2011 INSIDE THE FLY BY NIGHT:

Welcome to the 2011 season…do you believe it? Dang, we were a bunch of old farts when I joined the league 18 years ago…. what’s that make us now…but I digress. Let me digress again…work sucks and is sucking the life out of me! Can I blame work for my crappy team? No? …Well what good is working then?? Anyhow, I will probably be a little more brief this year…. since I have less time to talk…which could be good…. less likely to offend anyone by saying they are clueless and their team sucks. Which is convenient since the most likely target of my insults would be myself and my hopeless Hogs.

AL WEST

So…we’ll start with the AL West. Let’s start at the bottom. Hogs will finish last. Some offense, a little tini tiny bit of starting pitching and absolutely no relieve pitching. Early favorite for the 2012 #1 pick.

Second to bottom…Yorktown. Crappy offense except for Heyward, mediocre rotation, and good pen. Should win about 70 games.

California, Hotlanta and Florida….hard to call. They are all very close. I’m going with Hotlanta for the wildcard, California third and Florida fourth. This could change is someone sells out for this year….or more likely two teams bail.

I figure Hotlanta has a solid lineup, excellent pen and will confuse everyone with their wacky rotation. California has a killer bullpen, Weaver and a so-so lineup. Florida doesn’t have the bullpen, but has a solid rotation and lineup.

Evil empire (Milford) moves the AL and continues to dominate. Great rotation will win the day. Lineup is best in division…. bullpen is nothing special but won’t matter. I’m hoping Glen doesn’t bother to get some relievers until the stretch run…that way he won’t win and 110 games and his #1 next year (which I own) won’t be #24.

....click here to see the projected ALW standings and team details

NL WEST

Usually I save the best division for last….but not this year. No question, the NL West is this year’s crazy ass tough division. Just brutal!

I’ll do like I did with the AL West and start at the bottom. No Hogs in this division. The Klubbers and Angels will be battling it out to avoid the basement….but neither team is bad. I think the Klubbers will beat out the Angels as they have better pitching. Hamels, Lilly and Bumgartner and a nice pen. The Angels are going in the right direction with a young core of players like Gonzalez, Fowler and Ramirez….but even with Mo closing games they won’t compete in this division.

Ok….top four teams you can put in a bad, shake them up and pull out the order. Connecticut, Taxachussets, Hazardville and Middlesex are all excellent teams. The lineups are very similar. I would say the Chiefs have the best overall lineup because of the ridiculous power. The Mudcats could use a little more pop to protect Votto.

All four teams have an excellent starting rotation:
Lee, Danks, Pavano, Wilson
Oswalt, Hudson, Price, Billingsley
Cahill, Santana, Dickey, Jackson
Lester, Kuroda, Dempster, Marcum
Crazy!! I guess I’d give Hazardville a slight edge.

Pens:
Chiefs: Benoit is nuts..Lyon, Saito, Slaton solid.
Mudcats: Gregerson and Kuo…wow…rest just ok.
Devils: Belisle and Uehara…say what? Only in Strat!
Kegs: Weak spot…ok, but not great..Venters and Sanches lead the way.

Final order….I’m going with Connecticut, Hazardville, Taxachusetts and the Mudcats. I hope I’m wrong since I have the Blue Devels #2 and #3 picks. LOL.

Good luck boys and may the best team win!

....click here to see the projected NLW standings and team details

AL EAST

Short on time again…so this will be brief. Lake Wobegon wins going away….maybe. Good balanced team. Should definitely win the division. Salem comes in second. Not nearly as good as last year, but still great starting pitching.

Baton Rouge comes in 3rd…decent lineup and good pen. Starting pitching is not very good. Maine will fight Baton Rouge for 3rd….excellent pen…mediocre starting pitching and offense.

Illinois will cruise into 5th place. Carpenter, Putz and hope for rain. Can’t hit righties…not good. Urpaign has some offense but not enough pitching….will get to beat up on the Hogs…but that’s about it.

....click here to see the projected ALE standings and team details

NL EAST

Finally finishing…. sorry it’s so late this year….very tough time for the editor of the Inside the FBN. Anyhow, enough whining for today.

Last but not least…but close to it…. the NL East. Last year’s dominate division is down considerable this year. Of course Milford moved to the AL….at which point the rest of the division threw a good riddance to the Evil Empire party.

It’s all about the pitching…. and usually starting pitching. Allyn Street is the team to beat again…. hard to argue with a rotation that includes Halliday, Cain and Johnson…and Pujols will carry the offense.

Wall Street will be the big beneficiary of the Dogfish departure….rolling into second place….again the pitching will do it led by Myers, Scherzer and a solid pen.

Burlington will compete with Wall Street for 2nd place, but a weak pen will hurt. The Jarheads don’t have enough offense. Norwich doesn’t have enough starting pitching and Arsenal is still in rebuild mode.

All in all should be competitive division….

I hope everyone has a fun season.

-Ed

....click here to see the projected NLE standings and team details