their division; they repeated the feat in 2029. That ensured promotion, but a downturn in 2030 suggested their time in D3 might be short. They proved their doubters wrong, winning 90 games, the D3 East, and the D3 Championship in 2031, and though their win totals dropped each of the next two years they were enough to stamp KC’s ticket to Division 2. They held their own there in Cycle 10, gaining each season, and ended 2036 with 86 wins, only a few back from first and ready to see what lies ahead.

In Division 4, the Nashville Sounds went on a run for the ages too, winning three consecutive D4 titles between 2031 and 2033, giving them four over their history. With a D3 East conference title in Cycle 10, they look to build further. The same can be said of the Sacramento Solons, who were promoted from the D4 West as the Sounds left the East; they had lost to Nashville in the Championships in 2032 and 2033, but once in D3 they kept going, winning the D3 Series in both 2034 and 2035 to earn promotion to D2 in Cycle 11.

Amid all this upward movement, two once triumphant franchises began to fade. The Boston Bees were the first to go; only two years after their final championship in 2029, they found themselves in last place, 72-82. It got worse the next season, with their win total dropping to 65. Then, 57 wins in 2033, and a slam-dunk relegation. The very next year, it was Baltimore’s turn. As fewer and fewer faces from the Terrapins’ incredible 2020s runs came back year after year - Padgett traded away in 2029, Mauck gone after 2031, Hinthorne after 2032, and so on - the Terrapins spent Cycle 9 floating between 2nd and 4th place. But the bottom dropped out in 2034, and the team won just 60, 65, and 66 games respectively over the three years of Cycle 10 - last place all three, and relegated for the first time in their history.

As the first ten cycles - 30 years - of NABF history ended in 2036, an amazing confluence of retirements swept through the NABF as some of its best all-time talents hung it up: all-time steals leader Craig Vest, all-time Home Run king Pedro Quiroz, all-time hits and doubles leader Bobby Usry, Baltimore Terrapins great Steve Mauck and Two-Way star Nick Goodwin. We watched some of the greatest teams in its history sink, while new dynasties struggled to be born. Who knows who will rule the next 30? Maybe it will be San Diego RF Jason Turnquist, who won the D2 Rookie of the Year this past season. Or 27 year old 2034 D4 Pitcher of the Year Aaron Cottrell. Maybe it will be the Phoenix Firebirds, who won their first Conference title in 2036 after years of futility. Maybe someone we can't predict, or a team we don't expect. The game will surprise you, sometimes.

Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2031-2036

ArquimedezPozo · 12-31-2022, 11:32 AM

Hitters

CF Benni Phillips, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2031
Phillips is probably the greatest of the current crop of NABF stars - a serviceable defensive CF with a complete offensive attack. He was the unquestioned best player in Division 2 over a four year stretch between 2030 and 2033, his age 24-27 seasons, during which he slugged 146 homers and put up 33.5 WAR while lifting his team back into Division 1. His numbers have taken a hit against better competition in D1 but he remains a dangerous hitter into his 30s for Toronto, whose uniform he will be wearing until 2041 after signing an 8 year extension in 2034. Phillips is a two-time MVP, winning his first in 2031 as he led the league with 174 hits, 105 runs, a .427 OBP, and a 9.7 WAR - a new single-season record for D2. Part of that value was his 39 homer total, at the time a career high, as he slugged .606 with a .331 BA. A complete offensive season, one of the best the NABF has seen.

3B Ali Brown, Detroit Stars, 2032
Brown has been one of the biggest drivers of the Sounds’ extraordinary success over the past six seasons, as they reversed years of futility that included four straight last place seasons and a drop from Division 2 down to Division 3. Brown, now a third base institution in Detroit, burst on to the scene in his first full season, putting up 8 WAR with a .284/.392/.563 line, that SLG being the best in D3. He hit 35 homers - he would dramatically improve on this in his nearly-as-good 2033 with 47 - while also posting a division-best .409 wOBA and winning the first of two MVP awards. His most recent 2036 season was also the best on a Detroit team that won the 2036 Championship, which means Brown will have his first shot at D2 competition in 2037.

SS Mike Burcham, New York Giants, 2033
Burcham has emerged as the best of a new crop of star shortstops over the first years of the 2030s, helping his Giants toward competitiveness. The team has finished below second place only once in the decade, and in 2033 won the D1 East behind Burcham’s great season - the first time the club had won a Conference title since 2024, and its first in D1 since 2012. Burcham won both a Gold Glove and batting title in 2033, hitting .343/.411/.433 - that OBP also a league leader. His 202 hits, 10 triples, and 113 runs were also tops in D1, as was his 8.6 WAR. He followed up 2023 with another stellar campaign, breaking out with 65 stolen bases and adding some additional gap power (a league leading 41 doubles) but 2033 was his best season, and the one that best showcases his contact-speed style, an increasingly common one in D1 in the last few years.

1B Danny Gonzalez, Tijuana Potros, 2032
Few current stars are as decorated as Gonzalez, who has a Rookie of the Year, a Gold Glove, 9 Silver Sluggers, 11 All-Star selections, and two MVP trophies on the shelf at home to go along with a D1 Championship. Gonzalez had his best season in 2032, when he took home his second MVP while collecting the first of three recent Triple Crowns in the NABF (along with Clemens Young in 2035 and Carson Prince in 2036). He put up a .340/.404/.658 line with 48 homers and 137 RBI, also topping the Division with 7.6 WAR, 179 wRC+, and a .444 wOBA.

C Mike Kepler, El Paso Sun Kings, 2036
Kepler’s overall line isn’t as impressive as those above, but his 2036 stands out for a singular reason: in 2036, Kepler became the first catcher to win an MVP in any Division in NABF history. Kepler’s age 27 season was the latest in a string of outstanding offensive seasons from behind the plate, and Kepler took a step forward in 2036, setting career highs in average and OBP (.318 and .399 respectively) while maintaining his power level with 20 homers and a .513 SLG. Though he didn’t lead his league in any offensive category, his 5.1 WAR at a demanding defensive position and on a championship team was enough to put him over the top in a tight MVP race, and enough to earn him a spot here.

Pitchers

SP Willie Rodriguez, Cincinnati Tigers, 2035
Rodriguez’s 2035 has a case to be called the greatest pitching season in NABF history. A 52 FIP- is impressive enough, but his 6.5 K/BB is among the best of any season. Rodriguez is one of only 13 pitchers to top 300 strikeouts in a single season, and one of only three in D3, and among those who have done it, none had control anywhere close to Rodriguez’s - only 5.1% of batters who faced him drew a free pass. His 9.9 WAR is second only to Oliver Chase’s 2010, and that season came in an era of generally higher pitching WAR across NABF - Rodriguez’s is the best of the 2030s by almost two full wins over Bubba Fread’s 8.04 2034 mark.Voters unaccountably rewarded Sacramento’s Josh Argo with the Pitcher of the Year, perhaps due to the latter’s league leading 17 wins and 2.15 ERA - the worst award oversight in NABF history by a mile.

SP Bubba Fread, Montreal Expos, 2034
Fread is maybe the most dominant of the modern pitchers in the NABF, and has already won 4 D1 Pitcher of the Year awards in 2032, 2033, 2036, and his best season, 2034. Fread’s 2.10 FIP and 56 FIP- were both the best marks of his career, and he led D1 in wins with 18 while striking out over a third of the batters he faced. His 16 strikeout performance against Boston was one of the most dominant single-game performances in D2 history.

SP Jason Blanche, Brooklyn Dodgers, 2035
Blanche has some of the best pure stuff in the game and has been among Division 1’s best since his age 24 season in 2028. He has put up a 6+ WAR season three times, and has led the Division in strikeouts in seven. Both of those were true in his 2035 Pitcher of the Year season, as Blanche led the Dodgers to the Conference title with a Division-leading 220 innings and 68 FIP- (2.84 FIP). His postseason wasn’t as effective, though, as he lost two games to El Paso in an ultimately unsuccessful D1 Championship effort.

SP Matthew Boyd, Nashville Sounds, 2034
Paul Herrin can claim a historic first in 2034: the first NABF pitcher to ever win both an MVP and a Pitcher of the Year. That he accomplished it in his first full season as a starting pitcher makes it all the more incredible. Boyd put up 7.6 WAR in 207 innings, leading D3 in several categories, traditional and advanced metrics alike - ERA (2.08), Ks (282), WHIP (0.91), FIP- (59). Boyd’s season was the biggest reason the Sounds captured their first D3 East title, in their first season in that Division after promotion from D4. In subsequent seasons, Boyd has not come close to equaling that production, with WARs of 2.9 and 2.3 respectively, but Sounds fans will remember it for years to come.

SP Paul Herrin, Miami Marlins, 2036
Matthew Boyd was the first to do it in 2034, but Paul Herrin of the Marlins equaled the feat of a dual MVP/Pitcher of the Year last season in 2036. Herrin, now 27, seems poised for a long and outstanding career: he has won two straight D3 Pitcher of the Year honors and has put up at least 5 WAR in each of his last four seasons, leading to his 6.7 WAR, Triple Crown season in 2036. Herrin won 20 with a 2.06 ERA and 258 strikeouts, giving up just 7 homers. His 2.68 FIP and 70 FIP- aren’t quite as impressive (due to a low .258 BABIP) but Herrin is one to watch as the NABF enters its 11th cycle.

Next: Ranking the Teams - #48-#37

ArquimedezPozo · 01-01-2023, 09:47 PM

This post is the first of five counting down all 48 NABF teams. Each entry will include vital stats, a short history, and its best players and season. This entry will cover teams #48-#37.

48. The Pittsburgh Crawfords
Overall Record: 2174-2446, .471
0 Conference Titles
0 Division Championships
Last place finishes: 9
Original/Highest Division: 3
Lowest/Current Division: 4

No team has embodied failure more than Pittsburgh, who began in Division 3 with high hopes, winning 89 games and ending in second place behind Charlotte. But that turned out to be their high water mark - the most wins the franchise would have - until 2031, when they won 90 (again finishing second, this time two games behind Nashville). In fact, with Phoenix’s thrilling 2036 Conference title, the Crawfords are now the only team in the NABF that have never won their conference, and never competed for a Division Championship. The Crawfords have had a winning record in only seven seasons, and finished in last place nine times - nearly a full third of the seasons they’ve played. Their .471 winning percentage is the 4th worst of any team, and Pittsburgh has been home to few if any major stars. To their credit, Pittsburgh fans keep showing up; they outdrew 12 other NABF teams despite losing 86 games last season, so maybe there’s hope yet.

Best Position Player: 1B Roberto Vazquez, a holdover from the pre-NABF Crawfords, still holds virtually every offensive record in team history despite playing just over seven seasons with Pittsburgh in the NABF. His franchise record home run total of 52 in 2010 still stands, as do his 8.5 WAR, .315 BA, and .630 SLG, all in 2007.

Best Pitcher: This is a tough choice, but it’s probably Ray Nowell, who spent most of his career with Pittsburgh and was generally an above-average starter with FIP- under 100 every season he pitched in D4. He represented the Crawfords at three All-Star games, and finished second in Pitcher of the Year balloting in 2033.

Best Season: 2031. The Crawfords were in first place much of the year, but a late season slide coupled with a Nashville surge ended with Crawford the closest it had ever come to a Conference title - just two games out in second place.

47. The Las Vegas 51s
Overall Record: 2163-2457, .468
Conference Titles:1 (D3W 2015)
Division Championships: 1 (D3 2015)
Last place finishes: 8
Original Division: 3
Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

The Las Vegas 51s won a championship in 2015. It’s worth mentioning, because it remains not only their only championship, but their only first place finish, and in retrospect it looks like an outlier: they snuck into the D3 Championship series with just 84 wins that year, one of the weakest teams to ever win a championship. It was enough in a weak conference to earn them promotion to Division 2, but they were back in D3 two cycles later, and then slid into Division 4, where they’ve remained since. It has been three decades of futility for Vegas, who have lost more than every team save 1 in their history. Their 8 last place finishes include a devastating Cycle 8 where they became the first team to finish last in a D4 Conference every year of a single cycle (the Brewers would equal that feat in Cycle 9). The 51s can boast one of the three greatest pitchers in NABF history - the incredible Oliver Chase - but it gets rough after him.

Best Position Player: it is slim pickings here, so we’ll go with SS Jimmie Rodriguez, who spent his whole career in the desert and gave Vegas its only MVP, in 2029 when he led D3 in slugging.

Best Pitcher: Oliver Chase, by an absolute mile. The Hall of Famer Chase would be the best pitcher for any franchise that couldn’t claim Malcolm Bush, so it’s no surprise to see him here. Chase holds a dozen single season team records, including the six best seasons by WAR of any player in 51s history, pitcher or position player, despite playing only nine seasons with Vegas, where he won all five of his Pitcher of the Year trophies.

Best Season: it can’t be any other than 2015, when the 51s won their only Conference title and Division Championship, and earned their only promotion. They won more games in other seasons, but 2015 is the greatest they’ve had.

46. The Havana Sugar Kings
Overall Record: 2187-2433, .473
Conference Titles: 3 (D2E 2007, 2009, 2017)
Division Championships: 1 (D2 2009)
Last place finishes: 10
Original Division: 2
Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 4

What are the only two teams to ever play in all four Divisions of the NABF? Every NABF fan can correctly identify the Baltimore Terrapins here, having seen their meteoric rise from D4 to D1 in just three cycles. But the other is tougher, because it’s not a story of rising but one of falling. The Havana Sugar Kings began their NABF play a winner, taking the first D2 East crown and winning the D2 Championship in 2009, earning promotion to D1. Since then, it has been a long slide down - they were no match for D1 competition, finishing last twice in Cycle 2 and dropping back down. They stayed in D2 for three cycles, even winning a Conference title in 2017 while the great Jim Betz was in his prime, but by Cycle 5 things were headed downward. Between the end of Cycle 4 and today, Havana has finished in last at least one time in each cycle (10 total, the most in NABF history), has been relegated to Division 3 and then to Division 4, and has even finished last in D4 East, in cycle 9. If you take away those first three years, they’re the worst team in NABF history. They also hold the dubious distinction of being the only team in NABF history to finish last in their conference in five different cycles - three relegations, and two D4 East last places.

Best Position Player: the Hall of Famer Jim McCabe patrolled left field for Havana for nearly his entire career, from 2008 to 2023. Perhaps his team contributed to his being overlooked his entire career, but he was a strong offensive producer and 12-time All-Star who ranks among the top 15 players all-time by career WAR.

Best Pitcher: the immortal Jim Betz had his finest years for Havana, though he got more attention in his shorter stint with Baltimore. Hall of Famer Betz earned 52.4 WAR with Havana over 10 seasons, and is the all-time franchise leader in WAR, wins, and strikeouts.

Best Season: they won their only championship in 2010, but their best season was 2017, when the Sugar Kings won 92 games (a franchise best) and the D2 East for the third and final time, with Betz and McCabe both in their final great stretches with the team.

45. The St. Louis Browns
Overall Record: 2258-2362, .489
Conference Titles: 1 (D4W 2020)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Highest Division: 3
Lowest/Current Division: 4

It is not, probably, going too far to call the Browns the most boring team in NABF history. No team has a smaller gap between their best and worst seasons: the Browns’ best was 2020, when they won just 88 games and their only Conference title, and their worst was 2034, when they won 63 - a difference of just 25 wins, easily the smallest gap of any team. They haven’t been very good over their history, but also not historically bad - they’ve just been… there. The greatest moment in team history was probably when an aging Bobby Usry set the NABF all-time hits record while playing for St. Louis, but he did most of that work between Washington and New Orleans, not St. Louis. Beyond Usry, most fans would be hard-pressed to name a genuinely great player who spent more than a handful of seasons in St. Louis, at either the very start or the very end of their careers -the Browns are actually the only franchise that has never won either an MVP or Pitcher of the Year. Even St. Louis’s payroll has been solidly middling for their existence. All of that, maybe ironically, adds up to the fourth worst team in NABF history, as the lack of titles and the consistently low win totals pull them down.

Best Position Player: RF Tim Milam has the highest WAR in a St. Louis uniform, but Jim Guthrie is the best to wear it, having spent six seasons in brown between 2007 and 2012. Guthrie holds many of the best offensive seasons in St. Louis history, including its top 3 WAR seasons, the single season best slugging percentage, and 4 of the five highest HR seasons.

Best Pitcher: Alex Fierros spent only six seasons of his 19 year career in St. Louis, yet holds most of the career pitching records for the club, including wins (84), WAR (30.7), and shutouts (6).

Best Season: 2020 saw the Browns win 88 games and their only Conference title, and by process of elimination that’s it.

44. The Milwaukee Brewers
Overall Record: 2225-2395, .482
Conference Titles: 3 (D4W 2016, D3W 2022, 2026)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 4
Highest Division: 3

We round out our bottom five with Milwaukee, a team with some historic success but far more futility. Milwaukee has topped 90 wins only once, in their second D3 West Conference title in 2026, but that’s one of only 9 winning seasons in the team’s history. They were able to earn promotion after Cycle 4, having won the 2016 D4 West with 89 wins, and they saw some success in D3, winning two Conference titles. But since 2026 they have been arguably the worst team in the game, finishing in last place in all but three seasons, dropping to Division 4 and finishing last in D4W in two straight cycles, 9 and 10. That recent slide is what drops them all the way to #44.

Best Position Player: 1B Troy Silverstein had some exceptional seasons for Milwaukee in the early 2010s, including a brilliant 9.4 WAR 2011 in which he hit a career high 47 homers. Silverstein collected 65.1 WAR with Milwaukee in his 12 seasons there, represented the team in the All-Star game ten times, and is Milwaukee’s only Hall of Famer.

Best Pitcher: Walt Amend won Milwaukee its only Pitcher of the Year Award in 2023, and holds the career WAR record for Milwaukee, having never thrown a pitch for any other NABF team. Amend put up a 6 WAR season and two others above 5 in his prime, winning 131 for the Brew Crew.

Best Season: 2026, in which Milwaukee won 91 games - the only 90+ win season in its history - and a D3 West Conference title, but were swept by the Zephyrs in the Championship Series.

43. The Phoenix Firebirds
Overall Record: 2213-2408, .479
Conference Titles: 1 (D4W 2036)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 5
Original/Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

Had this list been compiled at the end of Cycle 9 rather than the end of Cycle 10, the Firebirds would be much lower; after all, just a year ago they were one of only two teams without a Conference Title, and the other sits at #48 on this list. But then the Firebirds had the best season in their history, winning 89 games and the D4 West, their first ever Conference title. Though they lost in six to Miami, it was still a thrill for the Phoenix faithful after nearly three decades of disappointment that have seen their Birds drop from Division 2 to Division 4, with only ten winning seasons. They remain one of only five teams to never win 90 in a season, but for the most part they’ve been simply mediocre, with their five last place seasons coming in bunches: three in a row between 2011 and 2013 that included a drop to Division 3, and then another two in 2031 and 2032 that precipitated the relegation to D4. Could we be on the verge of a rebirth in the desert? We will see…

Best Player: Easily James Keesler, the long-time Phoenix 1B with 426 career homers who was responsible for one of Phoenix’s three MVP awards and owns most of their offensive records. Keesler was a controversial Hall of Fame snub in the Hall’s inaugural 2036 season.

Best Pitcher: Various excellent pitchers have spent a season or two in Phoenix, but the best long-time Firebird is Jonathan Pursley, who came to Phoenix in 2020 from the Maple Leafs. Pursley’s 38.5 WAR is more than double the next highest on the list, and he holds team records in wins, shutouts, and strikeouts.

Best Season: it just happened. 2036 might not have been the season Phoenix fans have been waiting for, but they’ll no doubt take it (and hope for more in 2037).

42. The Washington Senators
Overall Record: 2273-2348, .492
Conference Titles: 2 (D3E 2015, D4E 2029)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

The Senators got off to the worst start of any NABF team, and have never really recovered from it. From their initial Division 2 perch, they came in last in each of their first four seasons, immediately being relegated to D3 after Cycle 1. They spent the next 15 seasons there, winning a single D3 Conference title in 2015 before hitting another downturn at the end of Cycle 6. For the last 12 years, they’ve been a middling performer in Division 4, winning the conference in 2029 and coming in last twice, but mostly living in the solid middle - one of the reasons they’re as high as #42, as their winning percentage is higher than several other clubs. But the Senators have had few good seasons, and fewer good players, leading to a low ranking.

Best Position Player: on a very thin list, Sam Bratcher gets the nod here. After coming to Washington from Pittsburgh in 2013, Bratcher has amassed most of the career and single season offensive records for the Senators, and has more PA, AB, and games played than any other Senator.

Best Pitcher: John Lawrenz is the easy and obvious answer. With most of his legendary career spent in Washington, Lawrenz has given the franchise 3 Pitcher of the Year trophies and a host of records, including strikeouts. He is the only player to wear a Washington cap in the Hall of Fame.

Best Season: unquestionably 2015, in which the Senators won the D3 East with 96 wins - 8 more wins than in their next best season.

41. The Portland Beavers
Overall Record: 2163-2457, .468
Conference Titles: 4 (D3W 2007, 2008, D2W 2023, 2024)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 3
Highest Division: 1

Portland has had two short periods of success - an early back-to-back D3W conference title run in 2007 and 2008, and another in D2W that briefly got them as high as Division 1. So why are they down here? Because despite those four Conference titles, they’ve never won a championship and they’ve lost more games in their history than all but one other franchise. In fact, since being promoted to Division 1 after the 2024 season, Portland has lost an average of 88 games a season, including a 102-loss 2027 in their last D1 season. They will open Cycle 11 back in D3, where they originated, and if they keep up this pace they’ll join Havana as the only team to drop from D1 down to D4.

Best Position Player: RF J.J. Hern played with the Beavers at the very start of the NABF, spending five seasons with the Beavers that include the two best offensive WAR seasons in franchise history, as well as the top HR season - 45 in 2008.

Best Pitcher: Charlie Pimpinella has the franchise’s only Pitcher of the Year, and Oscar Vazquez the highest WAR with Portland, but we’ll split the middle and go with Andy Wright, who spent almost the entirety of his career in Portland, holds the second highest WAR for any Portland player, and is at or close to the top of every team leaderboard.

Best Season: 2008, in which both of the above players had strong seasons while the Beavers won the D3 West, losing in the Championship to Detroit.

40. The Houston Buffaloes
Overall Record: 2198-2423, .476
Conference Titles: 1 (D2W 2022)
Division Championships: 1 (D2 2022)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original/Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 2

Houston hasn’t been bad, exactly, over its first 30 years. In fact, if you take away those first three D1 years in which the Buffaloes finished in last twice before being relegated, the team has only finished in last place twice in D2, against one magical championship season and a lot of mediocrity. Houston has finished either third or fourth in their Conference 16 times, more than half the seasons they’ve played, and have one of the smallest gaps between their best and worst seasons (88 wins in 2022, 61 in each of three years). That 2022 championship is now nearly at the midpoint of their franchise history, an 88-67 season that ended in a one-game playoff and six game Championship Series win over Detroit.

Best Position Player: a surprisingly difficult decision given the team, but although the Buffaloes drafted and cultivated the great John Hansen, the real Mr. Houston is Hall of Fame 1B Josh Randall, a 12 year Houston veteran who compiled 449 of his 558 career homers while wearing Buffalo Maroon.

Best Pitcher: Houston played host to three and a half of strikeout king Jarrod Scott’s career, but that’s not enough to give him this title. Instead, it’s Kymani Smith, who played in Houston for seven seasons between age 28 and age 34. In addition to being a solid starter, Smith was also one of the better fielders at his position, winning three Gold Gloves as a Buffalo.

Best Season: it has to be that 2022 88-67 Championship year, the only chance Houston fans - in one of the biggest markets in the game - have had to celebrate.

39. The San Francisco Seals
Overall Record: 2185-2435, .473
Conference Titles: 2 (D2W 2019, 2021)
Division Championships: 1 (D2 2021)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 3

The Seals are, like Houston, another original D1 West team whose fortunes have not favored them. Just like Houston, they have a single Championship, in 2021 (the year before Houston won theirs in the same Division), but they have an additional Conference title, in 2019. Other than that, these teams are fairly similar, with SF getting the higher position due to that 2019 Conference title, despite a worse overall record and a second relegation. Much like Houston, San Francisco has seen great players come and go, but none have made a major impact. San Francisco also has something none of the other teams so far can claim: a 100 win season, as the club won 102 in that amazing 2021 championship year.

Best Position Player: San Francisco has never had a long-term superstar, but among their shorter-term stars none has been better than left fielder Nick Radosevich, who seemed destined for superstardom before leaving SF for the Angels after the 2015 season. Radosevich is the career Seals WAR leader, and holds franchise marks in BA, SLG, OPS, HR, and RBI.

Best Pitcher: here’s a bit of an out-there pick: long-time RP Troy Kamp was a fan favorite in SF and his 288 career saves for the Seals - almost all coming in an impressive stretch between 2022 and 2029 - rank in the top 20 in NABF history. Is this also a sign that the Seals haven’t had many great pitchers? Absolutely.

Best season: there’s no competition - it’s 2021, when the Seals won 102 games and their only championship.

38. The San Antonio Missions
Overall Record: 2280-2341, .493
Conference Titles: 2 (D4W 2013, 2035)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 4
Only Division: 4

Here’s a weird thing to say about the only team that has never played in a Division above D4: they really haven’t been that bad. Their .493 franchise winning percentage is only very slightly below the median, and they’ve only finished last four times, with only half of their seasons played below .500. They just… haven’t gone anywhere. They would have, once, if there had been a lower Division, but there isn’t, so they didn’t. Instead, they’ve just hung around, finishing in the middle of the pack for all but six of their 30 seasons.

Best Position Player: it’s easily Andy Sheffield, long-time first baseman who is second all time in the NABF in doubles. Sheffield played most of his seasons in San Antonio, but missed out on either of the Missions’ Conference titles, debuting in 2018 and leaving the team in 2031. He won the D4 MVP in 2026, San Antonio’s only major player award.

Best Pitcher: How about the best reliever of all time, Jeff Lasky? Lasky is third in saves, and has the highest WAR of any pure reliever at 36.9 along with a record five Reliever of the Year awards, most of which were won in San Antonio.

Best Season: Their 2035 campaign is the only season where they’ve crossed the 90-win threshold, and they were rewarded with the second Conference title of their history.

37. The Calgary Outlaws
Overall Record: 2223-2398, .481
Conference Titles: 4 (D3W 2016-2017, 2029, 2033)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 3
Highest Division: 2

While the Outlaws have clearly lost more games than they’ve won, they’ve experienced a couple of eras of relative success and have claimed some outstanding players over their years - Craig Wilson, Mike Makris, Kyle DeVincentis, and Ramon Rodriguez all wear Calgary caps on their Hall of Fame plaques. Calgary’s early years were largely uneventful, with a last place finish in 2009 followed by years of middle-of-the-pack seasons hovering around .500. In 2017 they busted out with 100 wins, their second straight D3 West title, and though they lost to the Red Birds it seemed to augur a good run. But the next season - the last of Cycle 4 - was a disaster for Calgary: they lost 90 games and narrowly avoided a last place finish. Despite that, their 2016 and 2017 Conference titles gave them a promotion to Cycle 2. The Outlaws didn’t finish in last in any of their first three D2 seasons, but none were good - in fact, they finished with an identical 69-85 record in each, before finally succumbing to relegation after Cycle 6. History repeated itself in 2029 and 2030, as a Conference title was followed by a collapse: after a 92-62 season that got them into the Championship series, 2030 was their worst season, losing 101 games for a first-to-worst pair of seasons to end Cycle 8. Since then, they’ve had a rough stretch of losing seasons, punctuated by one Conference title - an 81 win season amid weak competition that is their only winning season in the last 7. There have been worse teams in the division in all of those seasons, but the Outlaws continue to look for that combination of players to give them sustained success.

Best Position Player: you could do a lot worse than the great Craig Wilson, who manned shortstop for Calgary in all 16 seasons of his Hall of Fame career after his 2007 debut. Wilson is the franchise leader in almost everything, and his career 68.7 WAR is second only to Athletics great Mike Minyard among shortstops.

Best Pitcher: Mike Makris only pitched for Calgary in six seasons of his Hall of Fame career, but they were among his best years and the best stretch for any Calgary pitcher. Makris was a workhorse, leading D3 in innings during four of his Calgary seasons, and while he never won a Pitcher of the Year, he was in the top three in 2007, 2008, and 2010.

Best Season: 100 wins and a Conference title in 2017 gets it done easily. Calgary has crossed the 90 win threshold only one other time in their history.

Next: Ranking the Teams, #36-#25

ArquimedezPozo · 01-04-2023, 09:29 PM

This post is the second of five counting down all 48 NABF teams. Each entry will include vital stats, a short history, and its best players and season. This entry will cover teams #36-#25.

36. The Austin Pioneers
Overall Record: 2237-2383, .479
Conference Titles: 5 (D4W 2010, 2012, 2030-2031, 2034)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2010, 2012, 2034)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 3

Here’s how you know we’ve entered a new tier of team: Austin has as many championships (3) as every team above it has, combined. In the first two cycles of the NABF, Austin looked like a team on the march: after a dreadful inaugural year, Austin became a champion in 2010, winning 94 games and defeating Miami to capture the franchise’s first title; they got their second two years later, and earned a bump up to Division 3. But they lasted in D3 only two cycles, including an awful five year stretch between 2014 and 2018 when the team lost an average of 90 games a season, finished in last place four out of the five years, and was relegated back to D4. Things weren’t much better there for a while: over the next 11 seasons, the Pioneers finished last in the Conference at least once in three straight cycles, and finished Cycle 6 as the worst team in D4W.

A few things started to go right for the club at the turn of the 2030s, the most notable of which was the debut of LF Jeremy Almy, who has been Austin’s best player since his first full season in 2030. Almy won the MVP in 2035 and has taken home three Gold Gloves and seven All-Star appearances. His debut coincided with CF Bill Ebron’s rise to prominence, though the CF has since left Austin. On the pitching side, Tim Lank has been a sonsitently excellent frontline starter, who gave Austin its only Pitcher of the Year in 2028 and has amassed over 50 WAR in a Pioneers uniform. The franchise has only had one losing season since 2030, and won the Conference title in 2034; their window with this core is closing, though, and we’ll see if they are able to capitalize in Cycle 11.

Best Position Player: Hall of Fame Shortstop A.J. Brown was a star with Austin before the NABF, and was one of the Federation’s best early players. He won Austin’s first MVP in 2010, putting up 8.7 WAR with 48 homers and 120 RBI while leading D4 in Slugging. His 229 homers in Austin is still a franchise record. Almy could easily take this title from him in the next season or two, however.

