TEAM EVALUATIONS: SKEETERS

Team: Skeeters

Conference: Liberty

Division: North

2009 Record: 56-106, 5th Place

Typical Lineup:

1B Hank Blalock

2B Felipe Lopez

SS Ryan Theriot

3B Gordon Beckham/Ty Wigginton/Jhonny Peralta

LF Colby Rasmus

CF Michael Bourn

RF Andrew McCutcheon/Cameron Maybin

C Miguel Olivo/Taylor Teagarden/Gerald Laird

DH Ty Wigginton/Jhonny Peralta

The lineup overall is pretty weak, especially at 1B with Blalock, SS with Theriot, and DH with Wigginton and Peralta.  Only one player, McCutcheon, cracks the .800 OPS barrier, and Lopez leads all hitters with a .361 OBP.  Nobody slugs .500.  This team will really struggle to score runs.  Run prevention looks better, with Bourn and McCutcheon in the outfield and Theriot and Lopez on the infield.  Olivo and Teagarden make a pretty good catching tandem.

Starting Rotation:

Clayton Kershaw

Jarrod Washburn

Andy Pettitte

Vicente Padilla

Scott Richmond/Clay Buchholz/Jordan Zimmerman

This is a young and very promising rotation, and could be dominant in a few years, but looks pretty average after Kershaw this season.  Still, it's a deep talent pool and won't be awful.

Bullpen:

Derek Holland

Franklin Morales

Bobby Parnell

Now this, this is awful.

Closer:

Leo Nunez

Pretty mediocre.

Minors:

Pedro Alvarez

Buster Posey

Lars Anderson

Josh Bell

Chris Carter (OAK)

Aroldis Chapman

Casey Crosby

Christian Friedrich

Dee Gordon

Aaron Hicks

Logan Morrison

Derek Norris

Help is on the way!  And plenty of it.  Chapman leads a bountiful crop of young talent, followed by Posey, Alvarez, Morrison, Carter, Crosby...ok, all of these guys are potentially very good.  I think the Skeeters are well on their way to contention after the 2010 draft, and they were getting better quickly before that.

It'll be another down year for the Skeeters, but huge improvement is very close.  It was probably a good idea to forgo building a decent bullpen this year, since the losses will come from the innings prior to the 7th with such a poor offense and lack of dominant starting pitching.  This lineup looks stacked in the years to come, and the bullpen can be filled in later.

Predicted Record:  65-97