UPL Baseball Draft Lottery and 2010 Preview - Pick 7

The 7th pick in the 2010 UPL Baseball Draft goes to:

Phatsnapper

History: UPL Regular who has been feast (2006 champions) or famine (bottom half of league in '07, '08, and '09).

Tendencies: Has been focused on young players, even before the UPL became a keeper league. Appears to be an stat-based owner, though grasp of elementary logic and applied statistics has been questioned in the past. Tends to disappear once team is out of contention (which has been May/June in recent years).

2009 Result: 7th place

Likely Keepers:
Offense Locks: Joe Mauer, Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, Michael Young, Matt Kemp, Adam Jones

Pitching Locks: Zack Greinke, Felix Hernandez, Adam Wainwright, Tommy Hanson, Yovani Gallardo

Probable Keepers: Josh Hamilton, Matt Weiters, Nolan Reimond, Brad Hawpe, Yunel Escobar, David Price, Madison Bumgarner

Strengths and Question Marks:
Offensive Strengths: Great top end talent (Mauer, Teixeira, Beltran, Kemp, Hamilton)

Offensive Question Marks: Many, many young unproven players. Even guys like Adam Jones have questions about whether they will end up being solid or spectacular fantasy players. Some injury concerns for Hamilton, Beltran, and Mauer, given their track records.

Pitching Strengths: Excellent SP. Greinke and King Felix coming off of a 1-2 Cy Young finish. Hanson, Price, Bumgarner and Gallardo are young and have high ceilings.

Pitching Question Marks: Giving up on SV, which may leave rate stats a bit more exposed than it would appear just by looking at SP. Greinke, Hernandez, and Wainwright are all coming off of career years. Will they replicate, or will they regress more to their career averages? Hanson and Gallardo are both 24 this season, so the variance could come into play (either good or bad).

2010 Outlook: The pitching will be at least good, possibly great, and should be competing with the O.N. Thugs for the top of the pitching categories. However, giving up on a category (SV) forces you to be perfect elsewhere. The offense may not be deep enough to compete, though if things all fall together, this team could contend for a title. This has the feel of a top-half team, and is one of 4 or 5 teams that should be looking for a championship.


-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)