FL Pacific Preview----NEW!!!!

[aaronweiner]

The FL Pacific looks like it's Las Vegas' world and everyone else is just playing around in their sandbox. That said: the FL Pacific also produced last year's wild card team, Calgary, and Seattle wasn't too bad either. Long Beach...well, they're working on it. Are things going to be different this season? Yes - and not necessarily for the better, at least for the challengers.


Calgary Marauders (89-73, FL wild card winners, second, FL Pacific)

Key Additions: P Francis Linares (promoted)

Key Subtractions: RPs Daniel Kinard, Len Cortese, Kenneth Diaz (free agency)

Team Overview:

Calgary has suffered from a lack of attention and proper ownership, and it shows. Sporting the lowest payroll in the league, Calgary will undoubtedly turn a major profit this year because of revenue sharing, but their team has suffered due to management problems that will hopefully be solved by the next regime.

The pitching staff is about as average as it gets. Outside of Lee Plemel, who has seen his ERA rise from 3.31 to 3.99 to 4.67 last year, and Will VanLandingham, the team has no pitching worth mentioning. Obviously, they took a major hit when they dealt Allen Izatt, but currently the staff is full of mediocrity.

The offense isn't horrid, but it isn't much better. We do like Clapper Caroll, and we do think that Johnnie Iraq could make the leap this year from star to superstar. The lineup has few holes and isn't too bad overall. However, we don't think there's quite enough offensively to offset the weakness throughout the pitching staff.


Team Projection: The Marauders lack of pitching will probably do them in this year, especially in the bullpen. Plus, there are just a lot of better teams out there; Buffalo, Atlantic City, Des Moines, probably Birmingham. We can't see Calgary repeating as wild card winners, and with so many teams improved, we think they'll stumble to an at-best .500 record. Happily, Calgary has one of the best farm systems in the MBBA, including freshly minted #1 prospect Chris Coll, and they should be fine in the long run.


Las Vegas Hustlers (106-56, first, FL West, bounced in first round)

Key Additions: P Felix Pan, P Sam Morton (free agency)

Key Subtractions: 1B Dave Manzanillo, C Robin Larker, P Daniel Gassaway (free agency)

Team Overview:

Las Vegas is a team built around starting pitchers - four starting pitchers, to be exact. The Hustlers have four of the better starters in the league, and aren't really paying any of them; Nate Minchey is the high mark in salary at a meager $3.8 million; ironically, he may be the worst of the four. This not only makes the Hustlers, one of the league's more complete teams, profitable, it makes them extremely competitive...as long as they don't get any injuries to the pitching staff.

We ARE a bit confused, however, as to why Felix Pan (appropriately paid at $10 million a season) hasn't found his way into the rotation just yet; Pan is every bit as good as the other four. We think that may happen by the beginning of the year; Vegas doesn't have an off day until the 22nd of April. Vegas' starting pitching is outstanding; their bullpen is not quite as amazing, but solid all around. The re-addition of Marty Powers will surely help.

As for the offense, we think the group will take an enormous dive with the loss of Dave Manzanillo. Manzanillo was the glue that held the offense together; without him, their better hitters might be exposed. They'll take the draft picks, but they lose the guy. Randy Square is a nice player, but it remains to be seen whether he can reproduce a 40-homer season; we're betting not. Riley Hinson is solid, but he had a career year. And so on and so forth. They'll also miss Robin Larker more than they think. We think that Vegas would have done well to pay some hitters this year, even overpay them.


Team Prediction: Vegas' starting pitching is so good that the offense just has to be average and they'll win a ton of ballgames. Last year, the offense was way above average; this year, we expect a dramatic drop in offensive productivity. The question is, will their pitching/defense strategy be enough? Yes, absolutely in this sad-sack division, and they'll easily make the playoffs. But: they'll need to cash in a couple chips to really make a serious run this year.


Long Beach Surfers (66-96, last, FL Pacific)

Key Additions: IF Michael Diamond, IF Dean Cain, P Nate Hollins (free agency)

Key Subtractions: C Oscar Mazzarella, SS O'Shea Jackson, P Pedro Martinez, P Sam Morton, P Steve Cooke
　
Team Overview:

Well, it's not often that you hear about a 96-loss team getting worse, but that's precisely what the Long Beach Surfers did this offseason. Oh boy. They managed to downgrade at catcher, shortstop and reliever, for example; the problem isn't so much that the team's worse than they weren't very good at the start. The main issue was money, but this team's currently in a mess.

Sure, they still have David Hulse, Ted Sale and Billy Ashley down the middle, but the bookends are mediocre at best and probably weak. You don't want to depend on Michael Diamond to set the table. They replaced Oscar Mazzarella] with Larry Hampton. It's possible that the middle three could hit 100 homers and drive in 250 runs.

Think the hitting's bad? Well, the pitching's worse. Ramon Ayala has a lot of talent, but he could also give up a lot of homers like he did last year. And he's the best of the lot; even the bullpen has gone mostly sour. Nate Hollins has lumped, too.


Team Prediction: 100 losses for this bunch, especially since other teams in the league have improved. They might not be another Montreal, but a couple key injuries and they could be knocking on the door to the #1 pick.

　
Seattle Storm (79-83, third, FL Pacific)

Key Additions: SS Donnie Rotten, OF Rick Boulton/Bobby Bonilla (platoon), SP Cody Smith (free agency)

Key Subtractions: RP Alfredo Gutierrez (free agency)

Team Overview:

Seattle stumbled to a near-.500 record after contending for the wild card until the final week last season, and that's pretty much the story with this team. The problem with Seattle is that they're a legitimately, honestly average team, and that's not going to get them to the playoffs.

Oh, sure, nobody has a better 3-4-5-6 than Morris Pennebaker, Ben Rivero, Jacinto Merino and Mack Randall. We'd all damn sure take them. However: the rest of the lineup is average or below. Seattle will improve because Merino did; we'll likely see them back in the top third of offenses (like we did in 1995 and 1996).

However, this team's pitching staff is average at best, and, if we're being honest, it's pretty poor. They don't have an ace, and they're mostly looking at a collection of #2 starters at best and a whole bunch of #3 starters in their potential reality. Their middle relief isn't very good getting to Ted Dever, either.


Team Prediction: In other words, the hitting's good, the pitching isn't, and it would be very surprising if this team finished much above .500 this year. While this team has a lot of advantages, especially offensively, it would take a huge effort from Dick Spivey or Lenard Barbosa to really turn the tides. This isn't news: they lost 83 games last season.


Projected Records for the FL Pacific:

Las Vegas 97-65
Seattle 81-81
Calgary 77-85
Long Beach 62-100

[lynchy34]

Is it possible for a team to have the division wrapped up before Opening Day? Because Vegas does.

[aaronweiner]

I'd say given their overwhelming depth and talent combined with the overall crappiness of the rest of the teams in the division, yes, I think they're on cruise control on Opening Day.

[jcrmoon42]

I really got screwed by the previous non-owner in that several guys didn't get re-signed. No telling what they were asking for, but I probably would have re-signed at least O'Shea Jackson and Mazzarrella. I think I drafted both of them originally.

And the sparse off-season certainly wasn't for a lack of trying. I had a lot of contract offers out there, but guys preferred other teams. In the end, I was just trying to make sure I actually had enough players to start the season, thus the additions of Diamond, Cain, Incaviglia, and others.

I fully expected to be bad, but there is at least a plan in place in Long Beach!