SEASON 43 NL South PREVIEW

Jackson Mississippi Moonshiners
jgsolari3
SEA 42:  99-63, won Division, advanced to Round 2 San Francisco

Why not kick off previews with this season's most controversial squad?  

For those of you living under a rock, Jackson was the perpetrator of "Hayes-Gate" - our once-every-4-seasons-or-so salary cap breakage and work-around to avoid the subsequent penalty.  The resulting trade of Hayes for vet defensive IF Benji Wagner, defensive C Danys Barios, and middling DH prospect Al Urbina actually wasn't bad for Jackson - they needed some defensive help and found some in Wagner and Barios.

The only other lineup addition was OF Jecksson Bailey, who still has an A+ batting eye when he can stay on the field.  1B Pep Walsh should be in line again to knock in 140 runs with table-setters like Bailey, Dennis Boswell and Carlos Polonia ahead of him (although I seriously doubt the now-65-range Polonia can get away with it in CF again).  The Shiners plated 799 last season (4th) and should be right there again.  

Paul Kinney (16-10, 3.00) and Geraldo Manto (18-4, 2.39) continue as one of the top SP duos in Hobbs.  As long as they're healthy Jackson starts every season with a good chance to make (and win) the WS.  Dummy Simpson lived up to his name by declining a $3.1MM option and then signing as a FA for $1.3MM, but he's a credible mid-rotation option along with Johny Gardner, Alfredo Powell and the newly-acquired Wily Osoria.

Hayes would've been a big boost for this team, but they're at least as good as last year's model, maybe a touch better.  One caveat - defense, especially at SS, is still suspect.

Predicted Record:  100-62

San Juan Padres
bobbyj7

SEA 42:  82-80

San Juan's identity is hit first, field second, and occasionally pitch.  It's a popular formula but could use a little tweaking.

C Omir Stowers (.349/32/74) leads the hit parade...he seems a bit under-appreciated to be Hobbs' all-time #4 in batting average.  He's well complimented by 3B Louie Almonte (.274/36/107), CF Einar Nunez (.282/33/94) and LF Marvin Norton (.305/26/95).  As the season opens they appear to be a little light on COF's and may be planning to promote Roy Maier (SEA 39 # 38 overall) in 20 games. 

It's a solid lineup that should be able to equal last year's 816 runs (#4 in NL) and 241 HR's (#3).  They continued a recent history of juggling SS's last season, but eventually handed 3B over to Almonte and went with the better defensive options of Jeremie Kent and Omar Elcano at SS.  Although neither was great, overall the team was pretty good defensively - they lead the NL in fielding % at .988 and had 70 + plays (but also 37 - plays).

Pithing's another story.  SP's Ezequiel Escobar and Phil Newfield are solid and closer Ozzie Martin is lights-out, but after that it's downhill fast.  New signees Derrin Duncan (age 39) and Nolan Rodgers (age 37) aren't going to turn things markedly better.

All-in-all, another season of 11-9 sores at Padres games with the home team prevailing about half the time.

Predicted Record:  80-82

Houston Colt .45s
pimpbotlove

SEA 42:   61-101

The 2 rebuilding teams in this division really put an exclamation point on how awful last year's draft was.  At #2, the .45s landed Gene Del Valle, whose glove might make it to marginal CF/2B territory, and whose bat won't be good enough at any other positions.  Last year's goose-egg draft aside, Houston's rebuild is in pretty good shape.  They've accumulated some decent prospects (like SEA 40 #14 Fred Buckel, P's Diego Alomar,  Dallas Mann and Jocko Reimold, and OF Asdrubal Diaz).  Not stars, but solid workaday ML'ers that form the majority of even WS-winning rosters.  They need to find 1 or 2 young stars of the future, and their #4 pick this year and $22MM payroll have them set up to do exactly that.  More rebuilding this year, but it's going the right way.

Predicted Record: 65-97

Oklahoma City Apocalypse 
blanch13

SEA 42:  66-96

Unlike Houston, after 2 years of rebuilding OKC is nowhere.  With the #1 pick in last year's draft and a buttload of IFA money they came away with a SP who will end up as a #3 or #4.  They'll double down on IFA's this year and hope to get lucky with #6, but the end of the rebuild os nowhere in site yet.

Predicted Record: 65-97