In Focus: Chicago Cubs Rotation

As a Cubs fan, one situation I have been following very closely is the rotation battles going on in Mesa for the Cubs. A little earlier, I mentioned Mark Prior as a potential sleeper. I am now going to toss his name out there as a player to avoid. His fastball is currently sitting at 87-88 MPH and he has been getting smashed against. He has become way to cautious and it appears that some more time in AAA will be necessary. As it stands now, it looks like the Cubs rotation will be as follows:

1. Carlos Zambrano
2. Ted Lilly
3. Jason Marquis
4. Rich Hill
5. Wade Miller

I have also heard rumors that Miller and Marquis may flip spots. Now that we have decided the rotation, the question is raised. How well will they do? I want to start of by saying that this rotation should be a significant improvement over the inconsistant rotation of last year. Not only were the pitchers inconsistant last year, but who was pitching were inconsistant.

Lets start with the one bright spot from last year: Carlos Zambrano. If you read my 2007 BOLD Predictions, you will know that Zambrano is my Cy Young pick for this year. So what will that take? I'd say it is reasonable to expect: 3.10 ERA, 210 K, 18 Wins.

The #2 Pitcher in the Rotation is Ted Lilly. He came over from the AL East, so his numbers should improve slightly from last year but Wrigley can be a tough field to pitch in, so what can you expect? 4.15 ERA, 160 K, 14 Wins.

The #3 starter will probably either be Jason Marquis or Wade Miller, lets take a closer look at Marquis. Marquis was horrible last year but has looked decent in spring training thus far. As we all know, Spring Training is not a very good representation of the season to follow, but he certainly looks much better than last year. Prediction: 4.50 ERA, 110 K, 12 Wins.

The #4 starter has become a favorite among many fantasy experts. Rich Hill had an amazing september. What can we expect? 4.00 ERA, 180 K, 14 wins...sound good?

The #5 starter for now looks like Wade Miller. I wouldn't expect a whole lot from him but for a #5 starter, if he wins and holds the job, I think he will be solid. Prediction: 4.50 ERA, 150 K, 12 Wins...that is if he can put together a full season of course.

So what happens to the rest of them? The Majority should find themselves in AAA including Mark Prior and last year rotation main stay Sean Marshall. The Iowa Cubs rotation this year should be the most experienced in the minors.

What will the offense need to do? By my estimations, if the offense can put together an average of 4.8 runs per game it should be good for about a .500 record. 5.0-5.1 runs per game and I think it will be enough to make the playoffs. For Comparison, the Cubs last year scored 4.2 Runs per game and the Cardinals scored 4.8 runs per game, the Yankees scored 5.75 runs per game last year and led the league in runs. The cubs were 3rd to last. The only teams worse: The Pirates and the Devil Rays. What lineups last year produced 5.0-5.1 runs per game? The Red Sox and The Dodgers both posted Runs per game of around 5.05.

Can they do it? Read my 2007 BOLD Predictions to find out what I think.

BOLD 2007 Predictions

The 2007 Season is quickly approaching which means it is time for MLB Front Office to unveil the 2007 Predictions. You can find them here. As always after reading, email me some feedback or merely post it in the comments section. I will get it either way!

WARNING: DANGEROUSLY BOLD!

Keeper Week

It is keeper week so I felt obligated to put something up tonight about it, because I have negelected to all week. I have spent the day preparing for 3 other leagues and I haven't had the time to write an article of my own but you should definately check out Steve Myerson's article about keepers. Steve is a fellow writer for Lenny Melnick Fantasy Baseball.

Roto Hog

Want to win $100,000 or various other prizes throughout the season...FOR FREE?!? Sign up for Roto Hog today and use MLB Front Office as your referal code. I know that you are probably sick of hearing about that but it is a great opportunity and I will be posting a fair amount of strategy specifically for that game over the course of the season. I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be participating in the FIRST draft of the season for Roto Hog -- which puts me at a significant advantage (I know, you don't need to tell me) but I decided to do this for 2 reasons:

1. So I can provide you all with draft strategy after I get some experience and prior to your draft!

and

2. Cause I am so damn anxious!

One word of caution: I advise you to schedule your draft toward the later part of the drafting time frame so you can know a little bit more during your draft.

