Conquer Club

Okay spring training has started which means that the Braves will be in the postseason again -- ... WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DIDN'T MAKE IT?!? -- anyway... I've got my prediciments; who are yours?

AL East
Toronto Blue Jays- Good pitching, getting rid of Shea Hillenbran ("Play for yourself" and "The ship is sinking"), and some guy named Frank Thomas will help my Canadian frineds win the East.
New York Yankees- Well... they're the Yankees... in.. second... place..... HA!
Boston Red Sox- Dice K won't be enough to prevail in the unusually weak division.
Tampa Bay Devil Rays- Scott Proctor is better then Kris Benson AND his wife's slutiness combined.
Baltimore Orioles- Steal the Mets' bullpen was fun, but they'll soon find themselves Miguel Tejada-less.

AL Central
Detroit Tigers- A for experienced pitching staff and Shef will push the Kittens over the Piranhas, the Evil Biotches, and Pronk.
Minnesota Twins*- The piranhas will fight for the wild card with the help of Johan Santana (22-7), Matt Garza (15-7), and Fransisco Liriano (6-4), who will merge into the bullpen in September and instantly mistify the competition.
White Sox- Another just short year... WOO-HOO!
Cleveland Indians- Something totally sucktastic will happen to Pronk, ending his baseball career and leaving Cleveland with any hitters.
Kansas City- Two words: Puerto Rico.

Al West
Oakland Athletics- Well.. it's not like they have any competition...
Los Angeles Angles of Anahiem- Gary Mathews Junior will suck, and so will the Angles.
Texas Rangers- Do I really have to talk about ANY teams in either west? Most of them suck.
Seattle Mariners- Now on the trading block... our entire team...

NL East
New York Mets- In a shaky division, the Mets will prevail with a Glavine, Kid1, Kid2, Meatbag, Kid3 rotation.
Florida Marlins*- Without Joe Girardi, the youngins will cower in crunch time, the take a commanding lead, then let it slip away, then batrely scrape away with the wild card.
Philadelphia Phillies- Ryan Howard will come back to Earth, Chase Utley's longest hitting streak will be six games, and the pitching will suck.
Atlanta Braves- Well... time to rebuild...
Washington Nationals- See Above.

NL Central-
Chicago Cubs- Apperantly monet CAN buy the division! Who knew?
Cincinnati Redds- Faced with the choice of Keb Griffey Junior and facing the fact that last year was a miracle, Kid will need a new team.
Houston Astros- The Rocket will return... for $14M a pitch.
St. Louis Cardnals- The entire team will injure themselves, which will lets St. Louis show off their "up and coming stars!"
Milaukee Brewers- The only way they will win a game is in dramatic fasion.
Pittsburg Pirates- <in Jason Bay's mind>: "That contract extension seemed like a good idea at the time...

NL West-
Los Angles Didgers- See Oakland.
San Diego Padres- See Anahiem.
San Fransisco Giants- Bonds will be murdered by a Hank Henry fan. Huzzah!
Arizona Diamondbacks- See Texas.
Colorado Rockies- See Seattle.

PLAYOFFS-

1st Round AL
Minnesota over Oakland
Detroit over Toronto

1st Round NL
New York over Los Angeles
Chicago over Florida

ALCS
Detroit over Minnesota

NLCS
New York over Chicago

World Series
New York-4
Detroit-3

Please feel free to disagree.

while some of your predictions are good I think Oakland will be able to beat Minnisoda in the ALCS

while i agree with some, the Mariners are goin through a rough period....

they won 300 games in 3 years......they have 3 bad years and everyone's on their case.....

wrightfan123 wrote:Milaukee Brewers- The only way they will win a game is in dramatic fasion.

i disagree

houston shall go to the playoffs. 100% guarentee

Whats up with no love for the Giants?

ew baseball
*shoots self*

No one loves the giants and there steroid pumped "home run king"
I'd also like to point out how badly the Y@nk$$s suck. Largest payroll by far and they're still only a little better than average.
I hate the Yankees with a fiery passion for that

Anyway, The Braves don't get a year to rebuild because as soon as we get it together teams like the y@nk$$s come along and sign our best to deals we can't even compete with, so this year we're lucky to have a pitching staff coming together, it'll be picked apart in a year or so, but we should do ok.

DIRESTRAITS wrote:Whats up with no love for the Giants?

Barry's hat size has gone up 3 sizes since joining the majors, that doesn't happen

I think Red Sox will make playoffs

I agree, they should do alright this year

Cleveland Indians- Something totally sucktastic will happen to Pronk, ending his baseball career and leaving Cleveland with any hitters.

what about martinez and blake and theres sizemore

I think minnesota has a great chance to challege Detroit for the best in the Al Central. With the returning MVP and the batting title coming back, their offense has become very impressive. Their young pitching will be very good with always fantastic, Johan, but also the return of the phenom Liriano be just as important if not more. Defense is a little more of a shaky spot, we just have to hope they hit in the outfield so Torii has a chance to make a play (or hopefully our pitchers will just throw a lot of no hitters!)

All I know is I want that stinking curse lifted so the Cubs can finally win it all. Don't tell me there isn't a curse.

