American League East
N.J. Bombers, 56 points (15 first-place)
Michael Coldsmith III, 46 points (3 first-place)
Sex Panthers, 38 points (6 first-place)
You’ll have to trust me because I do not have the time to post the detailed results of the preseason poll — the Jammermetric Scale is just so intense — but this division was much closer than it reads.
The Sex Panthers finished third in several categories where she was only a few away from the first-place finisher, which in most cases was the N.J. Bombers.
You can see this variance in the fact that the Panthers still had six first-place votes despite finishing with only 38 points.
If I were to pick a division that the Jammermetric Scale was going to get wrong this year, it’d be this one.
Now, don’t get me wrong; the N.J. Bombers have a good team, but the Sex Panthers, who made it all the way to the ALCS and nearly beat the Gameday Gamblers, will be closer to the Bombers than this poll suggests.
And don’t forget about that helicopter pilot. He’s hovering nearby with a strong offense. His pitching is a bit shaky overall, but he still has what it takes to do better than his predecessor, the Bad News Bears.
1. N.J. Bombers
2012 Record/Finish: 210-193-77/first place in AL East
Owner’s All-Time Record: 1,105-985-382 (0.524)
The Bombers went heavy on the bats in 2013.
For the most part, he’ll roll with five starting pitchers in Jered Weaver, Anibal Sanchez, R.A. Dickey, Dan Haren and Jaime Garcia.
The five are the only pitchers on staff who are ready to go 160 to 200 innings this year.
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Paul Goldschmidt should step up and make a huge impact
for the N.J. Bombers this season.
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The other four starters are not ready to make that jump. Trevor Bauer could, but he’ll likely be on an innings count. So will Chris Archer. And J.R. Graham and Jarred Cosart may not even throw a pitch in the majors this season. Cosart could late in the season, but it won’t be until September.
It’s a different approach for the Bombers, and it can be effective if your five starters are providing a low ERA and WHIP, as well as some quality wins. Either way, with a smaller staff, effective pitching will allow you to win walks, losses, ERA and WHIP, while at the same time giving you a chance in wins and quality starts.
Because most teams will roll out a rotation of 7 to 10 starters, sometimes 12, you’re looking at a few categories that will be impossible to win, like strikeouts, quality starts and wins.
Deeper rotations will overpower the Bombers, but that’s where he hopes he can pick up the slack offensively.
He has several bats and several on the way that it will make it tough to decide who you want to start on a daily basis.
Nevertheless, power and speed will not be an issue, and with the depth, perhaps he’ll be able to trade some of the heavy hitters for pitching in July if he’s in the race. With some aging hitters like Michael Bourne, Adam LaRoche, Justin Morneau and even Mark Teixeira, he could perhaps send them to a particular team in the AL West.
I particularly like Jay Bruce to have a big season for the Reds, and in turn, help the Bombers put up another 200-win season.
2. Michael Coldsmith III
2012 Record/Finish (former owner): 149-264-67/third place in AL East
Owner’s All-Time Record: 0-0-0 (.000)
Coldsmith took over after the trade deadline last season for an ailing franchise, and he’s turned it around already.
The pitching is still suspect, but with CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda at the top of the staff, he’s got a decent base to work around. The key there will be to pick up some youth in the starting pitching department.
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| CC Sabathia has to be a top-notch, healthy starter for Michael Coldsmith III to contend this season. |
He does not have a single starter who would fit into the JLB’s minor league system. That’s troublesome when ideally you’d like at least three of your minor league keepers to be starting pitchers, and one or two of them already be pitching in the majors.
It gives you a leg up into the draft and the season.
That’s what Coldsmith will have to work on this yea, either via trade or waiver wire.
He doesn’t have that issue offensively with youngsters like Mark Trumbo, Ben Revere, Yonder Alonso and Pedro Alvarez.
I really like what I’ve seen from Ben Revere and I think he’s going to be huge for the Copter Pilot. He should be his center fielder for a long time. The projection has him scoring 68 runs, but I’d personally Spillanoject it to be more like 90. I also think his batting average will be closer to .285/.290.
And that’s a lot of what you see when you look at Coldsmith’s lineup. Miguel Montero, Dustin Pedroia, Aramis Ramirez, Alonso and Melky Cabrera all bat around .290/.300.
There’s a good mix of power and speed from guys like Ike Davis, Ramirez and Alvarez to Revere and Desmond Jennings.
When he gets good pitching, he’ll be tough to beat because I think he’s going to command several batting categories, which is good considering his division rival Bombers will have a similar strategy.
3. Sex Panthers
2012 Record/Finish: 208-199-73/second place in AL East
Owner’s All-Time Record: 1,071-1,006-395 (.513)
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| Christian Yelich, of the Marlins, was one of the many prospects that the Panthers finally embraced in 2013. |
Finally, the Panthers embraced the minor league system.
Through trades, she added Anthony Rendon and Andrelton Simmons, the future of the left side of her infield, while drafting Jonathan Schoop, Byron Buxton, Christian Yelich and Darin Ruf.
Yeah, so she went from not liking beer to ordering a keg for herself.
Who cares?
In reality, by July, it’s going to work out to be only two or three prospects who aren’t contributing yet.
Simmons is going to be a beast for Atlanta from the start, so much so, she may forget about her boy, Derek Jeter.
Yelich was sent down to the minors, but he’ll be in Miami soon, and he’s a darkhorse for the Rookie of the Year award.
I think he could get it, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I wasn’t allowed to draft a first baseman (kept Belt, Hosmer, Butler and Young who all had 1B listed as their No. 1 position) I would have drafted Yelich.
I wanted this player.
And no, I didn’t tell her to draft him.
She looked him up, turned to me and said, “I think I’m going to draft this guy.” And she did.
Even though she has a few players she’s waiting for, it doesn’t mean she won’t be in contention. Jonathan Lucroy is a strong hitter at catcher, while Martin Prado, Jon Jay, Denard Span, Ichiro Suzuki and Nick Markakis will provide high averages and big numbers on the basepaths.
She’ll get Curtis Granderson back at some point to add the power, and Marco Scutaro will give her well over 150 hits.
But the most important bat will be the one she was tempted to trade in the offseason.
Albert Pujols should have a monster, bounce-back year in Los Angeles — as if last year was really that bad of a season. With Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout in that lineup, I think we’re going to see pitchers making more and more mistakes with Pujols, and he’ll make them pay.
The Panthers pitching was a bit questionable heading into the draft with two of her keepers on their way to the DL — Scott Diamond and Phil Hughes — but she addressed it by drafting Matt Harrison in the first round and Bronson Arroyo, Barry Zito, Justin Masterson and Ricky Nolasco later.
All four of the later picks are great grabs considering where they were drafted.
But the biggest boost came when Kyle Lohse signed with Milwaukee. I think he’s in good shape to win 15-plus games there, as is Wily Peralta, who some have as a Rookie of the Year candidate despite his low ESPN projections.
If that happens, watch out for the Sex Panthers.
They’ll getcha.
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