To me, the American League in the JLB comes down to two teams at the top and another two battling for the wild card.
The Bombers are out in front as the favorite, while the Choo is not too far behind. The Gamblers slot in at No. 3 and I give the Sex Panthers an outside chance of competing for one of the two wild card spots.
Parker just flipped out, and he’s scrolling down to his preview to see why I think this.
You could do the same, but I suggest you read these in order.
N.J. Bombers
2013 Record: 204-210-66 (Lost in ALCS)
All-Time Record: 1,309-1,195-448 (.519)
The Bombers are my personal favorite for the American League. Jered Weaver and Anibal Sanchez are not equal to the Gamblers’ Stephen Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw — not by any means — but they’re good enough to keep him in contention. Then you add in Jarred Cosart, Tony Cingrani and Yordano Ventura, and in my personal opinion, the starting five is going to be one of the better quintets in the JLB.
Cosart is one of my favorites — just ask Firestine how many times I’ve requested a trade — and Ventura is a Rookie of the Year candidate for sure on a team that is going to give him a lot of run support.
Speaking of run support, the Bombers will have no trouble with that. Offensively, he has power, speed, run scoring potential. It’s all there.
Paul Goldschmidt is my personal pick to win the NL MVP, and he’s one of three players who are projected to drive in more than 100 runs and hit 30 homers for the Bombers.
Jacoby Ellsbury, Starling Marte and Jose Reyes provide the speed, and if Travis d’Arnaud breaks out, watch out. There may be no stopping this team.
Big League Choo
2013 Record: 222-182-76 (Lost in World Series)
All-Time Record: 630-585-225 (.516)
Big League Choo isn’t as strong as the Bombers, but he’s not too far behind. Maybe after he makes a few trades, he'll get there.
He has major power potential, as he is projected to break the JLB record for home runs in a single season. Brian McCann was a great addition in the offseason and Jose Abreu was a great No. 2 overall pick.
I think come season’s end, we’ll look back and wonder why Abreu didn’t go first overall.
He’s one of 11 20-HR guys on the Choo, and he’s one of 11 reasons why Spillane should be in contention with the Bombers throughout the season. His pitching, though certainly not as strong at the top like the Gamblers, will provide a few more reasons.
Shelby Miller, Cliff Lee and Sonny Gray should be a decent starting three, and Ivan Nova has quietly been a decent fantasy option. But Choo will need two things. One, Johnny Cueto needs to return to his 2012 form, which made him seemingly worthy of the Max Scherzer trade. Secondly, he'll need Michael Pineda to pan out. If his first-round pick is a bust, he better start trading some of those prospects for a pitcher.
Gameday Gamblers
2013 Record: 209-203-68 (lost in ALDS)
All-Time Record: 1,513-1,189-466 (.551)
The American League will be more interesting that the Jammermetric Scale suggests. The Gameday Gamblers ran away with the points and that’s because of his pitching stats. He got 57 of his 101 points from pitching, and that’s because his top four starters are projected to be among the best starting four in the JLB.
Ah, projections.
His offense projects out nicely, too, and the Gamblers made a great couple picks grabbing Wilson Ramos — one of my breakout candidates for 2014 — and Torii Hunter to round out his offense.
The biggest problem in 2014 may be depth. Outside of the aforementioned bats, the Gamblers added Kelly Johnson, Zack Cozart, Andre Ethier and B.J. Upton to back up his starters. I don’t like any of those, and Ethier may be the best fantasy-wise.
Pitching follows a similar pattern. He made a nice pick with Masahiro Tanaka. OK, well, it didn’t take much talent to draft him No. 1; nevertheless, he took him.
After that, it was Jake Peavy, Ian Kennedy, Matt Garza and Edwin Jackson. What is this, 2011? Add in Mike Leake and Bud Norris and he’s left hoping that his two prospects Alex Meyer and Andrew Heaney come along quickly. (Update, he just dropped Kennedy. I wonder if the spreadsheets read: “Draft Kennedy in the 11th round and drop him for an undrafted pitcher.”)
Either way, I foresee some pitching problems for the Gamblers. … And I wrote that last sentence prior to finding out that Kershaw injured his back. I picked Kershaw to be a contender for the Cy Young — because why would you not at this point? — but with the money in the bag, Parker has to worry about regression. It happens to a lot of pitchers who cash in big.
Even though I can point out all the weaknesses that I feel are there, I’m still left looking at a starting 10 bats and a starting four on the mound that will give the Gamblers a chance to erase the woes of 2013. With his 10 and 4, he's clearly the best in the American League. When you incorporate the rest of the team, you get a different picture.
To me, he’s in for a fight with the Choo and the Bombers. ... And maybe, the Sex Panthers...
