UPL Baseball Draft Lottery and 2010 Preview - Pick 2

The 3rd pick in the 2010 UPL Baseball Draft goes to:

Black Sox
History:UPL Newcomer (relatively), with 2 disappointing finishes to begin his UPL Baseball career.

Tendencies: Limited information. Appears to be a White Sox fan (one of two, along with JimmyDix, who comprise the top 2 picks in the 2010 draft... probably not a great thing).

2009 Result: 11th place

Likely Keepers:
Offense Locks: Hanley Ramirez, Prince Fielder, Andre Ethier, Ryan Zimmerman, Carlos Quentin, Jayson Werth

Pitching Locks: Justin Verlander, Chad Billingsley, Joba Chamberlain, Scott Kazmir, Jonathan Papelbon, Frank Francisco

Probable Keepers: Andrew McCutchen, Nyjer Morgan, Chris Iannetta, Jose Lopez, Jason Marquis, Joey Devine

Strengths and Question Marks:
Offensive Strengths: Top heavy offense, mainly because they have the largest vegetarian in the history of man. Aside from obvious star power (Hanley and Prince), Ethier is emerging as a legit fantasy starter.

Offensive Question Marks: Carlos Quentin is coming off another injury-plagued season, and has only had one legitimate season (2008), and even then he only played in 130 games. His health would give this team a lot of flexibility. Morgan played well above his career numbers once he got moved to Washington, after he was replaced by McCutchen in Pittsburgh (who is still learning the game). Zimmermann and Werth both had career years - they should both be good in 2010, but replicating the output may be tough.

Pitching Strengths: Justin Verlander is good, and there are 3 other SP with high ceilings. Papelbon is a nice anchor for SV.

Pitching Question Marks: Obviously, the question of which Scott Kazmir you're going to get in 2010 is huge. Do you get the one who was very good in his 6 starts in ANA, or do you get the one who stunk in TAM? With Billingsley, you're going to get some glimpses of greatness, but his 2009 was a step back from his very good 2007 and 2008 campaigns. And of course, you have to hope that Joba gets to be the 5th starter, and not the setup man (unless Mo Rivera goes down).

2010 Outlook: Sometimes you look at a team, and you see exactly why they finished where they did. The offense should be solid, not elite. The pitching will need to get lucky to be above average. This team probably shouldn't be an 11th place team. But getting into the top half will require some effort. Out of 13 teams, let's put them a little higher than last year, maybe 8th.

Now, this leaves us with the winners of the 2010 UPL Baseball Draft Lottery, the JimmyDixLongballs...

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)