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Franchise Power Points: 30
Cumulative Record: 537-597
Playoff Achievements: Division Title (S1, S2 & S3)
Best Season Record: Season 1 (100-62)
Worst Season Record: Season 7 (24-138)
Franchise History- Some may wonder how on Earth it is that the Cleveland Steamers landed this far up on GSPN’s Franchise Power Ranking list. When crunching the numbers, the writers at GSPN asked themselves the very same thing. Just last year, the Steamers posted the absolute worst showing in Glavine300 history…a pitiful 24-138. Recently, they have certainly lived up to their name…though the steaming pile they have left is not on their opponents but on the hearts of the children of the city of Cleveland. Those little fans who have had their highest hopes dashed and who probably cry themselves to sleep every night because their beloved baseball team is the laughing stock of the entire league. In every other household of every other baseball city in America, Canada and Puerto Rico…no matter how their team fares…fathers pat their sons on the head and say “At least we don’t live in Cleveland”. In order to see why this franchise has made it this far up on the list, we must look into the past…all the way back to Season 1. This team started as the original Trenton Toll Booths. Owned by bobkordecki (who now owns a team by the same name in the NL East) this team came out very strong. They won the AL North in Seasons 1, 2 & 3 posting 100-62, 95-67 and 87-75 records respectively. The team however, was never able to make it into the later rounds of the playoffs and seeing their record slowly decline; bobkordecki sold the team off and disappeared after Season 4. The team was bought by v0kal, who inherited a mess of overpaid, underperforming, aging veterans. He tried to make it work with what he had but was unable to put a winning team onto the field. Realizing that things were not working, he completely dismantled his team through trades, waiving and letting free agents walk away until there was no one left. He then proceeded to set every record in the book in Season 7 as the worst team in baseball history.
Franchise Outlook- The writers at GSPN have looked carefully at this anomaly of a team to find out exactly what happened and in v0kal’s defense, he certainly inherited a mess. Bobkordecki made quite a few signings in his first few years at the helm and many of them were bad. He then up and left the team…and left it a bit of a mess for someone else to clean up. (One can only hope, for the league’s sake, he does not repeat this with his new NL team.) Players were overpaid for their value and v0kal inherited several bad contracts. Put this together with some bad decisions he made on his own and he had quite a mess in Cleveland early on. It seems as though he has started to right the ship for the future of this franchise. He got rid of a couple of players that were all stars, but were a waste of money (and talent) on a team that wasn’t ready to compete yet. He got prospects out of those deals and has made some key moves to bring young guys into the fold. He scored big in the Rule 5 this year, grabbing J.P. Marichal with the first overall pick, he has also signed stud left fielder Jorge Velazquez and young pitcher Rigo Gonzalez in the International Market this year. Add this to the 1st and 12th overall picks in this year’s Amateur Draft and a smattering of young talent in the minors and it looks as though in the not too distant future, the Cleveland Steamers can expect to win many more than 24 games.
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