Best Pitcher: Lank is the easy selection, with the most WAR of any player - pitcher or not - in an Austin uniform. Lank’s 2,515 strikeouts are almost 1,000 more than Mike Hathaway in second place, and Lank is responsible for the team’s only Pitcher of the Year hardware.

Best Season: nothing like the first. Austin’s 2010 Championship campaign is their best season in terms of outcome as well as win total, with a franchise best 94 wins. It was also - and not coincidentally - A.J. Brown’s best Austin season, and an MVP one.

35. The Albuquerque Dukes
Overall Record: 2184-2438, .474
Conference Titles: 7 (D4W 2014-2015, 2022, 2025-2027; D3W 2028)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2015, 2025; D3 2028)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Current/Highest Division: 3

This is a tale of two Albuquerques. The first Albuquerque is one of only a small number of teams that has had instant success upon promotion to a higher division, and that success came within a run of four straight Conference titles, a feat only 8 teams have managed. It’s a team whose average win total over a five-season span between 2025 and 2029 was 89, with two Division Championships. The second Albuquerque, though, is the one that exists outside that span: one that experienced very periodic success surrounded by a boatload of failure. If you ignore the amazing late 2020s run, Albuquerque has only had four winning seasons, one of which, the 2015 93-win championship squad, was surrounded by sub-.500 years. Since the 84 win season following its shock D3 title in 2028, the most wins it has earned in a season is 74, with an average of 88 losses including a 102-loss 2034. As a consequence, Albuquerque has the fifth-worst total W/L record in NABF history.

Their amazing late 2020s run can be summed up in two words: Brian Tate. Tate is an enigma, still, in NABF history: an 8th round pick by Milwaukee in 2019, Tate was poorly regarded by scouts until a trade to the Dukes after the 2020 season. He kicked around the Dukes’ minor league system for a couple of years, but then in 2022 started to blossom. He was called up for 2023 and had a rough year, but started turning things around the next year, and then… in 2025, he was suddenly the best pitcher in D4 and maybe in anywhere, and he stayed that way for five years - five years in which he led his Division in WAR, K/9 and BB/9, ERA, FIP-, and lots of other stuff. He won two Pitcher of the Year Awards, and probably should have won at least one more. It’s absolutely not an accident that Albuquerque’s great seasons coincide with Tate’s - he was just that good. But for whatever reason, after 2028… he wasn’t, anymore. He was still decent that season, and most saw it as maybe a speed bump, but everything stopped working after it, and Tate was out of the game by 2032, inexplicably. Albuquerque’s fortunes shriveled with him, and haven’t recovered.

Best Position Player: Jeremy Raiche is seen by some as a possible Hall of Famer, though he wasn’t named to the inaugural 2036 class. He was an outstanding defensive CF who put up four excellent seasons at the start of his career before settling into a career as a light-hitting defensive whiz.

Best Pitcher: It’s Tate, because of course it’s Tate.

Best Season: The Dukes won a franchise-best 99 games in 2026, and maybe if they’d won the championship that would be the best, but as it is, we have to give it to the 88-win D3 Championship season, one of only a few times a team has been promoted and immediately won the championship in the higher division.

34. The Indianapolis Clowns
Overall Record: 2241-2379, .485
Conference Titles: 3 (D3E 2009, 2011-2012)
Division Championships: 2 (D3 2011-2012)
Last Place Finishes: 6
Original Division: 3
Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

The Clowns had a great run early in their existence that they’ve never been able to replicate. Between 2009 and 2012, they ruled Division 3 behind legendary Hall of Fame hurler Malcolm Bush, winning the Division 3 East three times in that span and taking back-to-back Championships in 2011 and 2012 against the Salt Lake Gulls. Corner OFs Mitch Rolling and Edward Bosman were at their peaks, while the young Bush put up two of the greatest pitching seasons ever in his first two full years as a starter. Where the Clowns really thrived was in run prevention: Bush, of course, was the major piece of that puzzle: a 7.1 WAR in 2011 with 231 strikeouts in 199 innings of work, followed by his legendary 2012 - 266 strikeouts against just 46 walks, giving up 8 homers, with a 45 FIP- and a 9.7 WAR that remains the second highest WAR season of any pitcher. The Clowns also deployed an excellent bullpen behind closer Greg Hudson and bullpen ace Jerry Munoz. The back to back 2011 and 2012 titles earned them promotion to Division 2.

Since then, the Clowns have wavered between a mediocre and bad team. Despite Bush’s brilliance, they were never able to build an offense to support him, and though they lasted four cycles as a middle-of-the pack team in Division 2 a disastrous 2024 in which they lost 98 games was enough to earn them relegation before Cycle 7. Then things got even worse: they treaded water in Division three for a cycle, but two straight last-place finishes in 2029 and 2030 dropped them once again, this time to Division 4. In all, the Clowns have had just two winning seasons in the 20 seasons following their 2012 championship. But there is hope for the franchise: three straight second place finishes in Cycle 10, including an 88-win 2036 - not enough to earn them promotion, but a step in the right direction. And again it’s young pitchers leading the way as the Clowns build their next strong rotation behind Jason Stanfill and 2034 Pitcher of the Year Aaron Cottrell.

Best Position Player: as we’ve established, the Clowns have never been an offensive juggernaut. Their two best hitters were the engines of their offense over the first two cycles of the NABF: Mitch Rolling and Edward Bosman. Of the two, we’ll go with Bosman, who spent more time in Indianapolis with four straight 6 WAR seasons between 2008 and 2011, his age 34 season. He began to decline after that year.

Best Pitcher: only the best there ever has been, Malcolm Bush. Bush spent the vast majority of his Hall of Fame career with Indianapolis and is by far their best all-time player: the 88.2 WAR he accumulated in Indy is more than twice that of Bosman’s 37.1.

Best season: 2012 - the team’s second straight championship, earning a promotion to D2, in which they allowed the fewest runs in the Division while winning 89 games (the franchise is one of only six that has never won 90 in a season).

33. The Cincinnati Tigers
Overall Record: 2260-2360, .489
Conference Titles: 3 (D4E 2027, 2030; D3E 2033)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2027, 2030; D3 2033)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 4
Highest Division: 3

For a long time, Cincinnati was a consistent bottom-feeder in the NABF: a few winning seasons in the first four years of play led to a prolonged losing streak of nine seasons between winners. In that period, Cincinnati finished last in the D4E in two consecutive cycles, and would have been relegated had a lower division existed; that included three straight last place finishes in 2015, 2016, and 2017 in which the club never cracked 70 wins. Good players came and went for Cincinnati - the great closer John Weisbrod spent the first six seasons of his career in Cincy, as did CF Antonio Savedra (who was promising for the Tigers before injuries derailed his career) and the former All-Star outfield Malcolm Harper, who ended his career with Cincinnati in 2018. But year after year, the Tigers never got going, rarely finishing above 4th. In 2025, they hit a new low, losing 97 games despite a solid season from starter Brad Catron. In 2026, another losing season, another 5th place finish. More of the same. And then… came 2027.

The Tigers scored 637 runs in 2027, and they gave up 635. No player had a season with more than 3.5 WAR, and were middle of the pack in every measure that mattered, except one: wins. The Tigers outperformed their expected record by six games, finishing 83-71, and though that wasn’t exactly a superteam, in the D4 East it was enough: the Cincinnati Tigers had secured the first Conference title in their history. And they weren’t done: the Dukes may have been the superior team between April and September that year, but Cincinnati beat them in six, with Tyler Burke mashing a homer and four doubles, diving in seven to take the series MVP. They were back again in 2030, this time rolling over Austin four games to 2 for their second title, this one earning them something they’d never had: a promotion. Three more winning seasons followed in Division 3, including their best: a 94 win 2033 campaign that ended in the Tigers’ third championship in a seven year span. In retrospect, that was the end of the era: The Tigers haven’t had a winning season since, and will start Cycle 11 back in Division 4. But there’s hope in the form of new ace Willie Rodriguez, who has emerged during that span as one of the most exciting young arms in the game, his 9.9 WAR 2035 arguably the best pitching season in Federation history. Will he lead the Tigers into a new era?

Best Position Player: the most important offensive force during the Tigers’ 2027-2033 run was 3B Eric Hicks, whose 31.5 WAR as a Tiger is the highest in franchise history. Hicks was a major factor for the Tigers in the 2027 and 2033 Championship Series as well, and holds Tigers records in Slugging and Home Runs.

Best Pitcher: despite Willie Rodriguez’s recent brilliance, the title of best ever Tiger has to go to Brad Catron, the long time rotation anchor who was far and away Cincinnati’s winningest pitcher (201 career victories, with Armando Silva’s 99 in second place). Catron ended a career spent entirely in Cincy after the 2036 season, with a 3.93 career ERA and over 3000 strikeouts, good for ninth most in NABF history.

Best Season: 2033 - the Tigers’ third championship, and their best, after a 94 win season.

32. The Vancouver Mounties
Overall Record: 2200-2421, .476
Conference Titles: 4 (D2W 2007-2008, 2025-2026)
Division Championships: 2 (D2, 2007-2008)
Last Place Finishes: 6
Original/Lowest/Current Division: 2
Highest Division: 1

As the NABF began in 2007, the Mounties were probably more prepared to get off to a hot start than any other team. Vancouver was a large market, and had just barely missed the Division 1 cut (thanks in large part to the El Paso-Juarez merger, which most credit as being responsible for Mountie fans intense dislike of the El Paso franchise, though perhaps it has more to do with the latter’s dominance). They had been the most recent champion of the Northwest league, and had a number of stars in their primes, most notably starter Josue Garcia, SS Sam Miller, and the great closer Eli Grajeda. They had a strong farm as well, with RF Fernando Morales making his debut in 2008 to join 24 year old Glen Reagan in a powerhouse OF. They won two convincing championships in 2007 and 2008, and won 90 in 2009, though they were denied a threepeat by the rising St. Paul Saints dynasty. Still, they earned promotion to D1 after Cycle 1. But once in D1 they struggled against the dynastic Cycle 2 Angels, and powerful Cats and Sun Kings; after a couple of third-place finishes in Cycle 2, things fell apart. Between 2014 and 2021 they never experienced a winning season, finishing last in the D1W in 2021 with a franchise-worst 97 losses and falling back into D2.

During Cycle 6, however, some of the draft picks from their prolonged cellar-dwelling began to bear fruit: LF George Allred put together several All Star seasons, as did young 1B Elijah Hatcher, while phenom Danny Pierson won the Pitcher of the Year in just his second season, leading Vancouver to an outstanding 94 win 2025. That season ended in an epic seven game loss, in crushing fashion, to the rising Baltimore Terrapins, and the same matchup produced the same results in 2026, but the Mounties had won back-to-back Conference titles again and headed back to D1… where once again, they struggled. Since the 2028 season, the Mounties have had just a single winning year (2035), sinking back to Division 2 before the 2034 season, resigned to wait for their next crop of young stars to bring them back to the promised land.

Best Position Player: Fernando Morales, who debuted with the Mounties in their second championship season in 2008, saw all the highs and lows of those seasons and was a consistent performer in both D2 and D1. His 39.2 WAR is a franchise record.

Best Pitcher: four players have won a single Pitcher of the Year with Vancouver, but of those Josue Garcia had the best career - already an established ace with Vancouver before the NABF, Garcia was the best player on either side of the ball for Vancouver’s dominant Cycle 1.

Best Season: the best, in this case, is also the first: 2007, in which Vancouver won the inaugural D2 Championship with a 97 win season.[/B]

[B]31. The Toronto Maple Leafs
Overall Record: 2282-2338, .494
Conference Titles: 3 (D2E 2014, 2033-2034)
Division Championships: 2 (D2 2014, 2033)
Last Place Finishes: 6
Original/Highest/Current Division: 1
Lowest Division: 2

So much promise, so little to show for it over the first 30 seasons of NABF play. Toronto entered the NABF as the top single market (with New York split between the Dodgers and Giants), and with the great Omar Arteaga at the heart of their order. But their relegation at the end of Cycle 1 began an up-and-down history that has seen Toronto shift between Divisions 1 and 2 four times, unable to build sustained success at the D1 level. After their initial relegation at the start of Cycle 2, Toronto was a middle of the pack franchise for Cycle 2. Arteaga, LF Steven Moss, and CF Kasey McCoy (acquired for the 2013 season only) drove an offense that regularly scored more runs than D2 opponents, but lacked pitching. With the emergence of the young John Filler and the acquisitions of SP Ron Nelson and closer Chris Wright, however, Toronto was the second stingiest club in 2013, matching their incredible offense. The result was a 96 win club that easily took the D2 East over Atlanta and went on to defeat the 101-win Potros in a close series. The season was followed by two more good seasons, though neither led to postseason play - still, the result was good enough to lift Toronto back into D1 where the club maintained respectability through Cycle 4.

By 2019, though, things had turned south again. Many point to the 2018 salary dump trade of Moss to Sacramento as the catalyst, but the truth was Toronto had failed to build behind their stars, leaving them with little talent as Moss and others passed into the back halves of their careers. Toronto hung on in D1 despite just a single winning season between 2019 and 2025, but at the start of Cycle 6 the wheels came off: Toronto lost 284 games over the next three seasons, finishing last in each and dropping back down to Division 2. The catalyst of their next turnaround, though, can be found in those seasons: Toronto’s abysmal 100-loss 2026 gave then the draft’s first pick, and they took Benni Phillips out of Ole Miss. Phillips was rushed to the big leagues, and struggled to find his footing, but by 2030 he had emerged as a star. From 2030-2034, Toronto was a winning and competitive ballclub again, with 2020 first round pick Aaron Felton, DH Jon Moore, and others driving a powerful offense while a deep rotation kept runs off the board. Toronto’s 2033 gave them their first 90 win season since 2013, and more importantly, their first championship since that same year. A promotion to Division 1 in 2034 was met with trepidation by fans, but Toronto responded with another strong season, as Felton won the MVP and the club won the D1 East. Though they lost the championship to Seattle, they had finally managed success in the Division many thought they would rule for years.

Best Position Player: This is a very difficult choice, as Toronto has produced four outfielders who are either in the Hall of Fame or seem destined to be. In the end, though, it can only be Arteaga: his years with Toronto at the start of the NABF are almost impossible to believe. Despite playing just about ten full seasons, Arteaga is the franchise leader in WAR, second in homers, first in triples, and leads in both OBP and Slugging. Few have ever swung a batter better in the entire Federation, let alone Toronto.

Best Pitcher: Not nearly as much to choose from on this list - while Toronto’s list of great hitters is an embarrassment of riches, this one is just an embarrassment. Raul Roman is the wins, strikeouts, and WAR leader, though, so he’s likely the best choice here.

Best Season: 2013 was the team’s first championship, and the Leafs won more than they have in any other year. Arteaga and Moss were both at their height, too.

30. The Ft. Worth Cats
Overall Record: 2236-2385, .484
Conference Titles: 6 (D1W 2007, 2015, 2017, 2020; D2W 2031-2032)
Division Championships: 3 (D1 2007, 2020; D2 2032)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 2

For the first half of their existence, the Cats could claim to be one of the NABF’s premiere teams. The Cats were one of the “Troika” with El Paso and Los Angeles - a nickname given by a prominent sportswriter to describe the monopoly those three teams held on the D1 West for so many years. As incredible as it may seem, no team outside those three won the D1 West until 2028 - seven full cycles where an entire Conference was represented by just three teams. And while the Cats were the least accomplished of the three, with “only” four Conference titles to their name, they were still there. The Cats’ first decade had its ups and downs: after an inaugural year championship behind ace David Miramontes (his only year with Ft. Worth) the team spent several years below .500 and finished fifth in the D1 West during each year of Cycle 2. In 2011, Ft. Worth used its number 2 pick to draft CF Casey Smith, however, and Smith became a centerpiece for the Cats in their greatest period, a run of 80+ win teams between 2014 and 2020 that gave Ft. Worth three Conference titles and their second championship. Smith was at the center of it, averaging 8.4 WAR between 2013 and 2017 while winning two MVPs before losing most of his 2018 and 2019 seasons to two horrific knee injuries. As Smith recovered, Craig Vest emerged as the Cats great offensive threat, hitting .331/.414/.519 with the first of his four 80-steal seasons and an MVP. Vest would play with the Cats for virtually his entire career, and retire after the 2036 season as the NABF’s all-time walks, runs, and stolen bases leader.

The 2020s, though, were unkind to Ft. Worth. Casey Smith, coming off three straight 4 WAR seasons following his injuries, signed with Division 2’s Crackers after the 2022 season, and Vest was traded before his 2024 walk-year, leaving the Cats in rebuild mode. But the rebuild largely fizzled, and the Cats spent the next few seasons as D1’s worst, winning more than 70 games in only one season between 2025 and 2028 and never popping above .500. For the first time in their history, the Cats found themselves relegated, to spend Cycle 9 in Division 2. A combination of weaker competition and a rejuvenated lineup (led by SS Omar Juarez, young CF Cody Lehr, and Craig Vest, who had returned to the team before the 2031 season) brought them to first in the D2 East their first year there. They followed up in 2032 with a title run, beating Pedro Quiroz’s Zephyrs to claim the franchise’s third title and a short-lived return to Division 1 - three straight last place finishes in Cycle 10 means Fort Worth has dropped back down to begin Cycle 11. Will they bounce back, or continue to fall?

Best Position Player: When your two franchise players are as good as Craig Vest and Casey Smith, this is a near-impossible selection, but we’ll go with Vest: a tremendously popular player in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Vest is also an icon due to his skillset of speed, patience, and power. When he is Hall of Fame eligible after the 2039 season, there’s no question he’ll be selected.

Best Pitcher: Dave Barnes, while not a player with the stature of Smith or Vest, is Ft. Worth’s most accomplished pitcher. Barnes spent the entirety of his career in Fort Worth, debuting in 2009 and finally hanging it up with a 175-133 record, a career 3.87 ERA and 3.83 FIP, and 49.3 career WAR.

Best Season: the Cats won 91 games - their franchise high - in three consecutive seasons between 2016 and 2018, but in 2017 they underperformed while doing so, with an expected 94 wins. They also won the D4 West for the third time, though they lost the championship to Boston in a close 7 game series.

29. The Ottawa Champions
Overall Record: 2297-2323, .497
Conference Titles: 3 (D3E 2025, 2028-2029)
Division Championships: 2 (D3 2025, 2029)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original/Highest/Current Division: 2
Lowest Division: 3

Ottawa has been a remarkably consistent team over the years, but unfortunately for fans, they’ve been consistently mediocre. The Champions have finished in either third or fourth place - middle of the pack - in half of the seasons they’ve played, with just three first place and last place finishes. They have one of the smallest win differentials in the game, never winning more than 89 games in a season, or fewer than 60. They have no Hall of Famers (though you could make a case that closer Jeff Lasky should be wearing their cap, or that Alex Cardoza should earn induction). They spent their first few years in the middle of the pack before a rough 2011 and 2012 got them relegated to D3. Once there, they remained a solidly middle team. The most notable occurrence in that period was their trade of Mike Martinez, coming off a Pitcher of the Year trophy but entering his arb years. The deal from Baltimore wasn’t a disastrous one - starter Justin Kramlich and CF Frank Flanigan had some good years in Ottawa in the mid-2020s, with Flanigan hitting well in the Champs’ first title in 2025. But Martinez became a key piece in Baltimore’s fearsome rotation, won two more Pitcher of the Year awards, and could easily find himself in the Hall of Fame in 2039.

So, for the first six cycles of the Federation, the Champions were a notable team in their futility. They finally won a Conference title in 2025, one of the last to win their first. They made it count, going on to defeat San Diego on a Game 7 walk-off hit by Josh Henry, one of two Game 7 walk-offs in that amazing 2025 postseason. That walk-off announced the Champions’ only dominant era. From 2025 to 2029, they took three Conference titles, including back to back seasons in 2028 and 2029. The Champs were champs again in ‘29, this time with a convincing sweep of Calgary despite having won just 84 games to Calgary’s 91. The era was probably best defined by Paul Loomis, a former Pitcher of the Year who had come over from Brooklyn before the 2023 season and found success north of the border. Loomis won another Pitcher of the Year with Ottawa in 2026 and was generally a frontline starter throughout Ottawa’s best years. The 2028 and 2029 seasons earned the club a move up to Division 2, where they’ve remained through Cycles 9 and 10, again hovering in that gray space between good and bad, waiting for the next big move, good or bad.

Best Position Player: Josh Henry had the most important hit in Ottawa’s history, a walk-off double that won the 2025 Division 3 Championship. But beyond just that hit, he’s been Ottawa’s franchise player, spending his whole career in a Champions uniform while winning two Gold Gloves and being elected to eight All-Star teams. Henry holds multiple club records and continues to contribute for Ottawa: he hit the only cycle of his career this past season at age 36.

Best Pitcher: Champions fans wish they could go back in time to fix it up so Martinez could appear here. But since time travel hasn’t been invented yet, let’s put Jeff Lasky in this spot. Though he wears a San Antonio cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, he was actually marginally better with Ottawa in fewer games, winning three of his record five Reliever of the Year awards with the club.

Best Season: 2025, the first championship year, stands out. Not only did they reach the mountaintop, they had strong individual performances and the best run differential - if not actual W/L record - of their history.

28. The St. Paul Saints
Overall Record: 2156-2464, .467
Conference Titles: 5 (D2W 2009-2012, 2020)
Division Championships: 5 (D2 2009-2012, 2020)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original Division: 2
Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 3

Has any team in the NABF reached such highs, and fallen to such depths? It’s hard to find another that has done what St. Paul has done. The Saints have the worst record in the history of the NABF -worse even than the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who as you may recall were #48 out of 48 on this list. For nearly 15 years, the 2011 Saints held the record for most single-season wins of any NABF team; for the past ten years they’ve had the record for the fewest. They’ve had one Hall of Famer, and critically - disastrously - traded away another. They are a team of massive contrasts.

The Saints were one of the NABF’s early success stories. Their pre-NABF Great Lakes league had been dominated by large market clubs Chicago and Toronto, leaving St. Paul as a talented also-ran most seasons. Their 2007 was miserable, but almost immediately after they began to win: 92 wins, just a game behind ultimate the D2 champion Mounties in 2008, and then in 2009 the beginning of the dynasty: a 96-win D2 championship series in which they defeated Havana to close out Cycle 1. The team was led by 30 year old future Hall of Famer Manny Lopez, hard-hitting RF Josh Curran, and a dynamic young middle infield of SS Josh Bailey and 2B Andrew Pierre, whose 2009 is among the best ever by a 2B. The 2009 club scored 768 runs, topping Denver’s offense by over 100. Though the team took a step back in terms of wins in 2010, they still bested Atlanta in a six game set for their second consecutive D2 title. Their 2011 was extraordinary: the Saints broke Nashville’s single season NABF record by a full 5 wins, notching 105 victories as MVP Lopez, Bailey, Pierre and Curran led a 777 run attack while Jared Butcher and two-way player Chris Knipp held down a pitching staff that allowed the fourth fewest runs in D2. Lopez won Series MVP honors in a romp over Boston. Then, finally, 2012 sealed it: the NABF’s first four-championship streak included a 95 win season, Manny Lopez’s 4th straight 5+ WAR campaign, another outstanding run by Andrew Pierre, and another victory over Boston, this one a thrilling seven-game set. The Saints won four straight championships, a feat that has never been equaled.

And then, disaster. A promotion to Division 1 was a foregone conclusion, but Lopez, now 34, began a decline. Andrew Pierre had a solid season, as did Curran; younger players emerged as well, including RF Mike Gray and Manny Martinez, but to break through in the D1 West was a tall order, and Saint Paul was not up to the task. What might have been a top 2 D2 offense, with 700 runs, was middle of the pack in D1, and the Saints pitching - never a strong suit - was eaten alive: only the 96-loss San Francisco Seals scored fewer. Due in large part to SF’s futility, the Saints lasted two cycles in D1, but two straight 90 loss seasons in 2017 and 2018 got them dropped back to D2. The return seemed to do them good: that first season back was a winner, and in 2020 they seized first place again led by SP Antonio Venegas, who had been a standout with the Terrapins in Division 4 before signing with St. Paul, and a young slugging OF named Steve Mauck, who they’d drafted with the third pick in 2017. Mauck won the 2020 MVP as St. Paul once again topped D2 in runs on their way to a championship.

What happened next remains an open wound in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Steve Mauck was the future, many fans believed, but as the Saints struggled out of the gate in 2021, they dealt the young star down to Division 3, with the Baltimore Terrapins, hoping for some pitching depth and a star prospect. In return, the Saints got SP David Smith, who was solid for St. Paul down the stretch but who would leave as a free agent after the season; LF Matt Edwards, who spent two and a half decent seasons with the club; and CF prospect Chris Carter, who would get about a season’s worth of plate appearances with St. Paul and who was out of baseball by 2030.

Baltimore? They got a legend.

The Saints managed to win 80 games in 2022, but since then they have not had a single winning season - 14 years of futility or worse. They have averaged 87 losses in those 14 seasons, and the run includes a laughable 47-107 2025 that still stands as the worst season in Federation History. That season was their last in D2; they have spent the last three cycles in Division 3, never breaking .500 and never finishing higher than 3rd. Though they have avoided relegation to Division 4, many observers predict exactly that fate for a team that flew too close to the sun, and traded away the best player they ever had, before he had his chance to prove it.

Best Position Player: Their only Hall of Famer is Manny Lopez, who was already an established star in 2007 and who was the biggest factor in their four title run between 2009 and 2012. Lopez remains the franchise leader in WAR, OPS, SLG, OBP, HR, RBI, and BB.

Best Pitcher: While Venegas could take this - he’s the Saints’ all-time WAR leader as a pitcher - he’s far more associated with Baltimore. Instead, we’ll go with Paul Aldritch, who anchored St. Paul’s 2020s rotations, including that 2020 championship team (where he formed a great 1-2 with Venegas himself). Aldrich collected 78 wins for St. Paul, with a 3.83 ERA and 3.35 FIP while amassing 30.9 WAR.

Best Season: how could it be any other than their record 105-win championship season in 2011?

27. The Charlotte Hornets
Overall Record: 2284-2336, .494
Conference Titles: 4 (D3E 2007, 2013; D4E 2023, 2025)
Division Championships: 3 (D3 2007, 2013; D4 2023)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original Division: 3
Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 4

Charlotte has experienced all manner of highs and lows in its journey through the NABF. They were one of the four original champions, taking D3 in the 2007 inaugural season while winning a franchise-best 95 games in the process, and suffered just a single losing season in the first three cycles. With a 2013 championship over Seattle, and two more winning seasons to close out the cycle, Charlotte was off to Division 2 to open the 2016 season. Though Charlotte was full of young, promising talent (SP Josh Fama, CF Jeremy Rodriguez, LF Tim Langley) and had spent on future Hall of Fame 1B Eric Bryant, D2 was tough on the club, and with two losing seasons they were back in D3 three years later. The relegation, too, triggered several opt-outs, including Rodriguez’s and Bryant’s. The team sold off others, trading Fama to Baltimore and letting Langley walk in free agency. As a result, the return to D3 was painful, as the club finished in last their first two seasons back. Though there was improvement in 2021 - a harbinger of things to come - it wasn’t enough to prevent another relegation, giving Charlotte three division shifts in as many cycles.

Once in Division 4, the draft picks the club had amassed over six losing seasons began to pay off. CF Phil Woolf, DH (later 3B) Brian Runnion, 3B Adam Woods and LF Brian Johnson all had breakout years for the club in 2022, and in 2023, joined by rookie SP Chris Roy, Charlotte won 93 games and the D4 championship, beating San Diego in five games for their second trophy. 2025 saw another Conference title, with Roy winning Pitcher of the Year, Runnion winning the first of his three MVPs with a monster 41 homer, 1.034, 8.3 WAR season, and Phil Woolf winning his only Silver Slugger, in his final strong season.

Unfortunately, that was the start of a downturn. Though Runnion was a star for Charlotte over the next several seasons, others never returned to that level: Woolf got off to a terrible start in 2026, and Charlotte waived him, with Phoenix picking him up (he later had a couple of productive seasons with Albuquerque before retirement) while Roy was productive for a couple more years, but started to decline after age 30 and was gone from Charlotte by 2028. So, too, was Runnion, who signed with the Angels for the last contract of his near-Hall of Fame career. Charlotte finished last in D4 East over Cycle 8, and has had just a single winning season since and not much hope on the horizon: while young 1B Ernesto Gonzalez shows promise (in fact, Gonzalez has the highest batting average among qualifiers of any NABF player in history, tough he is still just 25), few others do, and Charlotte’s farm system is ranked 8th in Division 4 as of this writing.

Best Position Player: Brian Runnion, who won three MVPs for Charlotte, is the clear choice. Runnion won’t be eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2039, but he should see support despite a relatively low career WAR - his prime was stunning, and Charlotte is not yet represented in the Hall.

Best Pitcher: Despite a short career and a lower WAR than Joh Kent, Chris Roy - winner of Charlotte’s only Pitcher of the Year and a star in arguably its best period of play, gets the nod here. Roy spent the first and best years of his career in Charlotte, winning just shy of 100 games for the Hornets.

Best Season: a tough choice, in the end. Charlotte’s highest win total was 95 in 2007, a year in which they won the championship, but they did overperform their expected W/L. They won 93 in 2023, actually slightly underperformed, and won the championship there as well with some of the best players in its history, so we’ll go with it here.

26. The Denver Bears
Overall Record: 2255-2365, .488
Conference Titles: 5 (D3W 2030, D2W 2033-2036)
Division Championships: 2 (D3 2030, D2 2036)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original Division: 2
Lowest Division: 3
Highest/Current Division: 1

How different it must feel to be a Denver Bears fan today than it did just seven years ago? Once one of the lovable losers of the NABF, the Bears have been maybe the most dominant team of the last two or three cycles, averaging about 86 wins a season. Some of the most exciting players in the recent history of the game have played in Denver, and they have risen from Division 3 up to Division 1, where they will begin play in 2037. No one watching Denver play at any point between 2007 and 2028 really could have predicted it: the Bears had only seen five winning seasons over that timeframe, and had lost as many as 101 games in a season. Denver had finished above 4th place only five times, and in second only three, never any closer than five games out. A few good players had spent some time in Denver - 1B Curt MacKenzie won the 2008 MVP with the Bears, and closer Josh Suits got his start in Denver (both found later success with Boston). But looking down Denver’s career leaders lists, it’s striking how many players there are who are either still on the team, or who played for the Bears only in recent years. All of that added up to years of futility, as the Bears became a punchline: near or at the bottom of Division 2 for three cycles, then being relegated and treading water in Division 3 for several more, not good enough to approach promotion, though not bad enough to fall again.

