Friday, March 28, 2008

NL West

Las Vegas
Las Vegas Debauchery (NL)
jamesutd
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Lineup
3B- Brian Morris
LF- Brian Lee
2B- Angel Melendez
1B- Pete Shaw
RF- Vin Mendez
SS- Kent Morris
CF- Hector Montanez
C- Derek Bieser/Matthew Wright
Very good defensive unit. Has some stolen base threats that are also smart base runners. Lacks some pop in my opinion. Brian Lee is an On base machine that doesn’t strike out. Angel Melendez is very good at everything, excellent player. Pete Shaw walks a ton, his career has been erratic however in the power numbers. Vin Mendez may have hit over his head last season a little bit. SS Kent Morris hurts team some with sagging OBP but he more than makes up for it with his excellent glove and range in the field. C- Derek Bieser is a hitter that may end up in the 4 or 5 spot. He has pop as also a good backstop. Really like this kid, he could be the major power threat in this order when its all said and done. Wright provides solid defense but at the cost of a Paul Bako type bat. Lineup’s defense is a real strong suit and one of the reasons they have a chance at repeating this season.
RATING: 7.0

Starting Pitching
SP1- Philip Bacsik
SP2- Grover Sauerbeck
SP3- John Bieser
SP4- Kenny Brown
SP5- Jack Ojeda
Easy to see why the won the title last year. Phillip Basick…..nuff said. Sauerbeck and Bieser would be a lot of teams #1 starter. Brown is a solid veteran. Ojeda is a rookie who is decent. Bieser and Brown benefited by getting out of the AL which is a huge issue for a pitchers confidence due to the league having the DH and resembling softball. In a 3 out of 5 series you won’t beat Basick, Sauerbeck and Bieser. They also benefit from the great defense Vegas puts behind them.
RATING: 7.0

Bullpen
Setup-
Damion Gordon
Harvey Thurman
Leo Serrano
Miller Gold
Bartola Silva
Josh Nicholson
Sven Hammonds
Closer-
Christian Cheung
The bullpen for sure has holes. Not really a lot of bad arms, but just a bunch of decent arms. I think Miller Gold could end up sliding into the 5th spot in the rotation; mostly the 8th innings will be a grab bag between Serrano, Thurman, Silva and Hammonds. With Thurman having a slight edge over the others. I think last seasons 5th starter Christian Cheung will strive in the closers role because he has good velocity and a solid first pitch. If you are going to beat Vegas you better beat them in that 7th/8th inning area between the starters and the closers. This may be their kryptonite. However that is a very small window we’re talking about. So good luck too all at trying to expose it.
RATING: 5.5

Overall

Excellent team, lineup doesn’t have great power but they are so good defensively combined with their excellent starting pitching that it won’t matter much if they hit the ball over the fence or not. They’re 1, 2, 3 starters are pretty rough. Look for Vegas to try and make a move for a top setup man at some point, if they do that…they really wouldn’t have a weakness. Forecast 105 wins.




Vancouver
Vancouver Harbormasters (NL)
mbooker
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Lineup
James Lee
Lorenzo Sanchez
Rex Person
Buddy Flaherty
Robert Foster
Tim Griffith
Jerome Forbes
Jack Rothschild
Murray Ramsay
You can see the Harbormasters live and die with their defense. They can pick it that’s for sure. Quite possibly the best or one of the best defensive teams in the league. The lineup as far as hitting goes is not real good though. Basically a punch less group with Flaherty being the only real power threat, he walks a good bit too. Ramsay is a great defensive catcher….but he makes Paul Bako look like Babe Ruth. Griffith is a guy I really like, solid glove, high average type 3B.
RATING: 4.5

Starting Pitching
SP1- Domingo Armas
SP2- Brad Lowe
SP3- Odalis Pelaez
SP4- John Eldred
SP5- Danny Buckley
Armas is a solid pitcher in the 1 spot. Lowe dominated the NL after coming over last year, however I do not think he can duplicate that, I do think he’ll be a solid 4.00 ERA type guy. But he won’t Johan Santana-it for an entire season. Pelaez is a question marks, while Buckley is just average however he is consistent. Eldred may end up as the 3 starter.
RATING: 6.0

Bullpen
Long Relief-
Glenn Brooks
Ralph Kydd
Magglio Canseco
Setup men-
Jim Lewis
Cliff Bradshaw
Shigetoshi Chen
Closer-
Enrique Unamuno
I’m not sold on the Long Relief. I do think Kydd will eventually be used some in a setup role type. I like Chen as a bridge to the harbormasters solid closer UnamunoRATING 5.0


