We all look up.
We look there to see what we can be, what dreams we can achieve. We also look to see who's in our way of achieving those dreams.
For the Philly Cheese Steaks, it's the Dude. The 2020 World Series Champ has been loaded on the offensive side, and the Steaks entered November with one inquisitive thought: I wonder what Kelly is getting me for Christmas this year?
OK, so maybe it was two thoughts.
How to I get the Dude out of my way?
And the answer in short was offense.
We'll get to that latter part in a few.
First let's talk about what he did on the offense.
Before the ink was even dry on the commissioner's Nov. 1 yearly statement, "Yes, Crox, you can start trading today," the Steaks dealt for Marcel Ozuna, who was still without a real-life team. That deal got even better when he resigned with the Braves.
That's 35 homers, 110 RBIs and 80 walks on the projections added.
Eleven days later, he added Jose Abreu from the team that had the monopoly on All-Star players named Jose.
For those keeping score at home, add 38 more homers, 125 RBIs and 45 walks to the projections.
Eleven days later (Really? How did you do this?) he added Bryce Harper for Kyle Tucker, which is a bit of a wash on the homer and RBI projections, but a huge gain in the walk projections as Harper's 108 is more than double what the average fantasy player produces.
Considering this lineup already has a 30/100 guy in Nolan Arenado, and several other potent bats with Francisco Lindor, Dominic Smith and Ketel Marte, one would have to think JV entered the JLB keeper deadline with the biggest smile.
Especially considering he's done all this without sacrificing the key starting pitchers who have helped him dominate some pitching categories yearly.
Five starters have 200-plus strikeout projections on this team. To put this into perspective, six JLB squads have zero pitchers with 200-plus projections, and three more only have one.
JV has five.
"We knew we had a solid core of SPs heading into the offseason, and we were very fortunate not having to give up any of those guys to add the bats," JV said. "We thought we'd probably have to just maintain the pitching rather than bolster it given that our focus was adding offense. But we had a few late deals come together just before the keeper deadline (Luzardo, Woodruff) that make us feel a lot better about our staff on the whole."
But something still seems to be missing. I can't put my finger on it, but ...
Well, let's just take a look at the Cheese Steaks scouts' itinerary. The answer could be in there.
Oh, lookie here. A pair of scouts headed to Houston to watch Zack Greinke pitch.
"The goal remains to have Greinke retire as a Steak!" JV said, confirming the scout rumors. "So you know discussions with the Choo will begin before too long."
I can't imagine those negotiations will go well. Choo is already down to ... at last Jargon count ... six starting pitchers. (Sounds right, but who knows. #JCC)
JV may need to add that arm down the stretch, but he hopes it's to catch the champ and not fend off the competition.
That's the one thing about looking up, you forget to check who's coming at you from below.
"Dude is the champ until someone knocks him off," JV said, "but the NL has gotten a lot better on the whole. Quad has a really good offense, the best pitcher in baseball, and had a pretty nice draft. Monkey has a lot of really great pieces, especially offensively. And Butter and Slammer both have such tremendous top-flight young talent that they could both be a force sooner rather than later."
That was such a PR statement.
Let's be serious. JV is only looking up.
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