Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
I love my NL outfield plantoon and AL starting pitching
There is a lot to be annoyed about this season. Both my teams have seen disappointing years leading to an early injury departure for their All-Star third-basemen (Scott Rolen and Eric Chavez) who both might never be the same; both teams have had terrible seasons from their planned future star second-basemen (Josh Barfield and Rickie Weeks); and both teams have had massive injury decimation/incredible sudden crapiness-syndrome to their bullpens (B.J. Ryan, Justin Duchscherer, Jessie Crain, Scott Linebrink, Raphael Soriano, Cla Meredith). But one thing I take pleasure in is the depth of my AL rotation and NL outfield.
My AL starting pitching is a quandry of who to start? Johan Santana, John Lackey, and Roy Halladay are a given. Fausto Carmona has pitched himself to be in the top 4 if not top 3. Then we have the always under-appreciated veterans of Javier Vazquez and Jake Westbrook and the stepping-up phenoms of Jamie Shields and Dustin McGowan. Looking ahead coming up strong from the minors I have Gio Gonzalez on the major league squad and Philip Hughes on the minor league squad. That's eight guys I'm comfortable throwing out there right now and two that are definite holdable prospects. Yeah maybe I should have tried to turn some of that pitching into an infielder as The Ramon Vazquez Story, Juan Uribe Adventure, and Julio Lugo Tale I'd rather see played out elsewhere but the two trades I turned down: McGowan for Carlos Pena; Carmona and Lugo for Placido Polanco would have turned out to help my opponents more, I think. Certainly having Carmona pitch for the guy who is looking like my playoff opponent would have hurt and him having to play Polanco out of position at short actually gives me a boost, I think. Anyway, it will be tough deciding who not to hold next season.
In the NL at one point I had so many injuries in the outfield that I had Mark DeRosa starting out there and had to call up Hunter Pence (who then got hurt) and draft Matt Diaz in the second supplemental. But now everyone is healthy and I'm hard pressed to get all their bats into the lineup but when I do it is to maximum platoon advantage:
Carlos Beltran plays every day (.283 .369 .538, 28 homers/20 steals)
Hunter Pence starts against righties (.323 .359 .545, 14 homers/9 steals)
Cory Hart starts against righties (.292 .357 .528, 20 homers/22 steals)
Moises Alou starts against lefties (.328 .390 .522, 11 homers/3 steals)
Matt Diaz starts against lefties (.343 .379 .524, 12 homers/3 steals)
Gabe Gross pinch hits (.252 .353 .469, 7 homers/3 steals)
Shane Victorino pinch hits and subs defensively (.284 .352 .427, 11 homers/35 steals)
Jim Edmonds subs defensively (.245 .320 .391, 10 homers/0 steals)
Endy Chavez drives a taxi (.261 .306 .362, 1 homer/4 steals)
I love my power-speed guys and next year Pence will have CF range and Hart will have tweener range as he played some CF this year. It would have been nice to have held Pence in the rookie leagues but oh well.
(0) comments
There is a lot to be annoyed about this season. Both my teams have seen disappointing years leading to an early injury departure for their All-Star third-basemen (Scott Rolen and Eric Chavez) who both might never be the same; both teams have had terrible seasons from their planned future star second-basemen (Josh Barfield and Rickie Weeks); and both teams have had massive injury decimation/incredible sudden crapiness-syndrome to their bullpens (B.J. Ryan, Justin Duchscherer, Jessie Crain, Scott Linebrink, Raphael Soriano, Cla Meredith). But one thing I take pleasure in is the depth of my AL rotation and NL outfield.
My AL starting pitching is a quandry of who to start? Johan Santana, John Lackey, and Roy Halladay are a given. Fausto Carmona has pitched himself to be in the top 4 if not top 3. Then we have the always under-appreciated veterans of Javier Vazquez and Jake Westbrook and the stepping-up phenoms of Jamie Shields and Dustin McGowan. Looking ahead coming up strong from the minors I have Gio Gonzalez on the major league squad and Philip Hughes on the minor league squad. That's eight guys I'm comfortable throwing out there right now and two that are definite holdable prospects. Yeah maybe I should have tried to turn some of that pitching into an infielder as The Ramon Vazquez Story, Juan Uribe Adventure, and Julio Lugo Tale I'd rather see played out elsewhere but the two trades I turned down: McGowan for Carlos Pena; Carmona and Lugo for Placido Polanco would have turned out to help my opponents more, I think. Certainly having Carmona pitch for the guy who is looking like my playoff opponent would have hurt and him having to play Polanco out of position at short actually gives me a boost, I think. Anyway, it will be tough deciding who not to hold next season.
In the NL at one point I had so many injuries in the outfield that I had Mark DeRosa starting out there and had to call up Hunter Pence (who then got hurt) and draft Matt Diaz in the second supplemental. But now everyone is healthy and I'm hard pressed to get all their bats into the lineup but when I do it is to maximum platoon advantage:
Carlos Beltran plays every day (.283 .369 .538, 28 homers/20 steals)
Hunter Pence starts against righties (.323 .359 .545, 14 homers/9 steals)
Cory Hart starts against righties (.292 .357 .528, 20 homers/22 steals)
Moises Alou starts against lefties (.328 .390 .522, 11 homers/3 steals)
Matt Diaz starts against lefties (.343 .379 .524, 12 homers/3 steals)
Gabe Gross pinch hits (.252 .353 .469, 7 homers/3 steals)
Shane Victorino pinch hits and subs defensively (.284 .352 .427, 11 homers/35 steals)
Jim Edmonds subs defensively (.245 .320 .391, 10 homers/0 steals)
Endy Chavez drives a taxi (.261 .306 .362, 1 homer/4 steals)
I love my power-speed guys and next year Pence will have CF range and Hart will have tweener range as he played some CF this year. It would have been nice to have held Pence in the rookie leagues but oh well.
