| TEAM LEE NESPOR predraft: a five-year player in this thing we call the sbl, lee nespor tries his hand at captaining for the first time this summer. anyone who has seen lee play knows what his biggest, and some might say only strength is- the homerun. a .250 career hitter with less than 30 double plays, lee needed a ton of help if he wanted to compete in his rookie captain adventure. help came in the form of terry hall in the first set of player announcements. hall, entering his third campaign, is a tough all-around player who can help lee in every way imaginable. he's one of the top scrummers in the league, he has no real weakness in terms of range, and perhaps his best skill set is putting the ball back through the hoop, be it double plays or assist. few, if any in the league have terry's athleticism, and though he's yet to make an appearance, an all-star selection can't be far off. with hall already on board, nespor struck gold with his second acquisition. sbl hall of famer jon olsavsky, one of the best in the game since it's inception, became lee's third teammate, and gives the rookie captain a plethora of on-court leadership as well as one of the best batting averages going. though he's slipped in attendance of late, particularly last season, one should assume that we'll be getting the olsavsky of old this summer, as jon's incredibly tight with both lee and terry. with one hall of famer with a retarded batting average already in his grasp, lee got another huge break in the final round of players when shelley goodpastor was the last addition to his team. without a doubt, shelley is one of the greatest offensive weapons in the league, with a batting average that hovers near .700, homer skills to match anyone in the league, and most importantly clutch shooting that's second to none. however, after her year-long hiatus last season due to a florida internship, shelley has pretty much fallen off the map. it's believed she'll be around this summer, but nobody can really say for sure. if she is, this team could be every bit as dominating as the last team olsavsky and goodpastor hooked up on. pick 7: with lenny crist remarkably still on the board when the last pick of the first round came up, lee was more than happy to scoop him right up. crist is probably has the best combination of skill, reliablilty and experience in the draft, and definately shouldn't have fallen past pj & the ladies at pick 3. while he'll have a hard time cracking the starting four if all are available, it's hard to imagine many shots being made with the trio of olsavsky, nespor and crist (the sbl's all-time leader) combining for psyche-out attempts. pick 8: with his two biggest guns in doubt (or at least shelley, as jon seems poised to make it a full season), lee still had work to do with the first pick in round two. by grabbing derek lockovich, who surely wouldn't have made it around the board to lee's round 3 selection, he'll be getting a player who's vastly improved in the last season and can fill in nicely for any absent team member. if d-lock continues to improve at the rate his did last year, he could be hoisting come chicken leg hardware come august. pick 21: though terry hall may not have seen it, lee continued his impressive draft with his third round selection of heather kendall. in addition to giving this testosterone-laden team a bit of chick, heather is a definate regular at both baseketball and post-baseketball fires, where some of the biggest sbl wheeliong a dealing goes down. she won't utter a peep about not playing, but she'll be there in a pinch AND prevent her team from getting jobbed in some drunken trade around 4am monday morning. good pickup. pick 22: anytime you can get big ando in round four, you're doing good. will he be around a lot, no probably not. but a tage-team scrum featuring any two of hall, olsavsky and ando is certainly an intimidating thought. (especially when the second most badas player on your team is condo...) pick 35: mr. irrelevant this season is rob chavara. and that's all i know about him. GRADE: A lee's first draft wasn't really his first draft because he drafted for missing captain katie kelly for the first few rounds last season, so it's not really that shocking that he didn't butcher it. like billy. i really am stoked lee got lenny, as lenny may actually be a better fit for this team than the ladies. though that doesn't excuse weisberg for passing on him one bit. lockovich has starter-level game, and with shelley as up in the air as my girlfriend's legs backstage at an usher concert, he may just get to prove that statement true or false. the only thing that keeps lee's draft from a perfect A+ is his leaving a former all-star in teddy ballgame on the board for rob chavara with the final pick in the draft, but it's hard to blame homerun lee for not wanting homerun teddy on his squad. all in all, a great job for middle nespor, one of the finer drafts of the afternoon. |
| 2007 DRAFT RECAP AND GRADES |
| RECAP OF THE RECAP (with each teams draft summed up in three words) TEAM B.FRANK: B+ very unfrankovich like TEAM ARYN CHRISTMAN: A- nice pink pants TEAM BEN SMITH: C stud burns again! TEAM KIPPY: B roster-o-shernisky's PJ & THE LADIES: F+ god awful job THE SPARKLING WIGGLES: B++ condo may die TEAM LEE NESPOR: A attendance is key |