Steroid made the playoffs last year sneaking in during the final week. He then took down the Cheese Steaks only to almost take down the Outs. It was an 11-10-1 matchup late before the eventual World Series Champs pulled away for the 12-8-2 win in the NLCS.
“I made playoffs last year for first time since joining the League and feel that it was a hard road from what I inherited when I took over this team,” Butter said. “You just have to stick with your plan as an owner.”
And his plan has been a bit unorthodox from what we see around the JLB. Typically we see teams with even mixes or heavy pitching keeper lineups.
Not Steroid, and this year, he went all in on that philosophy with 14 bats vs. 5 pitchers. Young Bruce Wayne would be petrified walking into Steroid's man cave.
But Butter is just fine with it.
“As far as being set for bats, I'm never going to be satisfied,” he said, possibly pointing toward his first pick being a 15th bat. “But I'm good on first basemen and shortsthops — obviously! — My only needs offensively are a solid catcher that can fill in in case my rookie doesn't produce like I think he will.”
That rookie is Austin Hedges, and that’s quite the faith for Steroid considering the fact he dropped a top offensive catcher in Yadier Molina to go with the youngster.
I like the move and that Padres lineup is looking a better and better with a good mix of speed and power.
“Otherwise my offense is pretty impressive,” Butter continued. “It’s not as impressive as the Outs, who have a stellar lineup, at least for this year, but I think mine is pretty solid.”
The power is certainly there. Chris Davis, Todd Frazier and Nelson Cruz are all potential 40-HR bats, and seven of his other keeper bats are 20- to 30-HR bats.
And quite possibly, the most valuable player on this team is not a home run hitter. It's Francisco Lindor, who is one of four shortstops on this team.
“Lindor is my No. 1 shortstop,” Butter said. “Tulowitzki is a steady reliable rock at shortstop, too. There’s a lot of interest in both Lindor and Dansby Swanson, so there's no guarantee that either stay on Steroid.ERA's roster post-draft, depending on how juicy the offer may be.”
Let’s break that down.
One, Lindor the No. 1, no doubt.
Two, Tulo is a steady rock if said rock is one that easily cracks and often needs some concrete filling to fix it — concrete typically takes 30 to 60 games to dry.
Three, Steroid just went Ricky Henderson on us and Jargon isn’t sure how to take it.
Kind of like, I’m not sure how to take keeping just five pitchers, four of whom are starters, and of those four, two are aging and struggling.
Yes, I’d expect King Felix and Zack Greinke to bounce back, but we do have to worry that maybe they’ve hit the wall and our expectations are built on strong prime years that have passed them by.
“My best pitcher is Johnny Cueto, then Greinke,” he said. “If I could have traded any of them it would have been Rick Porcello or Felix (even though I think King Felix returns to his Royal days of yore)... I would have loved to add a franchise RP to help my bullpen pre-draft, but you can’t pay for saves or holds.”
Says the guy who traded for Aroldis Chapman.
Yeah, nobody likes to pay. Not for saves ... holds ... blown saves ... blowing over the limit on the breathalyzer. … Oh, too soon for Kang? That dude should be out of MLB and in jail. A two-years suspended sentence so he can play ball? That's just dumb. I want to ask Fantrax to delete him from our system.
But Pirate lover Steroid held on tight to his felonious third baseman.
“My only question mark is Kang with a possible looming suspension, which is why I was torn on keeping him over Kuhl.”
That’s Chad Kuhl, a Pirate, of course.
How does that feel Chad? Picked over Kang. You may drive straighter than Kang, but with a 4.43 ERA and 1.37 WHIP, you certainly doesn’t throw straighter.
But hey, let's be optimistic here: With a permanent D.D. hired by the Pirates — Butter is volunteering — and a short suspension, maybe Kang could prove to be useful.
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