I went into the draft telling myself I am going to draft to win now but my old tendencies took over and I drafted a lot of young talent.  Probably eyeing the 2026 season to start making moves towards the Premier League as much of the young talent gets hurt in the real life 2024 season (Arroyo, Bieber, Carpenter, Carter, Jung and McLain)

The Palookas went up the middle with their 1st 3 picks to nab Rutschman, Abrams and McLain to hopefully build a sustained run in the future.  The Carter and Carpenter outfield has a lot of potential to be a cornerstone of the franchise.  They will be looking for starting pitching in the next couple of drafts to help out their young position players (hopefully) entering their prime.  In a haste to get reliever innings, the Palookas will feature an all right handed bullpen.

2024 Oolitic Palookas Preview

The lineup looks like this by position:

C – Rutschman .277-23-92

1B – Meneses .275-15-102

2B – McLain .290-18-58

3B – Jung .266-26-81

SS – Abrams .245-21-74

LF vs LH O’Niell .231-10-24

LF vs RH Carpenter .278-23-74

CF – De La Cruz .257-22-90

RF – T. Hernandez .258-30-107

DH vs LH Wisdom .205-26-53

DH vs RH Yoshida .289-17-83

U – E. Hernandez .237-12-71

The Rotation:

SP – Irvin 3-8, 4.61, 138 ip

SP – Sears 6-16, 4.54, 198 ip

SP – Gibson 17-10, 4.73, 220 ip

SP – Bieber 7-7, 3.80, 147 ip

SP – Ashcraft 8-10, 4.76, 168 ip

SP – Taillon 9-11, 4.84, 177 ip

SP – France 12-7, 3.83, 155 ip

Bullpen:

Long – Lively 5-8, 5.38

Set-up – Wilson 7-0, 2.58

Closer – Estevez 6-6, 3.90

Long – Brito 10-8, 4.28

Long – Curry 3-5, 4.07

Reverse Righty – Jackson 3-1, 2.12

Long – Stripling 0-6, 5.36

Set-up – Jarvis 2-1, 3.04