Teams Announced....games on tomorrow!

Sunday was a great day - nice and warm out there with the temperature topping out at 82 - a little breeze felt good as the campers had morning workouts followed by the rookies playing a scrimmage after lunch.  A total of 36 rookies are here in attendance so a good crop and to be honest I think we have some players in this group -- not that the previous years of rookies have been bad -- last year ended up being a good group of rookie campers but overall I think it will be hard to figure out which teams will be better -- in previous years it was pretty clear that certain teams were pretty good and some teams would struggle -- but it is the rookies which bring the most question marks -- Can they play?  Can they stay healthy?  I have seen great rookies on day 1 and 2....but by day 4 and 5 they are injured and cannot help out their team (for some reason or another) so they really are hard to figure out at times - the week long grind is interesting to say the least.

So on with the teams -- names & the Pro Staff which will be leading them:

1) Yo Julio's -- coached by Julio Becquer, Tim Laudner, & Greg Gagne
2) Warriors -- coached by Rick Aguilera & Phil Roof
3) Sleepers -- coached by Frank Quilici, Milt Cuyler, & Dick Stigman
4) BSer's -- coached by Bill 'Soup' Campbell & Steve Braun
5) PED's -- coached by Gene Larkin, Juan Berenguer & Eric Rasmussen
6) "38" Special - coached by Kent Hrbek & Tom Brunansky
7) Saggy Balls - coached by Mickey Hatcher & Frank Viola
8) Cuban Southern Stingers - coached by Tony Oliva, Stew Cliborn & Lee Stange

In previous years I had a good handle on the teams which I thought would be good and the teams which I thought would be bad -- this year I have 2 teams which will finish in the top 4 and 2 teams that I think will finish in the bottom 4 (and I know of one camper who I going to give me big time grief -- but his championship run is going to end this year.....IMO) so here are my power rankings and maybe a reason or two why I think this --

Top 4 teams:
Warriors - this team looks like a good group with Lance Anderson leading the way, They have pitching depth and good defense and offense to mix in -- not sure who is going to catch for them but they will figure that out
Yo Julio's - I think they have the Rookie of the Year on this team (could be a number of options), they are kind of a wild card here, but solid vets with pitching depth -- they might be a bit slow which could lead to question marks for defense
38 Special - They are a bubble team - they have some really good players but I am not sure of the pitching depth here, promising rookie talent will get this team in the top 4
PED's - I am always bullish on my team, this year we have a good mix of veterans and a couple rookies -- I think we are up and down really solid, hitting should be a strength along with defense, do we have enough pitching is my question

Bottom 4 teams (because not all the teams can finish in the top 4)
BSer's - this is a pretty solid team, hard to put them in the bottom four, but they looked "old", they are 4 deep for pitching and back to my "rookie" questions - if the rookies play well, they will be in the top four
Cuban Southern Stingers - this team is pretty solid - I like the rookies on this team so if they play up to their ability they will be able to move up to the coveted top 4 seeding
Sleepers - this team seemed old to me as well, but that said, good pitching depth will help them along, not sure who is going to playing in the outfield
Saggy Balls - they have some good players, but I am not sure if they have any pitching depth - this could be a problem for them.

At the end of the week -- we play 7 games -- we are going to have a lot of 4-3 teams (or 3-4 teams) -- 5 wins is probably the #1 seed this year.

The first hour in the clubhouse should be fun tomorrow -- if I picked your team in the bottom four -- make me eat my words and push my team in the bottom four -- you can control that.....otherwise, in all seriousness - this is done for fun and I hope nobody gets really ticked off -- the rookies are like horses and can be difficult to handicap......

Two Games tomorrow -- the weather appears it might not cooperate, first game should be OK, but that afternoon game might be a problem.

~~ "You can observe a lot just by watching." - Yogi Berra ~~