2017 Mantle League Preview

2017 Mantle League Preview

by Sharkman

Last year, it was a three-team race to the finish line where the Mexico City Aztecs beat the Annapolis Navy Seals in a one game playoff after the Seals bounced the Slippery Rock Sliders just to get that play in game. Mexico City non surprisingly kicked the shit out of the Cobb representative to get the promotion, the 3rd such Mantle promotion in the first 4 years of the league. With Mexico City leaving, the Mantle gains "The Band You are About to Hear", who were below average but not complete pushover. The Mantle has shown their might over the first 4 years of the league putting three of their teams up to the Champions League and for last year having 3 of their 5 teams win 91 games. Lets take a look how the teams stack up this year.

Annapolis Navy Seals

With the Aztec's out of the way, Seal Command authorized Operation: Blitzkreig II for year 5 of the league. The first version of this got them to 94 wins but also a three-way tie at the top and Mexico City got the best of them in the play in game. The Navy Seals have an interesting SP philosophy. They have, really, average starters outside of Michael Jackson so they pitch count the hell out of them, run with a 7 man bullpen and spend their money there. It worked quite well the tune of a 3.01 total team bullpen ERA paced by Larry Mulcahy who went 13-2 1.80 ERA, 4.1 WAR while missing 6 weeks to a shoulder injury. Travis Goldsmith was worth his weight with a break out 7.1 WAR season, crushing 46 homeruns and giving the Seal lineup an anchor at 4. It looks like hotshot 5 contact OF - Clarence Berry will get a shot in the OF and SS - Alphonso Diaz will see if he can tackle ML hitting in Spring Training, and Tillmao Santinho will finish getting his polish in AAA before he comes up to be the next Mulcahy. Upgrades all around.

Slippery Rock Sliders

The Sliders hung tough all year long and fought hard to make it a 3-way tie at the top of the Mantle before bowing out in the play-in game vs the Seals. Scott, Radke, and Parsons anchored the rotation going a combined 48-20. but the bullpen was leaky in a few places. The Sliders continue to build up depth organizationally and look to have another solid year. The Sliders, to date, haven't done a ton in FA beyond resigning SS - Brian Sims and letting LF - Stanton Newsome, he of the 2.7 WAR and 38 year old body test FA until his crazy demands of 14 mil a year come back to reality. Astute move. Last year at this time I said it would be illuminating to see how the Silders do. They did awesome and it will be interesting to watch this team mature in 2017.

Cigar City Concoctors

Lets see. They were horrible again last year. They have lost 15 guys to FA at a combined 5.4 WAR, have no minor leagues and have signed no one? What an absolute F'ing disgrace. The owner is using his team as a way to get revenue sharing so he can buy into more stock for Pan American Airlines. No one has bothered to tell him that the airline collapse over 40 years ago and this must be some big Ponzi scam. What a douche.

Buenos Aires Admirals

So Abolish and his Admirals did about what I thought they would do last year, they evened out at 72-72. So far in year 2, they have signed a pitcher in Jack Stark and lost a bunch of negative war contributers. The Admirals are still paced by captain - SS - Derek Weatherwall who had a slight bounce back season at age 31 gaining 1.2 WAR but also going fragile. They did race OF - Alfie Margerson to the majors and in 50 cup of coffee at bats, he didn't do so hot but the Admirals are hoping an off-season will allow him to get ready for an impact year at the top of the lineup. I for see a small uptick in wins but still not challenging the big dogs.

The team to get relegated is still being sorted out but lets be honest, whoever is getting relegated is getting relegated for a reason. Whomever it is, they will be lucky to get to .500 in the mighty Mantle. This year should be very exciting. With Slippery Rock take the next step? Will Annapolis EVER get over the hump?? 

Here is the crystal ball on how it will all shake out with Annapolis winning the crown by 2 games over Slippery Rock:

1st - Annapolis Navy Seals

2nd - Slippery Rock Sliders - 2 games back

3rd - Buenos Aires Admirals - 7 games back

4th - Team Relegation - 11 games back

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5th - Cigar City Concoctors - 55 games back. Why do they bother to show up???