Sin City Combo
Best Case: Fastest rising team on the circuit continues to improve, becomes even more consistent and repeats as top dog in the West. They realize how close they are to winning tournaments on a routine basis and cap an awesome season with a title run in October.
Worst Case: The stress of running BBall tourney, Nevada Games, and the team, spreads 2010 WC Manager of the Year Noel Roberts so thin he can’t focus all energy toward the team. The team fractures without his leadership. They still crack the top 5 but fall short of expectations. Tim Poncy gets audited by the IRS for not claiming his fantasy football winnings on his tax returns.

SoCal Alliance
Best Case: The team collectively decides to give complete 100% focus toward preparing for EVERY tournament and playing like they have something to prove rather than something to defend. They treat every game like it’s the most important game of their softball career. They come out of the gates like a dragster and never let off the gas en-route to becoming the first 3 time WS Champions.
Worst Case: Younger players struggle to get weekends off. Team uses that as an excuse to let off the gas during the “regular season” and adopt a L.A. Lakers “only the playoffs matter” mentality. The ho-hum approach toward the tourneys leading up to the World Series creates a negative vibe and the result is a disappointing October. Nate Baez and Danny Wells resign their positions as police officers to become highly paid security advisors for Death Row records.

California Quake
Best Case: Veteran squad stays healthy and the team collectively stays dedicated and focused on making a run at the WS title once again. They fill in whatever defensive holes they need to and let the offense continue to dominate en route to their 2nd World Series championship.
Worst Case: Key players come up gimp and they don’t have the depth to fill those positions defensively. They maintain status quo as far as overall performance. Ronnie Connor squeezes into a pair of softball pants that are so tight they cut off circulation in his legs and he has to have both his big toes amputated.

HardCor
Best Case: Someone, anyone steps into a true leadership role on the team and they rally around that person. Finances, uniforms, schedule is predetermined and all players buy into the new regime. Returning players bring not just talent, but also stability. This allows the team to consistently play up to their abilities and they win their 2nd WS title.
Worst Case: Leadership continues to be in limbo. Finances start out fine but wane as the season progresses. Players lose interest and they never had a full squad. They have enough talent to win most of the time but overall season performance is well below expectations. Mark Tolliver gives up his pre-game ritual of chocolate milk and donuts, begins to exercise regularly, hires a personal trainer and he becomes captain of Team Chippendales for the 2011 WS Over- the- Line team. Unfortunately his body revolts and he hits .200 in the World Series and can’t throw a strike to save his life.

LAPD Blue
Best Case: This ultra talented team re-establishes enthusiasm for the game as they branch out of their normal tourney schedule and head up north or somewhere back east as they did years ago. The addition of travel tourneys causes both veteran and newer players alike to dedicate themselves to the Blue wave en route to their first WS title.
Worst Case: Team gets stuck in a rut. Talent alone will propel them to be a top level team but without the passion they tread water in 2011. Ryan Bengston decides to take his talents to SoCal as he accepts a lucrative offer from the Alliance to become their official scorekeeper. Ryan explains to his father Rich that the move was strictly business.

DEA Combo
Best Case: This integrated squad of veterans and youngsters gels completely and they post dominating tourney victories throughout the year. The addition of a fourth wise man (Keith Benjamin) to the three others (Gomez, Ornelas and Jones) is just what the team needs to win their first World title.
Worst Case: The opposite occurs and there is a obvious division between the vets and young guns. They still have a decent season but never put it all together due to lack of chemistry. Keith Benjamin gets drunk and passes out at a team party. Dave Ayala convinces Robert Mason and Mike McMorrow to shave off Benjamin’s lucky moustache that he had been cultivating since he was a porn star back in the 70’s.

West Coast Aftershock
Best Case: They finally settle into a consistent line-up and become a team. They think like a team, play like a team and win like a team. The team rallies around team leader Jim Lemmon and they have their best year ever.
Worst Case: The loss of the HardCor trio cripples the team and they end up with a revolving door roster all year. They will still be talented enough to post solid results but ultimately they tread water rather than move ahead. Quintin Lewis lets superstardom go to his head as begins to speak of himself in the 3rd person and demands that he be transported via helicopter from the hotel to the fields. Lemmon cannot meet his demands so Lewis bolts and signs with Jason Rayburn’s new fully sponsored top shelf team.

Direct Impact
Best Case: They figure out how to play at a high level consistently and they crack the top 5. They begin to win BIG tourneys and record their best season ever.
Worst Case: Instead of building on their banner 2010 season they take a step back. They end up dropping round robin games and falling into the B-flight or exit early in double elimination playoffs. Instead of a top 5 finish they land somewhere in the teens. Shockingly Frank Rivera joins the Jason Hart Fan Club (JHFC) and abandons the team in order to cheer for Hart and the HCor baby blue.

