To bring back an idea of Nomar's, here is a look at the 2012 Oakland Athletics: Athletics Feel They Are Close But Will It Be Enough to Place Them on Top? After leading a very competitive AL West for much of the 2011 season, a lack of hitting finally caught up to the A's and a late 7 game losing streak ended any hopes of trying to win the AL West. The A's wound up finishing 4th at 8 and a half games back and behind Texas, Hawaii, and Colorado. Colorado has been moved back to the NL and Minnesota now comes back to the West. However with Texas and Hawaii still remaining solid, and Anaheim plus what should be a very improved Seattle Stover team makes this division still the most competitive in all of the sim. Add to the fact that Richmond and Boston are still dominant in the East and it is even more imperative that the A's try to win the division because the wildcard won't be there. The infield should be the same as last season except for one minor move in Placido Polanco, the veteran, getting more time at 2B over Farmer Matthew. The Farmer has great talent but a poor OBP and average negates a lot of his strengths. Paul Konerko coming off an all-star season will actually see more time at 1B this season than last when he DHed plus he'll even play a little third. Arnie Nance, who had a breakout season last year, will also play 1B but mainly DH this season. Veterans Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez will man SS and 3B respectively. Tejada started slowly last season, but while he suffered a huge decline in homers from 41 in 2010 to 20, he still batted over .300. Chavez continues to be the leader of the A's along with Konerko and their best clutch player. Keep an eye on Harry Smith who will start the season in AAA. Tejada's eventual successor, the team has been impressed with how he has carried himself so far in spring training. The outfield is completely revamped as youngsters Jerry Martinez and Johnny Prosser, although talented, will be back-ups instead of starters. Veteran Juan Encarnacion will move back to CF and looks to build on a solid season of a year ago in a .287, 31 HRs, and 121 RBIs campaign. Veterans Kevin Mench and Manny Ramirez were acquired in an off-season deal from Cleveland and Ramirez should be in left and Mench in right. Despite turning 40 by the end of May, the team still feels that Ramirez will put up some decent numbers like 20+ homers and over 80 RBIs. Mench has power and doesn't strike out much and should get plenty of chances to knock in runs. Keep an eye on Dick Bakken who struggled somewhat last season in alternating with Prosser in LF. Bakken will probably play the most of the reserve OFs. Sixto Goulet was pretty impressive in his rookie campaign by batting .290 and hitting 8 bombs with 66 RBIs. He definitely has a bright future ahead of him and will be the A's catcher probably for a long time to come. Don Mclennan will continue to back him up at this position. The rotation looks good as free agent Cy Taylor leaves Minnesota to become the staff ace. The team is expecting big things from him as he was generally regarded the best pitcher in this past season's free agent class. Matt Morris despite being 37 simply knows how to pitch and he will be the #2 starter. Dependable Bob Foster will be #3 and will be followed by Martin "Twiggy" Twigg as the #4 starter. Twiggy has a chance to become one of the game's most dominant starters as that is how good his physical tools are. Matt Wheatland will be the fifth starter. After a horrible start last season, Wheatland finally righted himself but it took a stint at AAA then pitching out of the bullpen. However, the team has enough faith in him by trading off their excess starters in Mouse Baker, Jeremy Bonderman, and Chuck Ricks. The bullpen will be spearheaded again by Adam Johnson, argubably the best closer in the AL. Allen Levrault and the ageless one, Chad Bradford will also play key roles in the bullpen. Last year's surprise, Johnny Lopez, will start the season as the primary set-up man. Jorge Sosa acquired in the Ricks deal will be used primarily to get lefthanded batters out. Dicky Gonzalez will try to fend off Tommie Roberts for the last bullpen spot. Oakland is going to be using 7 players that will be 34 or older when the season begins. That could be not a good thing but the team feels that the younger players are still a way from really making an impact. If their oldsters can put decent seasons together and stay healthy and the pitching staff lives up to what it can be then Oakland should have an excellent chance of winning the division. However, look for a more realistic finish of third in the division. They'll be good but not good enough.
