Comish's Predictions - NL Central

1st – Spanish Harlem Pinata Beaters
2nd – Otherton Fishbiscuits
3rd – Leesburg Snowhole
4th – Niagara Frontier Blackbirds

My love for Oscar Charleston may be clouding my judgment here, but the Pinata Beaters sure seem the team to beat, not only in the NL Central, but across the National League and even across ATB (reverse jinx in effect, or does me announcing it cancel it out?).  Their lineup is stacked from top to bottom: Jesse Burkett, the King, Charleston, and a very underrated John Olerud lead things off.  Then a well above average second basemen in Cupid Childs, Pronk, and a good OBP guy Wade Boggs follow up before things finally peter out with Ross Youngs and Ozzie Smith.  And of course Smith is not there for his offense.  The bullpen is top-notch.  Mike Jackson and Hong Chi Kuo will share setup and reliever duties, while Neftali Feliz and newcomer Jake McGee back them up.  If McGee is for real, this is a top-3 bullpen.  The only complaint is the rotation.  7 times out of 10 Jesse Tannehill has a good year, but sometimes he just spits the bit and pops a 4.50 ERA.  He's ideally suited as a high end #2 starter but with that good of an offense, you simply can't have a great pitching staff too.  John Tudor and Ed Siever are fine 2nd and 3rd starters while Monty Stratton and especially Arthur Henderson (New Negro Leaguer) are question marks.  I think the only way Justin loses the division is if Tannehill fails.

Brian's Biscuits may win 90 or 70, I don't think there is much in between.  The lineup is simply awful, and may even struggle to score 600 runs in the beehive.  Not to list names again, but do a starting 9 of Ken Singleton, Paul Waner, Eddie Mathews, Bill Terry, Lenny Dykstra, Fred Clarke, Miller Huggins, Darrel Porter, and Dave Bancroft scare you? No.  However, they play excellent defense and with Pedro and Bill Bernhard highlighting he rotation the team should win games.  Juan Marichal is hit or miss but look for a good ERA this time around from the 3rd starter and perhaps the fortunes of the club rest with Danny Darwin.  In limited duties in the resims Darwin looked great.  Brian jumped on him late and inserted him as the 4th man in a 4 man rotation.  If Darwin holds his own, look out.  The Biscuit pen is good but not elite.  Dick Hall and Bill Henry are the best the team has to offer, with Ferdie Schupp and Ray Narleski 3rd and 4th options.

Park effects aside, I think Snowhole has the best 1st through 3rd starters in the game.  Ace Nip Winters is followed by Addie Joss and Justin Verlander.  One can't wish for much more than that.  Deacon Phillippe is a good #4 and with Claude Hendrix at #5 set to Skip, this team should be fine.  An aside:  One amazing thing I noticed this year, the 6 division alignment has resulted in 5 less off days throughout the season.  Previously it took until October 4th or 5th to complete the regular season, but this year we're done by September 29th.  Those skips will not get as much use as in years past.  By years-end Jay will likely have his manager tendencies set to ride the starting pitchers.   Tom Gordon is fine, but John Wetteland, Bill Risely, and Jim Kaat are suspect in the bullpen.  Their game 1, twelve-run outburst aside, this team will likely struggle to score runs.  I love Norm Cash in the three hole, and I can live with Hank Aaron batting 4th (OBP will be terrible), but I am not sure Mike Trout is ready for prime time in ATB.  He leads off for Leesburg, with the question being for how long.  Ed Rile bats 5th and had a huge opening night, if his is legit it will go a long way towards helping this team make the post-season. 

I am fairly certain the rotation will be the downfall of the Blackbirds.  Mort Cooper is the defacto ace and I am certain Greg knew going in he wasn't a true ace.  That's fine, he went offense first in the draft and that worked well.  Eddie Cicotte at #2 may best cast in a #4 role, but again, he is a proven commodity and will be about average.  Nels Potter is the #3 and he's never been thrust into a starting role (that I can recall) in ATB before.  The 500 resims liked him but I am extremely hesitant he's the real deal.  At 4 and 5 are the infamous Lady Baldwin and Ben Sanders.  I don't know how a 1st year owner would know this, so Greg can't be faulted, but these two are the poster children for the 1800s reset from last year.  To remind everyone, these used to be ATB aces until I realized they were entered in the game incorrectly and as a result, their profiles where reset.  They turned awful since the reset.  I don't recall if the 500 resims showed improvement or Greg used the player cards and got hosed.  Either way, this is a rotation full of question marks.  I really like the lineup though.  Tommy Tucker, Wilile Keeler and Nap Lajoie start things off.  Great stuff.  They are followed by Mel Ott, Josh Gibson, Duke Snider, and Ducky Medwick.  More great stuff.  As we have seen with every team the bottom third struggles and here is no different - Robin Ventura and Nomar should be you average bad hitting 8th and 9th place hitter.

I think the Beaters run away with the division but any of the three remaining teams can challenge for the wild card with the right breaks.  In the case of the Blackbirds, they need several breaks in the rotation which is why I have them 4th.