Julian's 2011 Fearless Predictions

Team 3 – Julian (Rusty Trumbo) – 50.5 points – Best balance in the league. Needs Cabrera to stay healthy and to get Gordon, Brantley and Sean Rodriguez established as regulars to stay with the big boys in the power categories. Should either trade up or trade down in saves.

Team 7 – Kenny (Rusty Jimbo) – 43 points – I haven’t yet looked up what a “Rusty Jimbo is on UrbanDictionary.com, but I’m sure it’s disgusting. The main challenge that this team will face is that even though Kenny is going with 10 starters he figures to get only about 8 or 9 points in wins and K’s. Should get enough hitting points to finish in the money, but can’t win a championship. The high quality starting pitching being concentrated among 4 teams will start to kill him and then the third child being a girl will finish him off.

Team 5 – Barry (Solomon Rusty) – 42 points – Only paid $63.50 for his hitting, and of that, $25 was spent overpaying for Swisher and A-Roid. However, having done that has put Barry in a position where, if he can surpass expectations in homers and run production, he will likely win.

Team 4 – Jeff/Scott (Three and a Half Under Parr) – 39 points – There is a clear divergence in pitching strength as teams 1, 4, and 7 managed to snag only 5 of my top 28 pitchers between them, while the 4 other teams averaged almost 6 of the top 28 apiece. The problem that the hitting-heavy teams will confront is that they will be splitting points with each other. All three graded out at about 27 hitting points, which does not figure to be enough to win given their ceilings in pitching points. One of these teams will need to emerge as the clear superior in hitting and catch a few breaks in pitching in order to chase down a title. Of course, this may look very similar to my assessment of this team in 2007 and 2008.

Team 1 – Marc (Marc Munches Mindy in a Mixed Mess) – 39 points – Coming in with weak keepers, Marc’s idea of building around hitting and relief pitching was sound, but his execution was flawed. Baker, Buehrle and Dice K were odd choices for a team that will need to excel in ERA and Ratio to have a chance to win it. Also, there is no justifying paying $13.75 for Victor (don’t laugh Dave, there is no justifying you bidding $13.50 either). Given that most of his innings will come from starters, he will need a few of them to far surpass expectations/recent performances. Failing that, he may need to trade for low ERA/Ratio starting pitching.

Team 6 – Dave Trudy’s Trumbo) – 36.5 points – Dave saved $13 by having his last bid on Victor Martinez be topped. He then parlayed those 13 bucks, and a little more, into Michael Cuddyer and a guy named Elvis. Not good. In spite of Dave’s good management, this team’s hopes will last as long as Nelson Cruz’s hamstring.

Team 2 – Rotts (VCU! VCU! VCU!) – 32 points – Rotts’ hitting is dead in the water. He will have to trade aggressively and specialize in a few categories in order to get far above 10 points in hitting. While his pitching staff is terrific, there are other staffs of similar strength. As always, I’ll be rooting for you Rotts.

Have a great season everyone.