Sex Panthers
2013 Record: 197-227-56
All-Time Record: 1,268-1,233-451 (.506)
I give the Sex Panthers an outside shot. Her offense is young, but filled with potential, and her pitching selections of Jeff Samardzija and Ubaldo Jimenez will go quite nicely with her keeper Justin Masterson.
She will just need some luck from her Twins, Phil Hughes and Ricky Nolasco. They both will be in a big ballpark, so that may help, but they’re still on a very bad team.
The biggest thing the Panthers have going for her is on offense with the potential comeback player of the year in Albert Pujols. I really think we're in for a Pujols treat in 2014.
I think Andrelton Simmons will have a decent offensive year, too, supplanting Derek Jeter for good, while Martin Prado will be a great bat to have at either 3B or LF. Right now, she’ll roll with Christian Yelich in LF, but if he struggles, she could easily move Prado there and insert Chris Johnson — a great draft pickup — at 3B.
With other offensive threats like Jonathan Lucroy, Curtis Granderson, Nick Markakis, Anthony Rendon and James Loney, I think the Panthers offense is going to be a decent one. If any of those young players break out, she’ll compete for a playoff spot for sure.
Even more exciting for her is the prospect of getting some mid- to late-season production from Byron Buxton.
Now, that would be huge.
Jerkin’ My Kurkjian
2013 Record: 203-204-73
All-Time Record: 363-456-140 (.452)
Oh, Jerk. Where do I start?
There’s only one way to sum this up. On January 1, I thought the Jerk was in prime position to contend for the division this year. He had a strong pitching staff and a decent offense.
Come draft day, he was left with a so-so pitching staff and a depleted offense.
He traded away two Cy Young contenders in Yu Darvish and Homer Bailey — they’ll finish in the top five in their respective Leagues — and a potential MVP candidate in Justin Upton — to me, he’s a threat to explode at any time. He also traded a decent second basemen in Aaron Hill and very good No. 3 starter in Hyun-jin Ryu. He also sent away a player in George Springer, who I think will come up in June and contend for the Rookie of the Year.
In return, he got Matt Moore, Mat Latos, Zack Greinke, Jean Segura, Domonic Brown, Dan Straily and Jurickson Profar.
Greinke is an ace, but I’d rather have Darvish. Moore is a potential breakout player, but I’d rather have Bailey. Profar has yet to reach potential, and even worse, he’s injured, and Aaron Hill was decent enough. Segura fills a hole at shortstop, but he's also injured. To think, he was inches away from sending Greinke away for Adrian Gonzalez before the keeper deadline.
It really is a case of he should have listened to me. Next season, I’m going to kick him out of the JLB in November and let him rejoin an hour before the keeper deadline. Perhaps that will keep him from trading away the players who could help him win.
OK, so I piled on the offseason moves. I'll leave them be for now. Let's talk about what did the Jerk did in the draft.
Well, he did some good things offensively drafting Adam Eaton, Jonathan Schoop and Brandon Belt. I like all three, and I believe come August, they’ll be mainstays in his lineup.
At pitcher, he grabbed Ervin Santana, Hector Santiago and Taylor Jordan, who are three pitchers that will provide some good numbers for him. Not ace-like numbers, but decent enough to get by. And he’ll take that with the ace numbers he’ll get from Greinke, Moore and Jon Lester.
As a whole — key word being, "whole" — I like his pitching staff better than the Gamblers. I’d love it if there was a Darvish, a Ryu and a Bailey in it.
Michael Coldsmith III
2013 Record: 187-220-73
All-Time Record: 223-264-89 (.464)
Michael Coldsmith III may have picked up a nice Comeback Player of the Year candidate in Josh Hamilton, but he would have been better served picking up a starting pitcher with that No. 3 pick. With Samardzija on the board, I’m surprised he passed over him.
Because if you’re going to draft one pitcher, he would have been the one to draft.
Aw, don’t feel bad Samardzija. Coldsmith didn’t only pass over you. He passed over all starting pitchers but one. That’s right, one.
And that one was Dan Haren. My mind is blown.
It’s not like he went into the draft with eight starting pitchers. He went in with four, and two of them are fighting for fifth spots in rotations in Joe Kelly and Sam Deduno. CC Sabathia and Tim Lincecum are the others. He actually has a sixth starter in reliever Robbie Ross, who won a slot with the Rangers, mainly because they ran out of starters in the spring.
Additionally, he went into the draft with two relievers and drafted five more.
What on Earth are you going to do with seven relievers and six starters?
He also has no true left fielder, and no backup catcher for Evan Gattis, who could slot into LF. It’s all a bit puzzling.
It’s going to take some work to build this franchise into a contender, and until then, he’ll be in last place behind the Jerk.
Comments