UPL Baseball Draft Lottery and 2010 Preview - Pick 6

The 6th pick in the 2010 UPL Baseball Draft goes to:

Muddy Mush Heads

History: UPL Regular whose finishes range from middle of the pack to the bottom. Looking to find stride in a competitive UPL environment.

Tendencies: To be honest - no idea.

2009 Result: 9th place

Likely Keepers:
Offense Locks: Joey Votto, Carlos Lee, Ichiro, Grady Sizemore, Brian Roberts, Chone Figgins

Pitching Locks: Johan Santana, Johnny Cueto

Probable Keepers: Rafael Furcal, Jermaine Dye, Aaron Harang, Tommy Hunter, Phil Hughes, Takashi Saito, Jonathan Sanchez

Strengths and Question Marks:
Offensive Strengths: Good speed on offense.

Offensive Question Marks: Lack of depth and power. Much of the offense will depend on Sizemore bounching back after a terrible 2009 campaign. Votto is coming off of a bout with vertigo, though he appeared to come back reasonably well at the end of 2009. Figgins' change of scenery may not affect him as much, as his power isn't his strength.

Pitching Strengths: Johan Santana is good. Cueto has a high ceiling.

Pitching Question Marks: Lack of depth at SP and no closers makes for a problem. The pitching will likely be bad. What could save it: Harang with a bounce-back year. Hunter continuing to develop. Saito sharing the closer's role in ATL. Phil going into the NYY rotation, and throwing well as the 5th starter. The thing is, all of these have to go right, for the pitching to be above average.

2010 Outlook: The offense looks to be about average, and the ceiling isn't very high. Also, depending on aging speed guys generally isn't the blueprint that you want to follow, either in real-life or fantasy. The pitching is going to be problematic, and needs some help. Ideally, some of the veterans start off hot, so that these players can be moved for younger talent in a true rebuilding process. If Harang throws well off the bat, Saito gets a few early SV, Dye starts off hot, there may be some potential moves to be made. More realistically, players like Ichiro, Carlos Lee, Figgins, Brian Roberts, and even Johan Santana have to be examined as potential trade bait. This team should probably look to rebuild, as a podium finish is highly unlikely.

This means that a 2nd team has beat the odds, albeit in a slightly less exciting way than the '90 Reds. The Black Sox have jumped into the top 3 of the 2010 UPL Draft.

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)