Napa Winers season review

The Napa Winers finished their inaugural regular season with a 92-70 record and finished just 3 games out of first place in the division. Napa is heading to the playoffs after winning one of the wild card spots in the EML. The outlook for the playoffs is mixed. While Napa's offense can be quite lethal, its pitching is equally shaky once Tim Lincecum's turn in the rotation is passed.

The regular season was very successful for Napa. The management team was extremely aggressive in the trade market from the preseason right up until the trade deadline and brought in many quality players including Albert Pujols, Dan Uggla, Matt Holliday, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Max Scherzer. The offensive boost that the aforementioned position players brought is what gave Napa the boost to the playoffs, as more often than not Napa had to outscore its opponent, as opposed to outpitch them.

Napa's offense boasted a .275 team avg. to go along with a robust 284 HR's. It's a good thing Napa hit so well because the pitching staff racked up a 5.15 ERA for the season.

Napa's MVP would have to be Albert Pujols. While spending only 100 games with the club, Pujols managed to rack up these offensive numbers:

.342 avg., .434 ob%, .736 slg%, 1.354 OPS, 37 HR's and 89 RBI's.

The most valuable pitcher would have to be Tim Lincecum. Tim Lincecum pitched 5 complete games to go along with 2 shutouts (1 of which was a no hitter, should have been a perfect game except stupid Jeff Keppinger booted a grounder in the ninth). Lincecum finished the season with an 18-11 record, 3.23 ERA, 231 IP, 265 K's and allowed only 16 HR's while pitching in hitter friendly Coors Field.

Napa's least valuable player and least valuable pitcher are one in the same. AJ Burnett had a consistent year on the hill... CONSISTENTLY HORRENDOUS! In his 212 innings pitched, Burnett managed to compile a 6.70 ERA while allowing 264 hits, 144 walks, and 43 HR's. He led the league in walks allowed (by a whopping 33), runs allowed (by 30), and was second in HR's allowed. He also threw 28 wild pitches which led the league by 11, and all of the 28 seemed to come with a runner on third. Burnett pitched so frustratingly poorly that the Napa manager was actually heard saying, "I almost wish we don't make the playoffs so that the season is over and I never have to send his sorry a$@ up there ever again." Needless to say, Burnett's career in Napa will be over once Napa's season is officially finished.

Look Ahead:

Napa has an aging roster and there have been rumors that they will try to unload many of their stars to start a youth movement. One of the players being rumored to be moved is team MVP Albert Pujols. "We would have no problem keeping Albert, but he can probably net us the greatest return and help expedite this youth movement that we are going to start. Holliday, Uggla, and Guerrero may all be moved as well. Even though this team has made the playoffs, it has glaring weaknesses that need to be addressed. We need to get younger in the field, address our starting pitching issue, and find a closer. We want to build a strong nucleus of young, promising players and find some starting pitching to fill in behind Lincecum and Scherzer. Our bullpen looks to be strong next year with Evan Meek, Darren O'day, Tyler Clippard, and Brian Fuentes. We could use Fuentes as a closer if we had to, but we would like to find someone who can close for us for the next 7,8,10 years and use Fuentes as our lefty in the pen. It is definitely going to be an interesting off season and with this deep, talented rookie class coming up, if we can acquire some picks, I feel we could both address our issues and while many of our stars may be gone, we could have a chance to still make a run at another postseason birth."