Preseason Predictions – The NL Central

  Baseball season is only a few days away and we at Hurricanes are for Drinking would be remiss if we didn’t supply you with some predictions about who will win what, and how.  Today we continue our brief outlook with the NL Central, where the World Series Champions reside.

The Bottom

The Pittsburgh Pirates are an unfortunate bunch of perennial losers.  Most of their best players have jumped ship or inexplicably lost their stuff and left town for 10 cents on the dollar.  Recently however, the front office has made a concerted effort to keep their stars in town.  Canadian Jason Bay is their big bopper, and he’s preceeded in the lineup by the reigning NL Batting champ, Freddy Sanchez.  Scrappy shortstop Jack Wilson, Xavier Nady, newly acquired Adam LaRoche, and potential star Ronny Paulino fill out the lineup. Stud prospect Andrew McCutchen will start the season at Double-A, but could advance quickly.  The collection of talent greatly exceeds what the club has put together in recent history, and coupled with a number of young talented pitchers led by lefty Zach Duke, the Bucs could put together a fairly solid season.  The central saw improvement from the top down, and they are still a very young team so 75-80 wins would be a nice turn around season.

Five Reasons to Remember: Cellar Dweller Special

Today we continue our serial, Five Reasons to Remember a Player, also known as the Hurricanes are for Drinking Fantasy Baseball Preview. Since you probably know enough about the bigger name players in the game, these features will focus on the lesser knowns. You can get “insider” tips about Albert Pujols anywhere. Today we are going to give someone else a turn.

DISCLAIMER: Spring Training stats mean about as much as tits on a boar. They may look nice, but they ain’t serving any real purpose, except determining the roster composition for about the first month of the season.

Stuff We Get to do That You Probably Wish You Were Doing (Part 3): The Fantasy Draft

We are in a Blogger Fantasy Baseball League, the sick and twisted brainchild of the man who created a site named Seal Clubbers (look for a link on the blogroll also). Last Saturday was our fantasy baseball draft. For some inexplicable reason, I felt the need to explain the logic behind many of our choices about who to draft for our team, Handpeeing with Moises (yes, we got Moises Alou). To check on the standings for our league, Show N’ Tell With Sean Salisbury, click the link in the righthand righthand column, under the link to email us, part of our gorgeous Text-Box Widget. ‘Cause rudimentary HTML skills are all we have.

A note on the picks, we had the 10th pick in a 12 team serpentine ordered draft, meaning that we picked 10th in the odd numbered rounds, and 3rd in the evens. 30 round draft. Here are the picks, with a few highlighted:

Round 1: I was gunning for Miguel Cabrera, because David Wright is an abomination, but Cabrera went number 9, so Wright at 10 was not a bad consolation. It appears there is no limit to my hypocrisy.

Round 2: Lance Berkman is one of the 3 best 1B in the game, and he also has eligibility at rightfield. Enough said.

Round 3: We couldn’t get Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins, or Derek Jeter, but Hanley Ramirez can do everything they can do, and he is really young. He may hit for more power than Reyes, and steal more bases than Rollins. He may do more of both than Jeter. It’s a bit of a risk, because he is a second year player, but he could be the best fantasy shortstop. We just don’t know.

Round 4: We needed a pitcher, and Jake Peavy was there. Looking back on it, I kind of wish I had taken Roy Halladay, who went six picks later. They’re both going to be pretty good, but Peavy plays in a worse division, a better park, and in front of a better defense.

Round 5: Johnny Damon

Preseason Predicitions – The NL West

Baseball season is only two weeks away and we at Hurricanes are for Drinking would be remiss if we didn’t supply you with some predictions about who will win what, and how.  Today we begin our brief outlook with the NL West, where for the past two seasons mediocrity has ruled the day.

The Bottom

The Arizona Diamondbacks made a splash when they reacquired World Series Hero Randy Johnson.  Unfortunately for Randy and the Dbags, The Big Unit is merely a shadow of what he once was, and is now at best a number three starter.  The team cleaned house of a number of veterans, including Luis Gonzalez, and will struggle to put runs up on the board.  75 wins is a stretch for a team that will waste Brandon Webb’s fantastic arm for yet another season. 

Five Reasons to Remember: The Juice (of Jesus of Nazareth)

Today we continue our serial, Five Reasons to Remember a Player, also known as the Hurricanes are for Drinking Fantasy Baseball Preview. Since you probably know enough about the bigger name players in the game, these features will focus on the lesser knowns. You can get “insider” tips about Albert Pujols anywhere. Today we are going to give someone else a turn.

In 2004, former big-leaguer Andy Van Slyke postulated that the only way 46 year-old Julio Franco was still playing in the Major Leagues was because he was on steroids. Franco agreed, claiming that he was indeed using a performance enhancer:

“Andy Van Slyke is right,” Franco said. “I’m on the best juice there is. I’m juiced up every day, and the name of my juice is Jesus. I’m on His power, His wisdom, His understanding. … Next time you talk to him, tell him the steroid I’m on is Jesus of Nazareth.”

I would definitely find Jesus if it meant I got pipes like those.

Each year, there are a few older players who have inexplicably great seasons. It’s part of the natural progression of a baseball player’s career. I’m not naive enough to believe that these late-career outbursts are never aided by the use of (real) performing performance enhancers; I’m also not cynical enough to believe that each older player who has a great season is on steroids. I guess we could call these players bounce-back veterans, or something along those lines, but I really wanted to work that Franco story in. I’m in no way insinuating that these players are going to use steroids, only that I think they will have good seasons.