Concord Police Softball
Best Case: The State Razed/Concord merge goes together better than peanut butter & jelly. They quickly emerge as one of the nation’s top teams. Concord has been an offensive based team and adding 4 legit sluggers to the line-up make them more dangerous than ever before. Defensively they are more solid and they find stability in the pitching position.
Worst Case: The merger creates 2 factions on the team. The loss of Joe Mestres on the hill creates a revolving door at pitcher and they score 30 runs per game but give up 31. Chris Meat Oliver’s doppelganger Chris Meet Oliver fails miserably in the #4 hole and Meet dejectedly seeks out his long lost triplet, Ollie for support LMFAOLMO.

NorCal Chior Boys
Best Case: Steve Buccelato provides the spark this team needed to get to the next level. Butcher brings his fiery personality and bulldog determination to the pitching position and takes the burden off the defense. Offensively the team settles down, learns to conserve home runs and score 20+ every game. They give manager Steve Merchant the gift of recording their best ever season as he steps away from the game.
Worst Case: Team plays well but don’t win any big tourneys and linger outside the top 10 most of the year. Butcher and Merchant get into a fistfight…every tourney. King Moltzen is eventually assigned to be the referee and ensure no foreign objects are used in the battles.

San Diego Excessive Force
Best Case: These sluggers put together their most consistent season. Offense has always been one of the nation’s best, and their offensive assault is relentless in 2011. They channel their super talented team to focus for an entire tourney, every tourney they crack the top 5
Worst Case: Inconsistency has plagued them and it strikes them again like a bad case of herpes. Defense has more holes than Swiss cheese. Although they post another solid year, it isn’t the caliber performance they are capable of. To complicate things, San Diego PD Internal Affairs gets involved and mandates the team change their name to San Diego “Objectively Reasonable Force.”

SouthWest Elite
Best Case: They continue playing in most of the major tourneys and build on the past 3 years in which they improved every year. They win a couple tourneys along the way and have their best season to date.
Worst Case: The loss of Saul Enriquez and Robby Rosas has a bigger impact than they hoped and the team takes a step in the wrong direction. Manager Big Ed Leal folds the team and refocuses his efforts on managing “Los Maniacos” to the AAA Tijuana Lucha Libre Federation tag team championship.

State Razed
Best Case: See Worst Case
Worst Case: It already happened

Stanislaus
Best Case: They have always done an outstanding job finding top talented players and they do that once again this year. Instead of rebuilding, they become “built” and they join their rightful spot in the top 10 or better.
Worst Case: HardCor takes their top players again and they fall into the permanently rebuilding vortex. Mick Hardenbrook gets elected to be the Sheriff of Stanislaus County. He orders all his deputy’s to work weekends in order to combat the rash of tractor thefts so the players can’t get time off approved.

Red Republic/Worth
Best Case: The team that was once known as Riverside Red plays with pride and inspiration. They ascend the rankings to match their best ever recorded finish, 5th place in 2006. Team leaders Jeff Phipps and Rob Roggeveen keep the team motivated all year and they recapture that Red Magic.
Worst Case: They underachieve at the beginning of the season and it breaks their spirits. Then they find out first hand that Easton produces a superior bat than Worth but they remain trapped under the 1 year contract they inked.

Team Texas
Best Case: They get to at least 4 big tourneys. Their stacked roster that Kevin Schoch assembles lives up to expectations and they repeat their outstanding 2009 World Series performance.
Worst Case: The players who splintered off form an equally competitive team and nab some of the talent that would normally end up on Team Texas. They get beat by the San Antonio Law Softball in the Texas games again. PSteff goes on the D.L. when he is struck in the chest by a ball while pitching. The injury is more serious than expected because it knocks his nipple ring off and requires nipple reconstructive surgery.

SoCal Lockdown
Best Case: After finishing 2010 with a dominant performance in the WS Gold Division they step to the next level and become a highly competitive platinum team. Players stay loyal to the organization and they live up to their seemingly unlimited potential.
Worst Case: At the World Series, The Big League Dreams bar extends happy hour until 9pm…unfortunately they have a rematch vs. Blue Grass Lawmen at 915pm…you know the rest.

West Coast Syndicate
Best Case: They play with that same vigor they did in Lincoln last season. They have the confidence knowing they can not only compete with the big dogs, they can beat them! They crack the top 10 for the first time.
Worst Case: They settle on being a good team, not a great team. They don’t aspire to crack the top 10 and they float around in the mid-high teens in the rankings all year. They realize that Combat is an inferior product and wish they had Easton bats…wait that already happened.