Several things changed in the late 2020s that brought about a new Bears. The first was T.J. Hardcastle: the 25th pick in the 2021 draft hit Denver the next season and had an immediate impact. Hardcastle’s personality never matched his name - he was as laid back as they came. But at the plate he was all business, and effective: in his third year, just before Denver’s golden age began, Hardcastle hit .304/.348/521, topping 20 homers for the first time and adding 43 doubles after leading D3 in that category the previous year. Hardcastle led the Denver offense for the next few seasons, until the arrival of Clemens Young, a German player discovered by Bears scouts in 2020. Young won Denver its second MVP in 2028, the first of two for the DH, and he and Hardcastle formed a devastating 3-4 in Denver’s lineup. The previous season, journeyman starter Chad Martucci joined Denver and had a renaissance in his age 31 season, with a 73 FIP-, 6.1 WAR season in which he narrowly missed a pitcher of the year. Denver was on the map, and when new owner Kevin Robinson - a meddlesome, impatient, and caustic personality to be sure, but one willing to spend cash - took over, Denver took off. In 2029 they won 88 games, the most in their history, coming in second. In 2030, they collected another 88, but this time they won their Conference for the first time in team history, and then did what Denver fans thought they might never see: they won the D3 over Miami for their first title, and earned promotion to Division 2. The transition barely phased the Bears: they finished 2, then 1 game out of first in 2031 and 2032, and in 2033 they were triumphant, taking the D2 East, the Conference in which they had once served as punching bag. They have won that Conference each season since, as Young, Hardcastle, SPs Nate Mefford and Bobby Hardy, and DH Donovan Bryant drove them forward, establishing the Bears as the premiere franchise of the 2030s. Finally, in 2036, the Bears defeated the Tampa Tarpons, becoming D2 champions and earning promotion to the biggest stage. Denver will open 2037 in Division 1, and though there are fears that their stars are on the decline and Denver will not fare well, they’re there; their fans doubted they’d ever see it.

Best Position Player: Hardcastle takes it over Young - he’s the soul of the club and has been there longer than anyone, with most team offensive records. He’s very close to entering the top three all-time in doubles as well.

Best Pitcher: While Chad Martucci’s late transformation into an ace is a great story - and it was such an incredible transformation that he actually leads Denver in pitching WAR - we’re going with Nate Mefford here: deeply underappreciated due to a persistently high BABIP, Mefford has actually been one of the game’s most dominant starters for several seasons. Mefford is a strikeout artist, and has led his Division in strikeouts every single year of his career except one, striking out nearly a third of the batters he’s faced for his entire career. He’s the NABF’s active strikeouts leader, and he’s just 32, another 200K season away from third place all time and two away from eclipsing Malcolm Bush for the top spot.

Best Season: for the Bears, the best is also the most recent, as they finally won the D2 crown with a 90 win season, tying the franchise record, to earn promotion to Division 1.

25. The Cleveland Spiders
Overall Record: 2304-2317, .499
Conference Titles: 1 (D3E 2016)
Division Championships: 1 (D3 2016)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Only Division: 3

Six teams in the NABF have never changed Divisions. Four - the Angels, Sun Kings, Dodgers, and Athletics - have never fallen out of D1, but each of them would have been promoted a couple of times had there existed a higher league. San Antonio is in the opposite boat: never good enough to escape D4, but they would have dropped down if a lower division existed. No, only one team has been nondescript enough to never, ever move from their spot, and that team is the Cleveland Spiders.

The Spiders finished last in 2007, the first season of the NABF. It was the only time they would do so until the 2030s. It’s probably not a coincidence that the next season, 2008, was the debut of Nick Landa, Cleveland’s only Hall of Famer. Landa was a first round pick in 2007 that Cleveland brought up the next season, and he was an immediate sensation. As a rookie, he led D3 in Slugging at .601, hitting 38 homers and getting the first of his 13 All-Star nods as he racked up 6.7 WAR. Landa went on to become a two-time batting champ with exactly and precisely 500 homers, though he hit the last 20 with Albuquerque in 2022, his only season outside of Cleveland. Ironically, Landa’s worst season was Cleveland’s best: in 2016, the Spiders went on a magical run that brought them to the top of the D3 East for the only time in their history, and then to the championship after defeating a superior Calgary team 4 games to 1. Landa hit an awful .230/.336/.398 that season, and was clearly playing through leg pain through most of it. But when it counted he showed up, going 7 for 19 with two doubles and 4 RBI in the Championship Series.

Since that season, they’ve… existed. They’ve won about as many games as they’ve lost. They’ve finished second, third, fourth, fifth. Even last a couple times, in 2033 and 2035. In 2019, Tony Jimenez won a Pitcher of the Year for the club, but he probably shouldn’t have. While wearing a Cleveland uniform, Reliever Phil Williams became only the second reliever to win a fourth Reliever of the Year award, in 2023.

Maybe it’s fitting that we arrive at the middle of this list with the most middling team in the Federation’s history. Maybe Cleveland will surprise us - build a juggernaut, or become a laughingstock. Maybe they’ll just be the steady rock of mediocrity on which the rest of the Federation turns. Time will tell.

Best Player: Landa wins this going away. No one is close. Fun Landa fact: he is one of only ten players who ever hit 4 homers in a single game.

Best Pitcher: this one is much harder. Manuel Martinez is as good a choice as any though, having played all but two years in Cleveland, with the most WAR of any pitcher they’ve had, along with the most wins.

Best Season: another easy one. 2016 is the only possible choice - though they’ve won more than that season’s 84 wins five times, this was their only first place finish, and only championship.

Next: Ranking the Teams, #24-#13

ArquimedezPozo · 01-08-2023, 05:14 PM

This post is the third of five counting down all 48 NABF teams. Each entry will include vital stats, a short history, and its best players and season. This entry will cover teams #24-#13.

24. The Columbus Red Birds
Overall Record: 2255-2365, .488
Conference Titles: 4 (D4E 2013-2014, D3E 2017-2018)
Division Championships: 4 (D4 2013-2014, D3 2017-2018
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest Division: 2
Current Division: 3

The Red Birds are one of only three teams that have won at least four championships without ever losing a Championship Series, along with the Athletics and Saints. Of that group, they’re the only ones that have done so in multiple Divisions. Along with the Gulls, the Red Birds were an early proof-of-concept for the NABF: a small-market team that was able to use promotion to demonstrate success up the ladder. Though their overall winning record is far from sterling, their staying power despite small-market beginnings has been impressive.

Columbus is an original D4 member, a franchise that was on the verge of - in fact in the process of - shuttering before the NABF came along. Late in the 2006 season, as it sat in last place in the Great Lakes League, Columbus had traded away several of its better players (including future NABF Hall of Famer, 3B Nate Hall) and was preparing to disband; the NABF became a lifeline. However, this also meant the cupboards were mostly bare for Columbus in the early years, and they finished dead last in the D4 East in both 2007 and 2008. The club experienced their first winning season in 2011 behind Pitcher of the Year Estevan Barola, and improved marginally in 2012. But in 2013, at the start of Cycle 3, everything clicked: 3B Lorenzo Valenzuela had a career year, winning the MVP ahead of a solid lineup that ranked third in D3 in runs, while a rotation fronted by Barola allowed just one run more than the Division-leading Terrapins. The Red Birds won 98 games and the Conference, then rolled over San Antonio for their first championship. They would repeat the following season, winning 90 and a thrilling seven game bout against Albuquerque. Though they ended in second place in 2015, two championships easily got them promoted to Division 3.

They struggled to find their footing early on in D3, finishing in third and barely above .500 in 2016. But with Vaqlenzuela at the core of a booming offense (more runs in 2017 and 2018 than any other team in the Conference), Columbus went back to back again to close out Cycle 4, thus becoming the first team in Federation history to win multiple championships in each of two divisions. The performance got them promoted for a second straight cycle, into Division 2.

For five cycles after 2018, Columbus held on to its D2 spot. They remained competitive in 2019 and 2020, but in 2021 they began a three-year last place streak, losing 96 games in 2023 and controversially avoiding relegation only because a) that streak was split between two cycles, and b) the Federation had just made an adjustment to the promotion/relegation formula, putting even more emphasis on the final season of a cycle (a change which has since been reversed, in no small part because of what became called the “Columbus scenario”). In fact, Columbus has had just three winning seasons since its move to D2, and after spending much of Cycle 10 in the basement of the D2 East, Columbus will open Cycle 11 back in D3. Still, their run of successes is enough to earn them a spot in out top half here.

Best Position Player: Lorenzo Valenzuela played most of his career in Columbus, winning one of the club’s two MVPs and topping out team record books in several categories. This was a close call with slugger David Durica, but Durica - one of the league’s least popular players - also only spent the first half of his career with the Red Birds, whereas Valenzuela played all but two seasons with the club.

Best Pitcher: Estevan Barola has Columbus’s only Pitcher of the Year Award, its three best pitching seasons, and its all-time highest career pitching WAR. He was also instrumental in securing Columbus’s first title, though he left the team after the 2013 run.

Best Season: 2013 was the club’s first title and its highest win total at 98; it was also a great season for Red Birds hitters - especially Valenzuela, who won his MVP in 2013.

23. The Monterrey Industriales
Overall Record: 2269-2351, .491
Conference Titles: 4 (D2W 2016-2018, D1W2024)
Division Championships: 2 (D2 2016-2017)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original/Highest/Current Division: 1
Lowest Division: 2

Monterrey can claim an important first: the first team outside of the Troika (El Paso, Los Angeles, and Ft. Worth) to win a D1 West title, which they did in 2024. It is their most recent Conference title, and it was ultimately an unsuccessful season as they went down in five to Boston in the Championship Series, but it signalled the end of that era in Division 1. Except during Cycles three and four, Monterrey has always been a D1 club, and laying in the shadow of the Troika’s dominance was difficult at first; while the Industriales managed a couple of winning seasons in the first two cycles, two 90 loss seasons in 2011 and 2012 got them bumped. The move down, though, gave the front office room to play with the roster, and they cleared space for a promising prospect, 2011 first round pick Brett Perry. Perry was a gifted defensive center fielder - scouts called him a natural. His hit tool was solid enough, though there were question marks. Still, for a rebuilding franchise, a strong defensive CF was valuable no matter the offense, so Perry began the year in Monterrey. He responded with an outstanding season, winning a Gold Glove (the first of eight) right out of the gate while hitting .267/.336/.446 with 18 homers, a total of 5.6 WAR. He only got better from there - his HR total exploded to 32 in 2014, easily a career high. It was with Perry at his peak that the Industriales took over in the D2 West: the team won the Conference three straight seasons during Cycle 4, and won the D2 Championship in 2016 and 2017, earning promotion back to D1.

The Industriales who rejoined D1 in 2018 were centered around Perry and newly acquired ace Jayden Moody, who they’d picked up before the 2017 season for prospect Joe Schmidt. Moody anchored Monterrey’s rotation for the next nine seasons, including an outstanding 2024, when his D1-best 5.9 WAR helped Monterrey take that infamous Conference title. 2024 was also the last great year of Perry’s Hall of Fame career, as he won his seventh Gold Glove while knocking 18 homers with an .823 OPS and 125 wRC+. Perry was backed by younger stars too - 3B Madison Charron, who led D1 in all three slash categories that season, and young RF Matt Rutz, in his breakout campaign. Hard hitting 1B Zach Markiewicz had come over from San Francisco the previous year, and added a potent bat as well, but Monterrey couldn’t match the Bees.

Since 2024, Monterrey has been almost exactly a .500 club, averaging just under 77 wins and a .500 pace in 12 seasons. Perry’s replacement in CF, Joel Gamble, now has six Gold Gloves, carrying on a Monterrey tradition, and the club has exciting young talent in SS Tyler Duncan. While the pitching staff needs work, the Industriales managed 90 wins in 2036, second only to the 99-win El Paso juggernaut, so perhaps Monterrey is about to shine again.

Best Position Player: certainly Perry, the club’s only Hall of Famer and the player most associated with the team. While Markiewicz and Matt Rutz are potential Hall of Famers and spent the most years of their careers with Monterrey, Perry is the face of the franchise.

Best Pitcher: Moody is the only choice for a team that has really never had many impactful arms. Moody is a borderline Hall of Famer himself, though a lack of recognition during his career hurts his case. Still, he holds multiple Monterrey records including career WAR (by a long distance) and he’s the easy choice here.

Best Season: 2024 was the year Monterrey broke the Troika’s stranglehold on the D1 West, and it was also their best year, winning 93 games with some of the biggest stars in their history at the tops of their games.

22. The Tijuana Potros
Overall Record: 2228-2392, .482
Conference Titles: 4 (D2W 2013-2015, D1W 2028)
Division Championships: 2 (D2 2014, D1 2028)
Last Place Finishes: 0
Original/Lowest Division: 2
Highest/Current Division: 1

When the Boston Bees dynasty collapsed during Cycle 9, a little-reported side effect of it was this: the Tijuana Potros now stood alone as the only franchise in the entire Federation that had never finished in last place. This is, to an extent, no more meaningful than most trivia; Tijuana, after all, has a losing record over its history and lacks the hardware many other teams have collected over the years. But in a Federation where last-place finishes mean relegation, Tijuana’s ability to avoid it has made them a constant factor in Division 1 since their arrival there in Cycle 4.

After a slow start with three losing seasons in Cycle 1, the Potros put together a fantastic six year run in Cycles 2 and 3, winning the conference three straight seasons and capturing their first Division title in 2014 with a team led by ace and two-time Pitcher of the Year Jose Santos and a pitching staff that allowed fewer runs over that stretch than any other D2 club. Santos in particular was electric: in 2013, as the Potros won a franchise record 101 games, he gave the club 230 innings of constant groundball pressure with his powerful sinker/slider combo. He was even better in the championship season of 2014, with an 8 WAR and 56- FIP while striking out 245 and allowing just six homers over 213 innings. The Potros were rewarded for that run with promotion to Division 1 to begin Cycle 4.

By all rights, the Potros probably should have been relegated in that first few years, but the presence of even worse teams (the Mounties in Cycle 4 and the Saints in Cycle 5) prevented it; still, the club lost an average of 91 games a season over a six season span, placing fifth in D1 West in four of those years and fourth twice. Subsequent years showed improvement: in 2022, 2B Antonio Dominguez played his first full season and was a sensation, hitting .319/.413/.520 with 25 homers and getting elected to his first All-Star team. Dominguez was a Tijuana native, and grew up watching the Potros in those early NABF seasons. He was also incredible, and among the best players in D1 for the next decade, helping to stabilize the Potros. CF Danny Gonzalez added to Tijuana’s potent offense in the back half of the 2020s; Gonzalez won the 2027 MVP and would win another five years later in his best season. Though the pitching staff struggled, an offense led by two probable Hall of Famers was good enough to net Tijuana 81 wins and the Conference title in 2028, with a victory over Boston giving them that most coveted Division 1 Championship.

The 2030s have mostly brought decline to Tijuana. Antonio Dominguez wasn’t re-signed after 2035, a deeply unpopular move given his community ties. While Danny Gonzalez continues to produce, his time as a Potro could be coming to an end as his contract is up at the end of 2037. Where the club goes from there remains unseen, though with a decent younger core coming of age it doesn’t seem too likely that the Potros will see a last place finish in the next few seasons.

Best Position Player: maybe by the end of his career, should he come back to Tijuana, Danny Gonzalez will be in this spot. But for now it’s the highly deserving Dominguez, who can make a case as the best second baseman in NABF history with a career .298/.395/.488 line, 340 homers (a mark Gonzalez will likely eclipse this year) and 63.7 WAR.

Best Pitcher: Jose Santos is far and away the team’s best starter, with two Pitcher of the Year Awards and a bevy of team records. Santos spent his entire 14 year career in Tijuana.

Best Season: their first Conference title in 2013 was a banner year, as the club won 101 games to put them on a path to promotion.

21. The Chicago Whales
Overall Record: 2336-2284, .506
Conference Titles: 4 (D2E 2020-2021, 2028-2029)
Division Championships: 2 (D2 2028-2029)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original/Highest/Current Division: 1
Lowest Division: 1

Chicago, one of the largest markets in the game and an original Division 1 member, has fought tooth and nail to remain there over the first thirty years of the NABF. Along with Toronto, the Whales were the pre-eminent power of the Great Lakes League, winning the championship more than any other team, but the transition to Federation play was not an easy one as Chicago hovered around .500 for the first decade-plus. Those years coincided with the prime of the best player in their history, the incredible two-way star Jose Martinez. Between his debut in 2008 and the end of his Chicago career in 2018, Martinez amassed 46 WAR as a first baseman, hitting .327/.376/.519 with 221 homers and nearly 350 doubles while winning the 2014 MVP. Amazingly, he was almost exactly as valuable on the mound, with 44.9 WAR over 336 pitching appearances (all as a starter), going 130-123 with a 4.06 ERA that was about league average, but a better 3.67 FIP, making for an 87 FIP- over his time in the Windy City. Far better on the mound was ace Doug Peternek, who had debuted with Chicago in 2005 before the NABF and who spent nine seasons with the D1 Whales, winning 180 games and taking home two Pitcher of the Year Awards. But the Whales consistently failed to surround their two stars with a deep team, and the Whales maxed out at second place, their best showing an 87 win runner-up year in 2013. Cycle 4 proved a disaster, as by then Peternek had moved on, Martinez was slowing down, and Chicago had little else. They lost 86 games in 2016, and 89 in 2018, both last place efforts. Their reward was a shift down to Division 2.

The rebuild happened fast. Martinez was gone after 2018, opting out after relegation, and Chicago struggled the following year, climbing barely above .500 in their first season in Division 2. But the following season, 2020, was better: Chicago won 92 games with a balanced team that ranked second in D2 in runs scored and first in runs allowed. A young offense led by RF Tom Thompson and young 3B Connor Carey pounded opponents while Jarrod Scott blew down strikeout records, dropping batters at a record rate of 14.4 per nine two seasons in a row as a starter. Chicago won the D2 East in 2020, and in 2021 reached their height with a 101 win campaign that earned them promotion back to D1.

That promotion was short lived, just as the relegation had been: Scott was an amazing pitcher but a terrible clubhouse presence, and the team was forced to trade him during the 2022 season. Connor Carey signed with Baltimore, and the Whales - just two seasons removed from a 101 win season - hit their lowest point, with 95 and 96 loss years in 2023 and 2024, finding themselves once again in D2. For a bit it seemed like they’d be sliding further: the club lost 90 in their first season back down. But they rebounded somewhat to avoid relegation, and by 2028 a deep farm system acquired through three terrible years began to bear fruit. Led by MVP CF Kyle DuBell, Chicago finally broke through. In 2028 and 2029, under freshman manager Vince Lorek (a former Gold Glove OF with Baltimore) Chicago won two straight seven game championship series against the powerful Seattle Steelheads, and were a close second in 2030 as they won 91 games. Once again, Chicago was off to Division 1, and this time they’d stay: though they haven’t dominated, the Whales have basically broken even during the 2030s. With DuBell’s age starting to show, however, it’s unclear how long they’ll remain competitive: can Chicago finally build a deep team around its stars, or will they find themselves on the downslope once again?

Best Position Player: Martinez gets more credit for his hitting prowess, so we’ll put him here despite DuBell’s edge in a few areas. Martinez, a member of the inaugural 2036 Hall of Fame class, is among the very best two-way players in NABF history, up there with Nick Goodwin and Ryan Little.

Best Pitcher: Hall of Famer Doug Peternek is the best and really only answer here. Peternek spent most of his career in Chicago and remains a presence at Whales games and spring training.

Best Season: their 96 win D2 championship season in 2028 is the one fans will remember best, as it was the first title for the franchise, won in thrilling fashion in front of the home crowd in a dramatic game 7.

20. The Atlanta Crackers
Overall Record: 2421-2199, .527
Conference Titles: 2 (2010, 2014)
Division Championships: 0
Last Place Finishes: 2
Original/Highest Division: 2
Lowest/Current Division: 3

Poor, hopeless Atlanta. No team has won so many games without anything to show for it - their all-time 2421-2199 record is the ninth best of all NABF teams, yet they’ve won their Conference fewer times than Portland (#41 on this list), and have never won a championship or been promoted. They’ve finished a season in second place eight times over 30 seasons - only Philadelphia, with five first place finishes and as many championships, has done so more frequently. And what’s even more astounding is that all eight of those second place finishes came between 2009 and 2023 - that’s more than half of those years.

Atlanta benefitted in those early years from two Hall of Fame talents. Starter A.J. Nichols debuted with the club in 2012 was one of the best power pitchers of his time, and is one of only a handful of pitchers who have ever struck out more than 300 in a season (305 in 2013, his first full season). Nichols put up 5+ WAR seasons every year from 2013 to 2020, striking out around 12 batters per nine over that span. On the other side of the ball was Raul Romero, a strong leadoff hitter and outstanding defender whose 103 WAR is the highest mark in NABF history. Between Romero’s debut in 2008 and Nichols’ last great season in 2020, Atlanta won at a .545 clip and took their only two Conference titles in 2010 and 2014. Was Nichols’ third year with Atlanta and Romero’s last.

Despite Romero’s departure and Nichols’ decline, the period between 2020 and 2023 was Atlanta’s best. Despite finishing no higher than second in those seasons (courtesy of exceptional seasons by the Chicago Whales in 20 and 21, and the New York Giants in 22 and 23), Atlanta won 90 games twice, and 87 in2021, finishing just a game out of first in each 90 win season, much to the heartbreak of the Atlanta faithful. Nichols was still productive at that point, but a new star had taken over the title of ace for Atlanta: Hall of Famer David Miramontes had come to the Crackers on the downswing of his career and was suddenly reborn as a finesse pitching sensation. Miramontes had the best year of his career for Atlanta in 2019 at the age of 38, and kept going for three more outstanding seasons, winning the last of his four Pitcher of the Year awards in 2021 at the age of 40.

The Crackers have largely treaded water for the past decade, with a .504 winning percentage since Miramontes’ last great season in 2024. They were a tough luck relegation victim in 2033 after a 65 win season in a competitive conference, and haven’t bounced back yet, though they averaged 81 wins during Cycle 10, waiting for a truly great team to take the franchise where it’s never gone: up.

Best Player: it has to be Romero - all-time NABF WAR leader, second all time in SBs, great defender, and team leader who defined the team’s early years and successes.

Best Pitcher: Miramontes had an incredible run for Atlanta, but Nichols is the guy. He holds all the franchise records, and is one of only a few pitchers to win three Pitcher of the Year Awards for the same team.

Best Season: The Crackers have two Conference titles, and of those 2010 is the right choice here. Though Nichols was still two years away, this was the middle of Romero’s greatest period, and the Crackers won 91 games, among their best totals.

19. The Brooklyn Dodgers
Overall Record: 2304-2316, .499
Conference Titles: 6 (D1E 2008-2009, 2019-2021, 2035)
Division Championships: 1 (D1 2021)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Only Division: 1

The Dodgers are one of the four original Division 1 teams that have never been relegated, and the lowest on this list. Their sole championship is by far the lowest of that group, while their four last place finishes are the most. They are the only one with a losing record across the first 30 seasons of the NABF, and the only one who cannot boast a Hall of Famer in the 2036 inaugural class. Yet the Dodgers are among the proudest franchises in the game, and their fans sell out Ebbets Field in good times and bad, with one of the highest attendance rates in the Federation.

The Dodgers were an early success story, first by successfully maintaining their independence against a proposal to limit their market share as the Federation was being formed and then through their on-field success. Brooklyn won the D1 East in both 2008 and 2009 behind aging but established superstar Gustavo Vazquez and a solid young pitching staff. Though they lost in the Championship Series both times, to El Paso and LA respectively, it was a good start for the Bums, who would have been promoted had there been a higher league. Unfortunately, Brooklyn took a step back at the start of Cycle 2, despite the beginning of an exceptional run by Max Hinkle’s twin* brother John (as good if not better than his Hall of Fame sibling at the start of his career, only to be hampered by injury later). The Dodgers lost 84 in 2010 and wound up in last place, beginning an eight year stretch with only one winning season in which they finished in last place three times. It was during that stretch that John Hinkle’s second wrist fracture occurred, an injury that marked the start of a decline that would prematurely end what could have been a Hall of Fame career.

By 2018, with Hinkle reduced to a part-time role, the Dodgers had started to reload. Young Paul Loomis had his breakout season in 2016 and had established himself as a strong starter, if not an outright ace. He was joined by another young pitcher, Paul Walter, who had a run of success in the same period. The Dodgers had picked up future Hall of Fame hurler Mike Makris in an offseason trade with Ottawa to give them an impressive rotation 1-2-3, backed up by a strong lineup of young hitters, most notably long-time 1B Ian Garrison, then at the start of his excellent career. This was Brooklyn’s golden age, as they won the D1 East each year of Cycle 5, culminating in their 2021 victory over El Paso, the only championship in team history.

Since 2021, Brooklyn has been effectively a .500 team, averaging 78 wins over 17 seasons, with a single Conference title in 2035, 1B Carson Prince’s MVP season and the second Pitcher of the Year campaign for ace Jason Blanche. Though the Dodgers took a step back last season, they have promise for the future.

Best Position Player: Ian Garrison may be one of the more underrated players in the history of Division 1 - a constant, steady presence over a career in Dodger Blue, slugging over 300 homers with a career .385 OBP and 52.8 WAR. He was a 13 time All-Star, but only won a couple Silver Sluggers at 1B with no additional hardware.

Best Pitcher: This is a very tough call, and while you can make a great case for current ace Blanche, we’ll go with longevity and give it to Paul Walter. His 13 seasons with the club make him Brooklyn’s longest-tenured pitcher, and fans will long remember his outstanding performance in the 2021 championship series.

Best Season: 2021 was not only their only championship season, it also set a franchise wins record with 98.

* note: this was an edit - there were two excellent D1 hitters, both with the last name Hinkle, who were basically a couple months apart in age and from different places, so I commissionered them into becoming twins, because why wouldn’t I?

18. The Miami Marlins
Overall Record: 2323-2297, .503
Conference Titles: 7 (D4E 2010, 2011, 2026, 2034-2036; D3E 2030)
Division Championships: 4 (D4 2011, 26, 2035-2036)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Highest/Current Division: 3
Lowest Division: 4

The Marlins hold the impressive/dubious distinction of moving between divisions more often than any other team in the NABF: they have been promoted or relegated at the end of six different cycles (promoted three times, relegated three). Despite their winning record, seven Conference titles, and four Championships, the Marlins have never made it above Division 3.

The club was shaky right out of the gate, losing 88 games in each of its first two seasons before an awful 102 loss campaign to close out Cycle 1. That dropped them to Division 4, just as a young pitching core came of age, and though no one of them was dominant they were all dependable, giving the Marlins the lowest Runs Allowed in their conference. Coupled with a career year by 1B Will Brady and 23 year old catcher Peter Allen (the Marlins’ first NABF draft pick), the Marlins went from 102 losses in 2009 to 96 wins in 2010, taking the Conference, though they lost to Austin in the Championship. The subsequent season’s team was weaker in the regular season - in fact, at 79-75, they are the only team in NABF history to win a Conference with fewer than 80 wins. But they won it just the same, and this time they were ready, topping the Monarchs in a close seven game series for their first title. The result, unsurprisingly, was promotion, and by 2013 they found themselves back in Division 3 again… only to finish in last place in the first and the final years of the cycle, and be returned, making them the only team to shift divisions in each of the Federation’s first four cycles.

It would end there for a while, though, as Miami settled into a role as the D4 East’s middle man: the Marlins were almost exactly a .500 team over the next five seasons. But in 2021 they finished in last, losing 91 games, and then again in 2024, this time losing 89 and finishing the cycle in last place overall.

Their third championship came just two years later, once again cobbling together a league-leading pitching staff without a real ace: journeyman Allen Clary was the best they could offer, and he would be out of baseball two years later. But it was good enough to win 92 games with a middling offense, and it was good enough to beat Albuquerque for Miami’s second title. And once again, the Marlins were riding the rails, back up to Division 3. They stuck around for a while this time, with three winning seasons in cycle 8 including a 91 win 2030 that got them a Conference title, but it wasn’t enough to move them up again. D3 East was a tough Conference in those years, and the Marlins lost it two years running with a 69-85 record in each; not even an 80-74 2033 could save them from yet another return trip to D4.

That winning 2033 had been, in no small part, due to a young pitcher who had debuted the year before and who broke out in the Marlins’ final D3 season: Paul Herrin. Herrin gave the Marlins what was at the time its best season by a pitcher, going 15-10 with a 2.77 ERA and 3.19 FIP (79 FIP-) while putting up 5.3 WAR. Herrin continued to win in Division 4, topping 5 WAR in all three seasons of Cycle 10, but he reached a new level in 2035 as he went 18-6 with a Division-best 1.93 ERA, 277 Ks, and 5.9 WAR. He was joined by young CF Corey Stoute, who came out of nowhere with an MVP year, hitting .299/.364/.498 with 24 homers and 7.2 WAR to win D4 MVP, and the Marlins took their third D4 title. 2036 brought a fourth, as Herrin went even higher, winning 20 with a 2.06 ERA, 2.68 FIP, and only 7 homers allowed, while once again leading the Division in Ks. Herrin won the MVP and Pitcher of the Year, only the second pitcher to do so in the same season.

So, as Cycle 11 dawns, Miami is once again headed up to Division 3. This time they have a brilliant young ace at the head of their attack, and even a new name. Team owners hope the newly christened Miami Amigos will go where the Marlins never could: Division 2.

Best Position Player: Peter Allen is among the best to ever play the NABF’s weakest position, catcher. Most of his career was with the Marlins, hitting 248 homers and the 2011 Championship Series MVP.

Best Pitcher: Paul Herrin is only in his fifth season, but he already has two Pitcher of the Year awards and an MVP, and ranks first on Miami’s all-time ERA, K/9, and WHIP ranking, while in second and gaining in several other categories. The Marlins have him locked up for four more seasons, so chances are he’ll get there in at least some of them.

Best Season: 2035 saw the club win over 100 games for the first and only time, and take its fourth Division 4 championship, with Paul Herrin taking home both the MVP and Pitcher of the Year for his outstanding season.

17. The Montreal Expos
Overall Record: 2368-2252, .513
Conference Titles: 4 (D1E 2014, 2026; D2E 2031, 2034)
Division Championships: 3 (D1 2026; D2 2031, 2034)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original/Highest Division: 1
Lowest/Current Division: 2

Of the 12 original Division 1 teams, Montreal has more wins over its history than all but three - Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and El Paso. Despite that, Montreal currently sits in Division 2, having been relegated after a rough patch during Cycle 8. Up until then, Montreal’s history had generally been solid - though they lacked much to show for it, Montreal generally won more than they lost, averaging about 82 wins a year over the Federation’s first two decades of play with only four sub-.500 seasons until 2027. The team hit its early peak in Cycle three, with two 94 win seasons in 2014 and 2015. With Hall of Famer David Miramontes fronting the rotation and CF Bruce Denner and 1B Matthew Randle in the center of the lineup, Montreal took the D1 East for the first time in 2014 (losing to El Paso in seven) and fell short of an outstanding Boston club in 2015. In 2026, they took the Conference again with another 94 win campaign. Led by free agent acquisition Craig Vest and an incredible career year by SS Do-Hyun Lee, Montreal finally took Division 1, downing El Paso in six games.

