Post by Erbes on Nov 8, 2014 16:47:22 GMT -5
Preseason Top 10!!
You guys know I love making articles that always come back to bite me in the ass (see: Franchise Player Rankings). And the best way to keep getting chewed raw is to keep making rankings of some sort! So here we go with a preseason top 10 for 2012!
10. Baltimore Orioles
Key offseason moves: re-signing 1B Jack Cust
Ceiling: AL Wild Card
Jah had his usual ho-hum off-season this year - didn't sign anyone important, but handed out a ton of MLCs. It would be nuts to see what he could do with the Orioles if he actually tried. Regardless of effort, Jah led the Orioles to yet another playoff berth last year as the AL's wild card. Jack Cust once again put the O's on his back with more help than usual from a sturdy pitching rotation. With no major additions to this team I think Jah will be lucky to sniff the playoffs this year. He'll get stiffer competition from inside the division (Yankees!!!) and outside (Brewers, Angels, White Sox). Jah should really post a trade block and make a trade with someone not named Dave to improve his team!
9. Milwaukee Brewers
Key offseason moves: none
Ceiling: AL Wild Card
So how can a team with no major additions in the offseason, and really no additions at all, be ranked higher than the Orioles? Well I think the Brewers are just better than Baltimore, plain and simple. If Steve was around (I hope everything is okay!) he could have stocked up on some game cash and splurged in a pretty nice FA this year to add to his lineup. The Brewers' biggest problem last season was the fact that Steve kept starting Pineiro! He was awfullllllll. With no Pineiro on the team the Brewers can improve exponentially! Steve should probably also make a trade once in awhile to improve his. Pretty sure his last trade was in 1974.
8. Seattle Mariners
Key offseason moves: traded for SP Mike Nannini
Ceiling: AL West champion, 1st round exit
Finally a team who made a major addition to their team! Chris took over the Mariners last season and immediately started to make moves to help compete in 2012. With the AL West currently this decades version of the, well, early 2000s AL West the division is a complete crap shoot and there for anyone's taking. Chris has a dynamite rotation of Prior, Nannini, and Gonzalez squared. A rotation that could easily silence the poor lineups of the West. Speaking of lineups, Chris has a built a well-rounded one with good speed at the top and some mashers in the middle. It's the kind of lineup that's good enough to win the AL West, but bite the dust everywhere else... thus the early round exit in the playoffs.
7. New York Yankees
Key offseason moves: traded for CF Jose Bautista, SP John Lackey, C Mike Napoli, SP CC Sabathia
Ceiling: AL East champion, more likely wild card with a mid-round exit
Trying hard to undersell this team as to not look like a fool. Plans were set in motion last season to start competing when I called up Goldschmidt, Alvarez, Lee (traded), Kipnis (traded, Beckham (traded), Colome, Moore (traded), et al; signed Pena and Punto; and traded for Cano, Caballero, and Stanton. Pretty much remade my entire lineup in about 3 months of game time. Obviously, my pitching leaves a bit to desire and that's why I've got myself at 7th. Hoping Colome makes huge strides this year. Estrada and Perkins have literally gotten better each year and this would be a great time for them both to sport sub-3.50 ERAs. We'll see how things shake out. Can't say I didn't try!
6. Chicago Cubs
Key offseason moves: traded for MR Darren O'Day, 3B Alberto Salomon, CF Austin Jackson; signed 2B Julian Benavidez
Ceiling: NL Wild Card
So I might be drinking too much of the Cubs Kool-Aid here, but when Play says he wants to compete he rarely finishes the season without some sort of playoff berth. This time around, it looks as though the Cubs are going to be built on high contact hitters (Wong, Carpenter, Salomon all have brilliant hits) and an extremely young rotation. Of course, Johan is still kicking around and will give his usual 20-25 win, sub-2.00 ERA for the season. So nice to have a rock like that. His season is going to depend on guys like Sale, Hudson, Kluber, and Miley all out-pitching their age. If they do, holy shit. This would be a huge underestimation.
5. San Francisco Giants
Key offseason moves: traded for SP Bryan Bullington; signed SP Joe Lampman
Ceiling: NL West champion, maybe NLCS
Here we go again. Another gifted season of NL West reign to Spence. Can somebody beat him already??? Per the usual, the Giants are loaded on offense, but I'm concerned with the offense this season. A ton of guys under performed last season (Posey, Dickerson, Johnson, Huff) and it makes you wonder if Spence has built a lineup with the wrong guys this time around? If that's the case he'll have to retool on the fly, which I have full faith in Spence being able to do, but it's also the reason why they're a little lower on my list. But, again, his pitching is top notch, and pitching wins in this league. As long as his offense doesn't kill him and can be league average, he should coast to the finish line in the NL West just like he has 11 times previously.
4. Boston Red Sox
Key offseason moves: signed MR Peter Moylan, MR Scott Schoeneweis, MR Chad Bradford; traded for RF Eugene Delrio, MR Ian Snell, SS Rafa Furcal
Ceiling: AL East champion, ALCS exit
Coming off of World Series defeat to the Marlins, Break invested huge funds in his bullpen. Roughly $14m for free agents, a 2nd round pick, and some board cash. In return he got some nice relievers who should make a solid impact for him at the end of games. My question is why invest so much in your bullpen when you have 4 stud SPs who all have A duration? It doesn't seem like a smart use of resources to me. There's no question the Red Sox are going to be very good this year, but they could have been much better. The average age of Boston's middle infielders is 36.5... If somebody suffers a PD up the middle they're done. It'll be interesting to see if Boston and Break can beat the race of time to win another division this year.
3. Cleveland Indians
Key offseason moves: signed SP Kip Wells, SP Gil Meche
Ceiling: AL Central champion, lose in WS
DRowe actually made some moves this offseason! They return the exact same lineup as last year, but have now added two very good pitchers to go along with an already strong rotation. I'm pretty sure Cleveland had a better team than Boston last year and if the ALCS were to be simmed 99 more times, Cleveland would have came out on top somewhere in the 60% neighborhood. As long as Dunn doesn't slip too much more in production Cleveland should easily make it to the World Series this year.
2. Pittsburgh Pirates
Key offseason moves: traded for DH Garrett Jones, LF Jeff Salazar, SP Josh Collmenter, LF Jason Kubel, SP Kason Gabbard, SP Ricky Fishburn; signed 2B Chase Utely, LF Carlos Lee, MR Geoff Geary, CL Hyoushirou Yaichiro
Ceiling: NL Central champion, lose in NLCS
Probably the only team who made more moves this offseason than the Yanks, the Pirates LOADED up. Like wow. I don't think this team is as good as the team he had a couple of seasons ago, but this definitely good enough to be the [HASH]2 team in the NL right now. The dark horse will always be the Cubs and Steve2 will need to continuously look over his shoulder at Play, but for now he can rest easy knowing only the Marlins stand in his way.
1. Florida Marlins
Key offseason moves: traded away SP Josh Collmenter, LF Jason Kubel; signed SP Yu Darvish
Ceiling: A 5th straight WS title
Go suck a dick, Ashes.
Next Five: Arizona Diamondbacks, Anaheim Angels, Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, New York Mets
Bottom Five: Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers
Bombs away!
