JLB 2021 SEASON PREVIEWS: Sex Panthers

Hey, Lily. You want to write Mom's baseball preview?

"No," she says, following up, "What's a baseball preview?"

In short, it's something that takes up a lot of Daddy's time.

Down to the last few, and appropriate I saved the Sex Panthers for last.

You see, because, you save the best for last, right?

Or is it you save the teams that are going to finish for last?

I can't remember.

In any case, this may be a bit of a struggle, but I don't think it will be as bad as 2020. Like many real-life players, the Sex Panthers apparently struggled in a Covid season to get going. Lots of errors there that led to several losses that did not need to occur.

But, with 2021 comes a fresh start.

And that fresh start will soon include the introduction to soon-to-be franchise players Jarred Kelenic and Mackenzie Gore.

"My young peeps are gonna be the future of the franchise," she said.

Lily heard peeps and perked her head up. That apparently is more interesting than previews.

Kelenic is going to be a star and I firmly believe that. As mentioned before, I was eying him up and sadly missed out on him.

When he does arrive, Gina surely hopes that's about the time Jo Adell returns to the majors. Add that to Clint Frazier finally getting a full-time role, and there's an outfield there with Joey Gallo.

Bo Bichette will have the middle infield covered for the foreseeable future, and one has to think that Marcus Semien and Didi Gregorius will at first help the Sex Panthers win some categories in the early part of the season, and in the latter part, if it doesn't go well, they'll be chips to bring back talent for 2022.

"I know I have shortstops galore," she said. "I mean it is one of my favorite positions aside from CF. I will likely have to use one as UTIL or maybe deal one out there for something I will need. We’ll see."

The reason she's in this triple shortstop situation is because she had the deal too good not to take. Luke Voit (injured) and Aroldis Chapman (suspended) for a first round and second round pick, Gregorius, Ty France, Cristian Javier and Kenley Jansen. She turned those picks into Gio Urshela and Matthew Boyd. It's quite the haul.

"I feel like most people win with their deals over Choo," she said, laughing with joy. "But honestly, I couldn’t turn down that deal because it seemed pretty ridiculous to me. I love Voit, but not that much! So I think I win like I won in my Bo Bichette deal."

At least for now. Yelich could easily jump back to MVP level and make it a bit more even. I say even because Bichette and Gallo will keep hitting, and Mitch Keller in a small sample size of 21.2 innings went 1-1 with a 2.91 ERA last season. He'll get more innings in 2021, for sure.

There are some other good upside starters here in Justin Dunn, Griffin Canning and Cristian Javier, and they join strong starters in Jose Berrios, Marco Gonzales and Chris Bassitt.

It doesn't seem to be enough to make the Panthers a playoff contender, so that's where the waiver wire will have to be her friend — a friend she avoided all last season, and has neglected in others.

But 2021 is a fresh start. This is the chance to begin anew.

And with that new will come the future stars, Kelenic and Gore.

"I’m excited for Mackenzie Gore because of how much I have heard about him," she said. "He should be pretty neat!! I also dealt for Nick Lodolo so I’m hoping he’ll be good!"

"What's a preview, Daddy?"

Oh, you know, it's just an outlet for Gina to call a baseball player "pretty neat."