Things took a sharp turn downward after the closing out of that series. The Expos won just 65 games in 2027, a drop of nearly 30. Montreal had played well above their heads with an expected W/L of 85-69 in 2026, and well below them in 2027 with an expected W/L of 75-79, but that didn’t fully explain it either. Whatever the reason, Montreal sank, losing at least 85 games in each of the next four seasons. From champs to relegation victims in just four seasons, Montreal found itself in Division 2 to open Cycle 9.

The shift opened up some starting jobs and younger players stepped in to immediate success. The most notable of these was young SP Bubba Fread, a Rhode Island native whose first full season was 2031, the Expos’ first in D2. He lived up to his heavy hype, putting up a 3.15 FIP (79 FIP-) and striking out about a quarter of the batters he faced, winning ten for an Expos team that went worst-to-first, taking the D2 East with 88 wins and lifting a trophy after a defeat of Ft. Worth. They were passable over the next two seasons as well. But in 2034, they were unstoppable, winning 97 behind Fread - now a certifiable ace about to win his third Pitcher of the Year award with an 8.2 WAR season - and Tony Carillo, who won 18 in a career year. The Expos once again claimed the title, this time over Denver in a seven game series that ended in a Montreal blowout. While many fans are nervous given 2036’s losing effort, with Bubba Fread locked up until 2040 there’s still lots to be excited about in Quebec.

Best Position Player: quite a few Montreal fans were upset when Randle was passed over for the inaugural Hall of Fame class, and while he likely doesn’t quite deserve enshrinement he was certainly a hell of a ballplayer, hitting 463 homers with a lifetime .297/.371/.516 line, 14 All Star games, and the 2021 D1 MVP.

Best Pitcher: Bubba Fread is still very much in the thick of his career, but he’s already Montreal’s best ever, with three Pitcher of the Year awards before the age of 30 and nearly 40 career WAR.

Best Season: certainly the 97 win, D2 championship season in 2034 has to be it. With Bubba Fread at his height and the Expos staff holding runs down at an impressive clip, they’ve never been more effective.

16. The Memphis Blues
Overall Record: 2373-2247, .514
Conference Titles: 4 (D4E 2007, 2019, 2022, 2024)
Division Championships: 2 (D4 2019, 2022)
Last Place Finishes: 2
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 3

Memphis has been such a steady team that they’re hard to notice. They’ve had just seven losing seasons in their history, and only twelve where they’ve fallen outside the top three spots in whatever Division they’re in. They’re one of the winningest teams in all of the NABF (13th overall) yet have just a single promotion to show for it. They’re almost impressively devoid of great players, and yet they just keep steadily winning, which is impressive in its own right. Their relatively small market size has meant they often struggle to retain stars, but they’ve developed an approach based on depth that has kept them in the hunt over their history.

Memphis began their time in the NABF as the absolute smallest market in the Federation, just barely making the cut over a couple of other teams in Louisville and Buffalo. They won just 83 games that year, but snuck a Conference title in an otherwise weak D4 East largely due to the play of 1B Jason Ussery, already approaching the end of his career by the dawn of the Federation . Memphis was pretty well crushed by the great Salt Lake Gulls in that championship series, though, and faded away behind cross-state rivals Nashville for the remainder of Cycle 1. By the end of Cycle 2, Memphis was in dire straits, and would have been relegated had there been a lower league in 2012; they lost 61 games that year, and 60 two years later, their worst seasons to date.

Those would turn out to be their two worst seasons ever, and the only two times the club would find themselves looking up at everyone. After 2014, Memphis began to build - slowly, smartly - into a contender. A break-even year in 2016, a couple second place finishes in 2017 and 2018, and then, with the Zephyrs moving up to D3, a Conference title again. The Blues that year were one of the great run prevention teams in NABF history, behind a brilliant defense led by SS Francisco Rodriguez (his nine Gold Gloves are the most of anyone who has ever played the position) and 2B Mike Campbell, and a solid, groundball-oriented pitching staff. They beat Sacramento in a low-scoring seven game series for the first franchise title, then did it again in 2022 after adding an aging Raul Romero, who had his last great season with Memphis, hitting .279/.387/.502 with 26 homers to improve the Blues’ offensive attack. Another Conference title followed to close out Cycle 6, and push the Blues up the ladder to Division 3.

Things have been quiet and steady for Memphis since, averaging a little above 80 wins since joining the sophomore circuit. A 42 year old Craig Vest joined a much younger supporting squad for a 90 win second place season in 2035, but 2036 was a step back, so Memphis enters Cycle 11 waiting for the improvements that will take them up another rung.

Best Position Player: Memphis has done what it’s done without stars in their prime, for the most part - a genuine small market moneyball approach. Their best long-term hitter is probably John Yocum, a right fielder who spent his entire career with Memphis, ending with a .269/.325/.418 line, 174 homers, and 33.9 career WAR.

Best Pitcher: two current hurlers are under consideration here: Ian Weaver and Cody Garrett. Garrett is the tentative choice, but with the understanding that Weaver could overtake him as early as this year. Garrett has one of Memphis’s three Pitcher of the Year awards, and the only one from D3.

Best Season: 2018 - 88 wins, an incredible pitching staff and defense, and a long-awaited title that started the team on the road to promotion.

15. The Detroit Stars
Overall Record: 2334-2286, .505
Conference Titles: 7 (D3E 2008, 2019-2021, 2035-2036; D2E 2022)
Division Championships: 4 (D3 2008, 2020-2021, 2036)
Last Place Finishes: 7
Original/Lowest Division: 3
Highest/Current Division: 2

Much like the city they represent, the Stars have been a team of boom times and bust times - a frequent cycle of dominant runs interspersed with eras of utter futility. Detroit was a charter member of Division 3 in 2007, and immediately established itself as a power in the D3 East, with three years averaging 85 wins, finishing third, first, and second respectively. In 2008, a balanced club took the Conference by eight games over Charlotte, and proceeded to down D3W winner Portland easily in five for the first of four D3 titles, more than any other team.

The victory and sustained period of success in Cycle 1 brought them to Division 2 in 2010, and there things didn’t go as well; they held on to second place in their first season, but fell sharply in 2011, the first of four straight losing seasons. A surprisingly good 2015 gave them 86 wins, but two last place finishes in the first two years of Cycle 3 was hard to overcome, so they found themselves back in Division 3. They played mostly in the middle of the pack for a couple years, but in 2018 they emerged with 89 wins around a great young core of hitters that included CF Bob Short, longtime Detroit 1B Enrique Pastriano, and LF Alejandro Hernandez. Detroit’s GM was a known aficionado of two way players, and collected an impressive group: DH/SP Ryan Little and 1B/SP Jose Martinez, toward the end of their Hall of Fame careers, contributed a combined 9 WAR after signing on with Detroit at the ends of their respective careers, while the great Nick Goodwin came to MoTown a a 27 year old and had three of the best years of his career there. Goodwin’s acquisition in 2020 put Detroit over the top, and the club won 96 games and their second D3 championship. A third followed the next year. So for the fourth time in five cycles, Detroit was switching Divisions.

This time went better, as Detroit captured the D2 East for the first time in 2022, but their window was closing fast and the club settled into seven straight losing seasons and another relegation by 2028. But once again, Detroit used that time well. By 2032, with the emergence of the great 3B Ali Brown (two MVPs in 2032 and 2033) Detroit climbed the rankings in D3. In 2035, they won 93 games and the Conference title, and then last year they delivered their finest season, winning 101 times to beat Nashville by a single game before sweeping Sacramento in the Championship. Brown, 1B Luis Baleia, LF Victor Ortiz, and young 2B phenom Shane McBride each put up 5+ WAR seasons, including a monster campaign by Brown that could have won him the MVP for a third time, and Detroit was the only D3 team to cross the 800 run threshold.

So with that core to build on, Detroit is once again headed up the ladder to D2, hoping for a better outcome in Cycle 11.

Best Position Player: it seems pretty clear that Brown, despite lacking the counting stats due to his age, has already claimed that title. At 30 and with several productive years ahead of him, he has two MVPs, 217 homers, and 40 WAR, with a Gold Glove at the hot corner.

Best Pitcher: Michael Zoellner was a steady, reliable starter for Detroit over 13 of the 14 years he spent in the NABF. His 2018 season was a gem, and helped re-establish the team after a long period of futility. He’s the best pick for a franchise that has never had much great pitching.

Best Season: it just happened. 2036 saw it all come together for a 101 win championship and the best offense Detroit has ever put together.

14. The New Orleans Zephyrs
Overall Record: 2397-2223, .519
Conference Titles: 8 (D4E 2008, 2012, 2016-2017; D3E 2026-2027; D2E 2030, 2032)
Division Championships: 2 (D4 2016; D3 2026)
Last Place Finishes: 4
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Current/Highest Division: 2

New Orleans has spent 30 years steadily climbing up the NABF’s ladder, and may soon threaten the Terrapins’ place as the only original D4 team to climb to D1. If they do, they will have done it more methodically, yes, but also while overcoming far greater challenges.

The D4 East was an unfortunate division in the Federation’s early years: without any real powerhouses, they lost to stronger D4 West dynasties (Salt Lake and Austin) in five of the first six Championship Series. Among those losing teams were the Zephyrs, who were 2008’s sacrificial lamb to the Salt Lake juggernaut, though they at least took the Gulls to Game 7. The club was maddeningly inconsistent in its first years, though, swinging between winning and losing seasons - in fact, the year after going to Game 7, the Zephs lost 99 games en route to two straight last place finishes. In 2012 they managed 85 wins and a Conference title, with young 1B Nick Barnes clubbing a D4 best 45 homers, but they once again dropped a Championship Series, this time to Austin. The next three seasons were good ones, but without postseason play as Barnes was the only real talent of the club, winning an MVP in 2014 with little backup, on his way to a 521 home run career.

In 2016 two things happened that reshaped the franchise. The first was New Orleans’ first championship: the club won 86 in 2016, as a few younger players reached their potential, including Frank Flanigan, RF Jeff Putz, and Vinny Vazquez. They were able to defeat Milwaukee in six games to raise the banner in the Big Easy. The other development didn’t make headlines, but nothing the Zephyrs have ever done has had a greater impact: they signed a young Dominican prospect named Pedro Quiroz.

As Quiroz worked his way through the minors, the Zephyrs held steady, winning 92 and the Conference in 2017 and finally earning promotion to D3 after the 2018 season. They won 84 in their first season in D3. In 2020, Quiroz was a late-season call-up, though he didn’t impress in part time duty during the club’s last month. But in 2021, he exploded: Quiroz was the easiest Rookie of the Year selection in history, with a .310/.390/.661 line, tying Dennis Milligan’s D3 record 54 homers. Despite his incredible production - and it continued in 2022 though with a sophomore slump - the Zephyrs were in the bottom half of the D3 East in those years, with a 64 win 2022 sparking fears of relegation.

Quiroz refused to allow it: in 2023 he proved that freshman campaign was no fluke with maybe his all-time best season, a .324/.377/.655, 57 homer, 7.2 WAR run that, combined with a strong season by Putz and a decent one by Zephyrs pitchers, won the club 92 games. They sat in second place for three years while Quiroz began an assault on the record books. In 2024, Quiroz hit 43 homers, behind Steve Mauck of Baltimore’s astounding 59 homer Triple Crown, but that was the last season until 2033 that Quiroz didn’t lead his Division in homers. In 2025, he won the D3 Triple Crown: 53 homers, a .322 average, and 122 RBI. And as he slugged, the Zephyrs built around him: 2B Jeff Dollar, SP Josh August, and others joined Quiroz and Putz, and by 2026 the Zephyrs were champions again. The D3 trophy was theirs, having swept the Brewers. That win, coupled with an 89 win, Conference title season in 2027, meant New Orleans had stamped their ticket to D2.

Any fears that Quiroz might not be able to adjust were set aside rapidly: he smashed 55 homers and won the D2 Triple Crown with a .328 average and 127 RBI, the fourth straight season in which he topped his Division in both homers and RBI. And then came the magical 2029 season, in which Quiroz chased Eric Bryant’s 2009 single season record in its 20th anniversary, finally smashing it in the season’s last weekend with a three-homer homestand that brought him to 62 with Bryant on hand to congratulate him.

On that season’s heels, and at the very height of Quiroz’s powers, the Zephyrs won 98 games in 2030, and a Conference title; though they missed promotion it was clear that the Zephyrs would be a team to contend with. And they were, with winning seasons each year of Cycle 9 and a Conference title in 2032. In the absence of a championship or promotion, though, the highlight of those years, was Quiroz’s record-breaking 620th career home run, breaking John Hansen’s record set five years earlier. Quiroz remains the home run king of the NABF and will for some time: the current active leader is Zach Markiewicz with 462, and he is on the verge of retirement.

New Orleans hasn’t seen much success since that year; Quiroz left the club after the 2034 season, and played a few games with San Diego in 2036 before officially announcing his retirement, and while the club boasts several promising young players it doesn’t appear they’ll be a contender too soon.

Best Position Player: Quiroz, obviously - he is the all-time career and single season home run king, a complete hitter who is a lock for the Hall of Fame when he is eligible after Cycle 11.

Best Pitcher: there are startlingly few to choose from. The WAR leader for the club is current starter Wayne Acton, who is in his 11th season with the club and carries a career 88 FIP- with over 37 WAR.

Best Season: 2030 - 98 wins, a Conference title, and Quiroz at his best.

13. The Kansas City Monarchs
Overall Record: 2367-2253, .512
Conference Titles: 4 (D4W 2011, 2028-2029; D3W 2031
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2028-2029; D3 2031)
Last Place Finishes: 1
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 2

The Monarchs, for a long time, were a franchise that could never quite get over the hump - often very good, almost never terrible, they motored along in Division 4 for two decades running out solid teams that always found themselves in second or third place. But for the last ten years, they’ve been one of the most successful teams in the game, and that prolonged success has launched them far up our list.

The story of the Monarchs really begins with Eric Bryant, whose debut season came in the final year before the NABF. Bryant was a highly touted prospect from nearby Omaha who had hit well in the minors before making the move up to KC. In his age 23 and 24 years, he struggled, but a light went off in 2008, the Monarchs’ second season in Kansas City, and he blew up: .305/.409/.617, 45 homers, 7.9 WAR. The Monarchs won 85 games, securing second place behind Salt Lake. And that was just a warm up act for Bryant, who slammed 60 homers, an NABF record until Pedro Quiroz broke it 20 years later, and still the D4 record. His 136 RBI are also the most ever collected by a D4 player. Bryant’s partner in this was catcher Steven Martinez, who was in his prime when the NABF began and put up some of the greatest catching seasons ever on his way to the Hall of Fame. With those two sluggers and a deep pitching staff, the Monarchs were a serious threat… who still finished second to the world-beating Gulls.

The Gulls ascended to Division 3 the following year, clearing a path for Kansas City. Their best season yet followed - 93 wins, brilliant campaigns from Bryant and Martinez, and a great year from SP Mike Wade. And once again they finished in second, this time losing the Conference in a heartbreaker by one game to Austin, who ripped off 12 in a row to finish the season. Kansas City was nearly as good in 2011, but Austin sunk a bit, and finally the Monarchs broke through, winning the first Conference title for the franchise. It would be the last for a while, though. A resurgent Pioneers club put KC back down the standings in 2012, and the window started to close. 2012 proved to be the club’s last winning season until 2025, the longest sustained losing period in their history, despite the presence of ace Justin Bennett, whose two Pitcher of the Year awards came in .500 seasons for KC.

What emerged from that drought was a club that has posted just two losing seasons among the last twelve, winning its Conference and its Division three times. The run began small, with a 78-76 2025 featuring a strong season from CF Adam Robles and 2B Phil Osborne, both of whom would become mainstays and Hall of Fame candidates in the coming seasons with KC. The next two seasons saw second place finishes for KC in the D4 West before finally breaking through in 2028, at the start of Cycle 8, with their second Conference title. Osborne and Robles both had strong campaigns, while SP Larry Szostek was in the middle of his short but excellent run as a two-time Pitcher of the Year, having won his first in 2027 and putting up a 6.1 WAR, 2.37 FIP (67 FIP-) year with 219 Ks in just 178 innings in 2028. The Monarchs beat up on the Nashville Sounds in 2028, and then swept the Washington Senators in the Championship Series the following season; after over 20 years with just a single first place finish to show, the Monarchs were suddenly back-to-back champs and on their way to Division 3.

They closed out Cycle 8 with a 91 win campaign, though they finished second to Austin, and opened their time in D3 with a bang: a 90 win campaign led by Osborne, Robles, and an outstanding Pitcher of the Year season by young starter Nick Padley for the franchise’s third title, and first outside D4. That win, plus a strong 2032, lifted them into D2 for Cycle 10; in their three years in the junior circuit they haven’t dominated, but neither have they been overwhelmed, with a 2034 barely below .500, a 2035 exactly at it, and a 2036 in which they placed third with a strong 86-68 season. So we’ll see where the Monarchs go from here - a continued forward march, or a slide backward, as others who have gone from D4 to D2 have done.

Best Position Player: the original himself, 1B Eric Bryant, who holds the D4 single season HR record with 60 and the D4 career HR record with 409 (also, unsurprisingly, the Monarchs’ team record). Bryant and C Steve Martinez are KC’s only Hall of Famers, and Martinez was only with KC for a few years after the start of the NABF while Bryant played ten seasons for the club.

Best Pitcher: Bennett, who debuted with KC in 2009 but didn’t come into his own until 2012, sometimes doesn’t get enough credit as his best years were spent on losing teams, but though his career wasn’t long he was outstanding, gathering over 43 WAR and 141 Wins in 13 seasons with a career FIP- of 87.

Best Season: 2031’s 90 win D3 Championship is the franchise’s best year outside D4, as they claimed a D3 trophy on their way up the line.

ArquimedezPozo · 01-13-2023, 06:43 PM

12. The Salt Lake Gulls
Overall Record: 2309-2311, .500
Conference Titles: 9 (D4W 2007-2009, D3W 2011-2012, 2019-2021, 2032)
Division Championships: 4 (D4 2007-2009, 2019)
Last Place Finishes: 8
Original/Lowest Division: 4
Highest Division: 2
Current Division: 3

It’s hard to capture in words the excitement that gripped Salt Lake City in those first few years of the NABF, as their team defied the odds and became the ultimate symbol of what the new league structure could achieve. Salt Lake City was not used to winning baseball, an afterthought in a sprawling Pacific Coast League that tended to be dominated by clubs from CA coastal cities. But when they found themselves instead in Division 4, they took off and have never looked back.

There had actually been cautious hope for SLC even before the NABF. Careful drafting and management had given them some exciting young players, and 27 year old RF Carlos Jara had already become a star by the time the Federation began play. 1B Ben Tafoya showed promise, as did starter Alex Mendoza and SS Mike Kohler, before an achilles rupture ended his career prematurely. The move to a D4 stage launched them all into the stratosphere, though, and none more than Jara. His first season in the NABF was legendary, as he won the D4 Triple Crown out of the gate, with 48 homers, 131 RBI, and a batting line of .349/.420/.744 (that SLG remains an NABF single season record to this day). Salt Lake City ran away with the D3 East in 2007, and then again in 2008, before blowing the doors off the place in 2009 with a 96 win campaign. They won the championship in each of those seasons, conquering Memphis, then New Orleans, then Nashville.

Once in Division 3, the dominance continued: Salt Lake won 90 in their first season in the D3 West and finished a game behind San Diego, but then ripped off 101 and 95 win campaigns in 2011 and 2012, winning the Conference but losing to Malcolm Bush’s Indianapolis Clowns both times. Still, by the time 2012 came to a close, the Gulls were headed up to Division 2 once again. They were the poster children of the NABF: one of the smallest markets in the game, a team that had always had trouble staying relevant before the NABF, was suddenly a world-beater.

Sadly for Salt Lake, they storybook got darker in Division 2. As their core started to age, and free agency came calling, the Gulls had their first losing season in 2013, finishing fourth in the D2 West. Facing financial issues, the club traded Jara in the middle of 2014, on their way to a last place finish. In 2015 the club wound up in second place, but that was more due to a weak Conference than anything else, as they lost more games than they won. Cycle 4 was a disaster, as the club lost 85+ games each year, to sink back down to D3.

But instead of doing what most thought they would - sink back down to D4 - the Gulls reloaded. Those years of losing in D2 allowed them to gather some outstanding talent: CF Daniel Winchester, SP Dan Costa both debuted during Cycle 4. So, too, did superstar 1B Dennis Milligan, who quietly hit more home runs in NABF play than all but one other player (Pedro Quiroz, whose career Milligan’s largely overlapped with). Salt Lake silenced critics with a championship run in their first season back in D3, then two more first place finishes, running the table in Cycle 5 and vaulting back to Division 2.

Since then, the story hasn’t been great, but neither has it been awful. Salt Lake held on in Division 2 for a couple cycles, before dropping back down to D3, where they’ve remained since. While they’ve largely had a losing record over that span, there have been good moments, including a 2032 D3 West title. It was the franchise’s 9th, tied for fourth-most with a few teams and behind only the trinity of Boston, Baltimore, and El Paso. Salt Lake fans, meanwhile, watch and wait, no longer accepting that their team is a perennial loser.

Best Position Player: on a franchise that boasts one Hall of Famer in Carlos Jara and another possible one in Dennis Milligan, Daniel Winchester might seem like an odd choice. But both of the others’ times in Salt Lake were relatively short, while Winchester was an anchor of the club for his entire career. And while lack of longevity holds him off lists of all-time greats, his prime years were exceptional - a 30 HR, Gold Glove center fielder with seven straight 5+ WAR seasons. He deserves it.

Best Pitcher: Sean Ruiz was only a Gull for 8 seasons, but he was outstanding for the club over much of its difficult time in D2 while putting up 37.7 WAR.

Best Season: Despite all their great years, there’s really no question about this: it’s the 101 win, D3 West title season in 2011, the capper of an amazing run.

11. The New York Giants
Overall Record: 2451-2169, .531
Conference Titles: 7 (D1E 2007, 2011-2012, 2033; D2E 2018, 2023-2024)
Division Championships: 4 (D1 2011; D2 2018, 2023-2024)
Last Place Finishes: 5
Original/Highest/Current Division: 1
Lowest Division: 2

The New York Giants are one of the oldest continuous teams in the NABF, with roots stretching back well over 100 years before the Federation’s founding. As one of the top teams in the highly competitive Mid-Atlantic League, the Giants had among the game’s largest and most self-assured fanbases (though perhaps some would have used different words there). So it was something of a shock to the system when the Giants entered the NABF to an uneven first few seasons: in fact, their GM was fired in just their second season in the Federation after a surprise last-place finish largely fueled by injury.

In Cycle 2, it seemed the ship had righted itself: New York won over 90 games in each season of the cycle, winning D1 for the first time with a Series victory over the Angels in 2011, though a rematch had the opposite result the following season. One of the biggest factors in their success was a young right fielder named Max Hinkle, who had debuted in 2008 (his twin brother John emerging as a star for crosstown rival Brooklyn the following season). Hinkle was a sensation: his .371 average in 2010 remains a D1 record, but he did it with power, slugging .681 with 50 homers (also a record, but one that would be eclipsed the following season). Hinkle’s otherworldly production in the early 2010s drove a powerful Giants offense while the 1-2 tandem of Hall of Famer Mike O’Neill and Doug Trujillo kept opponents down. The Giants seemed on top of the world.

But in Cycle 3, things started to go wrong. O’Neill departed, wooed by a large contract in Montreal. Then Hinkle departed to El Paso, whose new financial resources gave them the ability to outspend the Giants.Trujillo, entering his late 30s, was no longer as effective, and neither were the Giants: they were barely above .500 in 2013, and then lost 84 and 94 games the next two seasons. In a Division 1 full of competitors, New York was the odd team out - the largest market in the US, relegated to the second-class division.

Thus began the yo-yo years, as All-Star catcher Corey Heib later called them: In Division 2, the Giants were champions, but in Division 1 they were goats. In Division 2, they won championships in 2018, 2023, and 2024. In Division 1, they finished last in 2015, 2019, and 2020. In all, between 2016 and 2025 the Giants flipped divisions four times, up and down, with fans getting whiplash along the way.

By 2025, they had re-established themselves, though, and a return to Division 1 this time was not disastrous. In fact, the club won 90 their first season back behind the great leadoff hitter Julio Blea, Rookie of the Year 2B Jose Romero, and an aging Malcolm Bush, experiencing Division 1 competition for the first time in his career. They came in second in 2025 and in an 89-win 2026, but had clearly returned strong. The team averaged about 82 wins over the next ten seasons, despite a relegation scare at the end of Cycle 8, and in 2033 won 96 games for another Conference title, this time courtesy of the incredible SS Mike Burcham, who combined Gold Glove defense with a .343/.411/.433 batting line and 8.4 WAR to win the D1 MVP. They have also since signed Matt Wood, probably already established as the greatest catcher in NABF history at just 31 years old, giving the Giants two outstanding all-around talents at the two most important positions on the diamond.

Best Position Player: this was harder than it should have been on the team that gave the league Max Hinkle: Julio Blea has slightly more career WAR over a career spent mostly with New York. But Max Hinkle is one of the three or four best position players in the Federation’s history, and much of that legacy was carved in Giants orange, so he gets the nod here.

Best Pitcher: this on the other hand is easy. Mike O’Neill is New York’s defining pitcher and one of the best in NABF history. He won 101 games for New York with a 72 FIP- and over 46 WAR in just eight seasons in New York.

Best Season: They’ve won more games in other years, but the 95 win 2011 was the team’s first championship, and the only one of its four that featured Hinkle and O’Neill in Division 1.

10. The Sacramento Solons
Overall Record: 2388-2232, .517
Conference Titles: 9 (D4W 2018-2019, 2021, 2032-2033; D3W 2024, 2034-2036)
Division Championships: 3 (D4 2021; D3 2034-2035)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original Division: 3
Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 2

While the Solons might not leap to mind as one of the ten greatest teams in the Federation’s history, they have an impressive record of success. Only six franchises can claim more winning seasons than Sacramento’s 20, and only three can claim more first place seasons than their 9. They’re one of the current crop of teams vying to join Baltimore as the only teams to play in all four divisions, as they prepare to play their first games as a Division 2 team in 2037.

The Solons were an original Division 3 franchise, but didn’t last long there the first time around, opening NABF play with a relegation after a 2009 last place finish with just 63 wins. The club remained mired in Division 4 for four cycles, spending the first seven seasons as a mostly middling franchise, placing second a couple times but mostly finding themselves in the middle of the pack. The only real bright spot in those years was the brilliant play of Hall of Fame CF Preston Franklin, who was 28 when the NABF began play in 2007 and gave the Solons six MVP-level seasons (and two actual MVPs).

Franklin left the club after 2015 to spend the last four seasons of his career in Atlanta and Nashville, and so there is no one player we can point to as being a catalyst for the turnaround that began in 2018. In fact the team had been performing at a high level for a couple of years already, with expected win totals higher than actual results in each of the previous two seasons; the Solons just caught up to themselves in 2018. No player collected even 4 WAR for the club that year, with SS Hector Delgado leading the team with 3.9. No one struck out 200, or won 20, or hit 40 homers. But collectively, they ended the season third in runs (690) and fourth in runs allowed (604), winning 86 games, good enough to take the D4 West. They faced off against the Baltimore Terrapins, making their first appearance, and the Terrapins won (as they’d do so often over the next four cycles). But the groundwork was there, and the Solons kept winning: in 2019 they ended with 94 wins behind stellar campaigns from 1B Allen Lockwood and SP Marcus Chiero, plus an out of nowhere MVP campaign from journeyman leadoff man Josh Hood, who hit .296/.424/.477 with 6 WAR despite hitting not a single homer all season (he had just six in his career, with half coming in a single season). Again the Solons lost in the championship, though, to Memphis in seven. In 2020, they missed the Conference title by a single game.

By recent standards, then, 2021 - 89 wins, and expected total of just 84 - was a letdown. But they ended it where they wanted to be, in first place in the D4 East, clinching a promotion, and then won their first championship while taking revenge on Baltimore for 2018. The Solons romped, winning in 5, and departed Division 4 on a high note.

The Division 3 transition was at first difficult: the club lost 88 games in 2022. But they improved to 70-84 the following year, and by 2024 they were back: an 86 win season gave them first place in the D3 West and a shot at another title just three years after their first. Naturally, they once again faced the Terrapins, who had been promoted from D4 East the same year the Solons came up from the West. The Pins were in the opening years of their incredible run, on the verge of the two greatest seasons in NABF history, and while Sacramento hung with them, they were overmatched, losing the 2024 championship series four games to two. As Baltimore moved up, Sacramento remained.

The next few years were spent in rebuild mode. After 2025, the Solons had a major regression, losing 85 games in 2025 and 84 the following season. For the next few years, the club danced around .500, without being able to establish younger talent (and missing on a couple of mid-range free agents). A pitching staff, though, began to coalesce at the turn of the 2030s. SP Vince Lipps won a Pitcher of the Year in 2029, and though subsequent seasons were not as effective Lipps proved to be a consistent back of the rotation presence. Adam Rollins, too, demonstrated reliability in the early 2030s, though his traditional stats didn’t reflect the reality well. By 2032, the Solons had become contenders again thanks to that staff and a balanced lineup that produced a top four D4 offense, and despite an 80-74 record they snuck off with the D4 West. Improvement in 2033 was pronounced, with an improved offense thanks to the emergence of on-base/power threat Alejandro Flores, who led D4 with a .407 OBP and .383 wOBA while hitting 32 homers. Though both seasons ended without a title, the back to back first place finishes guaranteed them a move up.

Rather than struggle with new competition, the Solons thrived. A prescient trade brought them a promising arm, Josh Argo, from the Senators for two low-level minor leaguers, and Argo bloomed immediately; he would go on to win both the 2035 and 2036 Pitcher of the Year awards in D3. With Argo now heading a deep rotation, the Solons held opponents to a D3 West best 644 runs in 2034, beating Nashville for their first D3 title. They repeated in 2035, as Argo won Pitcher of the Year (the first of his two consecutive). They were even better in 2036, winning 96 games while allowing a D3-best 530 runs and improving their offense as Flores had a career year. They were swept by Detroit in a disappointing series, but that made it five Conference titles in a row, and a drama-free promotion to Division 2. With two younger stars in Argo and Flores, and a solid core behind them, perhaps the Solons can do what only their old rivals the Terrapins have done before: win six Conference titles in a row.

