| 2008 DRAFT RECAP AND GRADES |
| THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES predraft: for hall of famer big rando knight, who is balls deep in his third conescutive season as a captain (fourth overall), the predraft process did him no favors, at least in terms of reliability. george kovac was named as rando's first teammate, and tho he is coming off a debut season which would have locked up a rookie of the year award had it started a week or two earlier, big question marks hang over the shaven head of the homerun derby finalist. to the best of my memory, the last time rando and george were together, george was standing pantsless in my driveway, explaining in drunken ramblings how "bitches set him up". not much has been heard from kovac since then. jamie moroco, coming off a career year, would normally be a solid acquisition. but who knows now, as moroco has seemingly fallen off the face of the earth a la shelley goodpastor. she may be one of the most consistent hitters in the sport, but what good does that do if she spends sunday afternoons necking with her new boyfriend? finally, to round out rando's tremendously talented but tremendously questionable predraftees came jon biddle. he of the right double and backboard shattering double play attempt has announced he will once again be spending his summer in indiana, pa. as his games played numbers have dropped in each of the last three seasons, i don't expect him around for twenty this year, which is unfortunate because he's certainly an all-star if he does make it back frequently. with four on board with- hold onto your hat mel kiper- a ton of upside but many question marks, rando had a lot of work to do in the draft. unless of course george, jamie and biddle all show up regularly... then this draft means shit. pick 1: winning the draft lottery gave rando every option available. when it came right down to it, rando made the right pick in tabbing danielle hennon. in hennon, rando is addressing his teams biggest concern- attendance. sure there were more talented players out there, but rando doesnt need that, he needs people who can play when his starting four flake out on him. pick 14: another solid, reliable pickup fell into rando's lap in jeff pallini. pallini is super pumped to be playing this year, and has stated on numerous occasions he'll be a regular in '08. hits for a high average, but range and defense aren't real stellar. pick 15: fat wes davis begins rando's late-draft rookie run with the second of the big man's back to back picks. nobody has seen wes do anything remotely athletic, unless you count the beerlympics, so we can't be quite sure what to expect on the court. however, he is local, likes the beer, and is pretty tight with most of the shenangahela baseketball league. pick 28: another 960 party regular/lube bar regular gets slurped up by rando to polish off round 4. opie neff adds a fourth skinny guy to the funbridges, but like davis, nobody really knows what to expect athletically from him. he certainly looks like he could be a good baseketballer, and this late in th draft rando made a good call rolling the dice. pick 29: "she'll kill me if i don't" rando grumbled under his breath as he chalked up girlfriend tara shawley with his final pick. DRAFT GRADE: B- not a bad piece of work for big rando. he definately addressed his dire needs for players who can actually show up and play on sunday afternoons, as each of the players he drafted live in the shenangahela valley throughout the summer. however, i think rando would have been well suited to try to get some more talent on board as well. even if neff turns out to be a solid player and makes a run at r.o.t.y., we know that hennon, pallini, shawley and davis aren't going to make any all-star apearances anytime soon. basically, rando has assured himself that he won't have to be calling on will williamson this summer, but he'll still be in a world of hurt if his predraftees don't show up. adding another solid player with experience would have been nice, and hammy wareham, derek lockovich and seth salcedo have all proven they can play in the sbl and could have been selected over davis. |
| KYOTO KAMIKAZE predraft: coming off his first sbl championship since 2002, mike moroco begins a second go around without longtime lover bryan frankovich in style as his first predraft pickup was hall of famer pj nespor. in nespor mikey gets a decent, albeit very hot and cold offensive player with a plethora of experience and solid defense. plus, everyone loves the sancho. third to join up with team kamikaze was moroco lookalike and 2007 lackey of the year finalist greg lackey. i've been all about the merits of greg lackey for years. he may honestly be the least talked about good player in the sbl. he is tough in every category... he can hit homers, hit for average, drive in runs, psyche people out, and tip in double plays. the only thing that holds him back is is shaky attendance record. after playing in 20 and 19 games in 2005 and 2006, respectively, glack only showed up for 12 contests last season, and that likely cost him an all-star spot. if mikey can convince greg that there's nothing better going down on sunday afternoons, i predict a breakout season for the littlest lack. the undersized kamikaze team got a little boost at the end of the predraft process when jon olsavsky was shipped to team moroco. while jon's high batting average and ability to knock down the middle homer consistently would benefit any squad, what is really helping out rising sun is his solid defensive play. jon is #6 all time in the league in double plays, and he's certainly not going to play soft against the biddle's and nate's of the league underneath, as moroco and glackey tend to do. still, this team would seriously benefit from abother tough inside player with some size. and although neither pj, greg or jon are what i would consider sketchy when it comes to showing up on sundays, adding another reliable player of two just in case couldn't hurt. pick 2: with mikey unable to attend the draft, pj nespor was left to picking for his squad. so it makes perfect sense that nespor would reel in longtime pj&l running mate lenny crist with his teams first pick. crist is a decent enough offensive player, but his real value comes in the psyche-out arena where he is second to none. however, crist has developed a bad habit of not showing up after week 5 over the last few years, which is pretty odd. pick 13: it's hard to argue with the selection of anyone who lives at the sbl world headquarters. rob whiting, by his own admission, is not an athlete, and has not shot a basketball in ages. he won't be anywhere near the rookie of the year race, either. but there's more to making a good baseketballer than skill, and rob will be a phenomenal baseketballer. and he'll be at every post-baseketball fire to keep team moroco from getting hosed in a natty light-fueled trade. pick 16: jeanne mentrek, 2008 jukebox hero captain, goes off the board at 16. she's not gonna bury many shots, and she's gonna get psyched out constantly, but she's just plain fun to have around. pick 27: pj was obviously going with what he knew, and he knew who heather kendall was. though she's been to more baseketball than just about anyone in the world over the last few years, she's yet to suit up. for rising sun's sake, lets hope if she does get in this season it's because she wants to, not because she has to. pick 30: "yeah, me too" is what pj grumbled as he took wife cassie pyle-nespor. DRAFT GRADE: D i love pj a ton, and i realize that he and i are on opposite wavelengths when it comes to filling out a baseketball roster (perhaps that's why i have a trifecta of world championships and he has the lone one i delivered to him:), but most of this draft just mindfucked me. every pick seemed to be a reach. lenny wasn't a bad first choice, but based on who was there picking between picks 2 and 13, pj could have landed him at the end of the next round. same with whiting, same with mentrek, same with kendall. and as far as adressing his teams needs heading into the draft, i don't see how pj did that. sure, they got one of the best psyche-out artists of all time in crist, but was that really a priority on a team with 4 of the top 13 all-time in that category? to me, rising sun landed someone they didn't need and 4 of the same players. they didn't get anyone to help out inside; ben elliott or dank elly may have helped there, and they'll be around about as often as crist. honestly, i can't wait to get on base against this defense. |