Aaaaaaaaaargh - my eyes hurt.... to much boldness (both the text and the contest (I guess as I did not read))
The Stovers look to get to mediocricity this season. Finishing last year with the worst record in the league, the Stovers look to improve this year to a respectable position. The infield: First base will still be manned by the powerful Claude Belford. Coming off of 2 straight 41 homerun seasons, Claude sets his sights at 40+ homers again this year. At second base is the heart and soul of the Stover team, Crazy Stover. Crazy was a reserve most of last season, and started towards the end. He should be even more improved this season and will get the start from day 1. Third base will be much improved this season, from Esteban Yan to the newly acquired Albert Pujols. Pujols should contribute greatly to the offense at the #3 position in the order. Shortstop duties will belong to 25 year old Dick Cardello. Cardello has been developing better each year, and now at age 25, Stover management predicts this to be his breakout season. Finally, the catcher position will be filled mostly by Chris St. Martin. St. Martin, 26, is a good hitter for average, batting .304 last year, but doesn't drive in too many runs. The outfield: The outfield will by the young trio of Stover Sackett, Lefty Stover and Casey Kunz. Sackett, 26, is coming off of a breakout season, where he hits .325 with with 25 homers and 92 rbis. He looks to improve on those numbers even more this year. Lefty has yet to have his breakout season, but with his talent, he should be due for one very soon, hopefully this year. Kunz, numbers last year, while impressive, were not as great as the ones that won him ROY 2 seasons ago, but that could possibly be attributed to playing on a team with a weaker offense last year. He looks to have all-star numbers this season. The DH spot will be reserved for Bert Madson and Lena Smith. If ready enough, prospects Steven Barbosa or Bobby Lao may be brought up and play the DH position. The rotation. As of now this is the weakness for the Stovers. The bullpen has still yet to develop. The vet Livan Hernandez, 37, was signed this offseason, returning to the city that made him an all-star several years back. Hernandez joins a rotation of prospects John Mackey, 24, Don Leeds, 24, Hot Stover, 23, and Craig Kimmel, 23. The Stovers are eager for those latter 4 to develop, and hopefully Chris Simms and Kyle Hoff can join the staff before too long. Most of the MRs are prospects, so Manny Aybar and Pop Holter will be the only 2 used, and the closer will be Rick Gumm. In the competitive AL West, the Mariners should still finish towards the bottom of the division this season. But next season, watch out.
The 2012 Boston Red Sox have one goal in mind. Going for a fourth World Series title. Although no players were added through Free Agency, the team will improve simply by being a very young team. The pitching staff will be lead by still developing ace Roy "The Natural" Hobbs. Followed by Lum Taylor, Gene Amar, Russ Hammit, and Schoolboy Vincente. Depending on his progress, prospect star Sam Cruz could be looking at a call up sometime in September. The bullpen will be somewhat of a weakness. Len Bondurant, a 24 yr old flamethrower will be leading the middle relief. Followed by Al Ellis, Art Sells, and Ossie Rourke. John Rocker will set-up for dominant closer Allan "Almond" Joy. The lineup will be more powerful than last year's. Center fielder Steve Sharrow will continue at leadoff, where he played very well last season. The heart of the order will consist of third baseman Ray "RayJ" Johnson, followed by power hitters left fielder Todd Linden and DH Joe Borchard. Clise Brownfield and Jerry Hernandez are the young middle infield tandem that will progress as the season goes on. Following Hernandez will be first baseman Scott Davis, defensive stud catcher Alex McCown, and super-stud right fielder Henry Lancaster. This team has a great chance of repeating their success with all the youngsters developing, and with perhaps the addition of a bullpen arm during the season. GO SOX
The DBacks are looking to trade away all their good players and return to crap from whence they came. For only $.35 a day, you can support one Vladimir Guerrero, Tomo Ohka, or Glendon Rusch. These men need your help, and the GM of the DBacks needs young talent. We need help tanking, and you can help. Do the right thing.