Best Position Player: Preston Franklin, the team’s only Hall of Famer, holds a bevy of team records and is the most recognizable player in the franchise’s history.

Best Pitcher: Give Argo a few years and it might be him, but for now rotation-mate Adam Rollins winds up as the consensus choice. He has moved on to Memphis for the 2037 season, but he has arguably been Sacramento’s most stable rotation presence, and his consistency puts him at the top of the career WAR list for the club.

Best Season: It wasn’t one of their three title seasons, but 2036 saw the club win an all-time best 96 games with some outstanding individual performances, and earn promotion to Division 2.

9. The San Diego Padres
Overall Record: 2312-2308, .500
Conference Titles: 8 (D3W 2009-2010, 2025, 2027; D4W 2017, 2023-2024; D2W 2030)
Division Championships: 6 (D3 2009-2010, 2027; D4 2017, 2024; D2 2030)
Last Place Finishes: 5
Original Division: 3
Lowest Division: 4
Highest/Current Division: 2

If you want to understand the NABF in all its chaos and glory, you must understand the San Diego Padres. The Padres are among the winningest franchise in the Federation in terms of championships, tied for second behind only Baltimore, and the only non-Baltimore team to win championships in three different divisions, a feat they accomplished with a 2030 D2 win. They’ve been relegated twice (counting finishing last in Division 4 during 2021) and promoted twice. They have an almost even record, four games over .500 in a span of 30 years. They have the third-most combined MVPs and Pitchers of the Year, but only one Hall of Famer. They may not be the best team on the list, but they’re certainly the one that best defines the league.

There’s no way anyone in San Diego could have predicted their place on this list after the first 15 years of Federation play. The team had won back-to-back D3 championships in 2009-2010 (split between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2, denying the Padres a promotion), powered by the great two-way star Ryan Little. Little was an instant sensation - a 22 year old rookie at the Federation’s inception, he won D3’s MVP that season. He would go on to win the next three as well, making him one of only three NABF players with four MVPs and the only to win them in consecutive seasons. His contributions came both as a hitter and as a pitcher, in 2008 leading the division in pitching WAR with 7.5 (and winning his only Pitcher of the Year) while adding another 6.1 WAR as a position player - easily the highest single season WAR in NABF history at 13.6. As the Padres swept the Clown in the D3 series that year, Little contributed a double and a homer to win series MVP. The following season the Padres returned to the series after 91 wins to take the D3 West, and won a seven game series over Nashville.

After 2010, things went south for San Diego. The pitching staff - including Little, who declined somewhat significantly after 2012 on both sides of the ball - sank from 2nd in the division runs allowed to sixth, then lower over the next few seasons. The offense fared even worse, as the Padres were regularly among the lowest-scoring teams in D3. In 2015, the team went 60-94, and combined with subpar seasons in the first two years of Cycle 3 found themselves kicked down to the lowest division. They met with early success in Division 4, winning 86 games and the Conference in 2017 then making it past the Zephyrs for their third trophy. But even then, the team sank quickly: in Cycle 5 they never won more than 70 games, ending the final year of the cycle (2021) with an abysmal 63-91 record, “relegated” despite no place to go.

The next nine seasons, though, would be extraordinary. In 2022, the Padres fought to an even 77-77 record largely through career years: journeyman SP Allen Clary put up 4.1 WAR and an 84 FIP-, better than he’d ever done by a decent margin; veteran Gordie Bandy nearly matched that despite an even less successful career. OF Dustin Weaver had the first of two excellent seasons in SD, his first (and last) two good seasons anywhere. It all would have been easy to write off, except they got even better in 2023, picking up another two-way great Nick Goodwin for his age 30 season while young 2B Rich MacDougal competed for Rookie of the Year and starter Philippe Galois won Pitcher of the Year with an out of nowhere season. The Padres snuck into first place that season, winning 84, losing to Charlotte in the championship.

In 2024, the Padres won just 81 games but still took 1st in the D4 West, and this time they didn’t miss, downing Memphis in seven to earn promotion back to Division 3. While most observers expected the club to bounce back down instantly, they stuck, and they won. In 2025 that was done in dramatic style: the regular season ended in a three-way tie for first in the D3 West between San Diego, Calgary, and Phoenix. Calgary had the best record against the other two, giving them a bye in the three-team playoff. San Diego got by Phoenix, and then drubbed Calgary to secure the 2025 Conference title. The Ottawa Champions beat them in the series, but San Diego showed they weren’t just going to roll back down to D4. And they didn’t: an 83 win second place team didn’t inspire but certainly didn’t embarrass, and then came 2027.

The big offseason development for San Diego was the acquisition of former Boston 3B Steve Bay, who responded to a move to D3 with his best season in years. Rich MacDougal got on base at a .400 clip, and Nick Goodwin had the best year of his later career, with 29 homers and 102 RBI at the plate while throwing 191 innings, putting up 5.1 WAR and allowing only three home runs. The Padres won 90 games, the only time in franchise history they’ve reached that mark, and won the D3 West by 13 games before defeating New Orleans for their fifth crown, and third in D3. The victory moved them up to Division 2 - just six years after losing Division 4 in Cycle 5, the Padres were at an unprecedented level.

They kept winning in D2 - a slightly sub-.500 2028 gave way to a strong second place in 2029 led by journeyman rotation anchor Tom Sutton and young ace Scott Wedell, who won the division’s Pitcher of the Year. In 2030 they improved even further, thanks especially to the incredible second season of young starter Pedro Llopiz. While not beloved by teammates or fans (he famously denigrated the city of San Diego in an interview immediately after one of the greatest-pitched games in NABF history, his 17 strikeout no-hitter against Columbus in early 2032) there was no denying his talent. Llopiz, who has transitioned to the bullpen after several exceptional years in the rotation, set a D2 record with his 1.66 ERA in 2030 as he struck out nearly 40% of the batters he faced, capturing the first of two Pitcher of the Year awards. But Llopiz was just one part of an incredible Padres pitching staff, with Wedell giving the club his best season and #3 starter Josh Beck putting up a 2.92 ERA, 2.67 FIP (70 FIP-) with 30% of batters striking out against him. The result was a pitching staff that was far and away the best in the Division, allowing just 3.3 runs a game with second place Toronto up at 3.8. While the offense ranked near the bottom in runs, this was one of the best run prevention teams in the game, and they were rewarded with their sixth championship, becoming the second team with titles in three divisions.

Since then, the Padres have trended downward again. Llopiz signed with Austin after the 2032 season, while Wedell departed for LA, and the Padres sunk back down the standings, finishing in fifth place in both 2034 and 2035 with fewer than 70 wins. But a turnaround 2036 gives fans room for hope, with Beck continuing to perform and with the emergence of new talents like SP Brice Asmus and RF Jason Turnquist. The Padres are proof that anything can happen in the NABF, so who knows? Maybe the next D1 team is being born right now in southern California.

Best Player: We’ll use this category specifically for the Padres, because Ryan Little could make a strong case at both of the other two below and this lets us mention other folks too. Little is among the best all-around players in NABF history and one of the great two-way players as well. No player has been more of a San Diego icon.

Best Position Player: Rich MacDougal debuted at second for the Padres in 2023 and was an All-Star level performer every season he wore a San Diego uniform. He is just barely second to Ryan Little in career WAR by a position player, and holds the franchise mark in OBP (.396).

Best Pitcher: had Pedro Llopiz worked harder to endear himself to fans and teammates, he likely wouldn’t have been traded away and might be here. Instead, this title goes to Josh Beck, who is the Padres’ all-time leader in wins, WAR, and strikeouts, while pitching all thirteen of his seasons with the Pads.

Best Season: Difficult choices for a club that’s won a lot, but without a truly dominant season. The D2 championship in 2030 stands out due to the brilliance of its pitching staff and its historic nature, so that’s the choice.

8. The Tampa Tarpons
Overall Record: 2463-2158, .533
Conference Titles: 8 (D2E 2008, 2015-2016, 2019, 2035-2036; D3E 2031-2032)
Division Championships: 4 (D2 2015, 2019, 2035; D3 2032)
Last Place Finishes: 3
Original Division: 2
Lowest Division: 3
Highest/Current Division: 1

The Tampa Tarpons are arguably the most successful Division 2 team in NABF history. Only three of their 30 seasons have been played outside the Division, during a short-lived relegation, and the Tarpons have three D2 championships, more than anyone else. Of the nine teams that have played half or more of their seasons in D2, they’ve averaged more wins and more winning seasons, and have the most Conference titles - in fact, it’s hard to find a team in any Division that’s been as successfully competent as the Tarpons. They’ll begin a new phase in Cycle 11, having been promoted to Division 1, but for now let’s look back at what got them here.

Tampa was an original D2 team due to the large population of the greater Tampa Bay region. The team was a modest success in its first few NABF seasons, finishing second in 2007 and taking the D2 East in 2008 behind ace Enrique Ubeda, 2B Mike Harris, and the great OF Roberto Nieves, Tampa Bay’s only Hall of Fame inductee to date. Nieves was a rookie in 2008, but performed admirably with a .275/.358/.488 line, 17 homers, and 26 steals while playing strong defense. A string of subpar seasons followed the 2008 first-place finish, including one of their two franchise 6th place finishes, but they were never bad, exactly - even the last place year, 2010, saw them break even at 77-77 in a competitive conference. Nieves was outstanding in those years, though he fell short of the MVP in both 2013 and 2014 despite strong arguments in favor; the team around him, though, wasn’t up to the task.

Ironically, that changed in Nieves’ worst Tampa seasons, between 2015 and 2017, as a core of younger players, supplemented by a strong bench and bullpen, propelled Tampa first to the 2015 D2 East title and then to the Division 2 Championship, a sweep of the Tijuana Potros. The season was the first for young LF/DH Nate Hicks, who had a strong run of years in the late 2010s with Tampa; he was named the 2015 Championship Series MVP after homering, doubling twice, and putting up a .944 OPS over the four game set. This was the start of Tampa’s first golden age: over the five seasons between the start of 2015 and the end of 2019, the Tarps averaged just under 90 wins a season while taking three Conference titles and two Division Championships. Hall of Famer Doug Peternek spent a few excellent years with the club in that span. Nieves, too, had a second life late in the decade, winning the 2018 MVP at age 34 with a .287/.403/.531 line, 26 homers, and a D2-best 6.3 WAR. He would go on to win his second in his final season, his only outside Tampa: in Indianapolis, Nieves carried a .900 OPS into the final week of the season and then, in the team’s 149th game of the year on September 28, suffered what turned out to be a career-ending torn labrum. He is the only NABF player to end his career in an MVP season.

Unsurprisingly, the departure of Nieves after 2020 didn’t do the club any favors. Over the next couple seasons the team fell down the standings, winning just 69 games in 2022 (the only sub-70 win season in their history, a feat no other team can claim) and ending in fifth. In all, the Tarpons finished below .500 in four straight years between 2021 and 2024, their longest stretch. Despite that, they were always relatively close to .500, and over that span finished no lower than 5th, thereby avoiding relegation. The Tarpons of the 20s were a run-prevention powerhouse, with a great starting core and a defense highlighted by 8-time Gold Glove winner Miguel Torres (who the Tarpons had practically stolen in a trade with Boston before the 2020 season). In Cycle 7 the club flirted with postseason play a couple of times, falling short.

The next decade was a tumultuous and ultimately glorious one for Tampa. In Cycle 8, despite averaging over 75 wins a season, the Tarpons were relegated for the first time in their history due to an exceptionally strong conference. The relegation was a shock to the fanbase and meant that several established players were able to opt-out of contracts. But that opened up space for some prospects, and they bloomed. The 2031 season, Tampa’s first in Division 3, brought new stars to the fore: RF Paul Leuchter, who would win a season and a Championship MVP in the coming years; the gifted defensive shortstop Willie Soto;corner IF Adrian St. Germain; rotation anchor Drew Robinson; and speedster TJ Carcone, who will likely smash the all-time NABF triples mark in the next three seasons and whose 406 stolen bases already rank in the top 15 all-time. With this young group the Tarpons made short work of Division 3, winning 90 games and the conference in 2031. In 2032 the club made an inspired trash-heap pickup of journeyman starter Josh Wimmer, who put together a season for the ages, winning his first Pitcher of the Year at 35 after a career of only barely above replacement value. The Tarpons won the Championship that season, and by Cycle 10 were back in Division 2.

In the three years since, the Tarpons - under new manager Vince Lorek - have been arguably the best franchise in the Federation.Three straight 90+ win seasons. Two Conference titles. A Championship, in 2035. Multiple individual awards. And, of course, a long-awaited promotion to Division 1, for the team that’s won more games in Division 2 than any other. Now we wait and see if this run of Tarpon brilliance comes to an end, or if they keep reaching new heights.

Best Position Player: Nieves is the clear answer, despite the multiple excellent position players currently on the club. He’s Tampa’s only Hall of Famer, and a franchise-defining player.

Best Pitcher: Tampa has never had a genuinely great pitcher, but Drew Robinson spent the entirety of his relatively short NABF career with the club, holds the team wins, winning percentage, and WAR records.

Best Season: 97 wins and a Championship is about as good as it gets, and that’s what Tampa did in 2019, Roberto Nieves’ second-to-last Tampa season, and one of his best.

7. The Seattle Steelheads
Overall Record: 2349-2226, .518
Conference Titles: 9 (D3W 2013-2014, 2018, 2023; D2W 2027-2029; D1W 2033-2034)
Division Championships: 3 (D3 2023; D1 2033-2034)
Last Place Finishes: 2
Original Division: 2
Lowest Division: 3
Highest/Current Division: 1

Only two teams in NABF history have ever won back-to-back Division 1 Championships. The first, the Los Angeles Angels, did it back in the teens and have been a D1 team through and through for thirty seasons. But Seattle is a relative newcomer to D1, and their back to back 2033-2034 titles are made all the more impressive for that. The Steelheads - who began life as the Seattle Pilots before a celebrated name change after Cycle 6 - have been a consistently competitive team; they’ve never had more than three losing seasons in a row and their 9 conference titles have stretched through every era of the Federation’s history. They’ve also been one of the most skilled run prevention teams in Federation history.

The Pilots, as they were known then, were one of the largest markets in the old Pacific Coast League and began their time in the Federation in Division 2, along with regional rival Vancouver. Vancouver got the best of those early years as they blasted their way to two D2 Championships in the first two seasons. Seattle finished just two games behind them in 2007, but sank to fourth in 2008 and then suffered the worst season of their history, a 95 loss last place finish that got them dropped to Division 3. They would spend the next four cycles in D3, regularly successful but not quite successful enough for promotion.

In those early years - in fact from the very inception of the NABF - the Pilots franchise was synonymous with 1B Danny Diaz. His presence on a lower division, sometimes losing club made him more anonymous than he should have been, but Diaz was one of the most consistently excellent stars in the game, a constant on-base and power threat. Diaz’s career .404 OBP is tenth all time, while he ranks in the top 15 all-time in homers with 468. He is the NABF all-time HBP leader. He beat you with the bat any way he could, and was rewarded for it with consecutive MVPs in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Those were good years for Seattle, as they bounced back from a 2010 last place D3 West finish to take the conference in 2013 and 2014, with 90 and 99 wins respectively, though they lost in the Championship Series in each (first to Charlotte and then to Nashville). That 2014 club added future Hall of Famer Ramon Rodriguez, creating the best 3-4 combo in the game and surrounded it with a talented group of hitters such as SS Scott Smith and LF Pat van Valkenburg. The real strength of the club, though, lay in its run prevention: a top defense and excellent rotation led by ace John Davenport and free agent acquisition Stephen Christie held opponents to 460 runs, the lowest in D3.

While the lineup remained strong in 2015, the pitching started to fall apart - Davenport remained strong, but Christie began a decline and the club finished in the middle of the pack in runs allowed and in the standings. A rebound in 2017 and 2018 led to another Conference title in the latter year, but the season ended with Seattle still searching for a Division Championship. The offseason was made worse by management’s (ultimately correct) decision not to re-sign Danny Diaz, who finished his Hall of Fame career with subpar seasons in El Paso and Baltimore.

Their next chance came in 2023, ironically with the weakest team Seattle had ever sent to the playoffs - an 89 win team that somewhat overperformed, the 2023 Pilots had few real stars but ranked in the top four in both runs and runs allowed as a couple of key players had career years (including starter Mike Tait, who benefited from a rather incredible .225 BABIP). But this turned out to be the one: despite facing a Terrapins team approaching the height of their powers, Seattle stunned D3 with a win in six games to claim their first Division title. What’s more, the victory gave them a ticket back to Division 2. Before arriving there in the 2025 season, ownership made a name change: the Pilots became the Steelheads, and coincidence or not, the team became a consistent winner.

After a couple of second place seasons back in D2, the Steelheads emerged as the top power in the D2 West, winning three straight conference titles between 2027 and 2029. The incredible Terrapins of this period beat them soundly once again in the 2027 D2 Championship, though, and despite a great four year run by starter Antonio Duran leading another strong pitching team, the club lost the next two in heartbreaking fashion - seven games each, to a powerful Chicago Whales team. But for Seattle it was enough: two Conference titles punched their ticket to Division 1 in time for the start of the 2030s. Adjustment was hard, and the club lost 91 games that first season. By 2033, though, they achieved the ultimate goal: they won the D1 West - only the sixth franchise to ever do so - and took the title four games to two over a vastly more powerful New York Giants club that won 96 games. Seattle once again was the little team that could: in the bottom third of D1 in runs scored, the pitching of Duran, ace Hector Razo, and young star Jeff Baltimore led D1 in run prevention, and kept New York’s dreaded offense down enough to win.

That brought them into Cycle 10, and in 2034 the club had one of their finest seasons, winning 93 games and the conference. Hector Razo won his second Pitcher of the Year, Duran and Baltimore were more than capable, and the Seattle bullpen was among the best in the league, leading the team to victory in seven games over Toronto, and into history as only the second team to win back-to-back D1 championships.

The club has struggled since, with a couple of losing seasons heading into Cycle 11, but this Seattle team has shown they never stay down for long. As long as they’ve got the arms, they’ll be just fine.

Best Position Player: the franchise cornerstone Danny Diaz is the only possible answer here. He is the franchise leader is effectively every major offensive categories except triples and stolen bases, and is the team’s only representative in the Hall of Fame.

Best Pitcher: for a club as dependent on pitching as Seattle has been in their history, it’s surprisingly difficult to select a best. Antonio Duran rises to the top due to his quality and his longevity while Seattle has had better pitchers, they haven’t all stayed very long.

Best Season: 93 wins, and only the second D1 team to win a second consecutive championship makes the 2034 squad a good consensus pick here.

6. The Philadelphia Athletics
Overall Record: 2473-2141, .535
Conference Titles: 5 (D1E 2010, 2025, 2027, 2032, 2036)
Division Championships: 5 (D1 2010, 2025, 2027, 2032, 2036)
Last Place Finishes: 2
Only Division: 1

When the Athletics come for you, they don’t miss. There’s only one other 5-for-5 championship team in the NABF, and that’s the St. Paul Saints… who have had losing seasons in virtually every other season they’ve played. The Athletics stand alone as the best October team in the Federation, and one of the best in all the other months, too. With a deep all-time list of legendary performers and performances, Philadelphia is one of the cornerstone franchises of Division 1, and one of just four teams to have been a member of that Division since its beginning.

Philadelphia was one of the largest markets in the new NABF, an easy Division 1 selection before 2007. But even so, amid huge D1 East markets in New York, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Chicago, they felt almost like an afterthought, especially after opening play with a couple of mediocre clubs in 2007 and 2008. 2009 was better, but the team still finished in second, a game back of the Dodgers. It was in 2010 that the first great Athletics team stepped to the fore, then, winning 93 games and the D1 East. That club was stacked, with three future Hall of Famers leading the way. Starter David Miramontes took the Pitcher of the Year that season, winning 18 with a 2.53 ERA and 71 FIP-. 3B Nate Hall was extraordinary, hitting .355/.435/.691 with 45 homers and an 8.7 WAR, only losing out on the MVP because of Max Hinkle’s record-setting season in New York. And young shortstop Mike Minyard - the greatest shortstop in NABF history and the face of the Athletics for the next fifteen seasons - had his breakout campaign, hitting .312/.384/.473 with 20 homers while taking the first of his seven Gold Gloves, among the most by any shortstop. Philadelphia beat the Angels, in the second year of their amazing five year run, for the franchise’s first championship.

Championships bookend Mike Minyard’s time in Philadelphia, as the club spent the next 15 years circling around the .500 mark - five second place finishes, two last place finishes, and an average record of 78-76. Miramontes moved on after 2013, to re-establish his amazing career elsewhere, while Nate Hall (already 30 when the NABF began) also left the club after the 2013 season, spending part of 2014 with San Francisco before retiring. Minyard remained a productive offensive and defensive contributor well into his 30s, and was joined in 2014 by a young RF named Brent Byrd, who would soon establish himself as one of the all-time greats, combining strong defense (6 GGs in right) with prodigious gap power: Byrd is fourth all-time in doubles, NABF-wide. By 2022, catcher Corey Cerrone joined him as a team leader, winning the first of his record eight career Gold Gloves at catcher (a record he holds jointly with Alex Afan and Miguel Torres) that year. While never a gifted offensive player, Cerrone’s defense, framing, pitch management, and team leadership were recognized league-wide. The arrival of defensive whiz Kevin Wassink in the early 2020s allowed Minyard to shift to third.

The defensive prowess fielded by Philly in the mid-2020s was unparalleled, and allowed a solid rotation to become spectacular. The last major piece was Eduardo Garcia, a power-hitting OF who drove the club’s offensive attack, putting runs over the plate for the pitchers in order to build Philadelphia a 96 win team and the franchise’s first Conference title and championship in 15 seasons as they beat El Paso in seven (establishing a cruel pattern of championship victories over the Sun Kings).

The 2025 win ushered in an amazing decade for the Athletics: between 2025 and 2036 the club averaged 88 wins a season, with their worst finish an 80-74 mark in 2034. Minyard and Byrd departed the team after the ‘25 season, but the club was bolstered by the arrival of RF Jose Maldonado, and starters Steve Romano and Jordan Luna. They won 94 games and a championship (again a seven game win over El Paso) in 2027, and then a string of good seasons eclipsed by title runs from Boston and Baltimore, before returning to the top in 2032 (again beating El Paso, this time in six). Eduardo Garcia, who had won the 2028 MVP and had established himself as the face of the franchise, led the A’s to one more in 2036, in what would prove to be his final season in Philadelphia. Of course, the A’s once again topped the El Paso Sun Kings for their fifth championship in as many tries.

Philadelphia faces Cycle 11 with uncertainty - losing Garcia leaves them with few established stars and a lot of questions. But for Philadelphia, it seems to always be a question of when, not if.

Best Position Player: there is an outrageous amount of competition for this title, as Philadelphia has three Hall of Famers and two players who will likely go in with a Philly cap in Corey Cerrone and Eduardo Garcia. But there’s only one Mr. Athletic, and that’s the great Mike Minyard, who stands tall as the greatest shortstop in Federation history.

Best Pitcher: the A’s have long been a great defensive team, but have rarely had a great pitcher. Steve Romano is the exception, and will get Hall of Fame consideration whenever his storied career comes to a close. He is far and away the A’s leader in most counting categories for pitchers, and was a key part of all four of the club’s most recent championships.

Best Season: Athletics fans will still tell you where they were when the team rallied from behind in game 7 to beat the Sun Kings in 2025. That year holds special importance in Philly, with more wins than any other season, a long-awaited championship, and the departure of both Mike Minyard and Brent Byrd.

Next: the Top Five Teams

ArquimedezPozo · 01-14-2023, 11:41 PM

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

ArquimedezPozo · 01-15-2023, 03:32 PM

As part of the Hall of Fame Inaugural Ceremonies, the NABF has asked fans, players, coaches, executives, and writers to submit ballots to name an all-time NABF team - a 26 man roster of the greatest players, past and present, to compete. The results have been examined by a five-person commission to ensure that each Division is represented by at least two players. Here are the results:

Catcher
Matt Wood, Los Angeles Angels and New York Giants, 2029-
Matt Wood is already the greatest catcher in NABF history, with a chance to be among the elite all-time. At age 30, he has already won Rookie of the Year, four Gold Gloves and six Silver Sluggers, with the highest all-time career WAR among catchers. His .400 career OBP is the best of any catcher in NABF history, while his 144 wRC+ is third. His combination of outstanding defense and offense makes him an easy choice at catcher.

First Base
Craig Vest, Fort Worth Cats, Portland Beavers, Montreal Expos, Albuquerque Dukes, Memphis Blues, and Boston Bees, 2016-2036
This was the closest vote of them all, but the greatest first baseman in the history of the NABF is Craig Vest. The long-time Cats 1B, who retired in 2036, was a unique talent: a speedster and defensive wizard at an offensive position who defied age and time. Vest is far and away the all-time NABF stolen base leader, with nearly 500 more thefts than the runner up Raul Romero. That mark includes an incredible ten seasons with more than 60 steals, including 61 in his age-40 season. Vest also holds the all-time career marks in runs and walks, and has a greater career WAR than any other first baseman. Vest has played more games and come to the plate more times than any other player, and is among the most beloved figures in the game.

Second Base
Antonio Dominguez, Tijuana Potros and Portland Beavers, 2020-
Dominguez, who played most of his career at second base, is one of only three players to ever collect nine Silver Sluggers. A 12-time All-Star, Dominguez is the only 2B who has passed the 2,000 hit plateau, and his 340 HR, 63.8 WAR, 142 wRC+, and .884 OPS are all tops at the position. While not the greatest defensive second baseman, Dominguez has been sure-handed enough to stick at the position, and his bat has made up for other deficiencies. Now coming to the end of his long career, Dominguez is an almost-certain Hall of Famer whenever he becomes eligible.

Shortstop
Mike Minyard, Philadelphia Athletics and Tijuana Potros, 2008-2026
The longtime Athletics shortstop Minyard is one of the most celebrated defensive shortstops of the NABF, with seven gold gloves at the position between 2010 and 2020. Minyard holds numerous Philadelphia team records and was a central figure in both their 2010 and 2025 championship seasons, as a 23 year old and a 38 year old after transitioning to third base late in his career. Among shortstops, Minyard ranks third all-time in doubles, fifth in home runs, and eighth in batting average, as well as having the highest WAR total of any at the position. Minyard is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Third Base
Kyle DeVincentis, Calgary Outlaws, Ottawa Champions, and St. Paul Saints, 2009-2023
DeVincentis was an outstanding all-around third baseman whose five Gold Gloves leads among 3B and only trails three other players at any position. His 7 Silver Sluggers is the most among 3B as well. DeVincentis, a 13-time All Star and longtime Calgary Outlaw, was a consistent power threat with nearly 300 career HR and 432 career doubles, second among all 3Bs.He won both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in the same season four times in a row, from 2014 to 2017, a period in which he averaged 5.8 WAR per season. DeVincentis is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Left Field
John Hansen, Houston Buffaloes, Boston Bees, El Paso Sun Kings, and Monterrey Industriales, 2009-2029
Hansen is among the three or four greatest hitters in the Federation’s history. One of only three members of the 600 HR club, Hansen is second in NABF history in WAR with 99.1 and first in RBI with 1,817. Hansen won two Division Championships with Boston in 2017 and 2022, and was named Division Series MVP in 2022 with three homers and a 1.583 OPS over the series. He has a reputation as one of the great postseason performers: in 149 total Division Series games with Boston and El Paso, Hansen has a career .328/.450/.615 line with 8 homers and 2.1 WAR - a pace of nearly 10 WAR over a 154 season. He is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Center Field
Casey Smith, Ft. Worth Cats and Atlanta Crackers, 2012-2028
Between all-time great defenders (Mel Irving, Bret Perry) and all-time great hitters (Omar Arteaga, Preston Franklin), Casey Smith gets the nod as the greatest who can be described as both. Smith was an able defensive CF, winning two Gold Gloves at the position, and was an outstanding hitter with a career 141 wRC+, a CF-best 419 homers, and an .892 OPS (third at his position). Smith’s WAR/154, a normalized WAR rating taking into account playing time, places him in a tie for second among center fielders, and a tie for fifth all-time, among all players. By basic WAR, Smith ranks sixth among position and two-way players, and 11th among all players. Any way you slice it, Casey Smith is among the greatest to play in the Federation, and the best all-around center fielder there has been. Smith is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Right Field
Raul Romero, Atlanta Crackers, Los Angeles Angels, Memphis Blues, Indianapolis Clowns, and Seattle Steelheads, 2008-2027
No single NABF player has ever amassed a higher career WAR than Romero’s 103.3. Romero was the complete package: a team leader who could hit for average (a .300 hitter in his best years), get on base, and hit for power (263 career homers). Romero was an outstanding defender with 3 Gold Gloves in right field, and possessed a cannon of an arm. He was also a great base-stealer: his 768 is the second highest total all-time. Romero was a 14-time All-Star, and a popular player despite his quiet demeanor. He won only a single championship, with Memphis at age 35, while having one of his best seasons to bring the Blues to the finish line. Romero is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Designated Hitter
Pedro Quiroz, New Orleans Zephyrs and San Diego Padres, 2020-2035
Quiroz, who retired at the end of this past season, is the greatest slugger in the history of the NABF. He holds the all-time career and single season home run records (674 and 62, respectively) as well as the all-time career best slugging percentage (.606). He is the only player in NABF history to win Triple Crowns in two different Divisions, and his five MVP awards are tied for the most of all-time. Quiroz also holds the all-time record for Silver Sluggers, with 11. Quiroz was the only unanimous selection on this list.

Backup Catcher
Jose Molina, Baltimore Terrapins and Chicago Whales, 2012-2032
Molina is the all-time leader at his position in numerous offensive stats, including HR, TB, RBI, Runs, and Walks. He is the only catcher with more than 1000 RBI or Runs, and the only catcher who is a member of the 300 HR club. Molina was a 16-time All-Star and a 7 time NABF Division Champion, winning the 2029 Division Championship MVP in his first season with the Whales. Molina is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Backup Infielders (2)
Mike Smart, El Paso Sun Kings, 2018-
Though Smart has played slightly more at shortstop over his career, he came up - and spent many of his most productive seasons - as a second baseman, winning four Gold Gloves at the position. Smart, a 14-time All-Star, is one of the most productive middle infielders in NABF history, one of only two to hit 300 homers (he’s hit exactly that many) and easily the 2B/SS leader in Runs and RBI. His 67.1 career WAR would rank third among shortstops and first among second basemen.

