Its the post draft-preseason period of our league (Dueling Couches Fans- CBSSportsline.com) and reviewing the league thus far its safe to say the league will be a fist fight for the 4 playoff spots (2 division winners + 2 wild-cards). 10 teams participate in our AL only league and starting following this season, each team will be allowed to keep 4 of their players. The live online draft was held Monday night 8:30pm with 22 rounds of awesomeness. Everyone can agree live drafts are half the excitement of a fantasy league. Instead of analyzing pick by pick, I thought it would just be easier to review each team separately.
Lets begin with the East Division which consists of: The winner of the past two seasons B12 Shots (ccook), Bronx Bombers V 5.0 (Damien), Damien's Mom Gives Bad Head (DP), Palpable Mass (Josh), and The Cantu Collection Agency (Me, SB).
B12 Shots (ccook)
-CCook has won two straight Championships and has his eye set on a third. B12 Shots is more of an offensive focused team this year. His power and speed are well balanced with key players such as OF Carl Crawford and OF Grady Sizemore who should combine for around 35 homeruns and over 70 stolen bases. Those two players most likely will be on cook's team for a couple years to come and are terrific offensive building blocks either to play or have as trade bait. Around Crawford and Sizemore, B12 Shots has his power production with C Victor Martinez, 3B Adrian Beltre, OF Jermaine Dye, and 1B Carlos Guillen. Over the past 3 seasons, Martinez has averaged 20 HRs in the catcher position, Beltre 23HRs and Dye has averaged 34 HRs (Notably Sizemore has avg 25 HR's). At SS, cook drafted Orlando Cabrera who could have an excellent season after being traded to the Chi White Sox from the LA Angels. Cabrera is sure to steal a decent amount of bags while getting drove in and scoring runs by solid run producers in the White Sox lineup.
As for the B12 Shots' pitching, CCook won last year thanks to his strong staff of closers. This year, his staff of closers has some question marks next to them; they are: Jeremy Accardo (TOR), recently unretired Troy Percival (TB) and Joakim Soria (KC). The Blue Jays are hoping that B.J. Ryan will return from an injury plagued season. If that happens, expect Accardo to be nothing more than a hopeful closer pending another BJ Ryan injury. TB got Percival to come out of retirement, whether that means he can make it through the season is unknown, lucky for ccook he was smart and has Al Reyes stashed just incase. Soria is fine but its still going to be a good amount of years until the Royals get enough wins to give a closer a good fantasy amount of save opps. Atop CCook's pitching staff of starters is Chien-Ming Wang (NYY). Wang is going to have an amazing year in my opinon. He is durable and a pitcher that keeps his team in the ballgame every time he takes the hill. Thats exactly what you want from a starting pitcher on the Yankees' team that is guaranteed to score many many runs.
Overall the B12 Shots has a team that will compete everyweek. The offense is enough to support the risks on the weaker half of the pitching staff which include Clay Bucholz (BOS), Kenny Rogers (DET) and Kevin Slowey (MIN). The team's weakness...questionability of the pitching staff from a week to week solid production standpoint.
Bronx Bombers V 5.0 (Damien)
Damien made the playoffs last year even through all the bad PR and taunting. How sweet a Championship would taste this year with the opposition he faces with team names like "Damien's Mom Gives Bad Head" and "Die Damien Die." Regardless, Bronx Bombers V 5.0 may have the last laugh this year. In my opinion, this is the team to beat. The balance of ACE pitching and consistent production potential will make the Bronx Bombers V 5.0 a team you don't want to face if your looking for an easy win.
Starting with the offense, SS Derek Jeter is always consistent and is one of those players Damien won't have to worry about not having a good week. 2B Ian Kinsler is the leadoff hitter for the Texas Rangers this year and wants to prove he is up for the task. Kinsler has a great amount of power for a secondbasemen, perfect for Texas @ Arlington Park, and now at the leadoff spot will have more opportunities to show his speed, steal bases and score more runs. Kinsler should be a 20-20 player and that production at 2B helps solidify a position many teams are weak at. Who knows how 1B Richie Sexson will do this year but, his power has never really went away so if he starts making contact with the ball again, that 6 pts/HR. OF Vernon Wells is looking to bounce back a little and still has the potential to have a great season. Other starting players on offense for Damien include C Kurt Suzuki, 3B Hank Blalock, OF Luke Scott, DH Billy Butler and OF Jacoby Ellsbury (who I question as a good producer of fantasy points).
Pitching, here are some of the names: CC Sabathia (#1 CLE), Erik Bedard (#1 SEA), Rich Harden (#1/2 arguably OAK), Jered Weaver (#2 ANA). Backing the solid production these pitchers will guarantee (if Harden doesn't get injured, again) are Boof Bonser (MIN), Ian Kennedy (NYY) and the recent winner of the #5 spot in CLE Cliff Lee. Expect that pitching staff to get plenty of wins, plenty of strike outs, plenty of innings and plenty of fantasy points. Unlucky for me, I face Bronx week 1 which means many of these pitchers may have 2 starts, frick.
