The post-season picture is complete! The division champion Arkansas Golden Falcons and Newark Sugar Bears have first-round byes while four teams battle it out in the wild card round: The third-seeded Carolina Mudcats take on No. 6 Tijuana Banditos, and the fourth-place Stanhope Mighty Men match up against the fifth-seeded Honolulu Sharks.

Let's take a look at how the playoff teams were built.

"How Acquired" reflects only the most recent acquisition of the player; for example, a player who is drafted, released and then re-signed, is considered a "free agent" acquisition. "Years With Team" counts only a player's service time with the major-league team and does not credit them for time spent with the franchise in its minor-league system. For example, Tijuana's Hank Blalock was drafted by the Banditos in 2002 and was stashed away on their ineligible list for two seasons, but did not make his DMBL debut until this season; therefore, this is his first year with the Banditos.

Arkansas Golden Falcons (100-62)
The Golden Falcons are making their league-record 12th-straight playoff appearance -- the only year they didn't make it was the inaugural 1991 season, when only the top two teams made it (and the Falcs finished third). Arkansas has been in five of the last six World's Championships, and in large part this is the same team that won it all in '98 and '99. The Falcons lead all playoff teams in longevity whether you look at two or more seasons (17), three or more (14), four or more (13), five or more (10) and so on -- all the way up to two guys who've been with the team for 10 seasons! That, of course, includes Barry Bonds -- who was taken in the 9th round of the inaugural DMBL draft. The clubhouse has largely been intact this season as well, with 26 out of the 30 players having been with the team since Opening Day. Of the four new additions -- all free agent signings -- one (Andres Galarraga) is a former Golden Falcon, and another (Ken Harvey) was drafted but cut in Spring Training.

Along for the ride: The Golden Falcons' incredible chemistry is due in large part to GM Mike "Stump" Matiash's legendary loyalty to his players. That fidelity even extends to Golden Falcons who are no longer on the field. Arkansas All-Stars Trevor Hoffman and Barry Larkin, along with long-time catcher Dan Wilson, were knocked out of commission for the entire 2004 season after an unfortunate golf cart accident. (Their driver, the New York Jets' John Abraham, escaped injury.) All three players are nearly recovered from their injuries and vow to return to action next season. But, rather than having to watch the post-season from their living rooms, the three will be, as usual, wearing Golden Falcon uniforms this post-season -- as members of the coaching staff. With management showing that kind of loyalty, it's no wonder the Golden Falcon players will run through walls to win championships!

Newark Sugar Bears (99-63)
The four-times-running Hanover Division champions are largely intact, with 18 returning players -- the most of any playoff team this season. That includes 10 who have been with the team for at least three consecutive seasons, and eight who are making a bid for a fourth-straight World Series appearance... Unlike in previous years, the front office largely stood pat during the regular season, adding just six players who weren't with the team on Opening Day -- and two of those six, Michael Barrett and Bobby Kielty, had been with the team in Spring Training. 

Welcome back: GM Butch Garretson loves bringing back old Sugar Bears, no matter how long they've been away -- whether it's a couple weeks, as happened with Barrett and Kielty, or a couple years, as was the case with four players -- Wil Cordero, Eduardo Perez, Mike Stanton and John Thomson -- who returned after much longer absences. Cordero is really old school, having played for the Sugar Bears in their inaugural 1996 season. He can reminisce with three original franchise players -- Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome -- who never left. Those three, plus Bobby Abreu, Keith Foulke and Manny Ramirez, have been with the Sugar Bears for all three of their DMBL championships (97, 01-02).

Carolina Mudcats (98-64)
The Mudcats had their best season in franchise history and are making their second-straight post-season appearance and fourth overall, having also reached the playoffs as a wild card in 1999 and 2001. GM Chris Pucci has patiently rebuilt this squad from within, with the most "in-house" players of any playoff team: 25 players on the 30-man roster were either protected or acquired via the draft. The five players who joined after the season started were all acquired via free agency, and one of them -- Paul Shuey -- was drafted, released, and then re-signed days later. 

