| 2008 DRAFT RECAP AND GRADES |
| TEAM 'FRO predraft: 'fro captain terry hall found himself trapped on the speeding train no nowhere that was the screamin' seagulls last season, forced to put together a ragtag squad of has-beens, don't-wanna-be's, and never-will-be's on a weekly basis just to avoid forfeit and make ginormous sacrifices to his own game just to remain competitive. through all that hall actually got a reward, his first all-star appearance, and the right to captain a squad of his own in 2008. it was obvious that the athletic, all-around game of hall would not be in the same boat right off the bat. his reward from the basketball gods for keeping his chin up last go-around was a teaming with the selfless former player of the year matt mcclelland. mac, who is as good as they come at getting on base consistently and setting the table for others, will provide hall with a ton of help. besides his offense, mac is one of the best defenders in the league, as capable of putting in double plays himself as he is clearing the lane for others to do so. more help came with the second predraft name to be dropped, all-star katie kelly. with the .500 plus average of mac and the .625+ average of kelly batting in front of him, hall has to be foaming at the mouth. last year saw katie shun her reputation as nothing but an ichiro-like single hitter with an inflated average to a real force in this league capable of draining any of the 12 shots on the court with ease. if she continues her progression in the same stides she made last year, a player of the year nomination isn't that far off. finally, as if things couldn't get any better for team 'from, terry was virtually guaranteed his first trip to the finals when pat nespor was announced as the final piece of the puzzle. pat has been in the championship game every season of his career, actually hitting the season-ending homer in 2007. he's a deadly shooter from the side doubles and triples. ask anyone in the league where pat's average is at, and few would guess as low as .429 because pat seems to always make the shots that count most, keeping rally's going and driving in runners. hall had little to do in the draft. he had a trio of good to great players who will show up regularly, with no glaring weaknesses on eaither side of the ball. have fun, terry! pick 7: when katie kelly nominated dan sypolt for the sbl draft a few weeks ago, i think it was pretty obvious to everyone he'd end up on her team. he used to be my paperboy, from what i hear is quite a soccer player, and was picked illegally by terry hall here but we didn't catch it (a rule to keep frankovich from smuggling players onto his team was made stating that no player could be picked by a team that had entered him into the draft before round 3). that's what i know about dan sypolt. pick 8: in hindsight, it probably would have been smarter for me to tell shernisky to take shelley goodpastor in the first round, then esenwein in the second. i can't see terry hall taking esenwein here, but he did take shelley. sure, she hasn't played, or talked to anyone, in the sbl for 32 months now, but anyone who's ever seen her unflinchingly nail shot after shot after shot would agree that she's stil worth the risk. especially if you're on a team with nothing to lose. pick 21: seth salcedo, he who frankovich refused to let play in his year-long welcome home party last year, finally gets on a team that will love him in round 3. has the taste of getting hosed by his friend last summer left a taste to bitter to stomach in his mouth, or will salcedo forgive the sbl as a whole and come back home to wow us with is irreverent sense of humor once again. here's to hoping for the latter! pick 22: brandon gillshire's name is not brandon gillshire. terry added him to the draft board, then picked him here. end of stroy as i know it. pick 35: mr. irrelevent this season is a mrs. irrelevent. rosie pratt, who will soon be moving in with the sbl president's ball and chain. she doesn't play sports, but may show up every now and again because she likes to drink, and likes a lot of the people in the league. she got picked over ted gilliland. hell yeah. GRADE: B- if this sypolt kid is any good, watch how fast he gets ripped off this team and replaced with steve condo. same with gillshire. it would make me mad if the baseketball gods were kind enough to hand terry hall a stacked team only to see him try to slip a few uneeded ringers onto it. that's frankovich-esque. as far as the draft goes, i gotta give terry props for taking shelley- one spot before my team would have- on a total whim. that shows good instincts. like i said before, this is the one team that can take risks on good players as they have nothing to lose. gillshire and rosie proably won't play at all, and salcedo isn't looking too promising. if shelley doesn't come, again likely, this team could be in trouble if something happens on a certain week keeping a couple of starters out of action. all in all, a good job for terry, tho his grade is as much a product of how much he had to work with before the draft than what he did in it. it's hard to screw up when your team looks so damn good without even looking at picks 8, 9, 21, 22 or 35. |
| recap of the recap! (with each team summed up in 3 words) |
| the fleshy funbridges: B- couldn't risk talent kyoto kamikazes: D pj knows nobody voltron: A- thank god billyless fear the sun: A asshole stole daryl b.frank suxx: C captain ben elliott? the laser cats: B+ stole final rounds team 'fro:B- mighthavewonachampionshiplastsundayifshelley shows up |