ATLANTA (AP) - The Atlanta Rebels have long been the laughing stock of the Weaver League Inferior teams. Playing their games in Colorado meant the Rebels needed a powerful lineup, which they have lacked since the inception of the team (excluding the Traded Hank Aaron). When you have a weak pitching staff and no power Colorado is definetly not the place to play. The Rebels have made a dramatic step forward this year by trading young stud Shawn Green to the Alcatraz Assassins while getting Bob Wolcott, Jason Isringhausen, and the #1 pick in the Ammy draft which turned out to be 20 year old Les Verbanic. "The only reasonable move we could make was to get the Heck out of Colorado" said mangager Gary Sandbo. Next year the Rebels will begin playing in their new ballpark built in their hometown of Atlanta.

We feel that within the next few year the Rebels will have a staff that may rank up with the mightiest of weaver staffs. The staff right now includes Jason Isringhausen, Bob Wolcott, Dustin Hermanson, but will also soon include Dan Serafini (acquired from the Riots with Ralph Milliard for Qual Vero). We are expecting a lot out of our first 2 picks this year (the afore mentioned Verbanic) and the #3 pick Gus Wood. We will work exstensively with Wood in the off-season to see if we can get his Control to an acceptable level to allow him to pitch for us next year. Verbanic will defintely be on the staff next year but we have yet to determine his role, I don't think he currently has the endurance to start, and if by chance we should lose Slocumbe Verbanic could end up closing for us. "When you look at our current position it's no different then when the team came into the league, except now we have better, and younger players that will definetly develop more the their predecessors." The Rebels front office has pulled many deals to get the team into it's current positions, and by all means I don't mean that all the moves have been positive. It will still take many many years for the organization to recover from trading Hank Aaron, but with the latest front office move it appears they may be making moves in the right direction.

The Rebels offense has been graciously given the benefit of playing in the high altitude over the past few years and have seen many players benefit because of that. It remains to be seen how the players will react in normal cities now. " I hope our players will be erase the memories of the high home run totals and concentrate on what they can do indivdually." We will defintely be planning on another great year from All Star Jose Herrera next year and will have help from newly acquired vets, David Justice, and Jay Buhner. "we know moving to Atlanta will decrease our Power a lot, that's why we felt we needed to acquire Justice/Buhner to add some power into our lineup for next year." The biggest key to the season, not only next year but for years to come will be the continuing development of Jose Cruz Jr/Nomar Garciaparra/Alan Mitchell and Ralph Milliard. We feel that a change of venue could help our younger players out tremendously. We have a collective group of contact hitters with speed, but when you play in an enviroment condusive to the HR you change your whole approach at the plate.

There is no reason for any immediate excitement in Atlanta, but the future does however look much more promising then the past. (Oh Yeah it has to, couldn't get much worse)