Leon Durham lets the ball go through his legs (Bill Buckner-style) in 1984 versus the Padres.

Then, most recently, that idiot fan reaches out and doesn't let Moises Alou catch the ball for the 2nd out against the Florida Marlins in 2003.

Only Boston Red Sox fans can come close to understanding our pain. At least they finally broke theirs.

I agree with the Mets v. Tigers World series, but i think the Tigers will sweep them, or win in 5 games, no more than that.

Doubt the cubs make the playoffs, they have 1 great pitcher, and a 4 overpaid overachievers.

And the Bluejays wont make the playoffs, The Sox will find a way to win that division, and the Yanks wont make the playoffs just like you said

TEXAS RANGERS

The problem with the Texas Rangers is that their pitching in the secound half of the season starts to wilt under the Texas heat. Get a Dome.

The only reason I have the Mets winning is all the mistakes the Tigers amde this year. You have to wonder if they wouldn't be a bit rattled by going back against a stronger opponent.

I think your Mets winning it all is a little baised. Espiecally considering that you're a Mets fan. (David Wright is an elite third basemen in fantasy baseball though, I'll admit that much)

For me, the Braves will make it back into the postseason. The main reason is their pitching. If they don't make it, I believe it'll be because of offense related issues.

For pitching, you have three former closers in your bullpen. Bob Wickman (Indians closer and current closer for the Braves), Mike Gonzalez (Pittsburgh closer), and Rafeal Soriano (The future closer in Seattle).

You starting rotation also consists of John Smolts, Tim Hudson, Mike Hampton, Chuck James, and Kyle Davies. Kyle Davies is young, so I expect him to get better this year. Chuck James made about 15 or so starts last year, and I really like his potential for this year. Mike Hampton is questionable coming off surgery. Tim Hudson still hasn't learned the NL I suppose, but one of these days, he will return to his former self. John Smoltz is an ace no matter how you look at it.

The offense is good, but has a few question marks. You have Andrew Jones who is in a contract year, so his offense could possibly increase (although he's already a top fantasy outfielder), but he may not resign with the Braves after this year. Brain McCann is the best catcher in the National League, no contest. Edgar Renteria is a good shortstop. Chipper Jones is a good 3B, just has problems staying healthy. Jeff Franceour has great Power Potential, just strikes out too much. For our 1B options, 2B options (I think Kelly Johnson is going to be the starter), and for Ryan Langerhans (in a possible platoon situation at OF?), I not too confident. If Kelly Johnson stays at 2B, I believe he will be a good offensive 2B. He has a career .241 batting average however. Scott Thorman (1B starter or platoon?) is a rookie, but if it is a platoon situation, they have Craig Wilson who I really like. For Ryan Langerhans, he's a weak offensive outfielder, can't steal bases, and hit a .241 batting average last year. On base percentage was .350 and slugging percentage was .378. Yes, he's fairly young (27 this year), but I don't think he'll help at all offensively.

NOTE: I wish the Braves would have kept Wilson Betemit, and trading Adam LaRoche for Mike Gonzalez was a bad move in my opinion. Yes, our bullpen has increased even more, but LaRoche had great power potential. Plus, getting a 3rd closer wasn't really needed considering we already had Soriano and Wickman at that point in time.

vgmmaster wrote:Rafeal Soriano (The future closer in Seattle).

poor rafie.....did you see when he got hit by that baseball!??!? dang!

P Gizzle wrote:

vgmmaster wrote:Rafeal Soriano (The future closer in Seattle).

poor rafie.....did you see when he got hit by that baseball!??!? dang!

I heard about that. I forget how bad it was, but I do remember hearing about it.

vgmmaster wrote:

P Gizzle wrote:

vgmmaster wrote:Rafeal Soriano (The future closer in Seattle).

poor rafie.....did you see when he got hit by that baseball!??!? dang!

I heard about that. I forget how bad it was, but I do remember hearing about it.

HORRIBLE! youtube it sometime, it blew me away.....i dunno, but it looked like it hurt horribly!

luns101 wrote:All I know is I want that stinking curse lifted so the Cubs can finally win it all. Don't tell me there isn't a curse.

Leon Durham lets the ball go through his legs (Bill Buckner-style) in 1984 versus the Padres.

Then, most recently, that idiot fan reaches out and doesn't let Moises Alou catch the ball for the 2nd out against the Florida Marlins in 2003.

Only Boston Red Sox fans can come close to understanding our pain. At least they finally broke theirs.

I'm a Red Sox fan but I am secretly routing for the Cubs because I understand what it feels like

wrightfan123 wrote:Boston Red Sox- Dice K won't be enough to prevail in the unusually weak division.
...
Please feel free to disagree.

good i will. the redsox are going to have one of the most dominating starting rotations in baseball this year. We also will be healthy this year so our hitting will be back on track. The Red Sox will easily make the playoffs this year.

Sammy gags wrote:I'm a Red Sox fan but I am secretly routing for the Cubs because I understand what it feels like

Ditto. i was so excited in 03 when it looked like it could be a redsox-cubs world series. They are my two favorite teams so it would have been a win-win situation

I think that Dice K was a waste of money ($50,000 just to talk to him) & will not be as dominating as everybody says, but regardless, he is a good addition