MajorMetsFan

I'm extremely excited for another great year of college football!   I will try to do a new poll every week during the season if possible. 

1 Alabama- Last year’s National Champs plus they keep their HB and QB

Next Game:  9/4 San Jose St

2 Boise St- Everyone hates this pick but...  Undefeated last year and they bring back most of their starters

Next Game:  9/6 vs Virginia Tech

3 Ohio St- Would have UF or Texas here but both lose their QB so OSU sneaks in at #3

Next Game:  9/2 Marshall

4 Florida- Losing Tebow will hurt but this is one of the few teams that is able to reload their roster every year

Next Game:  9/4 Miami (OH)

5 Texas- Losing McCoy drops them a few spots but they are clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with this season

Next Game:  9/4 vs Rice

6 TCU- Only had that one loss to Boise last year and they bring most starters back

Next Game:  9/4 vs Oregon St.

7 Virginia Tech- Can their defense remain elite while only returning 4 starters?

Next Game:  9/6 vs Boise St

8 Iowa- Great defense, poor offense.  They can beat anyone but I could see them  having a bad lose or two

Next Game:  9/4 Eastern Illinois

9 Oregon- A great running game and average defense might be all it takes to win the Pac 10 this year

Next Game:  9/4 New Mexico 

10 Miami (FL)- They have lots of talent starting with QB Jacory Harris.  I think they’ll continue to build off their success from last season

Next Game:  9/2 Florida A&M

11 Nebraska- They’re bringing back almost all their starters.  The defense should be good even without Suh

Next Game:  9/4 Western Kentucky

12 Wisconsin- Bringing back all their offensive starters (except the TE) will be scary  for fellow Big Ten members

Next Game:  9/4 @UNLV

13 Oklahoma- Landry Jones isn’t bad but he’s no Sam Bradford

Next Game:  9/4 Utah St.

14 Cincinnati- Zach Collaros returns and he looked just as good as Pike last year.  Can’t figure out why this 12-1 team in 09 is getting no respect

Next Game:  9/4 @Fresno St

15 Arkansas- If Mallet is as good as advertised this team will be solid.  The poor defense is keeping them from being a top 10 team in my book

Next Game:  9/4 Tennessee Tech

16 Georgia Tech- Paul Johnson’s triple option has been working just fine in the ACC

Next Game:  9/4 South Carolina St.

17 Pittsburgh- A good defense and a good running game can go a long way but the questions at QB will stop them from being Top 10 material

Next Game:  9/2 @Utah

18 LSU- Don’t bring back many starters but they’re loaded with talent

Next Game:  9/4 vs North Carolina

19 North Carolina- Very good defense and a mediocre offense.  I know defense wins championships but you need to score too

Next Game:  9/4 vs LSU

20 West Virginia- QB situation could be an issue but if Noel Devine has a good year they could win the Big East

Next Game:  9/4 Costal Carolina

21 Houston- Could have an incredible offense with Case Keenum running the show and all but 1 starter returning on that side of the ball

Next Game:  9/4 Texas St.

22 Penn St- They only had 1 impressive win last year (LSU in the bowl game) plus they lost their QB.  Good team but not great

Next Game:  9/4 Youngstown St.

23 Utah- Performed well last season and they bring back a good number of starters.  Their Sophomore QB Jordan Wynn gained valuable experience in 09

Next Game:  9/2 Pittsburgh

24 Oregon St- They should be as good or a little better than last season. 

Next Game:  9/4 vs TCU

25 Stanford- Legitimate contender in the Pac 10

Next Game:  9/4 Sacramento St.   

Honorable Mention (in no particular order)

Georgia, Florida St, Navy, BYU, Missouri

 

Earlier this year I joined a 14 team roto league and I picked up the 12th place team from the previous season.  Here was my roster when I first got the team.

C Rod Barajas (Tor - C)
1B Lance Berkman (Hou - 1B)
2B Brian Roberts (Bal - 2B)
3B Casey Blake (LAD - 1B,3B)
SS Felipe López (Mil - 2B,3B,SS,OF)
OF Raúl Ibañez (Phi - OF)
OF Carlos Lee (Hou - OF)
OF Nate McLouth (Atl - OF)
Util Ryan Ludwick (StL - OF)
Util Johnny Damon (NYY - OF)
SP Ryan Dempster (ChC - SP)
SP Scott Feldman (Tex - SP)
SP Mark Buehrle (CWS - SP)
SP Joe Saunders (LAA - SP)
SP Randy Wolf (LAD - SP)
RP Fernando Rodney (Det - RP)
RP Brian Fuentes (LAA - RP)
BN Paul Konerko (CWS - 1B)
BN Magglio Ordóñez (Det - OF)
BN Pedro Feliz (Phi - 3B)
BN Brett Gardner (NYY - OF)
DL Nyjer Morgan (Was - OF)
BN Zach Duke (Pit - SP)
BN Tim Wakefield (Bos - SP)
DL Shaun Marcum (Tor - SP) DL


During the offseason I was very busy making moves trying to improve my team.  Keep in mind that I was thinking more toward the future than to this season.  Here are the 6 trades I made. 