Overall, great draft for Damien. He drafted a solid starting team then snagged Evan Longoria to stash on the bench and most likely will be kept at the end of the season and the next and the next...
Bronx Bombers V5.0's weakness: besides Longoria, poor bench...that could be fixed in 5 mins flat.
Damien's Mom Gives Bad Head (DP)
DP was also a playoff contender last season, he says he is eyeing a playoff run...maybe next year. In a pre-draft trade, DP wanted to solidify 3 players he wanted to keep for a good amount of time following this season and build around them. DP and myself SB traded our draft picks. DP gave his rounds 1,3,4,5,6 for my 1,2,5,6,7. The deal pretty much assured DP he would draft his 3 and gave myself an opportunity to draft quantitatively. With those 3 picks DP selected 2B/OF BJ Upton (9), SP Daisuke Matsuzaka (12), and SP Felix Henandez (15). Many would argue that DP didn't need to do the trade to get his 3 but knowing DP, he wanted to be certain and made moves to do so. It may not pay off this season but he knows his building blocks he wants to lean on.
Offensively, "DMGBH" has many players that will simply get the job done. Their will not be any surprises bats such as: 1B Lyle Overbay, 2B Placido Polanco, SS Edger Reteria, OF Hideki Matsui and DH Gary Sheffield. 2B/OF BJ Upton will have a great season and will most likely be a 20-20 player this season, potentially a 30-30 next season. Question marks include OF Carlos Gomez and 3B Alex Gordon. Both have tremendous potential, question is whether this is the year? Gomez was just traded to the Twins from the awesome NY Mets in the Santana deal. Gomez has blazing speed, some Mets said he beat Jose Reyes in a race, but Gomez's speed is only as good as the amount of time he is on the base paths. Gomez is not an outstanding hitter yet but if he does find his way on base expect him to pick up those 2pts/ stolen base often.
DP commonly likes to draft pitchers he has faith in. Not being a very religious man, DP believing in drafting the same pitchers every season. With that pre-draft trade, he won't have to worry about drafting Dice K and King Felix anymore but as usual, SP's Paul Byrd "flu" (CLE), Livan Hernandez (MIN) and Ervin Santana (ANA) find their way on DP's pitching staff. Byrd will give DMGBH's team hope, but then will crash, Livan will give the team innings with that rubber arm but expect him to give up many many hits and Ervin will obviously do great at the beginning but you and I know its all mediocre after that. DP did draft Phil Hughes (NYY) so hopefully he will do as well as people predict and that will be DP's 4th keeper. Hughes could have a potentially great season this year so watch out.
Other notable players on DP's squad include: SS Juan Uribe, OF Milton Bradley, OF Cliff Floyd, SP's Carlos Silva (SEA), Jose Contreras (CHW), Adam Miller (CLE) and Vicente Padilla (TEX).
DP's team should hold up and compete everyweek, more or less I just don't see there being any firepower that will put his team over the top of an opponent consistently.
Weakness: Consistency, Firepower
Palpable Mass (Josh)
Offense: With the exception of OF Jerry Owens starting the season on the DL and maybe not having a spot to come back to, OF Mark Teahen not doing anything fantastic this year and fantasy slut 3B Melvin Mora either being good again or busting, Palpable Mass has a great offense in terms of of fantasy H2H scoring. If C Joe Mauer stays healthy for one full season, your looking at the top hitting C in the AL. I love 1B Justin Morneau this year and I think he is going to have a great season. He had a breakout season in 2006 and had tredendous pressure to do it again in 2007, he fails but still did amazing. Now without the pressure of have back to back breakout seasons I think he will produce terrific numbers. OF Alex Rios comes into this season after a semi-breakout season of his own last year. Rios is still underrated as a fantasy stud and Josh should enjoy the fun numbers he puts with his combination of speed, power and good BA. Michael Young is always consistant and always hitting in Texas helps. He will definitely bat over .300 and always get a fair share of HR's, RBI's and R's. DH Frank Thomas is finally over 500HR's but he's not done. In 2007, Thomas batted .276 with 26 HR's and 95 RBI's. Now in his 19th MLB season, he could have similar numbers + the Big Hurt still knows how to earn a Walk, (81 in 06, 81 in 07). Watch for Palpable Mass's offense to be consistent and from time to time wins some close weeks thanks to some clutch pops from the bat.
