NL North S12

Philly Phanatics (83-79 in S11, 1st in the division)
The tenth season in a row that this franchise has run a $100M+ payroll, international scouts have stopped sending their resumes to Philadelphia, as they know it's a waste of money and paper and time at this point.  The front office has fired more and more high school and college scouts over the years.  Word on the street is that the high school scouting department is simply the owner's son, who sits in the mail room and reads Junior Baseball.  The team's only "big" free agent signing was Vic Mota, who should see a fair amount of time at catcher this season, splitting time with Kaufman.  Trading away Santiago Johnson hurts their firepower a little bit, but the primary goal of the trade he was involved in was to ditch some salary, as Philly dropped nearly $20M in salary, while only bringing back in about $8M.  Crawford, Seneca, Blackley, and Treadway are still the team's leaders, with Matthews hoping to lend some help this season.  The question is whether this addition-by-subtraction plan will work for the franchise. 
Batting: C+
Pitching: C+
Fielding: C
Prediction: 78-84, 3rd in division

Iowa City Corn-ish Hens (80-82 in S11, 3rd in Division, no WC)
Back and forth, back and forth, this squad has alternated from 3rd to 1st to 3rd to 1st to 3rd over the last five seasons.  So they should win the division this season, right?  Signing Alfredo Mendoza was a good start, and at a bargain price of $6.25M each of the next four seasons, that ain't too bad.  Meanwhile, the Hens were on the other side of that trade with Philly that netted them Santiago Johnson, Al Navarro, and Dixie Logan.  They took on a bunch of salary, but got some really solid players.  Their other big deal saw them bring Julian Mendez in to play 2B.  On top of that, they still have Suh, Howry, and Bong.  I might have just talked myself into picking them for their bi-annual division win.
Batting: B-
Pitching: B-
Fielding: A-
Prediction: 88-74, 1st in the division

Helena Homies (80-82 in S11, 2nd in the division, no WC)
Hey andersaa, your team is running on AI right now.  After chadtv posted a 243-405 record in four seasons with this franchise, andersaa has since thrown up a 235-251 record in three seasons, which ain't too shabby when you look at what he had to work with.  Running around $75M in payroll, he's not pussy-footing and throwing around lines like "I'm gonna rebuild from the ground up," which we all know is code for "I'm gonna trade away everyone making more than the minimum, so my team will suck, and I'm gonna tank the shit out of this squad all the way to the first overall pick."  And what's he using that cash on?  Slugger Art Walker was a Type B they signed this offseason.  Chris Matthews isn't getting any younger, but he's a bargain at $10.4M over two seasons, and he'll still get the team 175 quality innings this season before probably going to the bullpen in S13.  One of the biggest trades this season brought Dan Hernandez, Dizzy Allen, and Omar Valdez to Helena.  Allen is a 40-40 guy who OPS's at 1.000+ and is a 4-time MVP who is a sure thing for the HOF.  I wish he was still in the AL. 
Batting: A-
Pitching: B
Fielding: C+
Prediction: 84-78, 2nd in division

Cincinnati Red Thumpers: (76-86 in S11, 4th in the division)
The lowest payroll in the division at about $47M as this is written, the squad actually has $79M allocated to salaries, so maybe they will try to make a play for a big trade as the season moves along.  Or $30M will get moved into the prospect pile.  Considering the allocations are exactly the same as last season, me thinks statman527 missed budgeting day.  Despite the money available to signing players, Cincy chose to stay out of the FA market and made no trades, meaning the team is coming into S12 with basically the same roster as last season.  When everyone else in your division makes major changes, and you don't, and you finished in last place the season before....that doesn't bode well.  Benny Lewis makes his ML debut this season, and the rest of the roster is full of young guns (only two guys on the ML roster are 30 or older), so the future looks bright.  But S12, not so much.
Batting: C-
Pitching: C
Fielding: B
Prediction: 75-87, 4th in the division