The Rise and Fall of the Dragon Shrimp - by Venom

Over the past few seasons, the Valencia Dragon Shrimp has been at the top of the franchise ball world and fell down. Welcome to the Rise and Fall of the Valencia Dragon Shrimp.

Starting in Season 83, the Dragon Shrimp has one of the most interesting and unique names in all of Franchise Ball. I asked him how he came up with it “It just kinda sparked my interest and was the first thing that came to my mind.”

In their first full season, the shrimp went 44-16, which is very rare for a very new team. He also batted .312 and gave up 3.7 Runs Per Game. That season, his offense was led by a 3B named Elijah Eden who hit 21 HRs and batted .301, and a pitching staff led by Johan Frazier and Tejano Montes, people knew this was going to be a great team of the future. Also, with 80 At Bats that season was George Brenner, one of the first pieces of the 86 team. There was also a pitcher who went 6-1 who was named Kelly Banda, who was a key starter in 86. Almost all of the players from that 84 team were acquired from Free Agency, showing how key the FA market can be. Since they won their division, they were headed to the playoffs. They were ranked 2nd but lost to the Boston Gashouse Gang in the first round, who ended up pulling off two more upsets to make it to the world playoffs. The shrimp got their first taste of the first-round exit, which they would be tasting a lot more. Here’s their reaction on the loss: “Yeah it hurt and the year I lost to bros of warner and durango all hurt because I had such a good team with great potential and to lose in the fashion that I did via walk-off really hurt”


They got a lot of new pieces in the 84 offseason, including offensive players like Jonah Forest, Devin McGuire, and Aquilino Mota. They also acquired Jaylin Walton, Jeff Spruill, and Adam Kirkland to pitch, who were all key pieces in 86.  But the team’s wins didn’t improve very much, going to 45-15. But they still won a relatively easy division, and advanced to the playoffs as the 2nd seed again, this time losing in the first round to the Brothers of Warner, who would also go on to win the league, and win a game in the world playoffs.

The Dragon Shrimp got a huge haul of great players in the season 85 offseason. That set them up to have a great season for 86. They had a great start, starting out 10-0 before losing in a thriller. They would go on to win 23 more games before losing their second game. They would play well to get to 52-6 before losing their last two games. They got the # 1 seed in the world that year. Some of their highlighted players were David Mesa, who batted .332 with 22 HRs, and Javon Blaylock, who went 8-0 with a 2.7 ERA. Playoff Action. Round 1. Versus the 31-29 Durango Firequackers. Top of the 9th. Game tied 8-8. BOOM! Cesar Pino hits a 3 run blast to give the Firequackers an 11-8 lead. Jonah Forest homers in the bottom of the 9th but it wasn’t enough. 11-9 Firequackers win. After that devastating loss, the dynasty was over. Shrimp couldn’t make it out of the first round so he quit. “It just got so frustrating to have such a good team in the regular season that couldn't get out of the playoffs consistently”


In season 87 they only won 33 games. But their division was so bad they still made the playoffs. They were 8 seed and they finally won their first playoff game, upsetting the Buffalo Bisons. They won in the second round, defeating the Cambridge Longballs. They won the league, winning against the St. Johns Peace Sharks in the league final. That’s as far as their playoff run went, as they lost 15-11 to the Chicago Ohawks to end their season.

That was their last time in the playoffs. They won 27 games in season 88, 34 in season 89, and 31 in Season 90. This year the rebuild has paid off, as the Shrimp are 14-3 as of the time I am writing this article. They are once again a team on the rise.