2010 New Orleans Crawdads

[bschr682]

Pitching Staff

Key Departures: SP Stanley Price, SP Antonio Andrade

Key Arrivals: SP Maxwell "Hollywood" Johnson, SP Christian Nichols

Starting Rotation

Mike Williams, Christian Nichols, and Hollywood Johnson form a very strong trio at the top of New Orleans rotation. At first glance it appears that the bottom 2 spots will be filled by a couple of youngsters who were roughed up a bit this spring. Jose Chavez probably gets the nod anyway as he was a 17 game winner last season even with a subpar stat-line. Jimmy McCabe didn't have quite as bad a spring as Chavez but maybe management wants to hold him down for a month or 2 for service time reasons anyway and this gives young Severino Cardeal (who had a fabulous spring) a shot.

The starting rotation is strong.

Bullpen

Veteran Luiz Sachse almost certainly comes back as the closer (although he will miss the first 2 weeks of the season) with fellow veterans Gary Wilson and Robert Durst setting him up. The rest of the bullpen shapes up with some Jones's (Dave and Sean), a Juan, and then whoever the manager fancies breaking camp with (Greg O'Donnell?)

The bullpen is strong.

Position Players

Key Offseason Departures: NONE!

Key Offseason Arrivals: 1B Arturo Gutierrez

A lot of big names here. In the outfield the Crawdads can run out Al Jones, Felipe Arroyo/John Brown, and Monte Perry. All good hitters as well as good defenders. The infield will sport Gutierrez, Paco Torres, Vincent Adams, and Jose Rodriguez. Behind the plate will most likely be a timeshare between Hector Behemoth and Edmund Rogerson. Rogerson clearly has the brighter future but until the results catch up with the potential I would hazard a guess that Behemoth could take some at bats away from Rogerson this season.

Starting lineup is strong.

Overall the core of the team is indeed very strong. While a small argument could be made against there being top quality depth at the Major League level, there is a ton of adequate level depth on the bench and in AAA. Beyond that there is a multitude of top prospects in the farm system. New Orleans is going to be a very tough team this season and I see them getting a second consecutive division title at 95-67. In fact if even half of New Orleans prospects turn out I can see them getting a string of division titles much like Madison has been doing in the JL Midwest.

[JimBob2232]

Good Writeup. Thanks.

I think I am going to break camp with Williams, Nichols, Johnson, Chavez, and Ine.

If Ine struggles early, I will give Cardenal a shot. If that fails, I'll go back to Sean Jones who held down my #5 spot last year.

If that doesnt work, then McCabe will be called up!

[trmmilwwi]

I love it when a man has a backup plan to his backup plan to his backup plan. Good stuff happening in the big easy! It will be fun to watch how the team does this year..

[bschr682]

They will be tough this year. Looking at that farm is just crazy. New Orleans will be very strong for the next decade.