TCBA Today Expansion Plan

September 1997

Don Mahley, Blake Sibley, Mike Kane and Tom Hannon were originally chosen as the managers to pilot the new expansion teams which become fully operational in 1999. The managers were electronically introduced to existing league members and invited to attend the TCBA winter meeting the weekend of February 5-8, 1998 in Lancaster, PA.

January 17, 1998

When two franchises became available for the 1998 season, Kane and Hannon were pressed into service a year early to take over existing teams. Named to replace them as expansion managers were Rich Hawkins and Ken Sajdak. Later, Blake Sibley stepped aside due to lack of time and was replaced by Walt MacEachern.

January 31, 1998

Each of the four managers was given an amount of money equal to the league average, and participated in the rookie auction at the TCBA winter meeting. The expansion franchises drafted Jose Cruz, Jr., Jaret Wright, Livan Hernandez and other prospects. Each of the four teams also selected players in the free agent draft, being allocated two choices in each round. These players formed the beginning of the expansion teams' permanent rosters.

Spring to Autumn 1998

The four expansion teams selected 28 players to form a "practice team" in a draft from five major league rosters, in order to play among themselves with the practice teams. The results of this practice schedule will determine order of selection in the 1999 Free Agent draft.

June 1998

The four new teams each selected 15 permanent members of their roster from the rosters of the existing franchises in an expansion draft. Each existing team protected 12 players, after which one was selected by an expansion team. The existing team was able to protect four more players, after which another player was selected. The existing team then protected four more players, after which zero, one or two more players were selected, up to a maximum loss of four players per existing team.

The first picks of each team in the expansion draft were Brian Anderson (just like real life!), Carlos Hernandez, Cal Ripken (!), and Greg Jefferies. Woebegone picked up Anderson, Jose Vizcaino, Todd Hundley, and Fred McGriff; Spring City landed Hernandez, Joey Hamilton, Jeff King and Jeff Conine; Rhode Island drafted Ripken, Brian McRae, Charles Nagy and Arthur Rhodes, and Charleston added Greg Vaughn (the outstanding pick in the draft!), Mike Jackson, Darryl Strawberry and Tony Saunders.

January 1999

Each of the four expansion managers, using his team's current cash balance, may participate in the rookie auction at the TCBA winter meeting. Each of the four teams will also participate in the free agent draft, being allocated two selections (the eleventh through eighteenth choices) in each round. Rookies and free agents thus selected complete the expansion teams' permanent rosters.

March 1999

Expansion teams become full participants in TCBA Today and begin league play.

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