Mountain Air Preview By Steve Swinea

Just looking at Greg's roster, I don't see too much there that makes it stand out. I'm not comparing it to others so while relatively it may stand out ( I doubt it ), I forecast a 500 season or thereabouts for The Mountain Air. Like every SL ball club, The Mountain Air have their strengths and there are weaknesses.

Up the middle defense is a strength. Joe Mauer (9 +6) and Yan Gomes (8 +5) at catcher. Ben Zobrist (9) at second base. Andrelton Simmons (10) at shortstop and Adam Jones (3) in center field are as close to perfection as you are going to get defensively. Overall The Mountain Air will be fielding a total team defense of 44 or 45 but so will quite a few of the other seven teams.

Starting pitching is weak in terms of Greg not drafting a better staff ace then David Price. And while relatively The Mountain Air match up agreeably from spots two through five, games played against the other team's ace starting pitcher are going to be difficult to win. Even if Greg slots Price elsewhere and goes with Mike Leake as his sacrificial starter, more often then not The Mountain Air will need to win three out of the four other contests to win a series from their opponent.

The Mountain Air's bullpen has a lot of games and innings but not a lot of high quality grade relievers. There's a vulture in there somewhere that will rack up a lot of wins. Although with a lot of similar relievers, it may be Vulture By Committee.

Even though Greg drafted seven relievers and decided to draft a good 4th outfielder to cover games, he did put together a "nice little bench" as my mother would phrase it if she knew baseball. "Nice little" being my mom's favorite adjectival prenoun phrase. Alex Rios, Donnie Murphy and Emilio Bonifacio will play a lot off the bench.

Are the Mountain Air a great team? No. Are they are a bad team? No. They'll be towards the top defensively, towards the bottom starting pitching and relief pitching and middle offensively. I foresee a 78-84 SL 2014 Mountain Air record.

And in advance, thank you for proving me wrong, Greg!