The Sports Brewery

2010 Projected finishes and overview

St Louis Cardinals (92-70)

The Cards ended up wining the Central pretty easy last year. I mean they had the MVP (Pujols) and the 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the Cy Young (Wainwright and Carpenter), throw in that the Central is terrible and you will coast to the playoffs every year. Now they got swept by the Dodgers in the Division Series so they weren’t that great of a team, but just a powerhouse for the Central.

The Cards didn’t really lose anything to huge and they also didn’t gain anything to huge this off season. They added Felipe Lopez and Brad Penny, which really is nothing since Lopez is an ok second baseman and Penny is a washed up pitcher who can only pitch in the NL. The Key departures from last years team are Joel Pinero, Rick Ankiel, Julio Lugo, and Mark Derosa. Pinero had a pretty decent year last year getting 15 wins so that will be missed, but the other 3 aren’t big losses. Ankiel had some pop in his bat but he K’s to much and can’t hit for average. Lugo is just terrible and they brought in Lopez so toss him away, and though Derosa is a nice veteran player he didn’t contribute much last year  so he won’t be missed.

The Cards still have the best player in baseball, 2 of the best pitchers in the NL and they will have Matt Holliday to start the season. What they don’t have is pitching after their top 2 and they have some pop in their lineup but not a lot of high average hitters. All in all they still look pretty good and by playing in the mediocre Central they will be right back atop the division coasting into the playoffs.

Cincinnati Reds (84-78)

An ok season last year for the Reds as they finished with one of their better seasons of the decade. Young players Joey Votto and Jay Bruce are starting to become stars, while potential star Edison Volquez suffered an arm injury and was done for the season. When Volquez went down so did the Reds chances at a playoff run.

The Reds had the big pick up in the off season when they landed Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman. He will start in the minors, but the flame throwing lefty will be up in the bigs in the blink of an eye. The Reds also added journeymen SS Orlando Cabrera who will be playing for his 7th team in 9 years. Surprisingly the Reds lost very little, just speedy Willy Taveras who they easily replaced with rookie Drew Stubbs.

This is going to be the break out year for the Reds. Signing Chapman and getting Volquez back will be a huge addition to their starting rotation of Aaron Harang, Johnny Cueto and Bronson Arroyo. They have some pop in their lineup with Bruce and Votto and have a couple guys that will be spraying gaps in Brandon Phillips and Drew Stubbs, toss in veterans Scott Rolen and Jonny Gomes and they have a nice looking lineup. Though they will have a break out year it still won’t be enough to get into the playoffs, but look for the Reds to be contenders from here on out.

Chicago Cubs (81-81)

What can you say about the Cubbies that hasn’t already been said.,I’ll just toss out 1908 and leave it at that. An ok year I guess for the Cubs, hung around the playoff picture for awhile till they just faded away down the home stretch. Had some major problems and blowups with Milton Bradley and Carlos Zambrano that was entertaining for us fans, but killers for the team. Ok is the only thing that keeps coming to mind when looking at the Cubs lat year,.

Picked up Marlon Byrd to play center which is a nice pickup, but also added Carlos Silva to be the 4th starter which is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard of, and Tom Gorzelanny who pitched for the Pirates. The players that left were more addition by subtraction. Rich Harden is a nice pitcher, but relying on him to stay healthy the whole year is a fools errand so letting him go is ok. The big departure which is huge for the Cubs is sending Cancer Milton Bradley away (Hello Mariners). Not only did Milton not hit or field for shit, but I’ve never seen 1 player cause so much trouble for 1 team. The only move that needed to be made and it was.

The Cubbies lineup looks stacked (if it can actually stay healthy for a year), with studs Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alphonso Soriano they got some real hitters. Add in Byrd, Fukidome, Soto, Theriot and Fontenot they really have no weak link. They have no real weak link in their lineup, but looking at their starters and bullpen you will see why they will be a .500 team. Zambrano is the clear #1 and with his electric stuff he is nasty, but he is one of the biggest headcases I’ve seen in baseball and you just can’t trust that. Dempster and Randy Wells are 2 and 3 and they will have some hard match ups going against other teams 2nd and 3rd pitchers. Now we get to Carlos Silva and Tom Gorzelanny who I can’t believe have starting spots in the Majors. The Mariners paid Silva a ton of money and he went out and threw BP to the other team till he hurt himself. He wasn’t that good of a pitcher for the Twins either. And Gorzelanny is a lefty from the Pirates and if the Pirates let you go your not good. Be prepared to see a lot of high scoring games and blown leads. Who doesn’t love the Cubs.

Milwaukee Brewer (78-84)

Like the other teams in the Central the BrewCrew was in the hunt till they just fizzled away in the last month. With an underachieving lineup and an average at best rotation I’m surprised they got that many wins. I guess it took Braden Looper going 14-7 to get that many wins. Just a bad year for a team people thought might contend for the division.

The Brewers really cleaned house after last season. They lost Mike Cameron, Jason Kendall, J.J. Hardy, Felipe Lopez, Looper, all starters last year. To take all those players places the Brewers added Carlos Gomez, and Gregg Zaun along with 2 pitchers that they over paid for in Randy Wolf and Doug Davis. Now Gomez and Zaun don’t really offer much on offense so the Brewers are already playing from behind, but giving Wolf and Davis such big contracts is crazy. Davis career high for wins in a season is 13 and Wolf has one year of 16 but nothing highr then 11 after that. Just mind boggling how much you can make as an average pitcher in the free agent market.

The season does not look very good for the Brewers. They still have Prince and Braun who are all-stars and Corey Hart can be good, but no one else in that lineup would scare me as a pitcher and I haven’t played baseball in 8 years. The rotation is filled with 2nd and 3rd level pitchers with no clear ace so I see a lot of 10-11 season for the staff. Honestly I think I’m being a little generous giving the Brewers 78 wins, but the last 2 teams in the Central are that bad.

Houston Astros (74-88)

The Stros just aren’t a very good baseball team. They have an ace in Roy Oswalt and they have all-stars in Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman, the only problem is that’s all they have. So when all you have are those 3 players, and Berkman is always hurt, and Oswalt suffered through some injuries you end up with the 74-88 record.

The Astros really didn’t add much. They got Pedro Feliz from the Phils who’s an ok player, and Brett Myers and Matt Lindstrom are average also. They lost their 2 vets in Miguel Tejada and Pudge, who actually were 2 of their better players last  year, but the real blow was losing closer Jose Valverde who was the only real hope they had in the bullpen.

So let’s look at what the Stros did. They lost some ok bats and picked up an ok bat, and they lost a stud closer and added 2 average pitchers. I’m not seeing an improvement at all, and with Berkman starting the season on the DL I see the Stros looking exactly the same as last years bad team

Pittsburgh Pirates (62-100)

Now we are getting to the creme of the crop. The old bucs. Gotta love them. Just go out and drop a 100 games like its nothing, then trade any good young player you had so you can stay bad. I like the goals of the team. The Pirates are bad plain and simple. They had one surprise last year in Garett Jones who hit 21 bombs in 82 games (I see him getting traded mid season) and that was it for the season.

Does it really matter who the Pirates add. They could add Pujols and Arod and they would still drop 100 games, but they did add Akinori Iwamura and Lastings Millidge. They are about equal to Rod and Pujols. And any player they lost isn’t a big deal because they weren’t good with them any way.

At first looking over their lineup and rotation I was gonna give the Buccos 70 wins, which is actually a prettty good year for them. Then I saw 1 name and instantly took away 8 wins and really it should be more. All I can say is Octavio Dotel.