As the 2027 sim season begins, dark clouds form on the horizon. Storm-whipped winds smell of oil and blood. The Machine is on the march. The Sox Machine cometh.

The names and images of the Machine's warriors haunt our dreams. Deborah, Granby, Samolis and Koike strike fear in our batters' hearts with their lightning arms. Bedroussian, Parks, Hinata, Tarleton and Lawrence threaten to crush our defense with thundering bats.

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It's June 20, 2024 and the BMO league has been turned upside down. This season will go down in sim history as the year of the Cinderellas.

In the NL East, the Florida Nipples tore apart their team in an effort to get the #1 draft pick, but the strategy has backfired. Their team of no-talents and kids leads the division by 8.5 games. "I'm totally bummed," said team owner Boejouma. "I've got a 69-rated firstbaseman playing 3B and a guy named Doody playing 1B. That should be enough to put me in the basement, right? First place sucks."

In the NL Central, the hapless Houston Rats have vaulted from their longtime home in 6th place to lead the division by 4.5 games. Shortstop Joel Leach is showing the way with his great work in the lead-off spot and sparkling play in the field. "Who the f**k is Joel Leach?" asked owner Banhammer.

2024's final Cinderella is NL West leading Colorado. Their pitching staff cuts through opposing lineups like a knife through butter. The Iron Schenk credits the defense of 3B Jay Oxenreider and 2B Damian Rodriguez for supporting the pitchers. "Jay actually got to a ball last week," the Schenk said, "and Damian only made three errors yesterday."

BMO is sim baseball at Baseball Manager Online.

Half-way through the 2023 season the National League's lone ownerless team, the Colorado Rockies, is struggling with a 34-59 record. This is nothing new for hapless Denver; its last winning season was 2015. 7 times in league history the Rockies have lost 100 games. Join the league and rescue the mile-high fans.

Atlanta, San Francisco and St Louis comfortably lead the three divisions. Pittsburgh and San Diego battle for the wild card spot. Will anyone else make a run?

Speaking of San Diego, they currently have the two top hitters in the game -- Jere Balbi and Hort Morrissette. Balbi is a baby having his first great season. Morrissette is a grizzled old-timer.

Randal Falcon was freed from the Baltimore bench, signed by St Louis and traded to the bumbling Rockies. He is thriving in the thin air producing a .402 OBA and .638 SLG.

The Cubs' $19 million investment in Jeff Baron is paying off to the tune of .434 OBA and .630 SLG.

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How can there be a rosterbation contest with no entry that blows the team up good? I promise this is my last contest entry.

Dan Duquette got to the office at 9AM on the morning of December 5th. “Today's the day, Angie!” he called out to his executive assistant who was busy buying gifts on Amazon.

“The day for what, Hon?” she replied.

“Demolition, Angie. Demolition.” He turned on his office stereo and selected All Day by Girl Talk. Mood music. “Get me Andrew Friedman on the phone.”

A moment later Angie told her boss, “Mr. Friedman on line 1, Duke.”

“Andy! How's it shakin'?”

“I'm good, Duke. What's up?” Friedman asked.

“I'm blowing it up, Andy, and naturally I thought of you first. The end of last season was the start of something good, son. The O's and Rays allied against the evil powers in New York and Boston. A rebellion against the Man. You following me?”

“I'm listening Duke,” Friedman said, but he really was wondering if Duquette was off his meds.

“What do you need to get back in the World Series?” Duquette asked. “A top-flight catcher, a shortstop who can hit, a firstbaseman and a DH. Am I right? Fill those spots and the Rays are top of the heap. We're talkin' world domination, baby.”

“Umm, yeah,” said Friedman. “Sounds about right.”

“I got what you need, Andy. Wieters, Hardy, Reynolds and Davis. They're moving, Andy. I want to send them to you.”

Duquette suddenly had Friedman's undivided attention. “What do you want in return?” he asked.

“Prospects. Eight of them. Two for one,” Duquette responded. He knew the Rays' GM was hooked. “I want four pitchers. You're up to your eyeballs in them so you can afford it. Alexander Torres, Alex Colome, Taylor Guerrieri and Ryan Carpenter. And I want four position players: Mikie Mahtook (OF), Brandon Guyer (OF), Jose Lobaton (C) and Reid Brignac (SS).”

Friedman hesitated. “That's quite a haul, Duke.”

“I'm handing you the World Series on a plate and the Switch-hitting Jesus,” Duquette quickly argued. “Besides you don't need any of those guys to compete for the next three years. And Lobaton and Brignac are temporary placeholders, even for us.”

Friedman broke out in a sweat. He hated to trade within the division but this was too good to pass up. “You have a deal, Duke.”

“Excellent!” exclaimed Duquette. “You won't regret this Andy. Have your people type up the paperwork and get back to me. I have more work to do.”

