The Champions League teams continue to shake out final rosters during spring training competition. 

We know what these teams look like now, are close to what they will look like on Opening Day, less so after the trade deadline and even less so when this edition of preseason playoff predictions turns to prognostication reality. Teams change. It’s a given.

Even more so, the trade deadline could be even more fascinating than the normal seller and buyer two lane highway. Buyer could include teams looking for a few extra wins to avoid relegation or to sneak into the play-in tourney in the National League. Sellers could be any number of different scenarios. Will this bring more deals, or make deals harder? 

With so many new managers who don’t know each other’s tendencies yet, will trades be stifled or ignited? 

With all of that mind, we dive into the first edition of The Champions League Preseason Predictions.

Fans of this writer (fan??) know that while often creative, accuracy is not a strong suit.

The Last Shall Be First? 

We start at the bottom with the National Conference. The pursuit of the #1 overall team is perhaps the most important regular season slot in the entire regular season. The top team gets an automatic promotion to the Champions League and an automatic #7 seed in the playoffs. 

Compare that to the runner-up in the National League who will join a four-team play-in series, having to win a short series to earn promotion and the right for a burned out pitching staff to face a rested #1 seed. 

The Favorite

With such high stakes, a lot could change in the fight for the most victories, but the early favorite is also the team that just swung the first-ever Champions League trade for future Hall of Famer Mike Trout, the Ancaster Royals. Trout joins Aaron Judge, Sal Perez and Jose Ramirez to create a power alley that other teams will be hard to match. The Royals should be one of the league leaders in overall pitching as well. 

Ancaster’s depth could be a tough first round match-up for the #2 seed come playoff-time.

The Contenders

Three teams will enter the season with hopes of taking down the favorite: 

• Fellow Aaron Division rival Space City Cowboys
• DiMaggio Division favorites San Francisco Lightsabers and Tuscany Vespas. 

Each of these teams look like strong contenders for the play-in tourney and each is capable of knocking off Ancaster. SF and Tuscany are eerily similar teams with high on-base offensives, strong bullpens and hopefully enough starters to stay in the race for #1. Both teams tend to be active traders, so both could be looking to wheel and deal near the trade deadline if #1 is in sight. Space City will play the most games head-to-head with Ancaster and thus, the biggest chance to upset. 

The SF v. Tuscany duel looks to be an interesting one. Expect a lot of netplay. These managers co-manage a team in the 150-man roster league USBL, and are rivals in another Winter League, so it’s a happy outcome for the first season that they will battle for DiMaggio supremacy. To say they are familiar with each other is an understatement. But still it’s a bit of a surprise that their teams are such mirror images of each other as neither manager discussed strategy headed into the Franchise Draft. Pick after pick they seemingly battled for the same type of players. Now we’ll see who comes out on top. 

The Wild Cards

The Wausau Barrelmen and Norfolk Tides look like contenders for the Play-In Tournament and a chance to upset their way to promotion victory. Unlike the Lightsabers and Vespas, these two teams are less likely to sell out on trades that could hamper development. But they will be in the mix. 

The Premier Label Is Well Earned

The upper conference is truly that, where many elite teams will battle all season long for the six playoff spots and a chance at the Champions League Cup. It makes sense that the division named after GOAT Willie Mays is a division that could end up with all six teams over .500. It’s that tough.

The Favorites

Cannon’s Cowboys are all in for season one and the early predictions suggest not in vain, with the team clearly capable of winning 100 games despite the tough division competition. The Cowboys have a bit of the NY Yankees vibe with a lot of all-or-nothing swing from the heels power throughout the lineup. Bellagio can also bash and mash with the Cannon’s all season long. Merrimack has plenty of power but perhaps the best offense with higher potential avg. and onbase. 

In the Williams division, Shoreline seems like the most consistent team top to bottom and the early favorite, especially with GM John M’s proven willingness to push the chips into the table when holding a potential winning hand. 

The Contenders 

There are many, which bodes well for stiff competition, potential deadline maneuvers and a high focus on the in-game strategy to get the most of each team’s lineup. 

Ohio and Mega City on paper look a notch below the favorites but certainly competitive to grab a playoff spot. Both will not be shy in dealing to improve the rosters. Bellagio is neck and neck and would be my favorite to have done most deals before the deadline.

Likewise, Arizona is the most capable of giving Shoreline a run for the division title and grabbing a playoff spot if it comes up short. 

The Wild Cards

No team is a greater experiment than the Wheeling Screamers. who have made defense the absolute coin of the realm with 1s across the IF and at least 2 or 3 stellar defensive CFers. With groundball maestro Logan Webb as the ace, Wheeling will prove if pitching and defense can in enough games to get into the playoffs. In an early trade the Screamers addressed its biggest concern with Jorge Soler who joins 1b Christian Walker as the primary power threats. 

Hebron is also firmly in the mix with for what could end up being a 2-3 team battle for the final sixth playoff spot.

The Trekkers were also in the mix but early deals of Soler, Montgomery and Martin signify the first Premier team to look ahead to 2025 and try to avoid relegation while doing it. Hawaii and Northwest will make similar calculations. By mid-season one or both could deal to join the race to the playoffs.

It seems pretty likely that Charlotte will have the most ping pong balls for the Paul Skenes Lottery come years end.

So, recognizing we haven’t played a game and there will be many more moves to be made, here’s our way-too-early predictions: 

Predictions

Premier:

#1- Merrimack in a close one over Cannon’s

#2- Shoreline

#3-6- Bellagio, Ohio, Arizona — I think Wheeling will sneak by someone… hard to says who, so I’ll go with Mega City misses due to the tough inter-divisional play. (Admittedly I just want to see how Wheeling’s defense holds up in a playoff series).

National: 

#1- Ancaster

#2-5- SF, Tuscany, Space City, Wassau

One month until opening day!