Craig Wilson, Calgary Outlaws, 2007-2022
Few shortstops were more able with the bat than Wilson, who played exclusively for the Outlaws over his 16 year career, winning 7 Silver Sluggers, more than any other player at that position. While Wilson lacked home run power (only 40 in his career) his 471 doubles are the most by a shortstop, as are his 131 career triples. He is one of just 15 members of the 400 stolen base club. Wilson is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Backup Outfielders (2)
Omar Arteaga, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2007-2017
Arteaga is among the very best hitters to ever play in the NABF. Arteaga was 25 and in the middle of his prime when the Federation was formed, and immediately made an impact with an 11 WAR 2007 in which he hit .332/.429/.654 with 43 homers, one of the best offensive seasons in history. Despite playing just 11 seasons in the NABF - all with Toronto - he amassed a 75.2 WAR, still among the highest totals for any position player. Arteaga won two D1 MVPs and one D2 MVP, and was an All-Star in all but one of his seasons while winning five Silver Sluggers. He was also named the MVP of the 2013 Division Championship Series, Toronto’s only postseason appearance until 2033. Arteaga is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Max Hinkle, New York Giants, El Paso Sun Kings, Monterrey Industriales, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Memphis Blues, 2008-2026
It’s a sign of the strength of NABF outfielders that hitters like Hinkle and Arteaga are on the bench in this lineup. Hinkle is among the best all-around pure hitters in the game’s history, amassing 516 homers, a career .325/.403/.573 line, and 84.8 WAR over his 19 year career. He’s one of only ten members of the 500 HR club, and has fewer career strikeouts than any of the others, as well as the highest OBP. Hinkle also hit where it counts: he is the NABF’s all-time WPA leader by a wide margin. Hinkle is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Two-Way Player
Ryan Little, San Diego Padres, Detroit Stars, and Albuquerque Dukes, 2007-2021
The NABF has seen amazing two-way players, from 1B/SP Jose Martinez to OF/SP Nick Goodwin, but Little tops them all. Little’s 2008, in which he won the Pitcher of the Year with a 7.5 pitching WAR, 232 inning masterpiece and then hit 31 homers, got on base at a .357 clip, held a 170 wRC+, and put up another 6.1 in offensive WAR is the greatest single season achievement in NABF history, and while Little never came close to qualing it, the rest of his career proves his worth. Little won four MVP awards, was an 11-time All Star and 8 time Silver Slugger, and won the 2009 Division Series MVP, going 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA and striking out seven on the mound, and hitting a critical HR.

Starting Pitchers (5)
Malcolm Bush, Indianapolis Clowns, New York Giants, Los Angeles Angels, El Paso Sun Kings, Ottawa Champions, and New Orleans Zephyrs, 2010-2028
The greatest of all NABF pitchers, and the career leader among starters in pitching WAR, strikeouts, and FIP-, Bush was criminally overlooked during his career, winning just a single Pitcher of the Year award. Today, though, he is widely recognized as the most electrifying, intimidating, and effective hurler of his time. A powerful fastball, a devastating slider, and a deceptive circle change made him nearly unhittable in his prime, with an amazing 45 FIP- in 2012 and a 46 FIP- in 2015. His 4.4 K/BB is among the best in history, demonstrating his unmatched stuff/control combination. Bush is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Jim Betz, Havana Sugar Kings, New York Giants, Tijuana Potros, Baltimore Terrapins, and Montreal Expos, 2011-2028
Betz, the co-owner of the all-time NABF wins record, is one of the best pitchers in the history of two franchises: the Havana Sugar Kings and Baltimore Terrapins. While Betz lacked a powerful fastball, his cutter and change were good enough to keep hitters off balance while he used his forkball and slider to induce ground ball after ground ball. With Havana, Betz collected 54.2 WAR, 2,040 of his career 3,137 K’s (second all-time to Bush) and the first of his three Pitcher of the Year Awards, in his 2016 season - second only to Bush’s 2015 for highest single season pitching WAR. In Baltimore, Betz experienced a career renaissance as he, Mike Martinez, and Danny Rzasa combined to form among the best rotations the Federation has ever seen. Betz won two PoY Awards in Baltimore while helping the Pins win three straight titles in 2024 (D3), 2025 and 2026 (D2). Betz is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Oliver Chase, Las Vegas 51s and Montreal Expos, 2009-2025
Chase spent the best years of his career hurling for the chronically cellar-dwelling 51s, and put up some of the best pitching seasons in history despite it. No pitcher has ever matched his 10.2 WAR total in 2010, in which he struck out a then-record 291 batters and an unreal 7.7 K/BB ratio to go along with a single-season record 44 FIP-. While no season in his career quite matched that one, Chase was a fearsome competitor, a control artist who put the ball exactly where he wanted and dared hitters to try and connect. Chase, a power pitcher in his early days, reinvented himself into a finesse pitcher later in his career, with his last great season coming in 2023 as he put up a 6.2 WAR in Montreal despite striking out just 16.6% of the batters who faced him. Chase is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Antonio Venegas, Baltimore Terrapins and St. Paul Saints, 2007-2023
Venegas was the first truly great pitcher Division 4 ever produced, debuting with Baltimore at age 23 in the Federation’s inaugural year. He became a sensation in 2009, beginning an exceptional seven year run with the Terrapins, winning Pitcher of the Year in D4 in 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2015, with a cumulative 44.8 WAR between 2009 and 2015. He still holds all-time D4 records in winning percentage, Opponents SLG, and career WAR, is second in D4 history with a 2.85 ERA, and is top five in wins, strikeouts, and Opponents OPS. A late career move up toDivision 2 with St. Paul resulted in another three 5+ WAR seasons and his only championship (though he did not pitch in St. Paul’s 2020 championship series win). Venegas is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

David Miramontes, Ft. Worth Cats, Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago Whales, Montreal Expos and Atlanta Crackers, 2007-2025
David Miramontes loved pitching. He ate, drank, and dreamed it, and he kept doing it into his 40s when everyone told him he was nuts. And the amazing thing is, he kept getting better at it: you could make the case that his all-time best season came in Atlanta in 2019 when he put up 8 WAR, held opponents to just 6 home runs over 230 innings, and led the league with a groundout rate approaching 60%. And he led the league in WAR twice after that season, at ages 40 and 41, the latter season being when he won his 4th Pitcher of the Year award! Miramontes was already 25 when the NABF was founded, and put up over 5 WAR in each of its first six seasons between Ft. Worth and Philadelphia before hitting a rough patch in his early 30s. But a move to Chicago for a half season allowed him to begin a reinvention that lasted through four seasons in Montreal, and then hit overdrive when he arrived in Atlanta at 37 years old. In his first four Atlanta seasons he was the best pitcher in Division 2 by a longshot, ahead even of ace teammates A.J. Nichols and Andy Heintz, and those years helped him move from great to all-timer in the annals of NABF pitching. Miramontes is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Relief Pitchers (6)
Jeff Lasky, San Antonio Missions, Ottawa Champions, Boston Bees, Tijuana Potros, Nashville Sounds, and New Orleans Zephyrs, 2007-2023
From his San Antonio debut in the final pre-NABF season at age 22 to his 2019 41 save season, Lasky was the most reliable and powerful bullpen arm in the game. Over his first 13 seasons, Lasky saved 448 games for San Antonio, Ottawa, and Boston, before a slowing fastball and worsening K rate relegated him to more mop-up work, and his 451 career saves are third all-time. But Lasky has more Reliever of the Year Awards (5) than any other pitcher, all earned in those prime years - the first in 2011 and the last in 2017 - with multiple second and third place finishes in between. Lasky put up an 11.3 K/9 in his prime seasons, and while not a control artist - few great closers are - he wasn’t wild, with a career BB% of 6.2. No other pure reliever has a career WAR in the 30s, let alone matching Lasky’s 36.9, and no pitcher in the history of the Federation has a higher WAR per 27 outs than Lasky. Lasky is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Josh Suits, Denver Bears, Boston Bees, New York Giants, and Seattle Pilots, 2007-2022
Suits is the all-time NABF saves leader, and fell just shy of amassing 500 for his career, ending with 494 after his age 39 season. Suits was a two-time Reliever of the Year winner, and three time saves leader in D2 and D1, and his 26.2 career WAR is second only to Lasky among pure relievers. Suits is also second to Lasky in FIP-, at 73. Suits is a member of the inaugural NABF Hall of Fame.

Bob Paul, Los Angeles Angels, Boston Bees, Atlanta Crackers, Baltimore Terrapins, Ft. Worth Cats, Toronto Maple Leafs, Cincinnati Tigers, and Phoenix Firebirds, 2020-
Paul has had two distinct careers. The first was as an ace starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, during which Paul gained a reputation as a bulldog - often among the league leaders in both innings and strikeouts, he was known as a pitcher who would go right for the gullet and not let go until you beat him or, more often, he beat you. But the wear and tear begin to get to him, and that’s when he reinvented himself, signing on with Boston not a a starter but as an ace bullpen option, something he had toyed with as an Angels following a 2027 injury. Since that 2029 season with Boston, Paul has been among the game’s most feared closers, amassing over 300 saves while regularly striking out more than 35% of the batters he faces. At 38, he’s still going strong, having amassed three Reliever of the Year awards. He is the only pitcher in NABF history with more than 100 wins and more than 150 saves, let alone 300.

Jeremy Gann, Salt Lake Gulls, Kansas City Monarchs, Los Angeles Angels, and Vancouver Mounties, 2013-2028
The longtime Gulls, Monarchs, and Angels closer is the all-time NABF strikeout leader among pure relievers, with over 1300 in just 1,085 innings of work, an 11.1 K/9 and just under 30% of the batters he faced in his career. At his peak, he was even more effective, using an explosive fastball and diving sinker to blow hitters away - 42.5% of those he faced, in his best season. Gann is a two-time Reliever of the Year winner, and appeared in 9 All-Star games between 2013 and 2023.

John Wiesbrod, Cincinnati Tigers, Ft. Worth Cats, Boston Bees, El Paso Sun Kings, Las Vegas 51s, Miami Marlins, and Tampa Tarpons, 2009-2026
Weisbrod is a ten-time All-Star with 333 career saves, and the third highest WAR of any pure reliever (23.1). Weisbrod’s heavy sinker kept balls on the ground and in the yard, with his 0.7 career HR/9 among the best of any RP. Weisbrod was also an excellent postseason reliever, with a 2.02 ERA in 13 innings between Boston and Ft. Worth; he was a champion with Boston in 2022 and with El Paso in 2023, though he did not pitch in the Championship Series that season.

Phil Williams, St. Paul Saints, Cleveland Spiders, Baltimore Terrapins, Los Angeles Angels, Philadelphia Athletics, Monterrey Industriales, New York Giants, Phoenix Firebirds, 2018-2034
Williams, who established himself as a top closer with the St. Paul Saints in the late 2010s and early 2020s, was a ten time All Star who won four Reliever of the Year Awards, three with St. Paul in 2019, 2022, and 2023 and then a fourth with Cleveland in 2024. He was a power pitcher early in his career, regularly striking out around 30% of the batters he faced, but later in his career reinvented himself as a groundballer and found success in Monterrey and Philadelphia before retiring with 333 saves, 9th all-time.

ArquimedezPozo · 01-15-2023, 03:40 PM

And that concludes the historical part of this thread, looking back at the first 30 of the North American Baseball League. From here on out, I'll be cataloguing each season, as it happens, with notable events, records, retirements, championships, etc.

12-27-2022, 09:55 AM	#5
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	The "Quiet Years" (Cycles 3 and 4, 2013-2017) The excitement of a new baseball model had become commonplace by the time Cycle 3 rolled around. The new Federation was a clear success: after six years, attendance and revenues were up, small-market teams were advancing, and a new crop of stars were setting the pace. But the mid-2010s - Cycles 3 and 4 of the NABF - have come to feel more like treading water: a quiet space between the excitement of the early days and the dynamic 2020s. That’s a shame, because under the surface a lot was changing in the NABF - changes that would come to fruition in those epic runs of the next few cycles.. During the 2011 and 2012 seasons, a new force had begun to make itself felt in Division 2. The Boston Bees had spent the first four years of their existence as a middling franchise: stuck with some holdover mid-range talent, they spent Cycle 1 building a farm system that would soon begin to bear serious fruit when combined with successful trades and strategic free agent signings. By 2012, they were two-time Division 2 East winners, having won 102 games (at that point tied for the second-highest in Federation history, behind only the 105 win 2011 Saints). That was more than enough to vault them into the top division, where they proceeded to dominate: the Bees took the D1 East in 2013, losing to the Los Angeles Angels in the Championship, then finished second to eventual D1 Champs Montreal in 2014 before storming back to a dominant, 101-win 2015 that saw the franchise claim its first title, defeating Fort Worth. The Bees came into Cycle 4 with a powerful young core of players: 1B Nick Brod had collected 4 WAR with 34 homers in 2015, and young C Alex Afan was coming into his own. But the biggest stars were free agent RF George Smith (acquired in a trade from Montreal in 2014) who would go on to win the 2016 D1 MVP, and young two-way star Hector Rayfield, who hit respectably at 2B while putting up 4.6 WAR and a 3.30 FIP (82 FIP-) in 204 innings as the team’s #2. The ace of the staff was fellow 25 year old Geoff Finnell, a first-round 2012 pick who had been Pitcher of the Year in 2015. Behind this core, the Bees won the conference in 2016, 2017, and 2018, claiming the Championship - again over Fort Worth - in 2017. The Bees were not the only new dynasty riding a young core to victory. The Columbus Red Birds had spent Cycle 1 as the worst team in Division 4, but had begun to climb in Cycle 2, posting their first winning record in 2011. They burst onto the scene in 2013 to win 98 games and take the D4 crown, a feat they would replicate in 2014 before a second-place campaign in 2015. Still, two championships was more than enough to move them into D3, and after a year of adjustment in which the club barely scraped above .500, they once again claimed the top spot: an 82-win surprise championship season in 2017 and a dominant 97-win championship season in 2018 guaranteed them another jump, matching the Salt Lake Gulls who had also climbed from D4 to D2 in the matter of six years. The Red Bids were led by 3B/DH Lorenzo Valenzuela, whose early career suggested an all-time great but who was sadly slowed by injury later in his career. Valenzuela won the 2013 D4 MVP while leading Columbus to its first title, and he would remain on the team through 2020, though 2018 was his last productive season.The pitching staff was fronted by Josh Ellis and Jamie Voelker, strong righthanders who put together good if not great careers centered on their time in Columbus. Unlike the Bees, the Red Birds lacked genuine star power, but they had a deep roster that was skilled in run prevention, allowing them to win four championships in six seasons. It was more of a mixed bag for Nashville’s Sounds; their 2009 D4 East-winning campaign had been the highest-win season of Cycle 1, and they won D3 East their first year after promotion, then held on with decent seasons through 2012. Then in 2014 they became the first NABF team to win a Championship after promotion, beating Seattle in six games after an 81-73 season headlined by star 2B Cameron Bright. But by Cycle 4, Nashville had fallen apart, posting the three worst seasons in franchise history, finishing last in each, and finding themselves back in Division 4. Cycles 3 and 4 were good ones for the Mexican teams of the NABF. The Tijuana Potros ownership had taken heat at the Federation’s formation for not accepting an offer to merge with San Diego, and those criticisms grew louder with San Diego’s repeat D3 championships in 2009 and 2010. But the Potros spent those years building, and emerged in Cycle 3 as a powerhouse, winning the D2 West in each of the three seasons, with a championship in 2014 over Atlanta. That run was powered by 2014 Pitcher of the Year Jose Santos, who put up 8 WAR with 245 Ks in Tijuana’s championship season, after a 7.5 WAR campaign in 2013. His career would slow down after 2014 but he was a critical figure in Tijuana’s ascent to D1 at the start of Cycle 4. The Potros struggled in the top Division, but held on, and have not fallen from it since. The Monterrey Industriales followed suit in Cycle 4, with their own threepeat as D2 West winners. Their 2014 and 2015 Championships, over the Ottawa Champions and the Havana Sugar Kings respectively, helped vault them into D1 by the end of Cycle 4. Another primarily offensive club, the Industriales MVP was CF Brett Perry, an Indiana native who put up 20.5 WAR over Cycle 4 with a combined 62 homers while taking home a streak of Gold Gloves. The El Paso Sun Kings, who drew heavily from Juarez over the border, continued to establish themselves as a perennial D1 West favorite; though they had struggled in Cycle 2, even losing 102 games in 2011, by 2014 they were back on top. They won their second D1 Championship that season, over the Expos, with a potent offense led by leadoff man CF Bruce Tussey (.291/.376/.472 with 38 doubles and an incredible SB rate, with 41 thefts against just 5 failures at age 24. Tussey’s subsequent El Paso years would not be as strong, leading the club to deal him to Boston for star 3B Luis Limon in 2018. Meanwhile, some of the standouts of the early years saw their fortunes reverse. The Salt Lake Gulls had moved steadily up through Divisions 4 and 3 over the first six years of existence, never losing more than 68 games in a season. But a combination of Division 2 competition and an aging core brought them low: in 2013, their first season in D2, the Gulls went 72-82 to finish 4th; they dropped further in 2014, finishing in last place with 59 wins and a .383 winning percentage. Though they rose to second in 2015 it was more the result of a weak conference than a strong team, as the Gulls still posted a losing record at 75-79. It was good enough to keep them in Division 2 for Cycle 4, but not for long: the Gulls finished last in the D2 West in both 2016 and 2018, and 5th in the intervening 2017, to be knocked back down to D3. Similarly, the St. Paul Saints came into Cycle 3 seeming like an unbeatable powerhouse: winners of four straight D2 championships, they now looked to continue their success against D1 competition. But the Sun Kings, Angels, Cats, and others had something to say about that: The Saints finished in 5th in each of their first three seasons in D1, then dropped to last place in 2017 and 2018 to be bumped back down to D2. As much of this if not more can be pegged to a decline in production than to the move up: LF and former MVP Manny Lopez, speedster 2B Andrew Pierre, RF Josh Curran, and SP Chris Knipp all experienced career swings that ended their productive years during Cycle 3, while ace Jared Butcher signed with Monterrey after 2012. In all, the mid-2010s proved to be a hold-steady period for the NABF. Looking over the record books, it’s notable how few Federation or Division records remain that were set in those years. Though the period saw the heydays of some major stars (Boston’s Rayfield, the incredible LF John Hansen, 1B/SP Jose Martinez of the Chicago Whales, and Havana’s ace Jim Betz among them), it is overshadowed by the excitement of the Federation’s early days, and the dynamic 2020s. Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2013-2018 Attached Images

12-27-2022, 11:55 AM	#6
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Greatest Individual Seasons, 2013-2018 Hitters CF Casey Smith, Ft. Worth Cats, 2015 Smith, almost unquestionably, was the greatest star of the 2010s. A Rookie of the Year winner with Ft. Worth following his stellar age 22 season, averaging 8.4 WAR over the next five seasons. That included his greatest season, 2015, in which he won his second D1 CF Gold Glove while hitting .318/.422/.585 with 32 homers and 40 steals. He led the league in OBP, Slugging, WAR, triples, RC, wRC+, and wOBA, and was a unanimous choice for D1 MVP. And though his Cats lost to Boston in the Division Championship, it wasn’t because of Smith, who gave his club a .385/.467/.615 batting line with a homer and a double in the six game tilt. LF Jim McCabe, Havana Sugar Kings, 2016 McCabe was, during his career, one of the most criminally underrated players in the game - he was a 12-time All-Star, but won just a single Platinum Stick and was otherwise unrecognized by his peers despite retiring with over 73 WAR, a top-20 total among position players and 4th among all left fielders. That Platinum Stick came in his 2016 season, in which he powered his Havana Sugar Kings to the best season on their history (to that point). McCabe hit 20 homers, stole 30 bases, and led the league with a .327 BA and .437 OBP, to go along with a .540 Slugging percentage. He lost the award to John Hansen, who made headlines with his 47 homers, but McCabe was the superior player. CF Omar Arteaga, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2014 Arteaga’s 2014 was hardly the equal of his electrifying 2007, nor did it match his incredible 2008 or 2009 campaigns. But it was still the best of any D2 player in 2014, and the last great season of his short but brilliant career. His career-best 46 homers (tied with his 2009 total) was also tops in D2, along with his .605 SLG and 185 wRC+. Arteaga would play just three more seasons, but his performance in 2014 was a major factor in returning Toronto to Division 1, where Arteaga began and ended his career. SS Craig Wilson, Calgary Outlaws, 2013 Wilson, among the greatest shortstops in the history of the NABF, won his only Gold Glove in 2013 and was the only true bright spot in a dismal Calgary season. At age 29, Wilson put up a line of .310/.402/.460 while shining defensively, adding up to an 8.4 WAR campaign that netted him a narrow second to Seattle’s slugger Danny Diaz. 1B James Keesler, Phoenix Firebirds, 2017 Keesler’s Triple Crown 2017 remains one of the few great moments in the long sad history of the Phoenix Firebirds. It tops Firebirds records in single season BA (.324), OBP (.422), SLG (.649), WAR (8.2), HR (48), as well as Runs, Hits, RBI, and Total Bases. With 88 wins, 2017 is the third best season in Phoenix’s history, and it’s not hard to see why, as Keesler put the club on his back en route to a third place finish, albeit one in which the club finished 16 games over .500. Pitchers SP Geoff Finnell, Boston Bees, 2017 The greatest pitching season in Boston Bees history belongs to Finnell in 2017, when - at age 26, he won 18 games with a 2.35 ERA, 2.81 FIP (league leading 67 FIP-) and 6.7 WAR. Finnell’s 2017 ranks as the seventh best by WAR in the history of the usually offense-first Division 1, and the highest of the Cycle 3/Cycle 4 era. He won his second Pitcher of the Year for his efforts in 2017, and hoisted a trophy at the end, though he wasn’t spectacular in the Bees victory over Ft. Worth, going 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA. SP Ben Mettler, Los Angeles Angels, 2016 If Finnell’s 2017 is the best D1 pitching season of the Cycle 3/Cycle 4 era, Mettler’s is a close second, and perhaps the most important: while Finnell anchored a deep Boston rotation, Mettler’s backup was shallow as the Angels tended to batter opponents rather than smother them. But while the murderer’s row of Raul Romero, Dennis Sokol, and Francisco Carreno were the biggest factor in getting the Angels to the Championship Series, Mettler was next, putting up a 6.6 WAR season with a 2.86 ERA and 2.76 FIP while winning 13 games. In the Championship Series win over Boston, Mettler won two critical games, holding the Bees’ potent offense to just 11 hits and two walks over 17 innings; though it was ultimately Carreno who won the Championship Series MVP, Mettler had a powerful case. SP Malcolm Bush, Indianapolis Clowns, 2015 2015 was the only season of Malcolm Bush’s incredible, criminally underrated career in which he took home hardware: the 2015 D2 Pitcher of the Year put up 9.2 WAR and a 46 FIP- with 11.9 K/9 (he struck out over a third of the hitters he faced) and won 16 games for the disappointing Clowns. While it wasn’t Bush’s last great year - he would top 5 WAR five more times in his career - it was his last legendary one, and somehow the only one that voters saw fit to reward. SP Jim Betz, Havana Sugar Kings, 2016 Betz is on the NABF’s pitching Mount Rushmore: more wins (229) than any other pitcher, with the second highest pure pitching WAR, behind only Bush, and a career 3.00 FIP, tied for seventh all-time. He is also a member of the elite 3000 K club, alongside Bush, Oliver Chase, John Lawrenz, and other all-time greats. But 2016 was his greatest season, as he became just the second D2 pitcher to win 20 games while earning 8.6 WAR, the second highest total in D2 history (behind only Bush’s 2015 season, above). Though his miniscule 2.11 ERA was aided by a .250 BABIP, his FIP of 2.44 was hardly pedestrian, and went along with 264 strikeouts against just 59 walks. He was rewarded with the Pitcher of the Year trophy, the first of his three. SP John Lawrenz, Washington Senators, 2013 2013 was a big year for the Washington Senators. For one thing, it was the first time the team finished above .500 in its history, after six years of failure: they ended the year in second place just five games back of the Charlotte Hornets. For another, it was the first truly great season authored by their greatest player, starter John Lawrenz, a power pitcher who ranks among the greatest in the game despite his anonymity. Lawrenz’s 2013 was a masterpiece that saw his strike out 276 batters to lead D3 for the first of five consecutive seasons, while putting up 7.1 WAR and a 63 FIP-. Lawrenz’s 274 Ks were the most of any pitcher in the history of D3 to that point, and the third most by anyone in the NABF. Lawrenz, who still ranks fourth all-time in strikeouts in the NABF, won the first of his three Pitcher of the Year awards in 2013 as he opened a new era for the Senators. Two-Way Players 2B/SP Hector Rayfield, Boston Bees, 2017 None of Hector Rayfield’s numbers in 2017 scream ‘all-time great’ until you put them together. Rayfield hit .283/.346/.474 with 23 homers from second base, playing decent defense and collecting 3.5 WAR at the plate, but he also went 16-8, with a 3.69 FIP that was overshadowed by an ugly 4.73 ERA (the product of a .327 BABIP). Rayfield gave the Bees 187 innings of reliable pitching and 550 PAs of reliable hitting in the same season, and while he had better seasons on one side of the ball or another at varying points in his incredible career, this was the season where his two-way ability was most balanced and most valuable, giving the Bees 7.2 WAR in a championship season. And in the Division Championship? Rayfield batted .321/.367/.357, scoring nine runs while also winning Game 2 against Ft. Worth. Next: The Rise of the Terrapins (Cycles 5 and 6) Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-27-2022 at 11:57 AM.

12-28-2022, 04:15 PM	#7
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	The Rise of the Terrapins (Cycles 5 and 6) Alongside the continued dominance of the Bees, Red Birds, and Industriales, few outside Division 4 noticed the first championship of the Baltimore Terrapins. The Terrapins had always been a strange fit for Division 4 - though their market was a small one the fanbase was rabid, and they outdrew most teams in the NABF on an annual basis with some of the best players in the lowest Division. So the surprising thing was not that they won it all in 2018, but that it had taken them that long. But the lone championship hadn’t been enough to earn them promotion, so they remained in D4 for Cycle 5, initially in disappointing style, finishing in 3rd place, 11 games out of first. Ownership made a change that offseason: the GM of the Boston Bees had abruptly quit, and was actively seeking a Division 4 team. The Terrapins had the resources to get him, and his hiring sparked a flurry of activity. What emerged was a Terrapins team with some critical holdovers from the 2018 team - 2018 Pitcher of the Year Josh Hill, defensive wizard CF Vince Lorek, and star 3B Chris Forester especially - bolstered by new acquisitions. The most important of these were 2B/SP Doug Padgett, a power-hitting star with severe injury concerns who the Pins scooped up for a bargain and who proved invaluable to later success; C Jose Molina, at 28 just coming into his own as a top-tier offensive and defensive catcher; and independent league signing Danny Rsaza, who scouts had spotted in Florida, and who after a few adjustments became a near-elite starter. With this new core, the Terrapins surged back to the Championship, finishing 2020 with an 89-65 record and defeating the St. Louis Browns in 7 games. Padgett won the MVP that year, hitting .318/.366/.619 and leading D4 with 34 homers, despite two multi-week stints on the IL (including a elbow strain that kept him to limited duty during the Championship Series). He added 3 WAR of pitching value to his 5.9 at the plate. That season launched an unprecedented string of successful seasons. Between 2020 and 2027, the Terrapins would win eight straight Division titles, with a D4 title in 2020, D3 titles in 2022 and 2024, and three straight D2 titles between 2025 and 2027 (which will be covered in the next section). Every move the team made paid off: Rsaza became a workhorse and rotation anchor, averaging about 4 WAR a season as the Pins moved through D4 and D3. In 2023, Baltimore traded for ace Mike Martinez, who was approaching his final arbitration year; Baltimore immediately inked him to a long-term deal and was rewarded with two straight Pitcher of the Year campaigns. Baltimore also acquired LF Steve Mauck from St. Paul at the 2021 deadline. Mauck would almost immediately emerge as the greatest player the Terrapins have ever had, a complete hitter who would win the Most Valuable Player award four times across three Divisions for the club, including his Triple Crown, 59 homer 2024. All-time great starter Jim Betz would add to a devastating rotation in 2023, with his best late-career season also coming in Baltimore’s 2024 106-win run - the first of four straight 105+ win seasons. As Cycle 6 ended, Baltimore seemed unbeatable - and as Cycle 7 would show, they more or less were. As the Terrapins redefined success, three teams battled for supremacy in Division 1. The El Paso Sun Kings became the first team with four Division 1 titles in 2023, capping a run of three straight D1 West-winning seasons, as they defeated Boston convincingly in four games. El Paso was led by their outstanding young 2B Mike Smart, at the start of an all-time great career spent almost entirely with El Paso. It was the Brooklyn Dodgers who ruled Cycle 5 in the East though, as the club finished first and won 90, then 94, and finally 98 games between 2019 and 2021, finally taking the championship in the 2021 series against El Paso. Brooklyn was a well-balanced club with few holes, though also few stars: 1B Ian Garrison, who won Championship Series MVP honors in 2021, looked to be on the verge of stardom but fell off after that season, with a respectable but not superstar career, while starter Paul Walter also experienced his best stretch during the run. The Bees finished a disappointing 4th in 2019, but in a bizarre move essentially swapped GMs with Baltimore: as Boston’s former exec went south, Baltimore’s GM - fired abruptly in the move - signed on with Boston. Both moves panned out, as Boston’s fortunes reversed immediately: the Bees finished a close second to Brooklyn in 2020 and 2021 before taking off in 2022. The immediate causes of Boston’s 99 win, Championship 2022 were the continued brilliance of LF John Hansen, who clubbed 32 homers at age 36 and finished third in MVP voting; and two younger stars - RF Mike MacArtney, who had his greatest season at age 26 in 2022, with 6.6 WAR, a league leading 48 doubles and 319 TB, a batting line of .336/.387/.565, and a Gold Glove; and SP Jamie Combs, who now holds Boston’s all-time pitching WAR mark and who won the first of his three Pitcher of the Year Awards in 2022. Backed by established stars such as Geoff Finnell, Hector Rayfield, and C Alex Afan, the Bees won it all in 2022 and 2023, with 101 wins in that second championship season, and took the D1 East the following year for a threepeat. In Division 3, the Detroit Stars accomplished a similar feat. In 2019, the Stars won the D3 East for the first time since their lone 2008 championship season, but this didn’t prove to be an outlier. Led by LF/SP Nick Goodwin, the Stars repeated their Conference title in each of the next two seasons, beating the resurgent Salt Lake Gulls both times to win promotion to Division 2. Goodwin spent just three years in Detroit, but they were the right ones, as he was a prime factor in both of Detroit’s Championships, hitting .278/.402/.697 with two homers in the 2021 series alone. The Stars were able to win the D2 East in their first season after promotion, though their fortunes began to slide thereafter. Cycle 5 also saw the beginnings of the worst periods for three of the NABF’s longest-suffering squads: The Havana Sugar Kings, who had advanced to Division 1 after the first cycle but who had a 5th place finish and two last place finishes in Cycle 5, and another last place in D3 in Cycle 6; the Las Vegas 51s, who dropped from D2 to D4 with four last place finishes in six seasons while averaging 90 losses; and the lowly Pittsburgh Crawfords, arguably the worst team in the NABF’s long history, who would have been relegated from Division 4 had a lower division existed. The Crawfords remain, after 30 years, the only team that has never won its Conference, and one of only two teams (along with the San Antonio Missions) that have never left Division 4. So Cycle 6 ended with three franchises clearly on top of the world: the Baltimore Terrapins, El Paso Sun Kings, and Boston Bees. Beneath them, the Dodgers, the Stars, and others battled for a piece of the pie, as the NABF entered its most divided and imbalanced cycle of play - one in which the Terrapins would nearly break the game itself. Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2019-2024 image note: on the Terrapins image, the blank 2009 data (including playoff appearance) and the duplicated 2021 with the second blank are due to errors in promotion/relegation - hitting 'execute' too early can result in data issues Attached Images

