UPL Baseball Draft Lottery and 2010 Preview - Pick 1

The 1st pick in the 2010 UPL Baseball Draft goes to:

JimmyDixLongballs
History: UPL Newcomer, whose initial foray into baseball in 2008 resulted in a 4th place finish, but then fell to 10th place in 2009.

Tendencies: Our 2nd White Sox fan. Not sure about tendencies, yet, though JimmyDix doesn't appear to be afraid to make a deal from time to time.

2009 Result: 10th place

Likely Keepers:
Offense Locks: Evan Longoria, Ian Kinsler, Brian McCann, Gordon Beckham, Kendry Morales, Derek Lee, Nelson Cruz

Pitching Locks: Cliff Lee, Jared Weaver, Bobby Jenks

Probable Keepers: Michael Cuddyer, Nick Swisher, Colby Rasmus, Alexi Ramirez, Mark Buehrle, John Danks, Brad Lidge, Kevin Millwood, James Shields

Strengths and Question Marks:
Offensive Strengths: Deep offense with some redundancy at 2B and 3B, which is a luxury. Balanced production makes injuries a little less of a concern.

Offensive Question Marks: This offense is generally pretty solid, though the speed is so-so at best. Also, the OBP could be a struggle, with only D-Lee and Swisher as legit OBP guys.

Pitching Strengths: n/a

Pitching Question Marks: Which Cliff Lee will you get - it's probably the one that was awesome down the stretch for PHI, but you're not certain. Jared Weaver started to control his stuff better last year, and is a high ceiling pitcher. Guys like Buehrle and Danks are going to be solid, not great with their rate stats, and you hope that their W-L record justifies their spot on the roster. This isnt' the best way to put together a fantasy rotation, as K's will be a struggle, the ERA and WHIP has a low ceiling, and you have to hope for the best w/ W-L, which you're doing regardless. Two question marks at closer. Lidge was bad last year, and Jenks struggled a bit, as well. Got very unlucky with Edinson Volquez, who you probably can't keep.

2010 Outlook: If the luck flows for JimmyDix' pitching, then this team could be closer to the 4th place team of 2008, than the 10th place team of 2009. But lots of things have to go right. The offense should make this team OK, but the real strength should be the ability to deal some offense to get back some top-end pitching. If I had to put a guess on how things pan out, I'd go with something in the middle of the pack, maybe a little below average like 8th place.

The JimmyDixLongballs are on the clock.

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)