Savin' it: Carolina has three players -- Pat Burrell, Danny Graves and Braden Looper -- who could see their first Mudcats action in '04 in the post-season, not the regular season. All three are eligible to appear on the playoff roster, despite spending the entire season with the Triple-A Raleigh Crawdads... The Mudcats don't have any players from their inaugural 1997 season. In fact, the longest-serving 'Cat is Tim Hudson, who is in his fifth consecutive season with the team. But one of Hudson's ex-teammates from 2000-2001, Brook Fordyce, returned after a three-year hiatus. And one current Mudcat actually pre-dates Hudson -- Ricardo Rincon, who pitched in 54 games in relief for the team during its first playoff appearance ('99), but then spent the next four seasons bouncing between Stanhope, Vancouver and Yokohama. No player, therefore, has been with the team for all four of its post-season runs, but five players -- Hudson, Burrell, Jim Edmonds, Aramis Ramirez and Barry Zito -- were with the '01 and '03 wild-card winners. But while Burrell, Ramirez and Zito all joined the team in 2001, it's Edmonds who can claim the title of "second-most senior Mudcat" -- the team acquired him in 2000, though he was ineligible that year. 

Stanhope Mighty Men (94-68)
Though the Mighty Men reached the playoffs last season, they turned over nearly half of their roster -- 14 of their 30 players never played with the Mighty Men before this year. And of the 16 who have, three -- Wilson Alvarez, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Esteban Loaiza -- return after extended absences. Only six players have been with the Mighty Men for three consecutive seasons, the fewest of any contender this year. And a third of Stanhope's roster wasn't with the team on Opening Day, the biggest turn-over of any team in the post-season... Of the 30 players on Stanhope's roster, 21 were protected this off-season -- by far the most of any team... Who needs the draft? GM David Landsman selected 17 players this year, but 11 were traded or released. Of the six remaining, two are ineligible, leaving just four who are likely to play key roles this post-season. The Mighty Men acquired eight players through trades, by far the most of any playoff team since we started the How They Were Built series two years ago.

Where have you gone, Bernie Williams? Just four players are still with the team from its World Series championship year of 2000: Derek Jeter, Mike Lowell. Mariano Rivera and Kerry Wood. Those four, plus long-absent pitchers Wilson Alvarez and Esteban Loaiza, are the only remaining Mighty Men who played for the franchise when it was in Jerusalem. Jeter and Rivera, who have each been with the team since 1997, are the longest-serving Mighty Men; the last player who had been with the franchise since it was founded in 1996, Bernie Williams, was traded this off-season to Phoenix (along with Joe Borowski) for Jorge Posada.

Honolulu Sharks (83-79)
The Sharks are in the playoffs for just the second time in their eight-year existence, but they're having a nice little three-season run -- after just missing the playoffs in '02, finishing 1 game out of the final wildcard berth, they are in the big dance for the second consecutive season as the No. 5 seed. GM Adam Kozubal is known for his "laissez faire" style of management, and this year he was hands off in the extreme: The 30-man roster is exactly as it was on Opening Day! This year's only moves were releasing late-draft picks Geoff Blum and Corey Lidle on roster cut-down day, and signing Tom Wilson for two weeks after an injury to Einar Diaz. 

Left out: The Sharks have three left-handed relievers -- Steve Kline, Kent Mercker and Gabe White -- who didn't pitch at all for the team during the regular season, but are still eligible for the post-season roster... Amazingly, 14 out of the 15 players drafted by the Sharks this season had no prior history with the franchise. The only drafted player who had ever suited up for the Sharks prior to this year was Kelly Wunsch, who is back for his second season with the Sharks... But even though the front office is apparently too bitter to take back players after they leave the Sharks, they do a very good job of rewarding their veterans who do remain loyal: Half of the Sharks' from last year's wild card team are back, and 10 of the Sharks' 30 players have been with the team for three or more consecutive seasons. That includes Jason Giambi, Shawn Green and Jason Kendall, who broke onto the scene with the woeful 100-loss 1999 Sharks and have never left. 

Tijuana Banditos (80-83)
The Banditos are the only contender that didn't reach the post-season last year. In fact, the Banditos finished dead last in 2003, losing 96 games, and had the first overall pick in this year's draft, selecting rookie southpaw starter Dontrelle Willis. The last time a team went from last place to the post-season was after the 2000 season, when the Hillsborough Destroyers lost 111 games, were sold and moved to the Holy See, and finished the 2001 season with a third-best 89-73 record as the Vatican City Cardinals. The oft-moved franchise would also reach the playoffs in 2002 (as the Wanaque Wolverines) and in 2003 (after moving back to Hillsborough). And just to prove that everything is cyclical, the Destroyers finished in last place again this season, and all indications are they will move again next year... Like the Sharks, the Banditos roster was primarily built during the off-season -- just three players who were with the team on the first day of the season weren't with it on the first one. And one of those three new faces is actually a returning player, Danys Baez.