12-28-2022, 07:58 PM	#8
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Greatest Individual Seasons, 2019-2024 Hitters RF Raul Romero, Los Angeles Angels, 2019 Romero has a strong case as the greatest player of the first 30 years of NABF history. His career 103.3 WAR is the best of any player, a true five-tool star with 283 career home runs, top 5 records in doubles, triples, and stolen bases, three Gold Gloves, and two MVPs 12 years apart. But his 2019 may be his most complete all-around season: Romero won the third of his Gold Gloves that year while leading the league in OBP (.417), stolen bases (54), walks (108), runs (120), and WAR (8.3) while leading the Angels to their second best season, a 96 win Championship campaign in which they bested the Brooklyn Dodgers in a thrilling seven game set. Romero collected ten hits including a triple, hitting .333/.429/.400 in the series, his second ring with LA. LF Steve Mauck, Baltimore Terrapins, 2024 Mauck’s third full season in Baltimore will never be forgotten by anyone who experienced it firsthand. Muck shared a team with all-time greats - Betz, Padgett, Martinez, Molina - yet somehow stood head and shoulders above them as he chased impossible records all season - not quite reaching them, but in failing still putting together one of the three or four greatest offensive seasons to that point in NABF History. It’s easy to forget knowing where he ended, but the chase that captured fans’ imaginations at first was his pursuit of, first, .400 - Mauck maintained an average above that number almost into June - before attention turned to the home run chase. Mauck eclipsed New Orleans Zephyrs slugger Pedro Quiroz’s 57 - set the season before - with a full week to play, and pulled within one of Eric Bryant’s 60 for Kansas City in 2008 with five games left… and then stalled. A long fly on the season’s final day caught breath around the stadium, but it fell short. A groan, though, was followed the next moment by thunderous applause for Mauck: not only were his 59 home runs the new D3 standard (a record that stands to this day) but he batted .344/.435/.708, his SLG and OPS both still the highest in D3 history, and the .344 enough to net him the batting title. His 142 RBI also led the league, giving him the Triple Crown, and only his teammate Padgett’s total from the season before denied him that all-time D3 record as well. He won the MVP unanimously, and battered Sacramento in the Division Championship Series, hitting .409/.480/.636. It was the finest season in one of the finest careers in the history of the Federation. 1B Zach Markiewicz, San Francisco Seals, 2021 Markiewicz is a controversial player in discussions of all-time talent, but no one debates his exceptional 2021, a season capped by a monster performance - 2 homers, 12 RBI, .450/.532/.800 line and the Series MVP - to give his Seals their first and only Championship. Markiewicz was a huge reason they were there in the first place, too, winning the Triple Crown with a 59 homer, 152 RBI, .323/.440/.701 season from first base. Markiewicz played every game of the Seals’ season, leading D2 in Plate Appearances along with virtually everything else, and won the MVP easily. His 9 WAR in 2021 is his highest total by a good margin, though, coming at the center of a relatively short peak. Still, if any season can put a player over the bar into discussion of all-time greats, this is a good one to choose. 2B Doug Padgett, Baltimore Terrapins, 2023 Padgett was entering the final portion of his incredible career in 2023, the first season in which he gave up his role as a starter to focus exclusively on offense after missing most of 2022 to injury. The results were extraordinary: 9.6 WAR splitting time between 2B and 1B, while launching 36 homers and setting a D3 single-season Batting Average record of .370, just decimal points under Max Hinkle’s all-time NABF mark. He led the league in all slash categories, with a .427/.628 OBP/SLG to go along with his average, and 36 homers to lead the Division. The campaign won him the MVP, and helped deliver Baltimore the first of their five straight 100 win seasons. Both Padgett and the Terrapins underperformed in a losing effort against eventual D3 Champion Seattle, but especially given the successes in the future, it’s easy to overlook that and simply stand in awe of Padgett’s season. 1B Craig Vest, Ft. Worth Cats, 2022 Among the three or four greatest offensive players in NABF history, Vest was at his best in 2022, putting up 7.6 WAR (a career high) while leading D1 in WAR, BA (.331), OBP (.414), doubles (55) and Runs Created (143.1) to go along with his customary first place ranking in steals (86, one shy of his career best). Vest is the greatest base stealer in NABF history and the only with more than 1000 career swipes, but he was never better than in 2022, matching those 86 with only nine times caught. Perhaps the greatest moment of his season, though, came when he hit for the cycle for the only time in his career, in late September against the Seals, sealing a victory that helped ensure the Angels 5th place over San Francisco amid fears of coming relegation. Pitchers SP David Miramontes, Atlanta Crackers, 2019 By 2019, Miramontes was 38 years old, in his second season with his fifth and last team. He was widely regarded as one of the most consistent and solid, if not truly great, pitchers in the NABF, but had won three Pitcher of the Year awards earlier in his career and was a two-time D1 Champion. Certainly no one expected that he was about to have the best four year stretch of his entire career, or that he would see a jump in his K rate, a drop in his walk rate, and the best stretch of groundout rates of his career. The change had begun in his final season with Montreal, as he saw a reduction in his walk rate and got even more groundouts than usual. But once he signed on with Atlanta, things really began to change, culminating in an 8 WAR 2019 in which he struck out more than 200 batters for the first time (231), and allowed just six homers all season. He was overlooked in Pitcher of the Year voting, but incredibly would win his fourth two years later, at age 41, as he continued a career renaissance that would vault him into the upper echelon of all-time NABF hurlers. SP Jim Betz, Baltimore Terrapins, 2024 Another pitcher with a late-career renaissance, Betz was already one of the most dominant arms in NABF history when he arrived in Baltimore from Tijuana via offseason trade before the 2023 campaign. Betz was just coming off a down season, and going into his age 34 season there was reason to believe he was headed into the twilight. But in 2024, with the tutelage of a Terrapins coaching staff that had already done wonders with Danny Rsaza, Betz honed his command with some mechanical tweaks and had a resurgent 2024, going 19-2 with a D3 best 2.44 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. His 6.6 WAR and 1.5 BB/9 - the lowest of his career - also led the Division, earning Betz his second Pitcher of the Year award and helping Baltimore reach its best season yet, ultimately winning his first championship. SP Jeremiah Harris, Memphis Blues, 2024 Jeremiah Harris was a solid journeyman with only one great season to his name, and it came along when Memphis needed it most. Harris dominated D4 in 2024, with 234 innings of 2.15 ERA, 2.74 FIP ball, striking out 241 while holding down a Division-best 0.96 WHIP and 6.9 WAR. It earned him the Pitcher of the Year, and more importantly was the biggest factor in Memphis’ 91-63, D4 East title that secured them promotion to Division 3. Though Memphis lost the Championship to San Diego in seven, Harris’ season is still the best by WAR of any pitching season in Memphis franchise history. Harris suffered a series of injuries after that season, perhaps brought on by overwork, and astonishingly was out of baseball by 2028, but Memphis fans will long remember his finest hour. SP Oliver Chase, Montreal Expos, 2023 This is Chase’s second appearance on this list, 13 years removed from his first. That alone should give you a sense of his place in NABF pitching history. 2023 was his final productive year, at age 36 and at the end of a Montreal contract that never quite reached the value team owners had been looking for. But it did in 2023, as Chase was Pitcher of the month three times en route to a 6.2 WAR, 3.06 FIP season. Lacking the fiery stuff that had defined his earlier career, he now relied on guile and control, walking just 1.6 batters per nine, which helped to give him a league-lowest 1.12 WHIP. Chase missed out on what would have been his 6th Pitcher of the Year, but the five he does have is still the most in NABF history. SP Armando Silva, Cincinnati Tigers, 2021 The man they called the Sheriff saved his best work in Cincinnati for his contract year, though fans had trouble noticing it at first: though Silva put up 6.6 WAR in 2021, he suffered a losing 8-11 record, a 3.77 ERA that, while above league average, was hardly extraordinary, and seemingly not much else, on the surface. What he did have, however, was a 2.36 FIP and a league-leading 63 FIP-, a career-best 4.8 K/BB, and a career-high 206 strikeouts, the only time he ever broke 200. Silva was coming off a D4 Pitcher of the Year trophy, but should have been in the conversation for two straight; instead, he signed on for a modest raise with the Tijuana Potros, where he spent his last five seasons - in the end a good solid pitcher with two great seasons, only one of which was recognized for what it was. Two-Way Players LF/SP Nick Goodwin, Detroit Stars, 2021 Goodwin’s 2021 would have been outstanding even if he’d never stood on the pitcher’s mound: the Detroit LF had his best season with the bat in 2021 to help the Stars to their second consecutive championship. Goodwin launched a career-high 39 homers to go along with a .308/.387/.618 line, in just 145 games. He set career bests in virtually every offensive category and was among the Division leaders in most as well, though he didn’t lead in any except offensive WAR (7.8). But, of course, he did set foot on the mound, and while he hardly competed for Pitcher of the Year he gave Detroit valuable innings at right around league average, adding another 2 WAR from the mound for 9.8 overall, the highest total of any year of his historic career. Next: The 2025 Division Championships Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-28-2022 at 08:30 PM.

12-29-2022, 02:35 PM	#9
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Interlude: the 2025 NABF Championships Imagine: It’s Saturday, October 11, 2025, the second to last day of the 2025 NABF season, and there are four games on today. At 1pm, you watch Game 6 of the Division 4 Championship series; it’s been a good one, with the Albuquerque Dukes leading the Charlotte Hornets three games to 2. It’s a tight contest through 7, but now the Dukes have the bases loaded, though they’re a run back of Charlotte. There are two outs, but the light-hitting shortstop Steve Willis is up; he’s only had two singles during the series and has struck out 7 times. The count runs to 2-2. Then, a fastball, away. Willis lunges and manages a bloop down the line - it’s fair! It bangs against the corner where the wall juts out and scoots just far enough to elude Charlotte LF Xenophon Korkoris. With one run already in, the runner at second is now being waved around - with two outs, he’d been off on contact, and now he dives, his hand sweeps over the plate as the tag comes in, and he’s safe! Albuquerque has taken the lead! They score twice more that inning, and it’s sewn up - Albuquerque takes the title in six. You flip over just in time to catch the 4pm first pitch for Division 3’s Game 7. Another tight contest - this one a smashfest. You didn’t really have a rooting interest in D4’s ALB-CHR, but this one has a David and Goliath feel to it: The Padres are looking for their fifth Championship, and second straight after promotion from Division 4 in the offseason, while Ottawa - long one of the most hapless teams in the Federation - is here for the first time. You like an underdog, and they’re certainly that, but at the moment it doesn’t look great - after a few lead changes and almost as many pitching changes, San Diego is up by two heading into the ninth. We’re in Ottawa, though, so when ace Champions reliever Doug Klutz wraps up a scoreless top half, Ottawa’s top of the order comes due. Ottawa got here through pitching and defense, but they’ve turned on the power so far this series, so it feels like there’s a chance. When CF Nick Washington leads off the bottom half with a solo shot, the Ottawa crowd erupts, and no one sits down for the rest of the game. #2 hitter Herb Phillips Ks, and Frank Flanigan grounds sharply to third, but then the great Josh Randall steps to the plate. Randall signed with Ottawa in the offseason, as good a place as any to end a career, and then he found himself along for the ride. Randall has never won a Championship, and he wants it bad - he lines a single to the opposite field. Another single, this time from the speedy young 2B Lorenzo Escobar, and suddenly Ottawa has the winning run on first. Randall is lifted for a pinch runner as Josh Henry comes to bat. Henry is just 25, and didn’t even play a full season for the Champs, but was electric in the second half, and the crowd senses it. Henry doesn’t make them wait, turning on the first pitch and sending deep, into the RF corner - it misses a homer by inches and rolls toward the right fielder Gonzalez. One run is already in, and Gonzalez comes up firing but it’s too late! Escobar crosses home standing up, into a pile of his teammates - the Champions are Champions, and in walk-off style! The exhilaration of that win almost makes you forget that the D2 Championship game 6 started at 7 - it’s already well into the third when you flip over. The Baltimore Terrapins had won an astonishing 115 games in 2025, easily the most in the Federation’s history, and their victory over Vancouver seemed an almost foregone conclusion, but they’d dropped the first game in Baltimore and had narrowly won the second. The Mounties crushed Danny Rzasa in Game 3, but the Pins came back to take the 4th and 5th, and now stood on the precipice of becoming the first team with championships in three different Divisions… but as you tune in, you see a 5-0 Mounties lead, already. This time they’ve victimized Martinez, who was brilliant in Game 2 but is on the ropes here. The Mounties add two more in the 5th, and another in the 6th; a Steve Mauck solo shot eases the pain in the 7th, but not by much. The Division 1 game is starting up soon, and you figure you can flip back here and there - if the Pins come back somehow, you’ll catch it. They don’t, and you watch the Philadelphia A’s take all the drama out of their own Game 7, vanquishing El Paso 6-2 after a two homer performance by 1B Jake Haston - he hit two earlier in the series and is an easy selection as series MVP. You watch until he finishes his quick shoutouts, hoisting the MVP trophy while his teammate, the great catcher Corey Cerrone, holds the championship cup behind him. Then you switch it off and head to sleep. So now it’s October 12, and only one game remains between baseball and the offseason: a Division 2 game seven between the best regular season team in NABF history, and a Mounties club whose 94 wins are hardly nothing, but still pale in comparison to that juggernaut. Or so people have said, anyway: here they are, now, one win away from an upset victory over a superteam. And it’s Rzasa, again: he’d had a terrible Game 3, which, if repeated, could mean a long offseason in Baltimore. Rzasa hadn’t lasted past the second inning in Game 3, but in Game 7 he manages four plus before exiting, his Terrapins leading 6-4 after a Doug Padgett bases-clearing double in the third off promising young starter Danny Pierson. Philadelphia’s manager will take heat for starting the youngster in this series, you think. Padgett has given the Pins an extraordinary series so far, but once Rzasa left things have gone awry, and it looks like that effort might be wasted as Vancouver drops two on Baltimore’s pen in the seventh, tying it up. In the eighth, they finally get to David Linder, who has handcuffed them in four scattered innings over the rest of the series, and entering the ninth it’s 7-6 Vancouver. Baltimore closer Matt Heitzman sits Vancouver down in order, as he has all series - in eight innings of work he’s given up only four hits. But the bottom of Baltimore’s order is up - 7, 8, 9 - and unless they get someone on for young phenom Mel Irving it will end there. 2B Gustavo Cortes lines the ball hard, but right at Vancouver’s rookie 3B Sam Webb, who snares it. SS Hector Delgado flails at an 0-2 slider out of the zone for the second out. But veteran catcher Jose Molina is batting ninth, and though he’s endured one of his worst seasons, he has a well-earned reputation for delivering in the clutch to live up to. He singles, weakly, through into right field, and Mel Irving steps to the plate. Baltimore had already been good when Irving arrived in 2024, but the young CF was electrifying. He was, from the start, one of the best defensive players in the game, and he could flat out hit: in 2025 he slashed .300/.363/.507 with 23 homers to lead the league with 6.9 WAR. But he is still young, and has underperformed in the series, looking overeager, so the Baltimore crowd’s cheering has an extra tinge of desperation to it. Strike one goes past Irving, a fastball on the outside half. A curve misses, and is followed by another that Irving fouls back. Another fastball, also outside, but more so - Irving takes it and the ump signals a ball, with Vancouver’s ace closer Carter grimacing. The next one was supposed to be another fastball, also away, but this one misses the spot by two inches. It is still on the outer half, but hittable, and Irving connects - an opposite field drive. It’s not a no-doubter, so Irving sprints as he and the crowd and you watch, breathless… then erupt, as the ball lands in the first row of seats, ten feet to the left of the foul pole, and then fireworks as Irving rounds third, and then into the pile, and the greatest team in the history of the NABF is now the first to win in three Divisions and the second team in this one single shining postseason with a walk-off win in Game 7 - the first two times it had ever been done, and now with a homer from behind. What a game, what a postseason, what a game. Next: The Unprecedented Years (Cycles 7 and 8) Note: unfortunately I never actually kept all the box scores and game logs from these games. What I remember from this - I was GM of the Terrapins - was that both the D3 and D2 series ended on walk-offs. I remember Irving’s walk-off homer very clearly, as well as the general shape of that series, but much of it is conjecture based on player postseason stats. The others are mostly fabricated based on whatever I remember (I’m like 75% sure it was Henry who hit the game-winner for Ottawa) and supplemented with info from player stats. Regardless, it was an incredible set of series, so even if this isn’t how it went down, the outcomes are the same and it’s close enough. Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-29-2022 at 04:33 PM.

12-23-2022, 08:58 PM	#1
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	The North American Baseball Federation (Promotion/Relegation) - the first 30 years and beyond This is my favorite league of those I've created over the years. I wanted to try my hand at a promotion relegation league, using market size among North American cities as dividers. I also didn't want to promote and relegate after every season, to allow teams to adjust to a new level, so I devised a formula to move up or down on a three-year cycle. Every team has been given the name of a defunct or former baseball team - these are drawn from former AL/NL teams (Montreal Expos, St. Louis Browns), Federal League teams (Baltimore Terrapins, Chicago Whales), Negro League teams (Pittsburgh Crawfords, Detroit Stars, Seattle Steelheads), or former minor league clubs (Memphis Blues, El Paso Sun Kings). In some cases, such as for old Pacific Coast League teams like the Padres and Angels, it's the same name as a current club, but named for a wholly different franchise. I started out as the Boston Bees (what the Braves called themselves in the 1930s) then switched over to Baltimore. Now I'm simming and looking at historical trends. So, what I'll do here is post, bit by bit, a "history" of the first 30 seasons of the North American Baseball Federation, starting with an overview and then a team-by-team ranking and a greatest players list. Once that's done, I'll start up the simming again and document results here. Worth noting briefly as well that I owe a HUGE debt to all the amazing folks who created logos, caps, and jerseys for a huge variety of teams over the years. A lot of what I use in here comes from their work, with occasional modification. Others come from my own attempts to convert or re-create existing historical images; those are usually the worst of the bunch. Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-23-2022 at 09:33 PM.

12-23-2022, 09:05 PM	#2
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	The North American Baseball Federation: The First 30 Years… and Beyond The North American Baseball Federation emerged from various regional leagues that had become, over the years, increasingly dominated by large market teams in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Montreal and elsewhere. Leagues had tried a variety of methods to improve competitive balance, but none had worked, and by the start of the 20th century fans had begun losing interest, attendance was down, and so was team revenue for a bulk of the franchises across North America. Finally, a consortium of small and mid-sized market teams offered a choice: either accept a radical merger and realignment, or clubs would be forced to fold and entire leagues would collapse. The result was a dramatic merging and restructuring into a Federation: four primary Divisions, each split into eastern and western Conferences, which connected to each other using promotion and relegation for the most and least successful clubs. Teams would be assigned at first based on market size, with the largest market teams occupying Division 1, and the smallest in Division 4, with the goal of promoting more even competition. Over the summer of 2006, while regional leagues were continuing play, owners, player representatives, executives, and others came together to hammer out the details. Some of that debate focused on the team assignments themselves: in order to obtain better placements, some geographically-close teams negotiated for mergers, while others argued over the precise definitions of their media markets. The biggest of these debates centered on the Brooklyn Dodgers, who maintained that they should be credited with an equal share of the New York market with the rival Giants; in the end, league leadership agreed, allowing Brooklyn entry into Division 1. The ownership of the San Diego Padres publicly called for a merger with their southern neighbors in Tijuana, a proposal that was considered but ultimately rejected; similarly, the El Paso Sun Kings argued - in this case successfully - that the Mexican city of Juarez be considered part of their media market, allowing the Sun Kings to become Division 1 members. The final meetings, in August 2006, revealed operational details. Divisions would share a player and draft pool, schedule length, and ruleset. At the close of each season, Conference winners would meet for the Division Championships to end the season. There would be no cross-divisional play or postseason; though larger market teams argued in favor, a majority of clubs decided to keep all play, including ultimate seasonal championships, separate. This allowed smaller market clubs to establish themselves, and to find postseason success, on their own terms: fans always saw competitive level baseball, and that mattered. League founders also wanted a league that rewarded long-term building rather than short-term sprints to promotion, so they devised a system wherein promotion or relegation would be done every three seasons, rather than annually. Promotion and relegation would be governed by a formula. Though the formula has been adjusted over the years, the core concept has remained the same: three-year winning percentage, with the most recent season carrying the most weight; number of first and last place finishes, and number of Conference Championships. After three years, one team from each division would move up, and one from each would move down, based on the points awarded by the formula. The result, over the 30 years of Federation history, has been an association that has seen a mix of stable dominance and dynamic movement, while providing small market teams with the chance to see seasonal and postseason success - indeed, some of the most successful teams in league history (the Baltimore Terrapins, for example, or the Columbus Red Birds) have emerged from Division 4 to climb high into the ranks of the Federation. Others have seen their fortunes fade in similar ways. This series will serve to summarize the first 30 years (10 cycles) of NABF play in a few ways: first, an overall survey of the major trends over that period; then a ranking of all 48 teams with discussion of team histories; and finally a look at the greatest individual players the league has produced. Once complete, the series will continue as a cycle-by-cycle recap of NABF action. Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-23-2022 at 09:29 PM.

12-23-2022, 09:29 PM	#3
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	The Early Years (Cycles 1 and 2, 2007-2012) The use of three-year cycles allows for an easy periodization of the Federation’s history, and cycle numbers will be used throughout to reference those periods, beginning with Cycle 1, encompassing the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons, and Cycle 2, encompassing the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons. The start of play in 2007 brought excitement and uncertainty in equal measure as, in 48 cities across four countries, the teams of the NABF prepared to inaugurate the new era. Media coverage was instantly instructive. Though more coverage went to the large-market teams of Division 1, the compartmentalized nature of the league meant that deeper analysis and attention was given to smaller market clubs as well, especially those seen as contenders to move up. Despite this, the biggest small-market story of Cycle 1 was somewhat overlooked at the start: the Salt Lake Gulls would become the biggest success story of the early years, collecting the highest Cycle 1 point total of any team across all four Divisions by taking the D4 West crown and the D4 Championship in each of the Federation’s first three seasons. After promotion to Division 3, the Gulls continued to succeed, winning the D3 Western Conference in two of the three seasons to earn yet another move up. The Nashville Sounds, who came from D4 East to Division 3 after a monster 2009, similarly had success, winning a D3 East title in 2011. Other promoted teams faced steeper climbs. The Detroit Stars and Portland Beavers, each promoted from their respective D3 Conferences after Cycle 1, faltered amidst stiffer D2 competition, with early last-place finishes. Still, both avoided immediate relegation back to D3, proving the possible sustainability of the model. The same can’t be said for teams that were promoted into Division 1: the Vancouver Mounties - winners of the first two D2 Championships with the best overall Cycle 1 win total - sandwiched an abysmal 2011 with mediocre 2010 and 2012 finishes, while the Havana Sugar Kings set the stage for the rest of their next 25 years by arriving in Division 1 and promptly failing to break the 60 win mark two seasons running before finding themselves back in D2. Division 1 itself is one of the best examples of another trend of those early years: Western dominance. Indeed, during Cycle 1, 10 of the 12 Championship Series were won by Western teams, with only the 2008 D3 East’s Detroit Stars and 2011 D2 West’s San Diego Padres breaking through. On the Federation’s biggest stage, three different matchups - the Fort Worth Cats and New York Giants in 2007, the El Paso Sun Kings and Brooklyn Dodgers in 2008, and the Los Angeles Angels and Brooklyn Dodgers in 2009 - were each won by the Western entrant. This also set up a recurring theme that endured over Division 1’s first two decades: the persistent shared dominance of the Cats, Angels, and Sun Kings, who between them won every single D1 West title until 2024 (often dividing each cycle evenly between them with a title apiece). For the most part, these wins were the result of powerful dynasties that arose among the western conferences of Divisions 1, 2, and 4. Division 4’s Salt Lake Gulls were chief among them, but the list also included the back-to-back D2 Champion Mounties; Division 4’s best Cycle 2 team the Austin Pioneers; the Angels, who won five straight D1 West titles and three championships between 2009 and 2013, and the incredible St. Paul Saints, who took over as D2 Champions from the Mounties in 2009 and won the next three years straight, becoming the Federation’s first 4peater. The Eastern conferences lacked such consistent winners, though that would change dramatically in subsequent cycles. Some of the success of the Federation can be attributed, as well, to early stars, many of whom were already well established by the time of the NABF’s inaugural season. These included the great 2B Jim Maxey, who led the Havana Sugar Kings to a promotion following Cycle 1, setting a D2 record .349 average that stands today; RF Carlos Jara of the Salt Lake Gulls, who won the D4 MVP in 2007 and put up a cumulative 42.2 WAR and 264 homers over the first six seasons as he led his Gulls to two straight promotions at the ends of Cycles 1 and 2; the Toronto Maple Leafs center fielder Omar Arteaga, whose 2007 remains the highest WAR season in D1 history at 11, with a Division best 43 homers to go along with a .332/.429/.654 line; Dennis Sokol of the Los Angeles Angels, whose .486 OBP in 2010 is the record not only in Division 1 but in the entire Federation, and who stole over 700 bases in a career cut short by injury; and perhaps the greatest bat in Federation history, the great Max Hinkle who debuted with the New York Giants just before the merger, as a 21 year old phenom, and batted .320/.403/.537 with 23 homers and a 4.4 WAR, the beginning of a long and storied career with some of the greatest teams assembled by the NABF. Among pitchers, few stood taller than David Miramontes, who split his career between the D1 Philadelphia Athletics and the D2 Atlanta Crackers, winning the first of his four Pitcher of the Year awards with Philadelphia in 2010 and his last in 2021 with the Crackers, at age 40. Antonio Venegas dominated Division 4 hitters during the early years with the Baltimore Terrapins, then the St. Paul Saints between Division 1 and Division 2, and though he missed out on the Terrapins’ incredible rise to Division 1 between Cycles 5 and 8, he remains the Division 4 WAR leader overall. Malcolm Bush of the Indianapolis Clowns had a relatively short period of dominance, but holds both the D3 single season WAR record for a pitcher with 9.7 and the Federation's career WAR record. Bush, a strikeout artist, is the Federation’s all-time leader in strikeouts (over 3400) and in the Federations top 40 in career K/9 (10.0). One of the major fears of fans and commentators alike as the Federation began play was the possibility of the game's biggest stars flocking to Division 1 payouts, but early evidence at least demonstrated surprising and welcome parity among stars: players like Bush, Venegas, Jara, and others to remain as draws for D2, D3, and even D4 crowds. Many credit this to increased interest and competitiveness, and the numbers back that up. In the thirty years since the Federation’s inception, only a handful of teams have never left their original division, and in almost every case attendance, revenue, and market size has increased over the years. So the early years of the Federation set much of the tone for the next decades: competitive balance that made both great ascents and rapid slides possible; and the development of incredible players, who were able to draw fans to ballparks at all levels, and who remain among the greatest to have ever played the game. NEXT: Greatest Seasons, 2007-2012 Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-25-2022 at 11:48 AM.