And so began a legendary day in Orioles history.

Word of the Orioles/Rays blockbuster leaked within an hour. Baltimore television stations broke into their regular programming to announce the breaking news. The Baltimore Sun website put up the headline in huge type: “WIETERS GONE!” Orioles and Rays-related blogs exploded with comments.

Duquette was too busy to pay attention to commotion he caused. Before 11AM rumors of more trades spread. Duquette was tearing it all down! MLB Trade Rumors went wild! Ken Rosenthal was so excited his head exploded.

Duquette started a bidding war between the Red Sox and the Blue Jays for closer Jim Johnson. The Red Sox offered Josh Reddick (OF) and Matt Barnes (P). The Jays countered with Jake Marisnick (OF) and AJ Jimenez (catcher). Duquette went with the Jays just to screw over the team that fired him.

Boston was also looking for a starting pitcher and a right-handed bat for the outfield, so Duquette sent them Guthrie and Reimold for Josh Reddick (OF) and Felix Doubront (P).

Markakis (and $5 million cash) to the Phillies for Maikel Franco (3B).

Adam Jones to the Nationals for AJ Cole (P) and Anthony Rendon (3B).

And just like that the Orioles' slate was wiped clean.

Gone:

Wieters, Reynolds, Davis, Hardy, Reimold, Jones, Markakis, Guthrie, Johnson.

Incoming:

Pitchers: Alexander Torres, Alex Colome, Taylor Guerrieri, Ryan Carpenter, AJ Cole, Felix Doubront.

3B: Maikel Franco, Anthony Rendon

OF: Jake Marisnick, Brandon Guyer, Josh Reddick, Miki Mahtook.

C: Jose Lobaton, AJ Jimenez.

SS: Reid Brignac.

2012 Orioles Lineup

3B: Antonelli

2B: Andino/Roberts

CF: Josh Reddick

DH: Jeff Clement (FA)

RF: Brandon Guyer

LF: Beerer/Travis Buck (FA)

1B: Juan Miranda/Conor Jackson (FA)

C: Teagarden/Lobaton

SS: Reid Brignac

Bench: Ryan Adams, Miranda/Jackson, Teagarden/Lobaton, Buck/Beerer

Rotation: Britton, Torres, Doubront, Tillman, Arrieta, Matusz and Brad Meyers (Rule 5) battle for rotation spots in spring training. The losers go in the bullpen for long relief (they'll be needed).

Bullpen: Strop, Patton, O'Day, Jose Ascanio (minor league free agent).

Payroll: Well, it's low. I have no idea what it will take to sign Clement, Buck, Jackson, Miranda and Ascanio but they're all projects hoping for a chance to play. They should be cheap.

This team will be a disaster for a few years, but at least we'll get top draft picks. Hope takes the form of Machado, Bundy, Colome, Guerrieri, Carpenter, Richards, Cole, Franco, Rendon, Marisnick, Mahtook and Jimenez forming the crest of a wave that begins to arrive in 2015.

Here's my entry for the contest. Instead of recommending a bunch of specific trades or free agent signings, I propose a new way to use pitchers and standards for selecting players from here forward. This might not actually meet the contest requirements, but I don't really care. This was fun to write.

My plan for the 2012 Orioles is based on an experimental pitching rotation and an emphasis on defense ...

The ABC System: 3-Day 9-Man Rotation

Starting pitchers who move to the bullpen sometimes become more effective. Jim Johnson, Troy Patton and Koji Uehara are examples. My experimental rotation takes advantage of this concept by breaking the game down into “relief-size” bits. My hypothesis is it's much easier to find a pitcher who can throw 3 good innings than it is to find a pitcher who can consistently throw 7 good innings.

Three pitchers are scheduled to pitch each day. The “A” pitcher throws innings 1-3, the “B” pitcher innings 4-6, and the “C” pitcher innings 7-9. They work every third day (or the fourth day when there's an off day in the schedule.)

Pitchers should be able to handle the workload. In a 3-inning outing, the pitcher will throw 60 pitches or less (hopefully less than 50), so two days off ought to be enough to recover. The plan is to use pitchers with good control so they won't run up their pitch counts. In a traditional 5-man rotation, the starter throws a side-session of about 50 pitches on his third off day, which indicates that working every third day is a good thing and not destructive to the arm.

Each of the 9 pitchers in the rotation will get 162 innings of work in 54 games. That's less than Guthrie pitched in 2011, but more than any other Oriole. Johnson appeared in 69 games (91 innings), so he'll be used less frequently in my system.

The Orioles' starters struggle to work deep into games, so why try to force them to do something that is beyond their ability? We will be the only team highly valuing 3-inning pitchers, and that may be an undervalued asset to exploit Moneyball-style.

