Uxbridge Purple Umbrellas Preview by Ken 02/02/2016

It was great to see everyone back for this season and the bonus of having Steve involved in the draft process. Maybe we can even get Graham out to Illinois for the playoffs! And we have an ALL KLEIN division!

Draft: The catching issue stood out to me – Posey was on my mind and would have been selected if Votto was selected by Graham in front of me however Votto was still there and was selected. Which left me paying attention to the other three viable options – and fortunately I was in the middle and could eyeball both swings. I suppose it is the one advantage of being in the middle. I did like that I was able to get Rizzo in the second and then Price in the third.

Offense. I had Votto #2 offensively and Rizzo #4 so it was up to me to supplement these guys after they were selected. I believe I did all right although I will likely be last in homers. Not an awful last but hitting 175 vs others 200+. Will that come back to bite me? We shall see! The team should be decent on base wise. A fair amount of walks throughout the lineup supplemented with a bunch of hit by pitches starting with Rizzo, Cain, Crawford, Turner and Springer. Our bench is thin – Duffy, Spangenberg, Reyes, Springer and Navarro are all. Team steals should be fairly prominent or at least hitting and running as most guys have decent amount of steals available at a fair pct. Team speed seems pretty good although almost every team can say that. Not much of a platoon disadvantage other than Altuve & Martin.

Defense. Decent. Not as good as last year however the deficiency is Turner at 3B and Duffy will get a fair amount of time there late in games and will start the games Turner misses. I am likely to lead the league in passed balls with Martin and his PB3 behind the plate. OF arms are Ok with Upton (35) and Cain (34) manning the corners supplemented by Springer (33). No complaints. Yet.

Pitching. Very pleased to get Price as mentioned previously. And I have 7 relievers. Nothing too special other than most pitchers throughout the staff are WP1 or 0 and I actually have a few +3 +2 move guys. And a few guys are ZZ / Z rated.

Evaluation. The pitching has to hold up or at least be near league average. The offense should score… I just have to score more than my opponent. I don’t see any gaping holes other than 3B defense. Maybe the lack of a 40 homer guy…

Best of luck to everyone!