I bring this up not solely because I'm increasingly old and like to talk about riddles while whittling and eating ribbon candy. No, I bring it up because it reminds me of the dilemma faced by the S.S. Pooperlube's offense this season.
Offense
Usually, we break these previews up a bit and analyze the infield and outfield separately. But the fundamental interconnectedness of all things here means that we're going to look at the Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash together.
The key element here is Carlos Santana, a guy who is an excellent breakout candidate at C this year. The problem, though, is that he's playing 1B for this team, and you have to break out pretty far as a catcher for that to be worthwhile. That has pushed Wilin Rosario into the starting lineup at C, and bumped Mark Trumbo to the OF.
Obviously, the ideal solution here is for the team to find some way to get Santana back to C. They could do that by moving Trumbo back to 1B, but that would then open up a hole in the OF that would be filled by Nelson Cruz. "Not bad," I can hear you thinking. The catch is that that would in turn open up a hole at DH which would be filled by . . . I dunno. David Freese? Alternatively, they could move current starting 3B Todd Frazier to 1B and replace him at 3B with, uh, David Freese. Hm.
As you can see, it's tough to find a way to deploy the current roster in a way that doesn't require reliance on Freese or Rosario. Neither of those two are terrible players, of course. But there are no real studs on this offense, meaning that even one anchor is going to be too much for the team to carry. Basically, I just can't see how they're going to get this roster across the river without someone getting eaten. (I'm tempted to say that they're going to need a bigger boat, but I've already burned riddles and Douglas Adams as themes, and I have five more previews to write.)
Starting Pitching
The rotation has sort of the same shape as the offense, in the sense that there are several solid guys around, but no real top-tier options. Mat Latos is probably the ace, and while he's a good player, he strikes me more as a #2 option on a board-quality team. Marco Estrada put up some intruiging K numbers last year and is another good #2 option. Same for Jeremy Hellickson. Sense a pattern yet?
The back end of the rotation is a little iffier, with Brandon McCarthy's broken skull proninently featured. But even there Derek Holland and Jason Vargas will throw a bunch of innings for good teams, and so should be useful for counting stats. I fear for the rate stats a little bit, though, especially with all of these pitchers except Hellickson working in relatively hitter-friendly environments. Lots of useful guys, but it's not clear that useful is good enough anymore in this mini-Age of the Pitcher we're in.
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Bullpen
As discussed in the last TA, SS assembled its pen on the cheap during trade season. While we think Jim Johnson and Fernando Rodney will be hard-pressed to replicate last year's rate numbers, they are still good bets to rack up saves. (And even if Johnson fails, the team smartly added Pedro Strop as a handcuff.) Sergio Romo only became a closer last year, but he' s been a lights-out setup guy for a couple of years and gives the pen some upside. Nice group.
Outlook
I really like what this team did in the draft, especially given where they were drafting. But we're at the point where several years without high draft picks have left the cupboard bare of elite talent, making a run at the board unlikely. Of course, we're always wrong about this franchise, so this probably means they'll have 110 points by June.
*The key is the goose--you've got to ferry that sucker back and forth a couple of times. First you take him over, then go back for the birdseed. After you drop off the seed, you take the goose back with you to the starting line. Then you bring over the fox, then go back and get the goose, and then presumably ask yourself why the f--k you want a fox on your farm.
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