The Orioles' ABC Rotation:

Day 1: Hunter/Britton/Johnson

Day 2: Arrieta/Matusz/Tillman

Day 3: Simon/Patton/Meyers**

Bullpen: Strop, O'Day, Ascanio*

* = free agent signing

** = Rule 5 pick

Lefties are sandwiched between righties everyday. We'll make the opposing hitters adjust.

Some of you might complain that by only pitching Britton 3 innings a game I'm not maximizing his value to the team. But consider this – Britton will pitch in 33% of the Orioles' games under my plan. In a traditional 5-man rotation he only figures in 20% of the team's games.

If the C pitcher is throwing well, he will not be replaced by the closer in the ninth inning. Let him finish. The bullpen is there just for emergencies. They only come in if the scheduled pitcher is getting shelled.

I have reinforcements at AAA Norfolk ready to move up in case of injury or ineffectiveness. But the young pitchers in Baltimore won't be shuttled back and forth to Norfolk like last season. They'll get every chance to settle in and succeed. We'll evaluate their performance in July and make adjustments, but not before.

Hopefully Hunter and Meyers will be able to get more strikeouts while maintaining their excellent control if they know they're only pitching 3 innings. If their performance is bad, we'll replace them at the All-Star break with pitchers from Norfolk.

It may be that relievers with good stuff, like Johnson (or O'Day or Ascanio), perform better in the ABC rotation than starters like Hunter. There's no way to tell without experimenting.

Where is Jeremy Guthrie? As an “established” starter I think he'd rebel against joining our ABC rotation. So he needs to be traded. Get a hitting prospect in return.

What about Kevin Gregg? Released! You're welcome.

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16 teams spent themselves into bankruptcy in 2012. (Note to owners ... the NBA is not a good financial model.)

Only 6 teams are projected to turn a profit. Playoff-bound Atlanta and Washington are two of the six.

Skynet had a good season -- it put Minnesota and Detroit in the playoffs.

Jeremy Bonderman won 25 games and Scott Munter (who?) 23. Jeff Francoeur hit 69 homers. All three play for the Commish's team.

San Francisco led all teams by scoring 5.9 runs per game. Milwaukee only allowed 2.9 per game. Cleveland allowed 7.4 runs per game and lost 134 games!

We're starting a new sim baseball league at the South Side Sox blog (White Sox SBN blog). I claimed the Orioles, but I'm willing to take another team if someone else wants the O's (or you're welcome to one of the other open teams).

It's free to play. You control your line-up, make trades, sign free agents. Sims twice a day. If you check your team once a day you should be fine (skipping a few days shouldn't hurt your team any).

The "Southside Second Option" sim league will begin with the 2006 season. Cities are equalized, so the damn Yankees won't have a financial advantage.

If you want to join, you'll need the league password. Email our commish and he'll set you up. hazymania@hotmail.com

After you get the password, go to http://www.baseball-manager-online.com/. Click "join now". Fill out the form and click submit. Click "verify signup", don't wait for a verification email because you won't get one. It will send you to a log in screen. Enter your username and password. Click "search for a premium league". Type "south" in the search for league name box. Make sure you check the "Show leagues with passwords" box! it will find our South Side Sox league. Enter the password and click join.

If you have questions, post them here and I'll be happy to answer.

The South Side Sox (White Sox SBN blog) sim baseball league has an opening for someone to run the Reds. We're about to start the 2016 season, but the Reds still have Votto, Bruce, Cueto, Volquez and others you'll recognize.

It's free to play. You control your line-up, make trades, sign free agents. Sims twice a day on weekdays, but none on weekends. If you check your team once a day on most weekdays you should be fine. We have revenue sharing so being a small market is workable (Kansas City won the 2015 world series).

If you want to join, you'll need the league password. Email our commish and he'll set you up. hazymania@hotmail.com

After you get the password, go to http://www.baseball-manager-online.com/. Click "join now". Fill out the form and click submit. Click "verify signup", don't wait for a verification email because you won't get one. It will send you to a log in screen. Enter your username and password. Click "search for a premium league". Type "south" in the search for league name box. Make sure you check the "Show leagues with passwords" box! it will find our South Side Sox league. Enter the password and click join.

If you have questions, post them here and I'll be happy to answer.

The SSS BMO sim baseball league has an opening. It's Florida, but we have revenue sharing so being a small market isn't unbearable.

It's free to play. Control your line-up, make trades, sign free agents. Sims twice a day on weekdays, but none on weekends. If you check your team once a day on most weekdays you should be fine.

To join go to http://www.baseball-manager-online.com/. Click "join now". Fill out the form and click submit. Click "verify signup", don't wait for a verification email because you won't get one. It will send you to a log in screen. Enter your username and password. Click "search for a premium league". Type "south" in the search for league name box. Make sure you check the "Show leagues with passwords" box! it will find our South Side Sox league. Enter the password bananarama and click join.