12-26-2022, 09:19 PM	#4
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Greatest Individual Seasons, 2007-2012 Hitters Ramon Rodriguez, Division 3 Calgary Outlaws, 2009: Rodriguez didn’t age gracefully, but in 2009 - his age 24 season - he put up arguably the greatest single season by a position player in NABF history for the D3 West Outlaws, leading the league in all three slash categories with a /339/.426/.688 line while smashing 50 doubles and 40 homers to lead the Federation at 375 TB. He combined that line with a Gold Glove season in RF to hit 12.2 WAR in 2009 - no player at any position has come within 1 WAR of that mark, before or since. Francisco Carreno, Division 1 Los Angeles Angels, 2012: A contender for the greatest offensive season in NABF history, Carreno’s second Triple Crown came along with 51 homers, 151 RBI, and a slash line of .365/.458/.704. His Slugging percentage, along with his 1.16 OPS, are both D1 records. Carreno, along with SS Dennis Sokol, led the Angels to five straight Division titles in the period between 2009 and 2013, and Carreno - whose 2011 was nearly as good, with a still-D1 record 54 homers and NABF record 167 RBI - was the greatest offensive force of the team. Omar Arteaga, Division 1 Toronto Maple Leafs, 2007: Though the team itself finished 20 games under .500 on its way to a fifth place finish in the NABF’s inaugural season, it had a legitimate star in the 25 year old Arteaga. The best season of his short but illustrious career saw him hit .332/.429/.654, leading the league with 43 homers and a .654 SLG, but also dominating on the basepaths with 26 steals and a league-leading 11 triples. He won the D1 MVP easily, racking up 11 WAR, which remains a D1 single-season record. While Arteaga posted 9.6 and 9.5 WAR seasons in 2008 and 2009, his 2007 remains the pinnacle of his career. Carlos Jara, Division 4 Salt Lake Gulls, 2007: Jara was already an established star when the NABF opened its doors in 2007, but then he blasted those doors clean off with a 9.5 WAR season in which he socked 54 homers, drove 131, and batted .349, all league leaders. His .744 SLG and 1.164 OPS remain the highest single season totals in NABF history, as do his .491 wOBA and 231 wRC+. Jara was a huge factor in the Gulls dynasty that propelled them into D2 in their first six years, a period in which Jara posted 40.8 WAR. But this, his first, was his greatest. Dennis Sokol, Division 1 Los Angeles Angels, 2010: the greatest shortstop in the Federation’s history hit marks no one else has overcome in 2010, with a record .486 OBP that remains the highest in Federation history, and 93 steals, eclipsed only once since… by Sokol himself, with 94 in 2012. His 9.8 WAR is easily the highest recorded by a shortstop, as he walked 101 times while posting the highest OPS and RC/27 of his career (.950 and 11.0, respectively). He also hit two of his career 10 homers as the Angels took the D1 West, their second of five consecutive Conference titles. Pitchers Oliver Chase, Division 3 Las Vegas 51s, 2010: Chase, one of the all-time greatest hurlers in Federation history, was a workhorse for the 51s in the early years. While his 226 innings didn’t lead the league that year, his incredible 1.75 ERA, 44 FIP-, 10.2 WAR, and 291 Ks all did, with his WAR still the highest of any pitcher in Federation history. His Triple Crown, Pitcher of the Year season was highlighted by his no-hitter against the Cleveland Spiders in late April - with 14 strikeouts and no walks, one of the most dominant outings ever, and the only no-hitter of his career. Malcolm Bush, Division 3 Indianapolis Clowns, 2012: The greatest season by the game’s greatest pitcher. Though it incredibly (and controversially) did not win him the Pitcher of the Year Award, it was a vastly superior season to Oliver Chase’s (which did). Bush struck out 266 in 219 innings, with a 45 FIP- and 1.52 ERA, the lowest mark in NABF history. He allowed just 8 home runs all season, as he led his Clowns to their second straight D3 championship, lifting them into D2, where they would remain for the next nine seasons. Bush owns the best career WAR, strikeout total, and FIP of any pitcher in the 30 years the NABF has been in operation, yet one just a single Pitcher of the Year, in 2015. His 2012 should have as well. Antonio Venegas, Division 4 Baltimore Terrapins, 2009: Venegas starred for the Pins before their golden age, and between that and his career dominating the weakest Conference in that period of the NABF (the D4 East), he can be overlooked. But don’t, because he was astounding: in 217 innings of work in 2009, Venegas struck out 232 against just 63 walks, while allowing a mere 6 home runs. His 53 Fip- was the best of his career and among the lowest marks for any D4 pitcher (or any NABF pitcher). 2009 was one of Baltimore’s three first place finishes in the decade plus before their superhuman run of the 2020s, and Venegas was the single biggest reason why. Randy Alcala, Division 2 Ottawa Champions, 2012: Alcala’s 2012 is among the greatest power pitching seasons ever, as the Champions righthander used his devastating fastball/change/slider combo to overmatch 315 hitters - at the time an NABF record and still higher than any recorded outside Division 2. The same can be said for his stellar 13.3 K/9. It was Alcala’s only great season, with an 8.2 WAR far higher than the runner-up, a 3.9 mark the next season. He was the only thing that went right for Ottawa in 2012: the team was relegated to D3 for Cycle 3 and Alcala opted out, signing on with the Angels, where he was a piece of three D1 Championship teams. Mike O’Neill, Division 1 New York Giants, 2012: O’Neill’s 2012 set the standard for D1 pitching, in a Division that has been defined far more by its prodigious offensive talent. O’Neill’s 8.3 WAR is the highest for any D1 season, driven by his 2.16 ERA, 200 strikeouts, and 1.03 WHIP, with a 2.58 FIP (58 FIP-). It was the only time O’Neill won the pitching Triple Crown in his career, and it resulted in the first of his two Pitcher of the Year wins. Two-Way Players Ryan Little, Division 3 San Diego Padres, 2008: Ryan Little did something no one in the NABF has ever done since in 2008: he won the Pitcher of the Year and the MVP in the same season. No, not like that - two pitchers have won the MVP, recognizing the value of their pitching seasons, in the 2030s. No, Little won the Pitcher of the Year, throwing a D3-high 232 innings with 242 strikeouts, a 0.91 WAR, 5.5 K/BB ratio, and a 63 FIP- with 7.5 pitching WAR… AND THEN ALSO won the MVP, batting .277/..357/.537, with 31 homers, a 170 wRC+, .383 wOBA, and a 6.1 WAR, for a grand total of 13.6 - the greatest single season combined WAR ever. Another way of putting this: the Padres roster in 2008 earned a combined WAR of 43.5. Little, alone, was responsible for 31.3% of that. Oh, and he did this all at age 23. It is the best all around season in NABF history, and it’s hard to imagine any ever topping it. Next: The Quiet Years (Cycles 3 and 4) Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 01-01-2023 at 04:03 PM.

12-29-2022, 04:22 PM	#10
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	The Unprecedented Years (Cycles 7 and 8) The years between 2025 and 2030 will be long remembered ni NABF history - the years of impossible feats, incredible finishes, fallen records, franchise turnarounds, and the greatest seasons for any team of the first thirty years of play. Much like in the previous recap, we have to begin in Baltimore. The Terrapins had spent Cycle 5 tearing through Division 4, and Cycle 6 doing the same to Division 3. Only two other teams - the Salt Lake Gulls of 2007-2012 and the Columbus Red Birds of 2013-2018 - had accomplished the feat of moving from D4 to D2 in just two cycles, but both of them failed to capitalize, struggling against D2 competition as their core players either left or aged. So all eyes were on the Pins as they began play: their unique position as a smaller market team with strong financial resources had allowed them to replenish talent, keep stars, and cultivate younger players, and the resulting mix held a great deal of promise. That promise was met and vastly exceeded. The Terrapins began the season with two straight losses, but then ripped off a dozen straight wins, and kept on going. Sluggers Doug Padgett and Steve Mauck were joined by star 3B Connor Carey, and that 3-4-5 combo delivered souvenirs to fans in bleachers at an extraordinary rate: over 100 homers combined, just between the three of them, with catcher Jose Molina, RF Kyle Marshall, and rookie 1B Josh Hinthorne delivering more than 20 each. Baltimore scored 826 runs over the season - not a record, but not far from one (though incredibly the team would improve on that figure in both of the next two years). The even bigger strength lay in their exceptional pitching staff. Four starters had 4 WAR seasons, including Jim Betz, whose late-career renaissance hit its highest point in 2025 - 20-6 with a 2.29 ERA and almost identical 2.27 FIP, good for 8.3 WAR and a Pitcher of the Year trophy. Mike Martinez was outstanding behind him, while Danny Rzasa set the NABF wins record, going 23-3 while posting 4.3 WAR. The bullpen was easily the best in the business. The team had no holes, and their record reflected it, finishing with a 115-39 record that was nine wins better than the previous record, which the Terrapins themselves had set the year before in D3. They won the Championship in a thrilling seven game series (see previous section). For the next two seasons, they kept almost the exact same core of players (though Betz departed after 2026), with similar results: the second and third best seasons in NABF history, with 108 and 112 win seasons in 2026 and 2027, to go along with two more championships: another thrilling seven game series win over Vancouver, and a five game rout of Seattle, to bring their championship total to seven, the most of any team. Promotion was not even a question. Division 1 proved more of a challenge for the Terrapins, especially as their stars began the ends of their careers. Steve Mauck led D1 in homers every year of Cycle 8, but his overall production dropped, as did his health. The team shocked its fans by trading Padgett in 2029 as their season crumbled, finishing with a losing record for the first time since 2011. Mike Martinez remained productive into the 2030s, but could no longer be called an ace, and Irving - still an incredible defender - never had an offensive season like his 2025-2026 peak again. The powerhouse in D1 in 2028 and 2029 was a resurgent Boston Bees, not the fading Pins. The team had one more run left in what remained, however, and a weak D1 East allowed them to take the Conference with just 88 games in 2030. Matched up against a superior Angels team, they pulled out that magic one more time, winning in seven to become the only NABF team with 8 championships, and the only to win at least one in each Division. The Terrapins weren’t the only ones setting records in those years. In New Orleans, young slugger Pedro Quiroz began a run of dominance unparalleled in the NABF, winning the home run title every year between 2025 and 2032, across both D3 and D2. Over those 8 years he hit 423 homers, a total only 19 other players have ever reached in their entire careers; he averaged 53 a year, a total reached only 11 times by any player who wasn’t Quiroz. Among those was his stunning 62 home run 2029, breaking the all-time single season mark of 60 set by the Monarchs’ Eric Bryant 20 years earlier. Quiroz also set the single season Total Bases record that year, while driving in 136 runs. Other hallowed records fell in the same period, from fellow New Orleans Zephyrs player Bobby Usry’s 2027 pursuit of the all-time hits record (which he set at 228) to Danny Rzasa’s record 23 wins in 2025 to Baltimore closer Matt Heitzman’s 51 saves in 2026. And on the other side of things, the St. Paul Saints set a record in 2027 that no one wanted: 107 losses, the most in NABF history. Outside of the record-setting Terrapins, Cycle 7 belonged to the Philadelphia Athletics, who overcame strong El Paso teams in both 2025 and 2027 with a deep pitching staff backing aging superstar RF Brent Byrd and young CF phenom Eduardo Garcia (winner of 2028’s MVP in D1). The wins were the second and third in Philadelphia’s history, and established them as a force in Division 1, though the arrival of the Terrapins and the resurgence of the Bees complicated things. Still, the Athletics placed 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd again in Cycle 8, keeping things interesting until the end each year. In D1 West, it was El Paso: the most consistent team in NABF history closed out the best run in team history. Behind 2B/SS Mike Smart and a roster of outstanding hitters, the Sun Kings took three straight D1 West titles in Cycle 7, though they lost each time - twice to Philly and once to the Montreal Expos, who won their first championship. The Albuquerque Dukes were able to build on their 2025 championship with two more Conference titles in 2026 and 2027 to earn promotion to D3. The team kept rolling there, winning the D3 Championship in 2028. Their period of dominance coincides with one of the saddest stories of the NABF: Brian Tate looked to be building an all-time great career as he led the Dukes in the last half of the 2020s, putting up four straight D4/D3 best WAR seasons between ages 24 and 27 while the Dukes took first place each time. But something changed during the 2029 season, as Tate’s fastball simply dried up. His strikeout rate plummeted and HR rate rose, and he was out of baseball by 2032. In Cycle 8, things started to shift in the lower Divisions that would have major ramifications for the next six years. The Chicago Whales, Kansas City Monarchs, Denver Bears, and Cincinnati Tigers had long been among the most hapless teams in the game: Denver and Cincinnati had famously never won a Conference title, while Kansas City had only one to its name, all the way back in 2011. But in 2027, the Tigers snuck into first in the D4 East with an 83-71 season, and upset the Dukes to win their first championship. Kansas City was next, winning a championship in both 2028 and 2029 before a narrow second place finish in 2029; it was more than enough to launch them into D3 for the first time in their history. And the Chicago Whales, who had bounced between Divisions 1 and 2 for the first twenty years of the NABF with just two Conference titles and no championships, suddenly emerged as a powerhouse, with CF Kyle DuBell emerging as a star. The biggest story, though, was the Denver Bears, long a league laughingstock, they suddenly started winning. 2028 and 2029 saw two straight 88 win seasons - the latter their first ever Conference title. They won the 2030 championship at home against the Miami Marlins in front of a massive crowd, sparking the biggest celebration Denver could recall. So as Cycle 8 came to a close, records lay shattered, new heroes emerged, a dynasty was on its last legs, and several long-time losers looked ready to take their place. Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2025-2032 Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 12-29-2022 at 08:15 PM.

12-29-2022, 09:34 PM	#11
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Greatest Individual Seasons, 2025-2030 Hitters CF Mel Irving, Baltimore Terrapins, 2026 The Terrapins’ young center fielder’s greatest season came the year after he hit the greatest home run in Terrapins history, a walk-off, come-from-behind two strike blast into the right field stands at Terrapins Park. He followed up that homer with an MVP year: a league-leading 8.9 WAR, driven by his defensive value (resulting in his first Gold Glove) and a .320/.372/.523 line with a career-best 35 homers (the only time he cracked 30). His 190 hits and 340 total bases each led D2. While Irving remains one of the greatest defenders in the game, with 11 straight awards in center, his offensive game has never been as good as it was in that age 23 season, when he was the best in the game. CF Kyle DuBell, Chicago Whales, 2029 Another young CF with one extraordinary season. DuBell was never the defender Irving was, but at his best his bat made up for that value, including in his only MVP season, 2029. DuBell hit .296/.364/.631 with 44 homers and 39 doubles, driving in 128 for the D2 champion Whales. His 8.2 WAR led D2 that year, and helped the Whales climb back to Division 1, where the franchise originated. DuBell’s 2029 was in the middle of his most productive stretch as a player, but he fell off a cliff after his age 29 season and has never regained his production, topping 3 WAR only once since 2031. LF Pedro Quiroz, New Orleans Zephyrs, 2029 Some of the highlights of Quiroz’s amazing 2029 are detailed in the previous section, and in truth this list could have replaced this year with 2028, 2030, or 2026, all of which ended with higher WAR totals than 2029. But 2029 was a season of legend, in which Quiroz cemented himself as the Federation’s greatest slugger, smashing the record of 60 homers in a season by two, and the total bases record by 1. Quiroz batted .313/.374/.664, and led D2 in at bats, plate appearances, hits, slugging, runs created, wRC+, runs, RBI, and OPS - though, incredibly, not WAR: his subpar fielding dragged his value down to a “mere” 6.5 WAR. Despite that, the season remains one of the most cherished and remembered in NABF history, a bit of New Orleans magic at the end of an incredible decade of baseball. 3B Brian Runnion, Charlotte Hornets, 2025 The only infielder on the list for these cycles is Runnion, who held down third base for the Charlotte Hornets through most of the 2020s. It’s almost impossible to choose between his 2025 and 2026 seasons, but the Hornets’ conference title in 2025 puts that year over the edge. Runnion was both the team and Division MVP in 2025, the first of his three awards, as he hit .294 while leading the Division in on-base percentage (.439), slugging (.604), OPS (1.034) and WAR (8.3) as well as a host of other categories. He was far and away the best position player in Division 4 that season, his 8.3 WAR amazingly close to double that of the next closest, the San Antonio Missions’ Sam Martinez, with just 4.8. CF Bobby Usry, New Orleans Zephyrs, 2027 Just as his teammate Quiroz would do two years later, Bobby Usry captured the sport’s attention in 2027 with a record-breaking run as he targeted Jonathan Allen’s 220 hit record, set with the Salt Lake Gulls all the way back in 2010. He would do so successfully in the season’s final week, with the record-breaker stopping play in New Orleans as Usry - already an established star though in only his second season in the Big Easy - was honored by the club. He would go on to set the Division 4 single season hits record with 225 in 2031 while with the Browns; he would also set the all-time hits mark that season, a mark he continues to both hold and grow. Pitchers SP Jim Betz, Baltimore Terrapins, 2025 Jim Betz was 36 years old, in his third season with Baltimore. He’d just returned to Division 2, where he’d begun his career with the Havana Sugar Kings, a franchise where he’d had his finest years, and while he’d been excellent for the Terrapins in 2024 many doubted he’d be able to repeat it as Baltimore climbed the ladder. He didn’t: he blew 2024 out of the water with a sterling 20 win season in which he threw almost 220 innings and allowed only five home runs. Five. On top of that incredible figure, Betz put up a 2.27 FIP (57 FIP-) and 8.2 WAR while taking home both a Championship share and a Pitcher of the Year award. On a team of stars, it’s hard to say Betz was the biggest reason the Terrapins did what they did in 2025, but he was certainly in the inner circle. SP Bob Paul, Los Angeles Angels, 2026 Bob Paul has now had two successful careers: the first between 2020 and 2028 as an ace starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, and the second as an all-time great closer with seven different franchises since 2029. This season was the finest of that first career, as he provided a struggling and in-transition Angels squad with its only true anchor. Paul went 16-6 for a losing franchise, striking out just under a batter an inning with a 2,81 FIP (64 FIP-). He walked just 5% of the hitters he faced that year, dominating a tough Division 1. He was denied a Pitcher of the Year Award - it went instead to Boston’s Hector Rayfield for an almost objectively worse season - but he was clearly the most valuable pitcher to his club, and maybe the only thing in those years that kept LA out of Division 2. SP Brian Tate, Albuquerque Dukes, 2026 Tate had a short career, but a brilliant one. For four years with the Dukes, he was the best there was in both Division 4 and Division 3, leading in WAR each of those seasons while revitalizing a struggling Dukes franchise. 2026 was the second, and greatest, of them, as Tate earned 7.7 WAR with a miniscule SIERA of 1.59, a 54 FIP-, and an almost unheard-of 12.1 K/9, which at the time set a record among D4 starting pitchers and was one of the top all-time NABF marks. He also held opponents to just 1.4 walks per nine, also a D4 best. The season earned him the first of his two Pitcher of the Year Awards, the second coming in 2028, the year before his career fell apart. SP Danny Rzasa, Baltimore Terrapins, 2025 This is an old-school baseball pick: if you put Rzasa’s advanced metrics up against his teammate Betz, or Paul, or anyone else on this list (and several off it) it doesn’t hold up. But there’s a place for record-breakers, even people who break records in stats as problematic as wins. Rzasa did that, with one of the most lopsided W-L records you’ll ever see: a 23-3 2025 for the record-breaking Terrapins. Rzasa’s ERA challenged for the league lead at 2.41, though the FIP of 3.30 was less dominant - an 83 FIP-. Rzasa struck out over a quarter of the batters he faced, but walked 6.5%. For many other teams it would have been an ace-level performance; for Baltimore he was a #3. But it’s his name in the record books. SP Chad Martucci, Denver Bears, 2030 The Denver Bears had never won their conference before 2030, and no one deserves more credit for their victory that season than the journeyman Martucci. He never fit the mold of a Denver pitcher - he wasn’t a power guy, and wasn’t a groundballer. By this point in his career, he was 34 years old and a soft-tosser, a finesse pitcher with impeccable control and wily breaking stuff who piled up strikeouts without lighting up radar guns. When he came to the Bears he had never even appeared in an All-Star game, but something about that thin air worked for him, and he became a new pitcher. By 2030, he was a three-time All-Star who had led D3 in WAR twice and was about to do it a third time, with the best season of his career. Though his 4.13 ERA gave him his doubters, he struck out well over a batter an inning while walking just 46 in almost 220 innings of work. He was somewhat homer prone, but with few runners on base it didn’t hurt as much, and his FIP was a strong 3.14, a 68 FIP- with a 2.79 SIERA. The combination of big innings and few baserunners gave him a 7.0 WAR, the highest in his career and the pinnacle of his late career transformation. CL Matt Heitzman, Baltimore Terrapins, 2026 It’s a sign of the Terrapins’ dominance that three pitching seasons wind up on this list, including the first by a reliever. Heitzman was an accidental closer, having stepped into the role at the start of 2025 due to a spring training injury, but he took to it immediately and was soon named the permanent closer. He saved 43 games in 2025 to lead D2 and hurled 9 scoreless frames in the 2024 D2 Championship over Vancouver. The next season, 2026, he set a new single-season record with 51. He struck out nearly 30% of the batters he faced - 10.6 K/9 - and allowed just 4 homers in 60 innings of work. His 1.7 WAR was top among D2 relievers, and he won the 2026 Reliever of the Year, even getting a handful of votes for Pitcher of the Year. Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 01-15-2023 at 11:34 AM.

12-31-2022, 10:22 AM	#12
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Revolutions from Below (Cycles 9 and 10) Finally we arrive at modern day, and two cycles which have upended the NABF in exciting and dramatic ways. Though this was a period of change, some things stayed the same: the El Paso Sun Kings continued their reign of Division 1. Between 2031 and 2036, the Sun Kings won four Conference titles and two Division Championships, their 2036 squad winning 99 games, more than any other in franchise history. Their offensive core - CF Joe Rison, C Mike Kepler, RF Chris Beardsley - are all in their prime years, and though the solid pitching staff is older they have continued to be effective. Even 30 years in, El Paso was still able to mix veterans and developing players to create yet another winning ballclub. It was not quite as easy a tale for the Ft. Worth Cats. Relegated to Division 2 for the first time in franchise history to begin Cycle 9, they were able to cut through a weak division, winning the D2 West in 2031 and Division 2 itself in 2033. But their fortunes began to fade in 2034, despite earning promotion on the strength of the first two seasons. Back in D1 for Cycle 10, they struggled mightily, with three straight last place finishes to head back down. Replacing the Cats in D1 West will be Denver’s Bears - after winning the first franchise championship - or conference title - in 2030, the Bears clawed their way through Division 2. In 2031 they finished in third, but just two games back; the following year they came in second, a single game behind Fort Worth. But in 2033 they eclipsed the Cats to win the D2 West, losing to Toronto in a well-balanced series. They came into Cycle 10 the heavy favorites for promotion, with a deep team led by Chad Martucci, Clemens Young, and others. They won the conference in 2034 and 2035, then finally got over the hump (with the help of free agent signee SP Dylan Anderson) and won the D2 Championship, officially securing promotion to Division 1. What had once been the most disappointing franchise in the NABF will now be on its largest stage. The Tampa Tarpons will join them there. Tampa has been one of the most successful franchises in the NABF, but with only sporadic success, and never able to move beyond Division 2. But in Cycle 10, they won two Conference titles and the 2035 D2 Championship (beating Denver) to earn promotion. Tampa’s current lineup uses a distinctive speed and contact style that promises to shake up Division 1. The biggest story of the last decade of NABF ball, though, has been the Kansas City Monarchs. For 20 years, they remained a quiet Division 4 team: one lone conference title in 2011 and several last place finishes, despite stints by some of the greats (most notably slugger Eric Bryant). But in 2026 they started winning, consistently and convincingly. In the first year of Cycle 8, they won their conference, and for the first time their division; they repeated the feat in 2029. That ensured promotion, but a downturn in 2030 suggested their time in D3 might be short. They proved their doubters wrong, winning 90 games, the D3 East, and the D3 Championship in 2031, and though their win totals dropped each of the next two years they were enough to stamp KC’s ticket to Division 2. They held their own there in Cycle 10, gaining each season, and ended 2036 with 86 wins, only a few back from first and ready to see what lies ahead. In Division 4, the Nashville Sounds went on a run for the ages too, winning three consecutive D4 titles between 2031 and 2033, giving them four over their history. With a D3 East conference title in Cycle 10, they look to build further. The same can be said of the Sacramento Solons, who were promoted from the D4 West as the Sounds left the East; they had lost to Nashville in the Championships in 2032 and 2033, but once in D3 they kept going, winning the D3 Series in both 2034 and 2035 to earn promotion to D2 in Cycle 11. Amid all this upward movement, two once triumphant franchises began to fade. The Boston Bees were the first to go; only two years after their final championship in 2029, they found themselves in last place, 72-82. It got worse the next season, with their win total dropping to 65. Then, 57 wins in 2033, and a slam-dunk relegation. The very next year, it was Baltimore’s turn. As fewer and fewer faces from the Terrapins’ incredible 2020s runs came back year after year - Padgett traded away in 2029, Mauck gone after 2031, Hinthorne after 2032, and so on - the Terrapins spent Cycle 9 floating between 2nd and 4th place. But the bottom dropped out in 2034, and the team won just 60, 65, and 66 games respectively over the three years of Cycle 10 - last place all three, and relegated for the first time in their history. As the first ten cycles - 30 years - of NABF history ended in 2036, an amazing confluence of retirements swept through the NABF as some of its best all-time talents hung it up: all-time steals leader Craig Vest, all-time Home Run king Pedro Quiroz, all-time hits and doubles leader Bobby Usry, Baltimore Terrapins great Steve Mauck and Two-Way star Nick Goodwin. We watched some of the greatest teams in its history sink, while new dynasties struggled to be born. Who knows who will rule the next 30? Maybe it will be San Diego RF Jason Turnquist, who won the D2 Rookie of the Year this past season. Or 27 year old 2034 D4 Pitcher of the Year Aaron Cottrell. Maybe it will be the Phoenix Firebirds, who won their first Conference title in 2036 after years of futility. Maybe someone we can't predict, or a team we don't expect. The game will surprise you, sometimes. Next: Greatest Individual Seasons, 2031-2036 Attached Images Last edited by ArquimedezPozo; 01-01-2023 at 03:11 PM.

12-31-2022, 11:32 AM	#13
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Greatest Individual Seasons, 2031-2036 Hitters CF Benni Phillips, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2031 Phillips is probably the greatest of the current crop of NABF stars - a serviceable defensive CF with a complete offensive attack. He was the unquestioned best player in Division 2 over a four year stretch between 2030 and 2033, his age 24-27 seasons, during which he slugged 146 homers and put up 33.5 WAR while lifting his team back into Division 1. His numbers have taken a hit against better competition in D1 but he remains a dangerous hitter into his 30s for Toronto, whose uniform he will be wearing until 2041 after signing an 8 year extension in 2034. Phillips is a two-time MVP, winning his first in 2031 as he led the league with 174 hits, 105 runs, a .427 OBP, and a 9.7 WAR - a new single-season record for D2. Part of that value was his 39 homer total, at the time a career high, as he slugged .606 with a .331 BA. A complete offensive season, one of the best the NABF has seen. 3B Ali Brown, Detroit Stars, 2032 Brown has been one of the biggest drivers of the Sounds’ extraordinary success over the past six seasons, as they reversed years of futility that included four straight last place seasons and a drop from Division 2 down to Division 3. Brown, now a third base institution in Detroit, burst on to the scene in his first full season, putting up 8 WAR with a .284/.392/.563 line, that SLG being the best in D3. He hit 35 homers - he would dramatically improve on this in his nearly-as-good 2033 with 47 - while also posting a division-best .409 wOBA and winning the first of two MVP awards. His most recent 2036 season was also the best on a Detroit team that won the 2036 Championship, which means Brown will have his first shot at D2 competition in 2037. SS Mike Burcham, New York Giants, 2033 Burcham has emerged as the best of a new crop of star shortstops over the first years of the 2030s, helping his Giants toward competitiveness. The team has finished below second place only once in the decade, and in 2033 won the D1 East behind Burcham’s great season - the first time the club had won a Conference title since 2024, and its first in D1 since 2012. Burcham won both a Gold Glove and batting title in 2033, hitting .343/.411/.433 - that OBP also a league leader. His 202 hits, 10 triples, and 113 runs were also tops in D1, as was his 8.6 WAR. He followed up 2023 with another stellar campaign, breaking out with 65 stolen bases and adding some additional gap power (a league leading 41 doubles) but 2033 was his best season, and the one that best showcases his contact-speed style, an increasingly common one in D1 in the last few years. 1B Danny Gonzalez, Tijuana Potros, 2032 Few current stars are as decorated as Gonzalez, who has a Rookie of the Year, a Gold Glove, 9 Silver Sluggers, 11 All-Star selections, and two MVP trophies on the shelf at home to go along with a D1 Championship. Gonzalez had his best season in 2032, when he took home his second MVP while collecting the first of three recent Triple Crowns in the NABF (along with Clemens Young in 2035 and Carson Prince in 2036). He put up a .340/.404/.658 line with 48 homers and 137 RBI, also topping the Division with 7.6 WAR, 179 wRC+, and a .444 wOBA. C Mike Kepler, El Paso Sun Kings, 2036 Kepler’s overall line isn’t as impressive as those above, but his 2036 stands out for a singular reason: in 2036, Kepler became the first catcher to win an MVP in any Division in NABF history. Kepler’s age 27 season was the latest in a string of outstanding offensive seasons from behind the plate, and Kepler took a step forward in 2036, setting career highs in average and OBP (.318 and .399 respectively) while maintaining his power level with 20 homers and a .513 SLG. Though he didn’t lead his league in any offensive category, his 5.1 WAR at a demanding defensive position and on a championship team was enough to put him over the top in a tight MVP race, and enough to earn him a spot here. Pitchers SP Willie Rodriguez, Cincinnati Tigers, 2035 Rodriguez’s 2035 has a case to be called the greatest pitching season in NABF history. A 52 FIP- is impressive enough, but his 6.5 K/BB is among the best of any season. Rodriguez is one of only 13 pitchers to top 300 strikeouts in a single season, and one of only three in D3, and among those who have done it, none had control anywhere close to Rodriguez’s - only 5.1% of batters who faced him drew a free pass. His 9.9 WAR is second only to Oliver Chase’s 2010, and that season came in an era of generally higher pitching WAR across NABF - Rodriguez’s is the best of the 2030s by almost two full wins over Bubba Fread’s 8.04 2034 mark.Voters unaccountably rewarded Sacramento’s Josh Argo with the Pitcher of the Year, perhaps due to the latter’s league leading 17 wins and 2.15 ERA - the worst award oversight in NABF history by a mile. SP Bubba Fread, Montreal Expos, 2034 Fread is maybe the most dominant of the modern pitchers in the NABF, and has already won 4 D1 Pitcher of the Year awards in 2032, 2033, 2036, and his best season, 2034. Fread’s 2.10 FIP and 56 FIP- were both the best marks of his career, and he led D1 in wins with 18 while striking out over a third of the batters he faced. His 16 strikeout performance against Boston was one of the most dominant single-game performances in D2 history. SP Jason Blanche, Brooklyn Dodgers, 2035 Blanche has some of the best pure stuff in the game and has been among Division 1’s best since his age 24 season in 2028. He has put up a 6+ WAR season three times, and has led the Division in strikeouts in seven. Both of those were true in his 2035 Pitcher of the Year season, as Blanche led the Dodgers to the Conference title with a Division-leading 220 innings and 68 FIP- (2.84 FIP). His postseason wasn’t as effective, though, as he lost two games to El Paso in an ultimately unsuccessful D1 Championship effort. SP Matthew Boyd, Nashville Sounds, 2034 Paul Herrin can claim a historic first in 2034: the first NABF pitcher to ever win both an MVP and a Pitcher of the Year. That he accomplished it in his first full season as a starting pitcher makes it all the more incredible. Boyd put up 7.6 WAR in 207 innings, leading D3 in several categories, traditional and advanced metrics alike - ERA (2.08), Ks (282), WHIP (0.91), FIP- (59). Boyd’s season was the biggest reason the Sounds captured their first D3 East title, in their first season in that Division after promotion from D4. In subsequent seasons, Boyd has not come close to equaling that production, with WARs of 2.9 and 2.3 respectively, but Sounds fans will remember it for years to come. SP Paul Herrin, Miami Marlins, 2036 Matthew Boyd was the first to do it in 2034, but Paul Herrin of the Marlins equaled the feat of a dual MVP/Pitcher of the Year last season in 2036. Herrin, now 27, seems poised for a long and outstanding career: he has won two straight D3 Pitcher of the Year honors and has put up at least 5 WAR in each of his last four seasons, leading to his 6.7 WAR, Triple Crown season in 2036. Herrin won 20 with a 2.06 ERA and 258 strikeouts, giving up just 7 homers. His 2.68 FIP and 70 FIP- aren’t quite as impressive (due to a low .258 BABIP) but Herrin is one to watch as the NABF enters its 11th cycle. Next: Ranking the Teams - #48-#37 Attached Images

01-15-2023, 03:40 PM	#20
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	And that concludes the historical part of this thread, looking back at the first 30 of the North American Baseball League. From here on out, I'll be cataloguing each season, as it happens, with notable events, records, retirements, championships, etc.