Five Reasons to Remember: Adam LaRoche

Today we continue our serial, Five Reasons to Remember a Player, also known as the Hurricanes are for Drinking Fantasy Baseball Preview. Since you probably know enough about the bigger name players in the game, these features will focus on the lesser knowns. You can get “insider” tips about Albert Pujols anywhere. Today we are going to give someone else a turn.

First baseman may be the single most important postion in fantasy baseball. It’s a place where you can get a lot of offensive production, from a player who will play a lot of games. It’s also a good place to get your utility offense, and a good bench position to have in case of injury. The thing is, there are a limited number of first basemen who are absolutely must-haves. You know the names: Pujols, Berkman, Howard, Morneau, Teixera. You can throw Konerko, Delgado, Fielder, and Lee in there as guys who will get drafted before Adam LaRoche. In fact, if LaRoche is your starting first baseman, you probably won’t be winning. But if you are looking for a backup first baseman, and a solid guy to keep around as a backup first baseman, LaRoche would be a good guy to spend a mid-to-late round pick on.

Five Reasons to Remember: Felix Hernandez

Today we continue our serial, Five Reasons to Remember a Player, also known as the Hurricanes are for Drinking Fantasy Baseball Preview. Since you probably know enough about the bigger name players in the game, these features will focus on the lesser knowns. You can get “insider” tips about Albert Pujols anywhere. Let’s give someone else a turn.

Felix Hernandez shot through the minor leagues, making his major league debut at the age of nineteen. Two years later, at the ripe old age of twenty-one, King Felix has a season and a half of Major League service time at an age when most of his contemporaries are trying to find themselves in Europe or at the bottom of a keg of Natural Light. I am betting that F-Her has never tasted Nattie; he certainly wasn’t drinking much beer this offseason when he reportedly lost twenty pounds. And while one reputable study seems to indicate that (be nice) larger pitchers tend to perform better over time, Felix was a big boy anyways, and if a commitment to fitness keeps him from following the Bartolo Colon career path, that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Five Reasons to Remember: Hunter Pence

Today we continue our serial, Five Reasons to Remember a Player, also known as the Hurricanes are for Drinking Fantasy Baseball Preview. Since you probably know enough about the bigger name players in the game, these features will focus on the lesser knowns. You can get “insider” tips about Albert Pujols anywhere. Let’s give someone else a turn.

Entering Spring Training, the Astros’ outfield looked like a pretty stable, solid situation. With the offseason acquisition of Carlos Lee, the trade of Willy Taveras, and the continued maturation of Chris Burke, Luke Scott, and Jason Lane, the Astros had a pretty talented, versatile top four. It’s still early, but it is looking more likely that Hunter Pence has gone and screwed all of that up. Pence was the Astros’ second round pick in the 2004 draft, after a stellar career at the University of Texas Arlington. Although the former Maverick has yet to play a game above the Double-A level, his formidable athleticism, and stellar spring numbers have thrust his name into the conversation for the opening day outfield. The probability is high that Pence will start the year in Triple-A, but the Houston Chronicle’s Richard Justice, whose Sports Justice blog is absolutely required reading, has already pencilled Pence into the second spot of the lineup. Manager Phil Garner has been fairly non-committal, which is to be expected. After all, he wouldn’t want to give Pence a false sense of accomplishment this early.

The A-Rod Plan

Unless you live under a rock, or in Iraq, you are probably very aware of the situations Alex Rodriguez puts himself in almost every single day. Since signing his record $250+ million contract A-Rod, or as the famed New York sports talk show host Steve Sommers calls him, Lightning-Rod has shown a preternatural ability to attract controversy.

A-Rod has built a solid resume of douchebagisms: the Esquire article six years ago in which A-Rod illustrated his douchebaggery by commenting that,

He’s never had to lead. He can just go and play and have fun. And he hits second–that’s totally different than third and fourth in a lineup. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie and O’Neill. You never say, “Don’t let Derek beat you.” He’s never your concern.

Add in the fight with Jason Varitek, the “bush league” ballslap against the Red Sox in the ALCS, and my personal favorite, when A-Rod got on the case of a clubhouse helper who brought him the wrong sandwich, which forced teammate Jeff Francoeur to intervene.

Five Reasons to Remember: Swiss Army Knives

Today we continue our serial, Five Reasons to Remember a Player, also known as the Hurricanes are for Drinking Fantasy Baseball Preview. Since you probably know enough about the bigger name players in the game, these features will focus on the lesser knowns. You can get “insider” tips about Albert Pujols anywhere. Let’s give someone else a turn.

In fantasy sports, like in real sports, depth is a very real, and very valuable commodity. With the limited number of bench positions available on most fantasy league rosters, players with eligibility at multiple positions become that much more important. When injuries inevitably strike, having depth can mean the difference between making or missing the playoffs. Today I thought I would discuss five players whose multi-position eligibility, in addition to their stats, make them fantasy musts. I call them Swiss Army Knives, because their versatility allows them to do a large number of jobs, but they don’t necessarily do any one job as well as a proper tool. These are some of the elite Swiss Army Knives; you will find plenty lingering late in your draft and on the waiver wire.