Season Preview: Wu Tang Financial

I am not a camper. To me, abandoning the comforts of modern life seems somehow disrespectful to the generations who came before, all of whom were trying like hell to avoid having to sleep in wet woods or cold mountaintops.

However, there is one aspect of camping that appeals to me: tents. Tents are lego sets for grownups. It's fun to take a bunch of disassembled pieces and create a orderly structure out of them. Just don't ask me to sleep in the structures afterward--the things are more suited to use as cat toys or toddler distractions.

I surely hope that Wu Tang Financial's long-suffering owner feels the same way about tent construction. Because right now the team has a handful of sturdy tentpoles, and some indeterminate amount of other parts, but it's not clear whether they all fit together to make anything other than the sad puddle of nylon above.

Infield

Home to load-bearing element number one, in the person of Albert Pujols. Yes, he has probable lost a step. But he is still one of the more ridiculous hitters out there, and has been an effective player through the first week of the season despite batting only .213. The other elements are particularly puddly, though. Catcher Jesus Montero hasn't turned the corner yet, Kyle Seager is an unexciting 3B option playing for a bad Seattle team, and SS Erick Aybar has been discussed at some withering length in past posts. Brandon Phillips might be on pace for a strong year at 2B, though, given what appears to be a dominant offense in Cincinnati. Still, at best WTF is looking at above-fantasy-average production from at most 2 of his IF slots. Either Montero needs to get better, or WTF needs to find better options on the left side of the IF.

Outfield

Another structural element in the fairly massive form of Gianmikeo Stanton. However, the early season results ahve injected a bit of doubt about how many chances Stanton will have to affect the league this year while batting cleanup for the Havana Sugar Kings. Weirdly, Yahoo! may have put it best today:

Stanton ended the night with a .174 average that rated as the lowest in the Marlins lineup. After seven games, he's yet to drive in a run, and he has an 11/7 K/BB in 23 official at-bats. Maybe he wouldn't be doing any better if he played for a major league team, but his owners are right to be concerned about his situation.

Now, Stanton's walking a ton, so his OBP is still over .360. But that's a mixed blessing, because it further shows that pitchers aren't giving him anything to hit. The rest of the OF is stocked with pleasant nonentities like Hunter Pence, Jason Kubel, and a now officially old Carlos Beltran. That said, there's enough depth here to avoid the holes we saw in the IF. This group really does all come down to how Stanton adjusts to the nightly Barry Bonds treatment.

Starting Pitching

Continuing with the theme, the tentpole here is Stephen Strassburg, who, despite a shaky start last time out, is unquestionably a front-line starter. Behind him is a surprisingly deep array of fantasy # 2 types in James Shields, Jake Peavy, and AJ Griffin, as well as intriguing wild cards in Julio Teheran and whatever's left of Tim Lincecum. Strassburg is the only guy who inspires absolute confidence (or at least confidence as absolute as possible when dealing with pitchers), as you can make plausible cases for each of the other guys cratering this year. But the sheer number of reasonable # 2 options means that the team should be able to cobble together a rotation.

Bullpen

Looked thin on paper after the draft, with only Jason Grilli and John Axford in line for saves, and only looks thinner now that Axford might be the second NL Central closer to lose his job before Tax Day. Koji Uehara has looked useful in middle relief for Boston, but he's third in line for saves there, so he projects as a rate-stat-only guy. Not a board-quality group at present.

Outlook

As we've seen, there are building-block players everywhere except the bullpen, so if WTF can beg, borrow, or steal enough helpful supporting performances, there's a chance the team will compete. That said, we think that the holes in the IF and pen will keep this team out of the race.

Season Preview: string cheese tibias

Last year was supposed to be the coup de grace for the broken Caps Lock Keys: strong offseason acquisitions like Albert Pujols gave them an offense to be reckoned with to match a good top of the rotation.  It had been a long time coming but we all felt that Sahil had finally built a team that should contend for the title, and he was predicted to finish in third as a result.  Huzzahs were given out and we all just waited for him to cruise to a medal finish.

