OK, so I got a little carried away and a lineup turned into a full 25-man roster. But this way you get a sense of how this team might play over the course of a full season. Nota Bene: the player rankings are from MLB.com's system and are current to before the start of the season. Moving from top to bottom and using the cliche'd "compliment sandwich" to evaluate this team seems in order, as their very strong offense and bullpen flank a downright pathetic starting pitching staff.
Boston's big acquisitions lead the way on offense with Baltimore and Texas also looking to field some key players. I've talked a little about picking more versatile players to stock a bench rather than just the most talented hitters - hence the presence of David DeJesus, who can play all three outfield spots well, over a guy like Johnny Damon (ranked 299) who will likely be limited to DH/LF duties for the Rays (especially now that Manny has essentially been dishonorably discharged). However, in the case of Guerrero and Reynolds, I was mesmerized by their home run totals and couldn't help but include them in the roster.
I had to revamp the pitching staff due to injuries and ineffectiveness. We would have had higher-ranked pitchers such as Brandon Webb (419), Vin Mazzaro (447) or Rich Harden (507), except those three are either starting the season on the DL or in the minors. I think I'm putting too much stock in those MLB pre-season rankings, but I just like the way their website is designed so much....
Yes I realize that both members of my middle infield are injured. I didn't remove them because a) I think they'll both be back in their respective lineups eventually while it's unclear what role the injured/demoted pitchers will play this year and b) I didn't want to go through the trouble. So there.
I have Soriano as the closer because he has the best closer-quality stuff. Gregg is ranked significantly higher because he projects to actually record some Saves this year for the Orioles while Soriano will be stuck behind Mo Rivera for the Yankees. It's encouraging that Fuentes has such a relatively high ranking for a setup man... but that's probably because the folks at MLB could see that Andrew Bailey has become a true injury risk.
As followers of my alter-blogging-ego might know, I recently picked up a copy of MLB 11 The Show. Using the game's superior game simulation/roster manipulation skills, I recreated this project, but with a twist: I simply put ALL the acquired players on a single team and let the CPU sort out what would make the best lineup. The results were a bit strange if also a bit predictable.
The starting outfield included Carl Crawford in LF, Vladimir Guerrero in RF, and ... Hideki Matsui in CF! Those of you who didn't see Guerrero try to play in the outfield last World Series should probably avoid the footage, because it was painful. And Matsui can barely man LEFT field, let alone center. I understand the game values hitting over defense (as video games are wont to do), but then why leave Adam Dunn on the bench in favor of ... MANNY RAMIREZ!!?! Granted this was before his retirement, but MLB ranks him 268, a full 234 places below Dunn. Someone somewhere got their signals crossed.
Other than those changes, though, the lineup and rotation (minus the injured pitchers) were pretty similar. I think they had Frank Francisco in there, but, again, minus the injured pitchers. The cool part about using the game, is that I could actually see a cartoony representation of how this team might look and how they might play. Incidentally, in the one simulated game I had the patience to (mostly) sit through (while doing other things), the AL team beat its NL All-Acquired counterpart in a thrilling come-from-behind victory. Next time, I'll go over the National League's squad.
No comments:
Post a Comment