The Workermonkey

Monday, April 10, 2006

NL East: 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 4/10/2006 09:37:00 PM

Atlanta Braves: this division is theirs. Period. It’s like picking the royals to finish last. Not hard. All those kids who showed up last year are back. Chipper is healthy, Andrew Jones is still king, Hudson is fine, smoltz is going to pitch forever and bobby cox is still alive. They may find a hole in the bullpen but they have a bunch of young kids who can fill the gap. Plus, bobby cox works magic every year. This team is young again and is still competing. Hampton isn’t going to pitch much this year so he may finally be done. They do need another starter to step up but may have the right piece in the farm system. The braves haven’t ceased to amaze with what they have in the minors. They’ve built a great organization with a deep farm system and they’ve been winning for years. It’s theirs until proven otherwise.

New York Mets (wild card); hey look who the Mets picked up this year! Delgado, loduca, Wagner, and Xavier nady. Jorge Julio was a steal, and Chad Bradford is still effective. Now they have a real catcher, an actual first base and a bonafide closer. Talk about plugging holes. Beltran should be much better this year if his face isn’t still fucked up, that collision with mike Cameron was brutal. Pedro might be a problem as that toe doesn’t bode well for holding up over the course of the season. Glavine, just retire man, just go. Victor zambrano fills out the back of the rotation which looks ok. The national league is weak this year and this is a team of vets and pros who can still get it done enough to make the playoffs. They won’t beat the braves but they are going to clean up playing the marlins and nationals 40 times this year. Both teams are super weak (the marlins after a ’97 fire sale redux and the nationals due to ignorance and MLB owning them). The Mets will get killed if a few people miss a lot of time. They need Delgado to hit and Reyes to bet somewhere but leadoff. Kaz matsui is now fighting for a job and hopefully gets a quick hook before he hurts the team. The Mets benefit by having all the NL central teams knock each other off and sneak into the playoff with a wildcard. oh forgot david wright, he's sweet plays third and could be an allstar.

Philadelphia Phillies; they have some really good player here which would be a great core to a good team. Chase Utley is sweet, bobby abreau is a superstar, jimmy Rollins can hit, Ryan Howard is going to mash, pat Burrell continues to hit and mike liberthal is a solid backstop. But who the fuck lets Billy Wagner walk out of town? It must be the same lunatic who thought tom Gordon was going to be the answer. The phillies have mad some good move and some equally stupid moves. Picking up David delluici for a good young arm was bad; snagging aron rowand from the white sox was good. Getting rid of Jim thome was good, tom Gordon, bad. If they paid attention to a lousy pitching staff they might be able to mess with the Mets this year. They have some great talent to build around but they need to compliment it with good pitching and they haven’t done much to help them selves. An other year of spectacular mediocrity.

Washington nationals: I wish MLB would fix this. Just sell the team and get the stadium built. This is a club which has undergone so much crap the last few years I’m amazed they are going to do this good. Last years time at the top was a joke as it was a statistical abnormality. They were allowing more runs then they were scoring but winning a few close games. This made for a temporary spike early in the season that was corrected over the course of 162 games. Basically, the laws of nature balanced them out and threw the nationals back into the cellar where they belong. Poor soriano, all he wants to do is finish his career as a second baseman so he can have a legitimate chance at the hall of fame. A few more years at second base and he can surpass a few hall of famers in career stats for HR’s RBI’s and some other stuff. He’d have a good chance. Moving to the outfield kills his chances as his hitting at a notoriously weak offensive position like second was his claim to fame. In the outfield he’s just another guy and his numbers aren’t nearly as impressive when compared to your standard corner outfielders. Nick Johnson isn’t ever going to stay healthy enough to be great but he’s good when I nt he lineup. Vidro needs play well or soriano might have his chance to move back to second. Livan Hernandez should be cut up into little pieces and studied because not pitcher in the history of baseball has had as much abuse as him. He’s some kind of freak of nature with a rubber elbow. He can throw a million pitches and feel fine. If his arm suddenly falls off on the mound, don’t be surprised. This team has no pitching, and a bunch of holes in the lineup. MLB is still running the team so nothing major was really accomplished. Getting soriano was a mistake and they’d rather have the players they traded for him back. Ok well. I feel sorry for any of the players who’ve been there more then 3 years, it’s been a long ride.

Florida marlins: I’d name a few of these guys, but you wouldn’t know them. They got rid of everyone and brought back a massive pool of prospects. In two years, they might be scary, this year, they’re fucked. These kids need to learn and develop. Florida is left waiting. Dontrell would be smart to pitch half assed this year and not get hurt as his season is a wash before it even starts. Miguel Cabrera is another superstar but he’s not going to get noticed with this cast around him. The marlins did OK with all the kids they brought back but the real booty might be in the draft picks they received for losing guys like AJ Burnett. It’ll be a few year before it makes a difference, but its well worth it. Forget about this team this year, they are just fodder for the rest of the league.

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