Helena Handbaskets 2011
Look Towards the Season
After successfully moving away from the previous home of Loves Park and the ridiculous pink uniforms, The Helena Handbaskets look forward to a fresh start and an exciting future. Team owner Larry Hill believes in building a team on pitching and defense, and while most of the pieces from the previous team didn’t fit, some early picks in the draft this season have moved the team in that direction.
Starting Pitching—an excellent first round of the draft netted the team youngsters Jaime Garcia and Jhoulys Chacin and picking up RA Dickey in the 3rd round was a steal. These 3 will team with other newcomers Edinson Volquez and Ricky Nolasco, along with holdovers Jake Peavy Keving Correia and Barry Zito to form a decent roataion with potential for the future with returns from injuries and emotional issues.
Relief pitching—The backend of the bullpen is anchored by Andrew “Lights Out” Bailey, last years first round pick. If he falters, the Handbaskets are blessed with 5 other pitchers with closing experience, Huston Street, Brandon Lyon, Rafael Betancourt, Mike Wuertz and Nick Masset. These 5 with David Pauley and probably Correia as long man, will anchor a fairly strong bullpen, which hopefully won’t have to be used that much if the starters pitch up to potential.
Catching—By committee. A lot of former talent here. Victor Martinez is probably the best hitter of the bunch, but his receiving leaves a little (ok a lot) to be desired. Russell Martin is living on past glory, and Ivan Rodriguez keeps chugging along. Drew Butera and Adam Morre are looks to the future here, both trapped behind catchers in their current stints, but could get some playing time with injuries.
First Base—Two slick fielding no hit guys, and 2 guys who can rake, but fielding wise…well, lets just say, no one picks the ball up better after it stops rolling than these two. Kotchman and Ishikawa will see late inning defensive replacement action, while Butler and VMart will probably get most of the starts due to their hitting, one will likely be the DH also.
Second Base—Adam Kennedy, Clint Barmes. Let’s move on.
Third Base—Ably handled by Adrian Beltre. Great glove, dang good bat this year. Danny Valencia is an able back up and should see some time as DH vs left handed pitching.
Shortstop—Cliff Pennington will get most of the starts. Jack Wilson will get most of the rest. Only if the manager has a complete brain cramp will Yuniesky Betancourt see any action…he’s the most trade available player on the Handbaskets this year.
Outfield…Some decent holdovers ..Andre Ethier and Drew Stubbs. Some exciting new players…First round pick Austin Jackson, second rounders Jose Tabata and Peter Bourjos…and hopefully returning from injury Grady Sizemore…highlight a fairly strong outfield rotation. Some excellent fielding out there with some decent speed and hitting.
Overall, a decent team, not a great one. Playoffs? Probably not this year, but some youth to build to the future with the solid veteran leadership already in place. The Handbaskets won’t be pushovers, and might sneak into the playoffs, but realistically 82-84 wins is what we should expect.
Larry Hill
Very interesting club. A lot of upside in that rotation. If they can put it all together at once, you could have a frightening staff to go with a lights out pen.
ReplyDeleteI was a little skeptical when I saw you dealing off a lot of your SP, but you ended up getting some nice SP value back via the draft. If Peavy can stay healthy, and the youngsters show they weren't one hit wonders, you have a nice looking rotation.
ReplyDelete"no one picks the ball up better after it stops rolling than these two" -- the funniest thing ever written in the TBA Blog!
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a team on the upswing.