Beck	Kile	Larkin	Piazza	Veras	Walker

TEAM: Sleepers
OWNER: Joe Lee
ESTABLISHED: 1996 (Defunct)
CHAMPI0NSHIPS: 0
YEARLY FINISHES: 12, 9, 8, 11
MANAGER: Sleepy Bill Burns, infamous ringleader of the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
HISTORY: The Sleepers entered BLOBB in 1996 as an expansion team and immediately stocked their team with ex-American League players, jumping on nearly every new AL arrival. However, typical expansion blues and the trading away of Kevin Brown, Rod Beck, Bruce Ruffin, and Gary Gaetti doomed them to the cellar in their first year.

In 1997, the Sleepers tried the novel approach of going with 9 starting pitcher for most of the year. Of course they tied the league record low of 2 saves and due to the quality of their starters, also finished last in ERA and RAT. They did put together a strong hitting team however, with such standouts as Mike Piazza, Todd Zeile, surprising Mike Lieberthal, and Deion Sanders making things not so sleepy in Sleeperville and improving to ninth overall.

The Sleepers continued their gradual improvement in 1998 with an 8th place finish. A solid hitting club with exceptional speed and a solid bullpen, the Sleepers were derailed by dreadful starting pitching (despite the mid-season pickup of Randy Johnson), leading to last place finishes in ERA and RAT and an 11th place finish in wins. The Sleepers were a balanced team, getting solid contributions from the veteran brigade of Ken Caminiti, Devon White, Gary Gaetti, Barry Larkin, Brian McRae to go along with the stud bat of Mike Piazza.

After appearing to be headed in the right direction over the course of their history, the Sleepers tumbled back down to 11th place in 1999. There were however some highlights to the season. The Sleepers set a BLOBB record for highest team batting average in a season, put together a nice power core (Piazza, Ventura, Walker), and finished second in ratio, unheard of for them.

Following the 1999 season, the Sleepers folded.

BEST TRADE: Trading injured and out for the year catcher Mike Lieberthan to the Ticks for Fernando Tatis and Mike Redmond. Lieberthal never gets an AB for the Ticks while Tatis and Redmond combine for 234 AB, a .308 AVG with 9 homers, 32 RBIs, and 7 steals.

WORST TRADE: Although having a few clunkers from �96 to choose from, the hands down winner is the Kevin Brown and Gary Gaetti for Carlos Garcia, Rico Brogna, Kirk Reueter debacle which gave the title to the Pistols. Brown�s spectacular emergence could not have been forecasted anyone but the lack of return on this trade is what made it so stunning.

FRANCHISE MVP: Mike Piazza

CAREER LEADERS:

AB			H			HR			RBI
M. Piazza	1626	M. Piazza	544	M. Piazza	111	M. Piazza	356
B. Larkin	1099	L. Johnson	353	T. Zeile	44	T. Zeile	156
L. Johnson	1092	B. Larkin	331	L. Walker	37	D. White	153		
D. White	1037	D. White	284	D. White	36	B. Larkin	141
T. Zeile	967	T. Zeile	262	R. Ventura	32	M. Lieberthal	123			

SB			AVG			IP			W
T. Womack	74	L. Walker	.379	D. Kile	        653.3	Ri. Reed	40
L. Johnson	70	M. Piazza	.335	Ri. Reed	552	D. Kile	        39
B. Larkin	56	M. Grissom	.332	R. Johnson	349	R. Johnson	26
D. White	41	J. Conine	.326	L. Hernandez	234.3	
D. Sanders	41	2 tied with	.323	F. Castillo	184.3	3 tied with	12		

SV			RAT			ERA
R. Beck	        79	R. Johnson	1.01	K. Brown	2.07
B. Ruffin	8	K Brown	        1.08	R. Johnson	2.19
R. Aguilera	8	Ri. Reed	1.18	T. Glavine	2.67
K. Bottenfield	4	J. Silva	1.19	Ri. Reed	3.64
Te. Mathews	4	D. Neagle	1.21	2 tied with 	3.89