Lineup: Building a lineup for this team was difficult for me as there were so many options to bat in each position. I chose Heyward as the leadoff hitter due to his 8OB and above average speed to set the table for his two 10 OB teammates following behind him. Both similar charts I picked Bryant first but you really could go either way with these two. Following is Willson Contreras with his 9 OB 17+ home run. I went with Baez 5th because he has such a fun cahrt and if he gets the advantage the bases are getting cleared, and I would rather him getting more at bats in a game than the guys that follow him because of that. Schwarber and Castellanos follow them with great 8 OB cards, and Castellanos is such an overlooked player, he destroyed this year for the Tigers and Cubs, he may even be a little undervalued in card value. He is a great piece to draft to save some points for later on in the draft when you are filling out your roster. Bote is another 9 that can be hitting up higher in the lineup but nowhere felt right for him and is followed by Jonathan Lucroy who is the DH in this lineup.
Bench: Albert Almora is their bench player, and I really have nothing nice to say about him, so I will just leave it at that.
Rotation: How the mighty Cubs rotation of 16 and 18 has fallen. Kyle Hendricks is still a lead pitcher but he has also declined from previous years. Cole Hamels can have the same said for him but those are the two starters you can rely upon the most in this rotation. Yu Darvish brings his 5 control but after that I don't think anyone will really roster him due to his home run and only being out through 14. Jon Lester and Jose Quintana will most likely kick Darvish out of the rotation and send him to the back of the bullpen only to be used when games are out of reach.
Bullpen: This bullpen is reliable to the point it should be able to pick up the slack for the end of the starters, but if they get roughed up it is going to be a long game. Brandon Kintzler is a great first option from the pen, allowing no doubles off of his chart. Steve Cishek seems about the same as last year and can get you an inning or two as well. Kyle Ryan is a nice end of a lineup reliever and Tyler Chatwood is a 2IP inning eater giving the Cubs 4 reliable relievers. Then there is Craig Kimbrel, another player in the running for biggest dropoff in card from the previous season. He got roughed up for the Cubs and is pretty unusable.
This Cubs team can make a run, in their division they will hang around with the Brewers and Cardinals, maybe even get hot enough to cool down the Cardinals, I personally think if the season was played out with these cards, the Brewers would win the Central with the Cubs coming in second. The Cubs give us 20 players worth 5570 points or 278 points per player which is good enough for 5th overall right now.
Astros - 300
Nationals - 295
Twins - 293
Rays - 285
Cubs - 278
Red Sox - 269
Brewers - 268
Indians - 259
Braves - 256
Athletics - 248
Cardinals - 245
D-Backs - 236
Padres - 233
Phillies - 213
White Sox - 185
Blue Jays - 167
Now for staying all the way through the post, there will be no poll for which team gets released tomorrow, because no 2019 team will be released tomorrow on Thanksgiving. That being said, tomorrow it is going down and if your family fun hasn't started yet at Noon eastern time, I highly recommend checking the blog site, or checking it tomorrow night once you're in your food coma sitting on the couch watching some football.
Lineup:
ReplyDeleteRizzo is the stud of this lineup, coming in at 5.60. Bryant is right behind him at 5.31 and Contreras comes in just above 5, giving them three solid options in the middle of the lineup. Surprisingly, Bote is the next up at 4.50, and Heyward, Contreras, Javy, Schwarber and Castellanos all come in above 4, giving this team a ton of depth on offense. Lucroy is below 3, and Almora is a pitiful 1.45. That is BAAAAD.
Pitching staff: You said it best, what a drop off. Hendricks is the top dog at 6.66- a far cry from their low 5s performance a few years ago. Following him is Hamels at 7.25, Lester at 7.35. Quintana at 8.07 and Darvish at 8.65.0
Kintzler is a legit bullpen arm at 5.63, but there's almost a full run fall off down to Ryan at 6.45, Cishek at 6.51 and Chatwood at 6.57. Kimbrel...by god, that's sad. Comes in at 10.19. Ooof. BAAD.
This team has some really great talent, but definitely seems like it lacks the depth to compete with the other teams out there. In redraft leagues there will be quite a few members taken from here, and they will make an interesting team to play with.