It's coming. Perhaps the greatest basketball themed arcade game, ever, NBA JAM is being re-released by EA Sports. For those actually interested, the game is set to be on store shelves late this year for Nintendo Wii. If you're in the 22-35 age range, you most likely know the glory that is NBA Jam. Refrains of "Boom-sha-ka-laka!" and "He's on fire!" cascaded off the walls of my living room during my youth, as I 'm sure it did in a lot of your homes.

Obviously basketball and baseball are different sports and don't lend themselves to simple comparisons. However, baseball has been modified to be more video game/youth friendly in the past. So if we at TCB were to create an arcade style baseball game for a video game system, who would play for each club?

I think a quintet rather than a trio is appropriate for a baseball game based on the style of the sport and the actual field of play. Players would basically play a "zone" on defense, rather than their real life positions.With that in mind, what five players would constitute each of the 30 MLB teams?

Qualifications to be in our game: 1) at least one pitcher must be on the team 2) one player must be a highly touted prospect/young guy. Other than that, anything goes. Here's who I chose for the National League:

National League

Arizona Diamondbacks: P: Jarrod Parker, P: Dan Haren, OF: Justin Upton, 3B: Mark Reynolds, C: Miguel Montero

Atlanta Braves: P: Tommy Hanson P: Kenshin Kawakami (to bring in the Japanese market), OF: Jason Hayward, 3B: Chipper Jones, C: Brian McCann

Chicago Cubs: P: Jeff Samardzija (think about animated flames on his fastball), 1B: Derrek Lee, 3B: Aramis Ramirez, SS: Stralin Castro, OF: Alfonso Soriano (not because he's that good anymore, but he's a big name)

Cincinnati Reds: P: Homer Bailey, P: Edinson Volquez, 1B: Joey Votto, RF: Jay Bruce, 2B: Brandon Phillips

Extra feature: press in the secret cheat code and manage the team as Pete Rose! Win a game plus your bet and you gain valuable experience points. Just don't tell Bud...

Colorado Rockies: P Ubaldo Jimenez, P: Franklin Morales, 1B: Todd Helton, SS: Troy Tulowtizki, OF: Dexter Fowler

Florida Marlins: OF: Cameron Maybin, SS: Hanley Ramirez, 2B: Dan Uggla, P: Josh Johnson, P: Ricky Nolasco

Houston Astros: P: Roy Oswalt, P: Wandy Rodriguez, OF: Hunter Pence, 1B: Lance Berkman, C: Jason Castro

Extra feature: Play at old Colt .45 stadium during the summer and see your opponents literally melt like the Nazis from "Raiders of the Lost Arc"

Los Angeles Dodgers: P: Chad Billingsley, P: Clayton Kershaw, OF: Matt Kemp, 1B: James Loney, OF: Manny Ramirez

Milwaukee Brewers: SS: Alcides Escobar, 1B: Prince Fielder, OF: Ryan Braun, P: Yovani Gallardo, UTL: The Bratwurst

New York Mets: 3B: David Wright (don't worry, no power outages in our game), SS: Jose Reyes (complete with bionic hamstrings), OF: Carlos Beltran (customize Beltran to make his gigantic ear-mole as big as you want it to be), P: Johan Santana, OF: Fernando Martinez

Philadelphia Phillies: OF: Dominic Brown, 1B: Ryan Howard (will be the second coolest player to play as in the NL), 2B: Chase Utley, P: Brad Lidge (come on, who doesn't want to pitch as Brad?), OF: Shane Victorino (must wear the  Don Ho uniform)

Pittsburgh Pirates: OF: Skinny Barry Lamar, OF: Roberto Clemente, 2B: Bill Mazeroski, OF: Willie Stargell, P: Doug Drabek (Nobody wants to be the modern day Pirates. Not even the modern day Pirates. My apologies to Andrew McCutcheon.)

San Diego Pirates (time for Evan to play, "Name five Padres"): OF: Tony Gwynn, Jr. (you can always just pretend he's his dad), 1B: Adrian Gonzalez (may or may not play for Boston after two weeks of ownership of the game), P: Chris Young (2010's Randy Johnson), OF: Donovan Tate. P: Heath Bell (same comment as Gonzalez, but take out Boston and insert...maybe Boston gets both after all)

St. Louis Cardinals: 1B: Albert Pujols (the coolest NL player to be in this game), OF: Colby Rasmus, C: Yadier Molina (cause defense matters!), P: Shelby Miller, P: Adam Wainwright

Special cheat: play as David Eckstein! Like Eckstein, take a nap after every Eckstein throw to first base.

Washington Nationals: P: Stephen Strasburg, 3B: Ryan Zimmerman, OF: Adam Dunn, P: Drew Storen, OF: Nyjer Morgan

I'll post the AL teams on Sunday. Are there any features our game should have? Who should have made the teams?