Overall

Good defensive team that can give a lot of people trouble when Armas or Lowe is pitching and they can get a lead to Unamuno. However I don’t think this team will score enough to help their 3-5 spots in the rotation out. Last season was a dream year in which they pushed the Vegas machine to the brink. I think this year they wake up from that dream with a little slobber on their face. All in all still a solid team however. Forecast 82 wins





Lineup
Sparky Mcenroe
Phillip Truman
Gerald Donatello
Ted Vaughn(power….doesn’t walk or double)
Will Houston-
Andres Telemaco
Fleming/Carpenter platoon at C
Phil Miller
Lineup has a couple of bright spots but way too many holes. Truman is not a good defensive CF, while one of the only power threats Ted Vaughn does not walk or double at all. Will Houston is a decent player but paid like a good player. The Fleming/Carpenter duo behind the plate is paid quite well…..but they do compliment each other great, so the backstop is a bright spot.
RATING: 4

Starting Pitching
SP1- Henry McClellan
SP2- Terry Franco
SP3- Henry Bailey
SP4- Paul Messmer
SP5- ?
McClellan is very good but he starts season on DL. Franco is a solid pitcher as well. Bailey is overpaid and probably not a 3 for a good team. Messmer can be gotten away with and the 5th spot is up for grabs. Appears D.T. King has the inside trace….however I’d probably rather have B.B. King myself.
RATING: 4.5

Bullpen

Alomar, Chen, Garcia headline this pen. The grade would be much high for the pen if not for a couple of other pitchers who probably don’t belong in the bigs. But these 3 are for sure likeable.
RATING: 4.5

Overall

I really like this teams 1 and 2 starters and they have some nice things going in the pen. However the balance on their roster between good players and bad players is huge. If they can get some average players to replace some of the junk at the bottom of the roster this team would make a move. As is they may get to a point and try too trade some of the really good pieces for some young talent. The Big 2 of McCellan and Franco could bring a fortune. We shall see. Forecast 65 wins.





Lineup
3B- Luther Hamlin
CF- Darin Jennings
RF- Phillip Maroth
LF- Al Gil
1B- Steve Thronton
SS- Gary Price
C- Anderson/Hernandez platoon
2B- Kurt Bichette
Most of the lineup has the look of a mens softball team. They can hit it. However if they plan on outscoring people they should do something about the dead weight bats behind the plate and at 2B. Overpaid veteran Gary Price at short doesn’t hit much either. However, guys like ROY-C Hamlin and studs Maroth and Gil give this lineup some serious juice. 1-5 can get it done….6-9 could be pretty easy to mow through. Lineup needs better balance.
RATING: 5.5

Starting Pitching
SP1- Charlie Gordon
SP2- Wesley Hernandez
SP3- Julio Lee
SP4- Jeremy Zentmeyer
SP5- Kirk Newman
This area will be a major problem. Rookie fireballer Jeremy Zentmeyer will be a bright spot and is quite possibly their best pitcher. Gordon and Newman can be decent and keep them in games although Newman is highly overpaid. Lee is easily the weaklink and Hernandez is not much better, Hernandez could quite possibly be the most overpaid pitcher in the league. Anaheim should build around Zentmeyer and gear the rest of their efforts towards fixing this rotation or else it won’t matter how good their 1-5 hitters do, they’ll just be outscored.
RATING: 3.0

Bullpen
Setup-
Vince Reagan
Ralph Knorr
David Chen
Cameron Mann
Reagan is a solid, underpaid veteran who is a nice little piece in the pen. Knorr is tough on lefties but gives up tons of homers and has been consistently bad in the ERA category throughout his carrer. Chen is a decent young pitcher. Mann has several .450slg allowed seasons….nothing more needs to be said(except that he makes 3.5 mil.)
Closer-
Bernie Mercado- young cheap saves guy is a solid piece in the pen also.
A couple of decent arms, a couple of guys that have struggled. Pretty much a grab bag kind of situation.
RATING: 4.0

Overall

I really like some of the players Anaheim has obtained. They should be able to build around these guys. It’s still a couple of seasons away from contending however, just too much dead weight and bad contracts on the roster. But if the rotation and 1 or 2 lineup spots could get shored up this team could make some noise in the next 2 years. Forecast 62 wins


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