Hometown Teams 2014 All-Star Break, Seeds 3-6

I'll admit, I haven't had time to simulate the first round games on my PS3 yet, but since the first two games in round two can technically be going on at the same time, I'll jump right into talking about those matchups. For those of you who need a refresher, these include the 3rd seed Dominican Republic taking on the 6th seed Northeast US, and the 4th ranked Southeast US taking on the 5th place International/Team World/All the Other Countries.

As was the case in the most recent World Baseball Classic, the Dominican Republic is the team to beat, in my opinion. Not only is the lineup stacked from top to bottom (I won't go position by position because most of the names on the below list should be recognizable enough), but they have amazing depth. If Edwin Encarnacion looks like he's going to miss significant time, David Ortiz can fill the DH slot better than most. Need left-handed power off the bench? They've got Pedro Alvarez and switch hitter Melky Cabrera. What if Hanley Ramirez needs a late-inning defensive replacement? Call on Jose Reyes, Starlin Castro, or Erick Aybar. Don't think Carlos Santana can handle a full workload behind the plate? Wilin Rosario's not a wizard with the glove by any means, but he is a full-time backstop. Even the starting pitching, which has traditionally been a weakness for this country, has developed into a strength, mostly thanks to the emergence of Alfredo Simon to slot in behind bona fide ace Johnny Cueto. But there is depth here too, with Edinson Volquez and Yordano Ventura waiting in the wings if anything happens to their top 5. I also didn't place any left handed relievers on the roster, preferring to focus on the working closers (two of whom are among the best in the game), but Antonio Bastardo and Fernando Abad are available for those tough lefty batters.

Looking at both the teams in the Eastern time zone (as you will have done if you read to the end of this post), you'll see a clear divide between offense and pitching. I won't tell you which is which here, but I'll give you a hint: any team that can trot out Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt and Todd Frazier 2-3-4 in the lineup is going to vex many an opposing pitcher. Following that trifecta is legitimate future star candidate George Springer and breakout catcher Devin Mesoraco, plus since this isn't just a fantasy team, Jason Heyward's plus defense actually means something, as does Derek Jeter's clubhouse presence (although depending on your opinion of him, that could be a positive or a negative). It's not that this team doesn't have good pitchers, but their top guys are middle of the rotation types on their actual teams (although Rick Porcello could potentially be an ace on a non-historically-great rotation and Jeff Samardzija was once the ace of the almost-historically-bad Cubs earlier this year). What this team lacks, compared to the Dominicans, is depth of star power, and I honestly don't see them advancing to the next round.

This next matchup is where things get interesting, mostly because of a slightly controversial decision I made with regards to dividing the territories. If you look at a map of the Eastern US, you'll see that while Kentucky and Tennessee are both clearly in the south, they're also divided halfway between the Central and Eastern time zones. To make a long story short, I gave both of those states (totaling 35 players between them) to the Southeast team, which gave them access to two of the best pitchers in the game right now: David Price and Sonny Gray. The main reason I made this tough decision was to even out the number of players available to each territory: without the 35 guys from TN/KY, the Central team would have 140 players to choose from while the Southeast would have just 97. Plus, even without Price and Gray, the Central is still the second seed team, so they clearly don't need any help. And it's not like any player would supplant Adam Wainwright from the SP1 role anyway, so we're really just talking about the middle of the rotation here... plus a useful bullpen piece and another shortstop option in case Chris Owings stays injured for any amount of time. We'll see how things go in the simulation, but I think this team's offense is weak enough that it might not matter one way or another.

This should come as no surprise based on the influx of Cuban stars, but no country dominates this international team more than the land famous for Castro and cigars. Jose Abreu might win Rookie of the Year (despite his long track record of playing professional baseball) and we've all seen the impressive talents of Yasiel Puig and Yoenis Cespedes (although I predict a significant downturn for the latter following his trade to the Red Sox, and not just because I'm an A's fan... or rather exactly because I'm an A's fan). Then there are All-Stars Alexei Ramirez (who I moved to 2B for the first time since his rookie year in 2008 to make room for a better defensive shortstop) and closer Aroldis Chapman who has returned admirably after taking a line drive to the face in Spring Training. And the Cuban contingent would be even stronger if Jose Fernandez didn't succumb to the Tommy John bug early in the season (he was averaging 86.3 points per game at the time of his injury). Japan has a very strong presence on the pitching side, even without Masahiro Tanaka, who is very likely done for the year as well (which is why I included a sixth pitcher on the depth chart, who is no slouch himself). I put Yan Gomes behind the plate over Yadier Molina not only because Yadi is injured and having a worse season offensively, but also because I wanted to give a shout out to the first ever Brazilian born player in MLB history. Speaking of injuries, if Brett Lawrie isn't healthy enough to play, future star Xander Bogaerts can fill in just fine.

I'll run the simulations on these matchups before analyzing the final two teams, so get ready for some fake recaps, coming up next time!