You know which team has suffered the most in the history of baseball? The Cubs. But do you know who's suffered nearly as much? The Montreal Expos, a franchise marred by futility and labor unrest.
Over their 36 year history, the made the playoffs the playoffs only once. Due to a players strike, the Expos snuck into the postseason despite have a worse year-long record than the Cardinals. And then in 1994, the Montreal Expos were cruising to the best record in the league and a shot at the World Series before another strike cancelled the end of the season. A few years later, they were purchased by Jeffrey Loria, a punishment worse than death. By 2005, the team had left town and moved to the DC area.
All that suffering is why Major League Baseball is proud to announce the expansion of the league, welcoming back the Montreal Expos (now owned by actor William Shatner) and introducing the Memphis Cougars. These two teams will be filled out by independent league players around the country. However, there will be a prospect draft help tomorrow evening to help bulk up the farm systems of these two franchises.
Today is the prospect expansion draft, and the young GM's Colton Bartlett and Robert Tomlinson are ready to build their teams futures. Each of the other thirty organizations were allowed to protect three of their most valuable minor leaguers, leaving the rest to be fair game. Once a player is selected, no other prospects from that organization are eligible to be selected. And it looks like the Expos are on the clock.
And we seemed to have finally wrapped up here. Let's take a look at who each team has selected.
Expos: Javier Baez (SS-CHC), Brandon Nimmo (OF-NYM), Henry Owens (SP-BOS), Reese McGuire (C-PIT), Daniel Robertson (3B-OAK), Zach Lee (SP-LAD), Matt Wisler (SP-SD), Carson Kelly (C-STL), Andrew Toles (OF-TB), Orlando Arcia (SS-MIL), Aaron Blair (SP-ARI), Ji-Man Choi (1B-SEA), Andrew Heaney (SP-MIA), Quintin Berry (OF-BAL), and Mitch Nay (3B-TOR)
Cougars: Jonathan Gray (SP-COL), Domingo Santana (OF-HOU), Edwin Escobar (SP-SF), John Ryan Murphy (C-NYY), Luke Jackson (SP-TEX), Carlos Sanchez (SS-CHW), Alex Meyer (SP-MIN), Jesus Aguilar (1B-CLE), Michael Taylor (OF-WSH), Robbie Ray (SP-DET), Tommy La Stella (2B-ATL), Ken Giles (CL-PHI), C.J. Cron (1B-LAA), Cheslor Cuthbert (3B-KC), and Kyle Waldrop (OF-CIN)
To accommodate these new franchise, which bring our total us to 32, we are switching the format to a unique, original, never-been-used-before formula. The league will have of eight divisions consisting of four teams each. The division winners plus two wild cards will move on into the playoffs. While the wildcard round was originally a one game playoff, it'll now be a three game series between the 3-6 seeds and the 4-5 seeds in each league. It's a revolutionary idea (and totally not a rip-off of the NFL). The divisions will be a followed
AL East: Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles
AL North: White Sox, Twins, Tigers, Indians
AL South: Rangers, Rays, Royals, Cougars
AL West: Angels, Athletics, Mariners, Rockies
NL East: Phillies, Mets, Pirates, Expos
NL North: Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, Reds
NL South: Astros, Marlins, Nationals, Braves
NL West: Diamondbacks, Padres, Dodgers, Giants
tl;dr Expos are back. Shit has changed
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I like this. 