1) Trade
Nyjer Morgan
Recieve
Tommy Hunter

2) Trade
Brian Roberts
Recieve
Casey McGehee
Cameron Maybin
#27 overall pick

3) Trade
Lance Berkman
Shaun Marcum
Ryan Dempster
Recieve
Andre Ethier 
Tyler Flowers
Francisco Rodriguez
Todd Helton

4) Trade
Casey McGehee
Recieve
Jhoulys Chacin
24th overall pick

5) Trade
Johnny Damon
Recieve
Barry Zito

6) Trade
Raul Ibanez
#25 overall pick
Recieve 
Joba Chamberlain
19th overall pick

7) Trade
Jhoulys Chacin
Randy Wolf
Recieve
Erik Bedard

In the draft I took Ben Sheets Chein-Ming Wang Martin Perez Erick Aybar and Ian Desmond.

Then I dropped a few players and now I have this roster


Scarlet Knights

Catchers:
Rod Barajas - (C)
Tyler Flowers - (C)

Infielders:
Todd Helton - (1B)
Casey Blake - (3B)
Felipe López - (2B)
Paul Konerko - (1B)
Ian Desmond - (2B/SS)
Erick Aybar - (SS)

Outfielders:
Carlos Lee - (OF)
Nate McLouth - (OF)
Ryan Ludwick - (OF)
Brett Gardner - (OF)
Cameron Maybin - (OF)
Andre Ethier - (OF)

Starting Pitchers:
Ben Sheets - (SP)
Martin Perez - (SP)
Barry Zito - (SP)
Scott Feldman - (SP)
Chien-Ming Wang - (SP)
Joe Saunders - (SP)
Erik Bedard - (SP)
Tommy Hunter - (SP)
Joba Chamberlain - (SP)

Relief Pitchers:
Brian Fuentes - (RP)
Francisco Rodriguez - (RP)

So how do you guys think I did this offseason? 

The Mets team is looking pretty good for 2009. Here's the positional breakdown. Please comment.

 

First Base - I think Delgado will be fine at first base. He probably won't put up the same numbers he did last year, but I could easily see him hit .265 with 20 HRs and 100 RBIs. That's not half bad IMO and I can see him doing even better than that. If Delgado gets off to a fast start I think he'll pull off .275 30 HRs and 120 RBIs.

Second Base - Second base is a bit of problem for the Mets, but although Castillo is way overpaid he puts up average numbers for a second basemen. If he can bring his average up to somewhere in the .260 to .270 range I'll be thrilled. We know he won't hit for power or drive in too many runs. If Castillo starts playing like he did last year we'll probably see him spilt time with Cora and maybe Valentine. I can see Cora hit around .270.  As we saw last year Jerry is not afraid to bench Castillo and bench him often. I wouldn't be surprised if Murphy gets some time at second aswell.

Third Base - We are 100% set at third base with David. He'll bat .300 hit 30 HR and drive in 130 runs.

Short Stop - The Mets need Reyes to play well this season. We know Reyes will bat close .300 hit 10-20 HRs drive in about 60-70 runs and steal 60 bases, but I have one thing I want to see from Reyes this year... show up in September. Reyes seems to be one of the least clutch players on the Mets IMO. If he can bat .300 in September we won't blow the division this year.

Catcher - The Mets will have Schneider and Castro sharing time at catcher this year. I'm fine with this if Castro can stay healthy this season. Schneider can hit for .260 (not too bad for a cather) and Castro can hit for power. I liked the way Jerry handeld the catcher situation last year and I hope he has the same approach this year.

Outfielders - Right now our outfield looks like this: Ryan Church in Right, Carlos Beltran in Center and Daniel Murphy/Fernando Tatis in left. We know that Beltran will give us 20 HRs, 100 RBIs and hit for .280 because he does it every year. We need Church to get off to a fast start to help him forget about his injury problems and go back to playing like he did before. Murphy and Tatis played well last year but there is no way Tatis will be able to do that again. As for Murphy he may be able to hit for a very strong average maybe .300 if we're lucky. We also have some depth in the outfield with Pagan, Evans, Reed, and Sulivan.

Starting Pitching - Our rotation is Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, Perez, Garcia/Redding/Niese/Parnell. I expect Santana to get 20 wins with an improved bullpen and I expect Pelfrey to put up good numbers as well. Maine is a bit of question mark but I think he'll make it out okay. Perez will be more consistant than last year because he will be more consistant without Peterson screwing with his motion. After Peterson left Perez stopped having those terrible games that brought his era up so high. Garcia could potentially be the best five starter in the MLB or being sitting on the DL with another injury. If Garcia is 100% healthy he should easily win the job. Remember only a few years ago he had 17 wins. He won't be that good but I could see him with 12-14 wins which is great for a 5 guy. If Garcia gets hurt then it's down to Niese and Redding. Unless Niese pitches incredible in Spring Training Redding will get the job. I don't love Redding, but he's not a bad 5 guy. He can go 10-10 or 12-9 this season with a little help.

Bullpen - The Mets bullpen is much stronger than it was last year. We got a nasty one-two punch with K-Rod and JJ Putz. For the middle innings we got Green, Feliciano, and Sanchez. I like Green and Feliciano but I'm not a big fan of Sanchez. He hasn't seemed to get it together since his injury a while back.