A championship squad got even stronger.
Is it possible?
Yes. It is.
In the draft, Vandelay added some key bats that will help him down the
line, he put together a strong bullpen and he added a few more starters who
could help down the line. Overall, Vandelay will be a tough team to compete
against all year. Power, run production and speed with the bats, and then four
aces with the potential of a fifth sets up as one of, if not the best team in the
JLB. What’s even scarier? He had the luxury with the back-to-back picks to take
Yoan Moncada right away when everyone let him go. If he is the next “Robinson
Cano” or “Mike Trout,” Vandelay is really set up for a strong offense over the
next couple years.
Adding Matt Holliday and Adam LaRoche to the everyday lineup
will be huge. I thought Vandelay would go after one of the top third basemen in
the draft — and needing a third baseman myself, I worried about what he’d do
with the 12-13 picks. But he went a different route, drafting Adam LaRoche to
play first base, moving Carlos Santana over to third. It was a very smart move.
Holliday, who he grabbed with his third-round pick, will be just as productive.
Those two should be in the every day lineup with the rest of his All-Stars.
On the pitching side, he didn’t have to do much, carrying
nine starters into the draft, so he added two closers and two setup men.
Neftali Feliz and Glen Perkins are closers on bad teams, so that could
backfire, but nevertheless, the projections are there. His setup men, however,
I love. Tony Watson and Jordan Walden are on playoff teams and they’ll provide
plenty of holds for Vandelay. The best pitcher drafted may have been the guy he
took with the very last pick in the draft, Brandon Finnegan. He could easily
come up later in the year and be an impact starter for the Royals, or he could
lock down one of the strongest bullpens in MLB.
According to that silly Slammermetric Scale, the Cheese
Steaks, the reigning NL regular-season champs, will provide the greatest
competition. He has several big bats, but many of them are aging and have had
injury issues. From Troy Tulowitzki to Hanley Ramirez to Victor Martinez to
Ryan Zimmerman, he’ll have to worry about their health all season. If he gets
150-plus games out of all four, by all means, take the NL crown. But you can’t
make me believe that will happen.
He also decided to ship off Prince Fielder, who I really
thought would have a decent bounceback year, for Edwin Encarnacion. He has only
played in 150 games once and his numbers to me are sketchy. I mean, Choo
offered him to nearly everyone at least twice over the offseason. He couldn’t
wait to get rid of him.
Why? Perhaps the fact that he hit 16 homers in just one month last
year. I let you go on Baseball-Reference and see what he did in the other
months.
Pitching should be strong, though, as Max Scherzer and Jon
Lester will battle for the NL Cy Young. Andrew Cashner, Masahiro Tanaka, Kyle
Lohse and Jason Hammel will add great starts, too. Injuries have made the
bullpen a bit sketchy, but we all know relievers come and go in fantasy.
The two aforementioned teams are the ESPN projection
darlings, but I’m going to look at the Outs as the top team. The offense is
extremely strong, and due to the limitations in how many players I punch into
the “Slammermetric Scale,” guys like Kris Bryant, Hunter Pence, Neil Walker and
Khris Davis were not taken into account.
The Outs, if he plays the matchups right and the hot streaks
well, will be near the top in several batting categories.
 |
| The Outs are no Bums With the best pitching staff in the JLB and an offense that will only get stronger with the late April addition of the Golden Prospect, how can the Outs be stopped? That will be the question all year. |
And if he’s beating you soundly in the batting categories,
man, you’re in trouble because the pitching staff is going to be dominant. He
set the record for strikeouts by a lot last year and whereas he will likely not
beat it due to the new pitching rules, he’ll come close.
Jordan Zimmermann, Madison Bumgarner, Corey Kluber, Gerrit
Cole, Garrett Richards and Michael Wacha will all provide a high totals in
strikeouts, wins, quality starts, all while posting a low-ERA — one that will
likely lead the JLB once again.
So, if you haven’t gathered what I’m getting at here, I’m
personally picking the Outs to run the table. The team is going to be that
good.
Oh, and the one guy we should all look out for is Kendall
Graveman. Outs grabbed him in the 10th round and it bet it will pay off big
time.
The Otto Parts will certainly have an offense to compete
with his brothers and the Steaks, but the pitching is where he doesn’t match up
well at this point.
Matt Harvey and Julio Teheran make up a strong one-two
punch, but he’s going to have to make some smart decisions to fill in the other
5 to 7 starts a week.
Offensively, I’m scared. I knew by taking Carlos Rodon that
meant Matt Kempt would go to a team of MVP candidates, and that’s what happened.
Miggy, Trout, Kemp, Cano. This isn’t a fantasy lineup, it’s an All-Star team.
Those four guys, plus Manny Machado and Jason Heyward, will be catalysts in
leading Otto out of that basement he sat in last year. He’ll definitely be in
the hunt for the playoffs in July this year and not a seller like last July.
Steroid.ERA’s pitching is stronger than Otto’s with three
aces and some decent depth in Alex Wood, Dillon Gee and Scott Kazmir.
Offensively, though, he has a hole at shortstop until Francisco Lindor comes up
because Jung Ho Kang hasn’t faired so well in the spring, and I can’t see him
getting more than 250 at-bats this season. Steroid has good depth at other
positions, though, and he should be able to compete on a weekly basis.
Lastly, we have the team that scored so poorly on the
Slammermetric Scale it shouldn’t be named after it anymore.
That’s right, my team is awful.
But I find that hard to believe. I went to bed Friday
feeling great. I had never had a fantasy draft go that well. I had a list of names and I got them all. Not once did I see a player taken off my queue as I was about to pick them. I've never had that happen before in any sport.
Still, the ESPN projections suggest why I didn't have any trouble getting the names.
So, with that said, I know what I have to do. I have to
prove the ESPN projections wrong once again.
Challenge accepted.
Comments