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Inaugural Draft: Part I of a Series
Ruth Conference – Picks 1 through 7
To the relief of fans around the world, baseball is emerging from the ashes of the collapsed MLB. In seven rounds of an inaugural draft, the 24 newly hired GMs of the United Baseball Association have already put together their team cores, pulling in most of the top major league talent. In the following special editions of UBA TODAY, we will grade each team in the Ruth Conference on their picks, and make division-by-division predictions of success for the summer of ’95 and beyond. We will begin today with the East, followed by the Central and the West.
The Ruth Conference is already shaping up to be the more competitive of the two UBA conferences, with top hitting and pitching talent settling into new teams. The average new Ruthian is a full year older than the average Aaroner, and a number of Ruth clubs are clearly looking to compete for the inaugural championship trophy this year.
Ruth East
The Old Bridge Titans and the Charleston Rebels are emerging as the top clubs in the East, primarily picking up established veterans. The Titans are our current pick for the division champ.
Inaugural Draft: Part II of a Series
Ruth Central – Picks 1 through 7
In the Central, the Toledo Troutheads and Eden Prairie Landsharks will enter 1995 as the division favorites, with Toledo as our current slight favorite for division champ due to five veteran hitters all capable of putting up an .800 or better OPS. The Landsharks, however, put together a strong present-day team that could easily end up taking the division in 1995, while picking up more youth than the Troutheads, and thus get our highest grade in this division. This division houses a lot of power hitters, and fans should be treated to a ton of home-runs.
Inaugural Draft: Part VI of a Series
Aaron West Rounds 1 through 10
And at last we turn our final analysis of a UBA division, the Aaron West. The AW is currently projected to have three teams play .500 ball or better in the ’95 season. Full disclosure: UBA Today! is wholly owned by the GM of the Portland Beavers. And so while we can tell you that the Beavers are our pick to win the division in ’95 (with a very strong challenge by the Grizzlies and a moderate one from the Pranksters), we won’t be handing out a letter grade to that organization. Instead, we’ll present a brief interview with the GM covering his reflections of Portland’s draft below our division grades below.