Then Albert Pujols started off his California career 1-for-100, CC Sabathia had a bad April, Jose Bautista finally suffered a decline and an injury, and the next thing we knew, the Healer was down for the count.  He now enters 2013 with markedly less hype, having only one pick in the first three rounds and using it on a closer.  But has he turned into the new Will, succeeding when everyone thinks he'll fail?  Or is he just back to the same old Ironhead? 

Infield

How much you like this infield is how much you think that 2012 represents what players will do in 2013.  Four-fifths of the starting roster - A.J. Rosenpenis, Adam LaRoche, Jose Altuve and Alcides Escobar - put up stats infinitely better than any prior season, with the first two combining for 60 home runs with no speed; the latter two combining for 68 steals with no power.  If they all repeat their 2012 performances, them plus a possibly rejuvenated Ryan Zimmerman could yield a very nice infield.  The problem is that there isn't a single person on earth who thinks this will happen; while Altuve and Escobar are young enough that they could maintain last year's running frenzy, Rosenpenis' and LaRoche's year scream fluke.  Bench player Marco Scutaro is more of the same.

The saving grace is that there's a ton of depth here and beyond Scutaro, it's mostly guys with upside.  Eric Hosmer is still a lot of talk and little production, but he's still in his early 20s and is a popular breakout pick.  Neil Walker is very useful at second base; him and Altuve, spotted correctly, could actually produce above-average stats for the position. Russell Martin is also not a horrible idea; yes, his stats were not exactly great last year, but the NL shift plus playing the positively shitty rotations littered around the NL Central should help. 

Outfield

Continuing the fluke theme, last year Joshes Willingham and Reddick combined for SIXTY-SEVEN home runs.  Now we understand that this team has had a good offense because it picked up a guy who looked like the greatest fluke of all (Jose Bautista) at the right time and has ridden him to approximately 200 home runs.  So it's possible he's acquired a boatload of guys who are all peaking at exactly the right time and threaten to make a fantasy version of the '27 Yankees.  But we're more than a little skeptical.  Willingham is 34 years old and last year was the only time he topped 30 dingers.  Reddick is at least young, but only hit 12 out of the park after the '12 ASB.  It's more probable that he just had the greatest two months of his life than he turned into George Baruth.

The other two slots are manned by Bautista and Josh Hamilton, who are two of the ten best fantasy hitters in baseball.  So if there's even just middling production from the other two slots, this should be one of the better outfields in baseball.  But color me skeptical that they'll get another epic season from the Joshes.

Starting Pitching

What looks okay on paper could get ugly quick.  CC Sabathia has already started the season with decreased velocity and coming off arm surgery, while Madison Bumgarner finished 2012 with basically a dead arm.  If both don't rebound this is going to be a titanic liability, because it falls off really quickly.  Matt Harrison managed to have a very good '12 without actually having good fantasy stats and is an inning eater at best.  Ditto for Wade Miley.  Alex Cobb is the worst pitcher on the Rays.  And Mike Pelfrey is possibly the worst pitcher in baseball.  So yeah, some arms or rebounds are needed here.

Relief Pitching

Chapman and Jonathan Broxton lock up the Cincinnati closer role and Grant Balfour is Oakland's fireman, so there's some value here.  The X-factor is whether Frank Francisco can (a) reclaim, and (b) then keep the Mets closer job, without (c) annihilating the rest of this team's stats.  Still, relief pitching is so cromulent this year that this appears to be an average-at-worst pen.

Outlook

This squad is clearly a notch below the top contenders - their starters aren't strong enough to carry K's and W's, and they're a bit reliant on guys who are older and off of peak years.  But that sad, this is far from a BAD team, and is one that should rack up a ton of points on offense and some saves.  A 6th place finish is hardly out of the question.  A trip to the medal stand?  That might be too much to ask.