Friday, March 23, 2007

Impressed, 'nuff said.

Well, Lefty, a more tremendous fantasy team has not been assembled. Except mine. But still, yours isn't too shabby either. I admit, with my somewhat pathological... interest... in pitching, I scrolled immediately down to your staff and was blown away. Just a bit of a comparison between our two teams:

SP 1
Santana v. Zambrano
In a matchup of the cool, collected Santana and the fiery Zambrano, Santana clearly is in a class of his own, particularly with his astounding control. You do yourself no disservice, sir, with Zambrano as your starter, specially since Johotness went for $8 (almost a third of a team's budget) in the auction portion of your draft.

SP2
Oswalt v. Webb
I wanted Oswalt instead of Webb, but both are durable. Oswalt gets the nod in favor of his K rate and winning percentage. If Webb was on a better team, this could almost be a wash. But it isn't, so I'll stop whining.

SP3
Hernandez the Younger v. Sabathia
King Felix or not, the hype surrounding these two big fat guys could not be further apart. I cannot GIVE Sabathia away in my league for bullpen help, whereas I could dictate terms for Mariano Rivera or Joe Nathan with Hernandez, Jr. It's stunning to me how many people undervalue Sabathia. Both his WHIP and K rate were astounding last year, and, with a bit of conditioning, we could be looking at a solid #1 here. Meanwhile, Hernandez eats himself into a coma last offseason and they are still blowing him in Seattle. He's still a year away, and Seattle is about five from being a contender.

SP4-5
Cain and Santana Lite v. Porn Star Chuck James, and the Maine, Padilla, and Blanton Trio
Ugh. Here is where I truly envy you. In my 12 team league, starters were simply flying off the shelves, and it was all I could do to establish my top three as the best in the league. Matt Cain is going to be a STUD, and I am annoyed he went before I could grab him. Ervin Santana is a strong five, but I hate the Angels and would never draft one of their players. It would be funnier if I wasn't serious. Chuck James has been lights out this spring, and pitched very well last year. I could do worse than a poor man's young Tom Glavine. John Maine is the very personification of uevos, but I would like to see him do it over the course of an entire season... btw how terrible is Baltimore for giving him away? Vicente Padilla may be the ugliest major leaguer in the history of Major League Baseball, with competition only from 19th century players Tim "Coffee Cake Face" O'Malley and Red "Half-Aborted" Hendrickson. Finally, Joe Blanton is an Oakland pitcher, so expect flashes of brilliance with a maddening inability to put it all together.

As for your lineup, I enjoy seeing Freddy Sanchez there at 2B, great minds do, in fact, think alike. Fantastic balance of power and speed up and down, with that outfield platoon being a positively inspired bit of managing. I think I will attempt the same with Bonds/Duncan/Byrnes.
All in all, I expect the two of us to be positively dominant as the season begins.

-RJ

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