MLB Xperience

I have been playing in a league for a while now called MLB Xperience. It is a dynasty league that used to be much like The Official MLB Front Office Dynasty League. However, this year we decided to re-draft and employ an auction strategy instead. The team cap is 100 million with 25 man rosters, and 5 x 5 stats but with holds instead of WHIP. Of course you keep your players year to year. We are getting close to done in the major league draft and are starting a huge minor league draft. 20 teams x 15 minor league picks = 300 Minor Leaguers! I am the Texas Rangers.

How do you think I've done so far? If you didn't notice, I went only for youth.

You can read the complete rules here.

Want To Play With The Experts?

There is one opening in The Official MLB Front Office Dynasty League that both myself and Mikey the Fantasy Man Play in, along with Disco and some other very talented players. We have already basically completed are regular draft and will be starting the minor league draft VERY SOON. If you think you are up to the challenge, fill out an application and if you are accepted, I will get back to you with more information shortly. I want to appologize in advance, I can not respond to every application.

Make sure you read the rules before applying and good luck!

Fantasy Roto Baseball

Are you looking for an alternative to Yahoo or ESPN? Fantasy Roto Baseball offers live scoring, auction, H2H, player contracts, PDA/Cell access, draft anytime, keepers, yr round access, replace dead owners anytime, league chat rooms and message boards and more for way way less than Yahoo Plus, CBS, TSN. Even Yahoo Free with live scoring costs $9.99 to their current $4.99 sale. It is a great alternative if you are crunched for money and the layout is really good as well. I may be playing some leagues over there this year so you should check it out and as always...tell them MLB Front Office sent you!

A Couple Of Notes

First, I have to appologize for the lack of content recently. I have been extremely busy but should be able to get a lot of stuff up in the coming weeks.

On a different note:

I participated in the first every FBE Battle Of The Fantasy Gods last night. The draft started at 7:20 CST and ended at about 12:20 CST. For a whopping total of 5 hours! I will have some analysis of that up either today or tomorrow.

Also, I just rounded off my top 150 Prospects list, so look foward to that next week during Prospect Week!

On the same subject, this week is keeper week and although I haven't been able to post very much, if you have a question please email it to me and I will get back to you ASAP and post it on here.

Also, please email me any suggestions for site improvement/expansion as detailed in a previous post. I'd also like to get to know all my readers better! Whether or not you have a suggestion, shoot me an email and introduce yourself, tell me how you found out about MLB Front Office as well!

Finally, make sure to sign up for Roto Hog's amazing fantasy game. Drafts begin next week and you can win $100,000 at no cost to you! Make sure you put MLB Front Office as the referal code. And check out a new Red Sox apparell website: Boston's Tenth Man. If you buy anything from them, make sure to put MLB Front Office as the referal code as well.


Look forward to some great content in the next couple weeks. Thats all for now.

The Boogey Blog

You may have noticed that I added a link to the right hand side bar with an interesting name...The Boogey Blog. Don't be fooled, it is a Fantasy Baseball Website. In fact, it is a very professional and informative blog that I enjoy reading. They were kind enough to feature MLB Front Office, so I thought I would return the favor. Check out The Boogey Blog.

Expansion

MLB Front Office is on the verge of expansion, sort of. Although the site expansion probably won't take place for another year or so, here at MLB Front Office we want to know exactly what you want on our website. What will make us different from any other fantasy website? What are the most important parts of a website for you? We want what the people want! Please send me an email and detail what you want in our expanded website. Along with expansion will be a growing fan base and additional writers but the readers we have right now will be valued very highly! Please let us know who you are, what you want and how you found out about MLB Front Office.

Thanks,

Brad Stewart