Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Houston Astros
LA Angels
Oakland Athleticss
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
This thing took forever to write up. I almost can't believe I even did it. lol
Well, here goes:
Chicago Cubs
Offense: With their first pick in the expansion draft, the Cubs chose 2B Delwyn Young as the cornerstone of their franchise. Young has great contact and had an incredible rookie year in ’08 batting .350 with 203 hits and made the all-star team. The rest of the infield is made up of Mike Jacobs, former Baltimore Bomber Kevin Seitzer, and J.J. Hardy. Jacobs is a pretty decent hitter having consecutive 20+ homerun seasons and is a .279 career hitter. Decent decent ratings Seitzer has not had much MLB success compiling a disappointing .249 career batting average in 3 seasons. Hardy also has potential to be a solid everyday player but is still just a .246 career hitter. On to the outfield. The Cubs has Wily Mo Pena, Coco Crisp, and Victor Diaz filling the outfield. Pena is easily the #1 power threat on the team with his gap power and homerun power both being 9. He is only a .243 career hitter but has 3 straight 20+ homerun seasons. Crisp is a very good looking hitter but has not performed up to his potential as of yet. He only hit .218 in 670 AB’s in ’07 but rebounded to hit .255 in ’08, and should only get better this year. Diaz could be one of the teams better hitters. He has decent ratings and is a .265 career hitter. Aaron Hathaway round out the lineup in the catcher spot. Despite below average ratings he still managed to hit .311 in 43 games in his rookie year in ’08.
Offensive Rank in the Division: 3rd
Pitching: The rotation will be made up of Oliver Perez, Brad Sullivan, Erik Thompson, Armando Galarraga, and Jake Dittler. Perez is easily the ace with some pretty decent ratings but the performance has not been there for him the last 2 years. Sullivan likewise has decent ratings but no MLB experience. He will be getting his first taste of the big show this year. There really isn’t much to say about the rest of the rotation. Perez and Sullivan is about as good as you can expect from an expansion team. They could have a pretty decent closer though in Andy Sisco. He’s a 3.0 with good stuff and control although his career performance has been fairly average so far.
Pitching Rank in the Division: 4th
Detroit Tigers
Offense: This team does not have a really good offense but they have several guys capable of contributing on a daily basis. Rollins has some pretty solid ratings, including awesome gap power and great speed, but the numbers have not translated into statistical success. He has hit .224, .255 and .289 each of the last 3 years never scoring more than 83 runs. Byrd is really a pretty similar case to Rollins except he has had a bit more success batting .303, .287, and .270 each of the last 3 years, but has not had more than 469 AB’s in a season. Zimmerman is the next best offensive threat but has struggled with his batting average never hitting higher than .266. Geoff Jenkins is the team’s primary power threat but has been hampered by injured the past 2 years, and still only managed 12 homeruns in almost 500 AB’s in 2007. Outfielder Josh Kroeger has emerged as a surprise source of offense batting .306 with 87 runs scored in his first full season last year. Chris Young is a promising looking prospect despite only hitting .228 over his first 2 years in the bigs. He already has the speed and if he finishes developing he could be a 30-30 man. Willy Tavares does not hit for a very high average but he has blazing speed and doesn’t strike out a whole lot. He also scored 90 runs for the Tigers last season. Jeff Clement will also be getting his first shot as an everyday starting catcher. He could be a fair hitter right now but if he can develop he will be an absolute beast.
Offensive Rank in the Division: 4th
Pitching: The rotation is by far the strength of this Tiger’s team. Zach Duke is the ace of the staff with 10’s all across the board. Although he has had some good years, his stats have not really followed the ratings as he has yet to become the dominant pitcher that he could be. Actually Johan Santana and Duke might be tied for ace status. In the ’07 season Santana notched 22 wins with a 2.73 ERA while striking out 258. He had a huge off-year in ’08 but will no doubt be back on track in ’09. Frank Viola had a solid season winning 18 games in ’07 but struggled a lot in ’08 posting a 5.13 ERA. The last 2 spots will could be filled Joe Kennedy and Horacio Ramirez. Kennedy has really done horrible the last 2 years posting ERA’s of 5.19 and 5.79 while Ramirez has been limited to just 19 starts over the last 2 years, partly due to injury.
The bullpen also looks great with Duaner Sanchez, Matt Williams, and Chad Cordero. Sanchez does not strike out a lot of guys but has good control and a 3.48 lifetime ERA, with a career low mark of 2.05 last year. Matt Williams is an awesome reliever with incredible movement who can tune it up to 100 mph. He struck out 76 batters in 54 innings pitched last year, and if that wasn’t enough his nickname is Psycho! Cordero is the team’s ace closer who, at just 26 years of age, has 170 career saves and a stellar 2.34 lifetime ERA.
Pitching Rank in the Division: 2nd
St. Louis Cardinals
Offense: The Cardinals have an awesome offense. There is no way around that. The only possible hole would be catcher Dioner Navarro, and even he has hit .260+ and reached double digits in homeruns each of the last 2 years. Not to shabby for a catcher. The outfield is totally awesome with Joe Carter, Tony Gwynn and Darryl Strawberry. Oklahoma native Joe Carter hit 27 homeruns and drove in over 100 runs last year and was complemented by Darryl Strawberry who hit 29 homeruns and also drove in over 100 runs. Strawberry also hit 41 homeruns in the ’07 season, his first full year in the bigs. Tony Gwynn has just been Tony Gwynn. A .336 batting average and .398 on base percentage in his first 3 years in the league. In the infield they have Todd Helton, who despite severely diminished power numbers, still hit .359 and .333 in ’06 and ’07. Brian Roberts, Angel Berroa, and Eric Duncan round out the infield. All of whom have put up solid offensive numbers in the past.
Offensive Rank in the Division: Tied with Edmond for 1st
Pitching: The pitching is almost out of this world. The rotation is led by a very young Roger Clemens showing 10’s all across the board. After 3 years in the league, Rocket has posted a 48-11 record with a 1.88 ERA in 70 starts! Jered Weaver is the 2nd best starter and almost as good as Clemens. Weaver, also all 10’s, won 26 games with a 1.62 ERA in his first full season in the bigs and has a 2.07 lifetime ERA in 77 career starts. Mark Rogers is another 20 game winner for the Cards, winning 24 last year with a 2.27 ERA. Jon Lester is one of there worst starters. He only had a 3.49 ERA with 14 wins. Miller is also a very good pitcher but had a major off-year in ’08 posting a 5.13 ERA. Weaver and Clemens also won the ’07 and ’08 Cy Young awards respectively. The bullpen is anchored by one of the greatest closers in baseball history, Randy Myers. In the last 2 years Myers has saved 86 games with ERA’s of 1.96 and 3.03.
Pitching Rank in the Division: 1st
I'm really tired of typing by now so please see this link for the evaluation on the Edmond Bronchos:
http://strike3forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13434
Offensive Rank in the Division: Tied with St. Louis for 1st
Pitching Rank in the Division: 3rd
Division Standing Predictions:
1) St. Louis Cardinals
2) Edmond Bronchos
3) Detroit Tigers
4) Chicago Cubs
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Originally Posted by Molina00