DVI Gladiators
Best Case: They maintain the wolverine mindset they have had in past years. They might be a small market team, but they have never hesitated to jump into the fray against the big dogs. They continue to seek out the big tourneys and continue to take down much bigger opponents just as they did against Concord and some of the other heavyweights last season. Perhaps Mark Jackson gets back into the mix and brings some of his championship veteran leadership to the team and they rally around him. They win the Gold division World Series in 2011. YES, they have that much potential so don’t underestimate them.
Worst Case: Finances, working conditions at CDC and general apathy keep the team close to home all year and they don’t get the exposure they deserve. Pro Rasslin’ TNA owner Eric Bischoff hires Carlos Wilson (cut off sleeves and bandanna at all times) to be Hulk Hogan’s stunt double and take chair shots to the head for the Hulkster. Wilson suffers a concussion and goes on the DL for the season.

Vegas Heat
Best Case: After an impressive showing in the World Series the team gets motivated to get out and about more in the circuit. They travel to California a few times and post some impressive tourney finishes enroute to their best season since 2005 when the cracked the West top 10. They showed they have that capability at the WS just a few short months ago.
Worst Case: They play in exactly three tourneys all year and all 3 are in Vegas. Although they play well they get “part-time” team status and struggle to crack the top 25. Their official team spokesperson 421a continues to post messages like this on the message board: DID u REeD the PRIVAT E-MAIL THaT I DID SEND u THIS ‘MORN' ??? JUST sooo, u : do KNOW, I WAS ASKED 2 CALL my FRIENDs @ A.S., K.S., etc & GET the BESTs DEA.

Nitro2Go
Best Case: Lyle Reyes rebuilds the team into being a legitimate heavyweight contender once again. It was only 3 years ago when Nitro went on an epic World Series run and ended up being only one of 12 teams out of 54 standing tall on Sunday morning. The Inland Empire is LOADED with talent and there are plenty of top caliber ball players that do not have a team. Best case scenario is Lyle finds those players and takes Nitro back to their glory days.
Worst Case: The loss of key players to HardCor, Outlaws and other teams become too much to overcome. The team struggles to get 10 players from tourney to tourney. Viagra buys the secret recipe to Palo-Max which forces Nitro2Go to scale back their budget. The team loses its sponsorship, but do get a nice severance package…lifetime supply of Palo-Max. Lyle hoards all the product and becomes an adult film star.

Team Vargas
Best Case: This team has a ton of upside, and in 2011 they begin to exceed even their own expectations. They were very active in 2010 and become even more active in 2011. They regularly finish inside the top 5 in every tourney they play in and the young squad gains more confidence every time they step on the field.
Worst Case: They get key players sniped off by more established teams and they find themselves plugging holes. The United States Government finally decides to move forward on immigration reform. The first step is to shore up enforcement at the border. Unfortunately the government decides that the US/Mexican border is a lost cause so they focus on the other border. Team leader Dave Rodriguez gets transferred to Anchorage Alaska in an effort to keep those pesky Canadian’s from illegally crossing into Alaska.

SoCal Riot
Best Case: Remember what they did at the DEA Kickoff last year? Remember how everyone thought they were going to perform like that at every tournament? Well they have the same performance to kick off this year AND they maintain that high level of play all season long. Come October they find themselves dancing on the mound in Las Vegas as the Gold Division champions.
Worst Case: Their Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde performance in 2010 repeats in 2011. Instead of building on last year they take a step backward. The new Chino State Prison Warden is a bleeding heart liberal from the Bay Area. He makes team manager Henry Ornelas change their name to SoCal Unrest.

SoCal Dawgs:
Best Case: This is the same team that defeated the defending WS Champs, HardCor last year in Riverside. This is the same team that earned their way into the WS Gold Division. In 2011 they field that same team that showed they have the ability to play with the heavyweights and win. Except in 2011 they play up to that ability every tourney, not just once in a while. They expand their horizons and leave the SoCal/Vegas bubble at least once.
Worst Case: They focus on playing in the small market circuit and duck all the big events such as Vegas Bball, Hanford, Lincoln, Riverside etc. They make it to the championship game in the WS Gold division and need only a SAC FLY to win the game. Unfortunately they forgot to call their leading Sac Fly guy, Mark “Warning Track” Black with the game times so he is stuck back at the hotel. The next batter grounds out and the team loses in extra innings.

West Coast Police Softball Combo
Best Case: The Rayburn/Spalding juggernaut explodes onto the circuit just like Aftershock did a few years back. The players gel together well and thrive under the Rayburn/Spalding leadership union. They become a fixture in the A-flight and become an automatic heavyweight contender.
Worst Case: The team has some early season heartbreaking losses and even the deep pockets of the sponsors cant keep the team from struggling to put their best line-up on the field. Rayburn refocuses the team toward the GunsNHoses events and they are eventually banned by Rayburn's GnH partner Greg Martin for sandbagging.

Quit Resisting:
Best Case: See State Razed
Worst Case: See State Razed

PHOTO: Sin City's Keith Habig is one of the west's top pitchers and he was named to the 2008 All Star team