The bet is to predict which team will have the worst record in the Major Leagues in the upcoming season.
With one caveat.
We cannot pick a team who finished last in their division last year.
I've already come up with my pick for this year. The easy bet and one of the two teams I expect my friend to take are the New York Mets (sorry Glenn
) and the Oakland Athletics. Both teams were miserable last year and look to be even worse this year.But, wanting to dazzle him with my brilliance, which many mistake for sheer stupidity (solid bet), I wanted to go off the grid. I took a little time off while Marcel was keeping 14 drafters waiting and looked at the prospects.
One team kept shouting out to me. We suck! Pick us, Dan! We suck!
And I heard the calls. This team will boast a starting nine who hit 20 home runs off left handers last year.
The whole lineup!
Curtis Granderson hit 16 off lefties last year.
Worse thing is, is that they're not a lefty lineup.
And, they're an American League team and I counted the dh, such as he is.
Their Manager went to another team. The owner missed an opportunity to fire a GM that has had his best years. Their best player is old. Their closer was traded for marbles. So was there Left fielder. And they are left with question marks in crucial places.
I am talking about the Chicago White Sox.
While a lot of folks wonder what Kenny Williams has up his sleeve, I wonder what happened to his shirt. He's lost it in deals. A couple of years ago, he traded for the albatross that is the Alex Rios contract, which more than likely has caused the purge of 2012. The White Sox have traded their young closer and their older left fielder. The trade of Quentin results in a tug of war between Williams and Ozzie Guillen coming to fruition. Williams has maintained that Dayan Viciedo is all that and a bag of Doritos, while Guillen didn't think much of the prospect. We'll find out who was right this year.
Here's the lineup:
1. DeAza
2. Ramirez
3. Konerko
4. Dunn
5. Rios
6. Viciedo
7. Morel
8. Pierzynski
9. Beckham
Unless something changes, as in Adam Dunn hitting the ball, the strategy for any pitcher would be to pitch around Konerko and have fun with the rest of the lineup.
In the past, the White Sox were built around their small ball park. Now, that small park is their worst enemy. They do have some decent starting pitching, still, it's a certainty that visitors will hit more home runs there than this crew.
The 'competition' for last place within there division comes from Kansas City and Minnesota. Kansas City's offense has improved a little with Hosmer. Their pitching however is still deplorable. Still, we can take a journeyman pitcher like Bruce Chen and see that he threw 33 innings against the White Sox last year and come away with a sparkling 3-1 record and 1.89 E.R.A.
This lineup does not have a lefty killer in it. Konerko and Morel had 11 homers vs. lefties, the rest of the lineup, 9.
The Twins do have a chance to be worse, but they have the hopes of getting Mauer and Morneau back to health, those injuries propelled them to last place in 2011, just one game from losing 100.
Detroit won the division by 15 games last year. They didn't pull away from the pack till August. This year, they could start pulling away in May. The Indians, White Sox, Twins, and Royals have not improved themselves much, if at all. In the White Sox case, even going backward.
It won't be the division we've become accustomed to. It won't have the pitching that the Twins are noted for or the bash that usually comes from Chicago. Some may rave that the Royals have 'moved up' to second place if they can beat out the Indians. That move will only be the weakness of the other teams in a down year. Still, a 'victory' for them.
Justin Verlander went 24-5 last year. he beat everybody. But he was especially tough within the division.
His record there was 14-1. Fantasy gold when throwing a pitcher among any team in the division expecting a win.
Even a pitcher who hasn't had the best of times at the Big Level, Rick Porcello, was 7-3 vs. the division.
My wager is less than a Maya ($15), at $10. And the odds are against me.
A better bet may have been that four of the five teams in this division will play under .500 baseball, repeating last year.
But what fun would that be?
