#TBT The Hot Corner's First Article

Landmark League Sets Forth on Path to New “Fantasy” Level

New Professional Fantasy Baseball League to Have Inaugural Draft Tonight

CHICAGO – After months of meetings and long nights going over by-laws, a new, professional fantasy baseball league is looking to set sail on its inaugural season when the St. Louis Cardinals will face the Pittsburgh Pirates (1pm/12pm ET/CT on ESPN) on Sunday, April 3rd. The new 24-team league awarded franchises to 26 total owners for an undisclosed inauguration fee.

Being the first league of its kind, there will need to be some flexibility among league owners for the first year or so as a smoothing out process may be expected. “Obviously we want to get going right out of the gate but breaking new ground always has its challenges”, said PFBL’s Commissioner and owner of the Colorado Rockies Samuel Jordt. “It’s an exciting thing, just like every spring training, there’s that energy of having a clean slate and endless possibilities for anyone and everyone.”

With the league infrastructure basically set up, it is now time for the owners to get involved to draft their teams. Many owners have already mock drafted through the night, like the Boston Red Sox front office headed up by owner Edgar Nunez. “Well, you can never be too ready. It’s a long draft and building your franchise starts now so we want to be at the forefront shaping what we know we need to win”, said Nunez, the League’s only Latino owner.

The Professional Fantasy Baseball League will also be trying out a new selection process that is referred to as a “slow draft”. “Due to the length and complexity of this draft, and of life outside of baseball, we will be implementing a 12-hour clock per pick which can be used for setting up drafting picks or just running through scouting reports on last time”, said Jordt of the 2016 PFBL Draft (8pm/7pm ET/CT). “With the amount of owners you never fully know what can happen, the only [certain] thing I can see tonight is Mark Prior’s name being yelled out at some point.”

As the time ticks down to the first selection overall, held by the Seattle Mariners, the energy around the league continues to grow. There is a lot of promise ahead for this inaugural journey, and after this week a new league could be well on its way to the top.