Here is a great post by Steve of the Oakland Osprey, and his thoughts on one of his divisional foes the San Diego Vipers. Steve really did his homework and has produced great insight on what the Vipers will look like in the 2003 season. If you have a blog post you want to get off your chest just shoot it over to me and I'll get up here. My apologies to Steve for not getting it up sooner. Enjoy!~ Craig
2003 Expansion Pacific Preview
San Diego Vipers
GM Jeff Tanner has quietly made a ton of thought provoking moves and everybody in San Diego is jabbering with excitement about the upcoming 2003 Season and the Vipers Pacific Title hopes. Last year after an early jump out to a record of 14-7 the Snakes suddenly couldn't keep teams off the scoreboard. And then when the pitching came around they couldn't score. A stunning 10 game losing streak left them at 19-28 and it didn't get any better from there as they stumbled to a 67-95 record.
Or did they stumble?
A quick look at the Transaction sheet shows that GM Jeff Tanner was quite active before the Trade Deadline and during the off-season. First this off-season he seemingly crushed the fans hopes by dealing their Ace to be Carlos Zambrano for a 2nd rounder and 5 Tool Player Bobby Abreu citing he "...needed somebody who could get on base". The faithful fans of San Diego need not worry, Abreu is worth it.
Also during the Off Season Jeff traded picks to get an elite starter in Curt Schilling and a very decent card of Tim Wakefield.
Those two team with the excellent "1 and Done" cards of Jeremi Gonzalez(3rd Round) and Pat Hentgen(3rd Round) to give the Vipers a very, very solid starting Five along with Kip Wells enjoying one of his best seasons as well. In the Bullpen Erasmo Ramirez was also plucked in the 3rd round to join Tom Flash Gordon, Francisco Cordero, Mike Timlin(acquired from Baltimore at the Trade Deadline) and lefty Dan Pleasac's nice card.
The hitters also got shuffled a bit, we already mentioned Abreu and that helps San Diego out with an extra OF to trade, Cruz Jr. will probably be in CF(he won the Gold Glove for RF'ers that year and drops from an A+/-3 in RF to "only" a B+/50/-3 in CF). Shannon Stewart, Moises Alou and Jermaine Dye can fill the other spots and play match ups while Abreu mans Right Field for every game possible. One of those first three named will be probably be traded though.
Marcus Giles leads the infield and yes I mean that even with the CLUTCH A/A Powered Richie Sexton at 1b. Giles has an absolutely stupid WAR rating at 7.8. Yes, 7.8, I double-checked. That's a huge gap over anybody else whose 2b isn't named Soriano. Giles not only has A/B Power on his card but it's filled with hits AND, and, and… he sports a A/70/0 for Jeff's Fielding Charts. Holy Crap.
Mike Young provides decent D at SS(C+/50/0) but with tons of hits on his card. Shea Hillenbrand at 3b has a skillet instead of a glove but also has a very nice amount of hits on his card and…
This. Team. Will. Crush. Lefties.
To top it all off Jason Phillips was acquired from the New York Rippers early last year and his card while not having a lot of "power" has tons of hits and safeties on it too("Safeties are Hit+Walks+HBPs). Add in his (-1) arm behind the plate and San Francisco, I mean the League won't be stealing too many bases off him.
Nick Johnson becomes an excellent pinch hitter and even more trade bait for teams looking for that little bit of extra help at 1st Base just like Cincinnati's Robert Fick.
So…
..now we know why I reviewed San Diego first.
They scare me the most in the Expansion League Pacific Division.
Prediction:
93-69
Once I've done all four Clubs I'll post up predicted Standings.
Coming up:
The Seattle Lightning
Building The Perfect Beast: The 2002 New York Rippers
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