Pitching: SP Josh Becket (BOS) being the season on the DL but could be back April 4th. Right behind Beckett is SP's Joe Blanton (#1 OAK), Jeremy Bonderman (DET), Brian Bannister (KC) and Joe Saunders (ANA). Once Beckett returns the staff is sure to get a good amount of points even thoough they my not overpower. Blanton is a great pitcher but may not get the run support from his Oakland team. Bonderman will get that run support and although he gets hit, a lot, look for Bonderman to get 10pts/win just because the Detroit bats show up and score runs. As for Joe Saunders, I don't really understand why everyone sells him short on draft day. I can understand if he doesn't get picked because he isn't a starter thats going to give you 200 innings this year but he isn't a poor pitcher on a poor team. Look for Saunders to be similar to last year's Chad Gaudin, silent but deadly week to week. Bannister is definitely underrated, just because he pitches on KC doesn't mean his stuff his bad. If Bannister was on any other team, He would be picked much higher than he goes on draft day. Btw, don't be surprised if KC wins a good amount of games this season, ya heard it here. Palpable Mass rounds off his rotation with 2 closers. Todd Jones (DET) and George Sherrill (BAL) are a great addition to this rotation. Jones will have plenty of save opps and though he may blow some, it helps he pitches in Detroit (a pitchers park). Sherrill came to Baltimore in a trade and according to many sources, looks like a closer and has the mentality of a closer. Lucky for Josh, he won't have to fear Chris Ray coming back this year and no one is really challenging Sherrill for his closing job.
Weakness: Drop David Eckstein, pick up a backup starting pitcher (Hideki Okajima (BOS) only bench pitcher).
The Cantu Collection Agency
The 4th team in this division to make the playoffs last season (only 4 playoff spots/season), in his rookie season in "Booth Street Bar," SB came out swingin'. Right from the start I came to prove this league is business and I plan on showing my competitive face again this year. Will I make the playoffs with this team in this division? I really am skeptical but i plan on making moves throughout the season. I was on the other end of that pre-draft trade with DP and gave up my 2nd pick to basically move my 7th pick up to a 4th pick, move up 3 picks in the 1st and move my 5th pick up. In doing so, I knew closers are important and can be a dagger. I went for em. However, in going for the best closers, I gave up a lot of offensive threats.
Offense: Very weak in my opinion (and I'm saying this about my own team). Only 2, maybe 3 players if I'm luck are going to break 20 HR's (OF Nick Markakis and DH/1B Jason Giambi). I'll also be lucky if 3 players on my team break 90 RBI's. Power numbers and run production are clearly my weakness. It looks like if I want points from my offense, its because we are going old school and playing it small ball. 1B Kevin Youkilis bats second on the Red Sox and is protected by David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Youk's job is to get on base or move over the lead off man. He has power but its not his job to use it. Youk will get a good amount of walks and a good amount of runs but I shouldn't count on 2 HR games. 2B Brian Roberts just hurt his back, great. Roberts had 50 stolen bases last year which is great to have at your 2b position but will not hit you a good amount of HR's or RBI's. Roberts like Youk will walk and score but hopefully also steal at least 40 bases. Don't speak ill-will of 3B Casey Blake. I had him last season and made the playoffs. Don't be surprised if Blake is thriving on that Cleveland team that is going to put up great offensive numbers this year. SS Bobby Crosby better not get hurt. If Crosby stays healthy it helps my team tremendously, if not, a sub SS comes in and produces crap. I had OF Johnny Damon last year, I hate him but he finds his way on base and the Yankee offensive is better then ever.
Pitching: Closers can be just as deadly as a 2 start pitcher everyweek. 10pts/save with names like Fransisco Rodriguez (ANA), Joe Nathan (MIN), Bobby Jenks (CHW) and CJ Wilson (TEX) everyweek, thats annoying to go up against. Typically, teams round off their staff with closers, I did the opposite. SP Jeremy Guthrie is arguably the ace now of the Baltimore staff. Even though he wouldn't be an ace on anyother team, his spot in the rotation is true. If Dontrelle Willis comes through like he used to a couple of moons ago, he will be a pick that will piss people off for passing on him. He continued to fall so I decided to take the chance and that what I understand he is, an educated risk. Lastly is Jake Westbrook. Westbrook hasn't given up a run all spring training and even though that means nothing in translation to the regular season, to me it still means that something is working and he is feeling better than he was last year. Remember when Westbrook won 15 games in '04, '05 and '06 with a about and avg 4.00 era? maybe '07 was a bad off year.
Other notable players: OF Jacque Jones (now on DET), RP Joba Chamberlain (NYY), SP Curt Schilling (BOS, out until at least July but what if he actually does come back?)
Weakness: Terrible offensive power, Too many hopes + injury risks.
Thats it for the East Division...Check back later for the West Division (This took a longgg time)
-SB POSTS
p.s. Cantu update...hitting over .400 this spring and the Marlins optioned Dallas McPherson to the minors cause Cantu rocks. Cantu will hit 20+ HR's this year easy.
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