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I'm not sure what it says about the phallocentric nature of our society that, while the tomato never really took off as a hand fruit, the banana looms large on the snacking horizon. Thus the picture at right, which isn't at all about adding visual appeal to the page, but instead about celebrating a young lady's clever attempt to reclaim the symbol of the banana from the patriarchy. Also, she has pretty lips.
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But what, you may ask, does this have to do with the fantasy baseball team which is theoretically the subject of this post? First off, screw you for doubting. More to the point, much like the banana-centric phallocracy that swooped in to oppress the historical power of women (or so I read in that DaVinci Code book), the Hand Banana franchise has swooped into our league and given the older teams an object lesson in phallocratic oppression by pretty well sticking it in the league's collective pooper over the past few years. Generally, when a league adds a new guy, care is taken to make sure that the newbie is incompetent. That care was lacking here, as this franchise has been hovering near the top of the standings from the get-go. This year's edition is no different, with the team poised to be hanging around the money yet again.
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Infield
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The infield is the strength of the team, with young and good players all the way around the horn in Brian McCann, Ryan Howard, Robinson Cano, Jimmy Rollins, and David Wright. Not an old or sucky guy in the bunch, which takes some doing. McCann is one of the 3 or so catchers who have separated themselves from the pack at the position, and thus give their owners a big leg up on the league. Cano and Rollins provide wheels, while Howard and Wright generally kick the shit out of the ball. Since I can't find anything mean to say about this group, I'm going to say nothing at all.
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Outfield
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I like Carl Crawford to make The Leap this season. He's still young, but the Rays now have enough offensive talent around him that his R and RBI totals should inch up. He also showed better patience last year, boosting his isolated patience up to a respectable .043. Hideki Matsui's value is more in his durability than his rate stats, but he gets enough PAs in that Yankee lineup to amass useful counting stat totals. Curtis Granderson is a great guy to have on your team in real life, but maybe less so in a fantasy league which doesn't mandate that a team start a CF.
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Pitching
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The starters make up the All-Reversion to the Mean Team, with Jered Weaver, Bronson Arroyo, and Andy Pettitte all likely to regress based on their peripherals or league changes. Guys moving from the NL to AL last year picked up about an extra 0.50 on their ERAs, which would put Pettitte in the 4.80-range this year after his move to the Yankees. He may pick up enough W's to be helpful, but he's probably a touch overvalued at this point. Arroyo's performance fell off pretty good in his second full year in Boston, as teams learned to lay off his frisbee slider, and to stack their lineups with lefties (who traditionally torch Arroyo). Assuming the NL isn't completely brain-dead, I think he's a candidate to fall back more than a simple reversion to the mean would indicate.
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There are some fun long shot guys like Daniel Cabrera and Hong-Shih Kuo hanging around the bench, but the realistic upside for those guys might not be better than the regressed performance of the front-line starters. There are also plenty of closers on hand ; however, they're mainly of the second-tier sort, so the 'pen won't be much help in stabilizing the staff's WHIP or ERA. The staff is functional, and will keep the team competitive, but one or more pitching trades willl probably be needed down the stretch to push the team over the top.
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Prognosis: Given what's here, plus the GM's acumen, this team is one of the favorites to hit the board.
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