OVERVIEW:
2007 Record: 110-92-18
Standings: 3rd Place (4th Seed)
JGR quietly had a very good fantasy year despite his CFFL collapse. He finished fourth in CFFL play and third in CFBL. JGR resembles the Chicago Cubs more every season that passes as he cant seem to break through and win a ring. Will this be the year? Not without a lot of work... but the core is solid and there is room for growth.
PROJECTED LINEUP:
C
1B Cuddyer
2B Cano
3B Blalock
SS Betancourt
OF Carl Crawford
OF Alex Rios
OF Nick Markakis
DH Pronk
SP Kazmir
SP Schilling
SP Daniel Cabrera
SP
SP
SP
RP Papelbon
RP
This team would cost ~$95 million to assemble.
NEEDS:
-Pitching! Very similar to StS(Stump the Skorupe) in that he has a great, high K rate Ace at the front... and then nothing. John needs depth and quality and its hard to imagine him finding enough at auction
-Catcher... that one wont be easy to find
-More pitching
STRENGTHS:
-Offense is solid and well rounded. He should be above average to good in every offensive category
-Youth. Everyone wants it. John's got it. With the added advantage that many of his players are arb guys he got at auction so he can go year to year with them
-Papelbon is the best closer in the game and actually contributes in Ks and rate stats significantly despite not throwing that many innings. Yes, he's THAT good
-Great core pieces in Crawford, Pronk, Rios, Markakis and Cano. That's a lot of great young position players on one team
-Scott Kazmir is a fantasy Ace that belongs in the discussion with the best in the game. He's a beast
WEAKNESSES:
-Betancourt is a terrible shortstop. Period. End of Story. Yet another way John and Mike's teams are similar
-All those young arb guys he can go year to year with that I listed as a strength? Well, he paid out the ass for it. Rios costs 15. MarCockis is 11 a year
-He has a 30 million dollar OF that plays like a 20 million dollar OF
-He has a 28 million dollar rotation that plays like a 20 million dollar rotation. How the hell is he going to build this pitching staff?
-Why the hell is he playing Cuddyer and Blalock 11.5 million each? These are the kind of bad contracts that werent necessary and may be what stops him from getting the pitchers he needs
PREDICTION:
Strong team here. Will be a playoff contender but needs to catch some breaks. Has one of the worst pitching staffs in the league and will have to pay a steep price to fill in the gaps. Its doable though. He has a lot of payroll tied up in the offense, and just like Mike he should probably trade excess offense for pitching and put out a more balanced team. Whoever breaks first and pays the price for pitching will probably be the one that sneaks in the playoffs. Mike and John really have the same exact fucking team here. Same strengths and weaknesses. Same needs and same solutions are available.
FARM SYSTEM:
Middle of the road system. Perhaps slightly below average. Good top end guys, but some injuries and some question marks knock them down a notch. Lots of third tier pitching prospects that could jump up and help. His top five prospects are all pitchers, and in fact three of them are Rays pitchers. Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann and Andy Sonnanstine could one day theoretically give JGR 4/5ths of the Tampa rotation... but then again there are way more excellent pitching prospects than there are rotation slots down in St. Pete. Average depth and a couple promising young players round out the system. I like Butler and Broadway a little. It sure looks like he wasted a lot of draft picks... Chase "back-to-back-to-back-to-back" Wright? David Murphy? Lucas Harrell? Its not a particularly impressive system.
OFFENSE: B+
PITCHING: C
FARM SYSTEM: B
OVERALL: B-
PREDICTED FINISH: 7th/8th (TIE)
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