Chiming in late, and not an ATG player (just subscribed for my first league this weekend) but anyway, a few comments...
Here all we get is a few good players that already have better cards on here and a bunch of players that will only be used at lower caps. No good starters are coming out of these teams.
I chose this quote, but I could have quoted others saying that Garcia should concentrate on adding "useful players" à la Barfield 1986.
In my opinion, there are different ways to be attracted to SOM, and choosing among a set of 4500+ players is not the only one, and I'm certainly not more attracted to a set with 4501+ players plus Barfield (no disrespect to Barfield).
Personally, my motivation to begin with a first chip in ATG is either the Franchise league or confrontations between different yearly teams (more on that second part below). And since I was a fan of the Montreal Expos, I'm glad to see the 1994 edition and I am certainly attracted to use at least the most useful of them----certainly not in an unlimited cap league, but perhaps in a franchise league or even in a normal 80M league.
It doesn't look like there was much thought put into these selections. Worthier Montreal teams, some good Arizona, Houston, Toronto and Florida teams are out there. I won't be voting for any of these.
It's a legitimate concern that SOM might not have offered the best options, but I seem to believe that the addition of the 1994 Expos renders Montreal as a potential franchise team. We now have a 3M ss (as expected, Cordero's defense is poor with 3e33, but at least it's not a ss-4), Fassero and Henry cards add lefty options at sp that were virtually lacking. There are more subtle additions too: the second Ken Hill card gives you another 4M option to complete the rotation, but with a different balance (3R instead of 3L), the addition of a balanced 2M second base who could be a starter in 100M franchise team. The Expos might still be too weak for a 140M league, but it's now capable of having a 100M legitimate team, in my opinion.
if there was a subset of 50 great teams to choose from it would be interesting. then we could have leagues facing off the great teams.
this does not do much for franchises since most of the players already have cards. the blue jays still do not have a cf and also have limited bp options. these teams will just give us more unusable cards
what a waste
I don't know if there are 50
great teams, but I count 62 teams with at least 20 players, and from the naked eyes, I count at least 20 others teams (probably more) that could be fulfilled with consecutive years (teams with 18 players from one year that could have at least 20 from the year before or after). So there are sufficient teams to have theme leagues with yearly teams. List is below. So adding full teams is certainly another way to attract new players like me in the ATG set.
1909DET-db 21
1911PHA-db 20
1924WAS-pre 23
1927NYY-pre 22
1927PIT-pre 21
1929CHC-pre 23
1929PHA-pre 23
1932PHI-pre 22
1934CLE-pre 24
1934NYG-pre 24
1934STL-pre 22
1936NYG-pre 21
1940CIN-pre 24
1940DET-pre 24
1942STL-pre 21
1946BOS-pre 26
1946STL-pre 23
1953BKN-post 24
1954CLE-post 25
1955CHW-post 26
1955CIN-post 27
1956NYY-post 22
1957MIL-post 24
1959CHW-post 23
1960PIT-post 22
1961NYY-post 23
1962NYG-post 24
1964PHI-post 26
1965BKN-post 23
1965WAS-post 25
1966BAL-post 26
1967BOS-exp 24
1968DET-exp 20
1969NYM-exp 23
1970BAL-exp 21
1970CHC-exp 20
1971PIT-exp 20
1973OAK-exp 23
1974TEX-exp 22
1975CIN-exp 23
1977LA-exp 21
1977TEX-exp 21
1978BOS-exp 22
1979CAL-exp 23
1980KC-exp 23
1980MON-exp 23
1982ATL-exp 28
1982CAL-exp 24
1982MIL-exp 26
1983BAL-exp 23
1984CHC-exp 22
1984DET-exp 24
1984SD-exp 24
1984SEA-exp 23
1985TOR-exp 25
1986HOU-exp 27
1986NYM-exp 24
1986NYY-exp 26
1987STL-exp 25
1988OAK-exp 25
1990OAK-exp 25
1994MON-exp 24
2001SEA-exp 27