CFBL Team Preview: Smelly Spics

OVERVIEW:
2007 Record: 111-92-17
Standings: 6th place (3rd seed)


Brad's team had a pretty decent year overall, but again fell short in the playoffs. Hey, at least he made the playoffs in CFBL play.


PROJECTED LINEUP:
C Varitek
1B Morneau
2B BJ Upton
3B Eric Chavez
SS Bobby Crosby
OF Johnny Damon
OF Vlad Guerrero
OF Vernon Wells
DH Big Hurt Frank Thomas

SP Verlander
SP King Felix
SP AJ Burnett
SP Joe Blanton
SP Gil Meche
SP D-Train

RP Huston Street
RP

BN Josh Hamilton

This is another team that would require stradding or going over the salary cap to keep together. I have him at ~131.



NEEDS:
-Cap flexibility...?
-Could stand to get some more stolen bases
-Relief pitching. Who knows what to make of Street and/or the A's this year.
-Bobby Crosby sucks
-Eric Chavez kind of sucks
-Not a lot of needs on this team. He already has a set lineup that should lead or challenge in every offensive category as well as pitching that ranks among the best in the league and good depth on both sides


STRENGTHS:
-Powerful and diverse offense
-Strong pitching staff with top notch quality Aces and depth
-Great young cornerstone position players and pitchers


WEAKNESSES
-No money to spend
-Lots of money tied up in the OF in some older players. Theyre good players, buts its a lot to pay for. Also, he's blocking younger cheaper options that could approximate their production for fractions of the cost. (READ: Josh Hamilton)
-Old players at some critical positions and old players who are expected to play big roles (Tek, Vlad, Big Hurt)
-Lots of injury prone players could de-rail the season/force him to overpay for quick fixes (Upton, Chavez, Crosby, Damon, Big Hurt Burnett, Street, Hamilton)
-What the hell happened to the farm system? Thats going to hurt if he has to go out and get a shortstop or 3B because he has no money to spend and no margin for error.


PREDICTION:
This is a very good team with a lot of everything. Definitely in the playoffs and most likely a bye. I like the Spics as my favorite to win it all.


FARM SYSTEM:
What was once a pretty good farm system has been ravaged by trades and bad luck. He only has one transition player in Jerry Owens of the White Sox... and that's not a position he needs help with nor a particularly inspired option. He has some nice stars in Daric Barton and Jake McGee. The McGee acquisition was a great one and has to go down as perhaps the worst trade in CFBL history. Triunfel is a extremely high ceiling prospect but is many years away from the majors. Then some mid range pitching prospects that are interesting with Hellickson and Swarzak. Not much depth here and the high end guys arent as good as most other teams. Still, he has two first round picks and with a strong draft this system could jump into the top 1/3rd pretty quickly.


OFFENSE: A
PITCHING: A-
FARM SYSTEM: C+
OVERALL: A-


PREDICTED FINISH: 1st