Welcome to the Palms blog!

Hi everyone, welcome to the Miami Palms baseball blog. It's based on a fictitious game, played using simulations of real players and invented. This is going to be the third full season for the squad. They play a reversed schedule of the Tampa Bay Rays, although they don't replace them (they play each other instead of the Marlins during home games) and as such are members of the American League East. In the first year, the Palms went 91-71. Last year, (the first year they added 'real' players) they tied the Rays atop the division, winning on a tiebreaker, but eventually lost to those same Rays in the ALCS.
The additions and subtractions have already been made from last years roster to the 2009 season. Gone are Gerald Laird (to the Yankees), Scott Hatteberg (retired), Rico Gomez (Cubs), Scott Henninger (Mets), Darren Jones (Dodgers), Matt Webster (Marlins), Joe Gras (Royals), Forrest Davis (Mets), Rich Fischer (Diamondbacks), Luis Montgomery (Indians), Jared Burton (Red Sox). New players added include Steve Drysdale (rookie), Jaspero Gonzalez (rookie), Blake Johnston (rookie), Manny Parray (Brewers), Martin Prado (Braves), Omir Santos (Orioles), Dennis Sarfate (Orioles), Breck Smythe (rookie), Orlando Tiropes (rookie), Troy Tulowitzki (Rockies), Javier Vazquez (White Sox).
Over the next few months, before the season, we'll run through all of these players on what projects to be a very young team that may see some struggles early on. After that, we'll go ahead and start doing game summaries when the season starts!
If you were wondering, the team plays in Palms Park, a stadium that features an open view of the Atlantic Ocean through the right field bleachers. Team colors are green, brown and purple. Perhaps if there is someone who is better with design, they can take care of logos for me!
Enjoy the ride, everyone!

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