NL SOUTH S15 Preview

NL SOUTH SEASON 15 PROJECTED STANDINGS

Team	Owner		W-L	Summary
Memphis Amon-Ra	holer *		101-61	Not much should stand in the way of a repeat of division champs. Should go deep in the playoffs
Austin BUTCHERS	bartkowski		85-77	Trying to steal the Division title, but will find themselves tagged out at home.
Florida Sting Ray	shanmeg		74-88	Pitching is holding the team back, should consider sending a stud position player off to get a few great pitching arms.
Monterrey Metros	Midmets		73-89	Should show signs of improvement and with some small tweaks they could easily be a plus .500 team this season.

Austin BUTCHERS
98.4M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Austin is the fastest lineup top to bottom in the league. Expect the team to run freely and see if they can steal a few games in Season 15. This will be a hit and miss team with their offense, don't expect a lot of big run games, but instead a number of close nail biters where you hope the pitching can hold up.
Defense: overall they have a defensive hole at 3B but should have enough range at SS and 2B to cover the hole. The Butchers also have defensive replacements to eliminate the late inning errors that might cost them the close games.
Rotation: Won 93 games, but it was not because of the starting pitching, Calvin Coco is a legitimate #1 guy, but the rest of the rotation pitched above their heads, expect the rotation to return to earth some this season. Don't expect a complete crash, but many of the on the fence games the bullpen wrangled in last season will not be there this season.
Bullpen: Rincon pitched lucky last season, his skills need to show its not all luck that gets him his 40+ saves. Around him the bullpen is quite strong Jim McMahon won over 10 games as a long reliever and Benny Miller and Edwin Wagner showed that they could convert the close games into wins or saves.

Memphis Amon-Ra
90.5M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Revamped starting offense is biggest stronger and more explosive than last season. There will be days when the pitching will have no pressure because the game is 6-0 before the end of the 1st inning
Defense: Slick fielding guys who will rarely make big mistakes, the addition of Stubby Cyrs and Eugene walker add a lot both offensively and defensively.
Rotation: Should be the best young rotation in the ML, Look for them to dominate the competition was their pitching prowess. Osvaldo Azocar is starting the season in the Majors after fast tracking it through the minors. Rookie pitcher might struggle this season to get his groove and because of the depth might find himself the odd man out.
Bullpen: Benito Hernandez is a top caliber closer, but he's not the only gun in the pen, the Depth were is quite good, look for the Amon-Ra pitching to be near the tops of the NL if not the whole league.

Monterrey Metros
71.9M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Rio and Miranda will get the chance to play fulltime and show what they can do, I'm not sure they both can maintain a .300 plus average. The Metro's a young inexperienced team; I think this will be a learning year for them.
Defense: Weak up the middle but strong on the edges. The team will make a sports center like catch one day and be caught on the blooper reels the next
Rotation: Strong 4 man rotation, with a couple of good options to pick up the rock on the 5th day. The Metros rotation needs to go deep in games to avoid exposing the weak bullpen. On a side note Pasqual Concepcion's injury seems to have completely derailed his career, look for him to fight for a relief spot on this team or be cut.
Bullpen: Butch Hamilton is a solid closer who might better serve the Metros as a super setup guy. The bullpen is go think that it is unfair to ask him to do all that he needs to make this area successful. Look for Hamilton to burn out quickly and again have an ERA which is less than impressive.

Florida Sting Ray
66.2M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Candy Zoltan, Footsie Long, and Tom Randolph all have shown they can hit and swipe bags. Add in fast-tracked superstar Ron Burns and you have the making for an elite squad. Right now though the Rush program Florida is using is stunted the long range effect of these guys. They should do well enough slugging to power over a few weaker opponents.
Defense: Defense is young and learning on the job, a Few balls will get by them as they learn their positions. In the long run they will be a great defensive team for now they are above average but flawed.
Rotation: Hit and Miss starting rotation Walker has the ability to control the game or destroy it deepening on the day of the week, the rest of the rotation is similar they will either control the game or throw it away. Tory Caro is not a bad catcher, but might not be good enough to handle this staff.
Bullpen: Pedro Escobar is a fine support guy in a bullpen, in Florida he is being asked to be the man, last season he had missed reactions in that role, with a frail bullpen the Sting Rays need to hope they don't have to hand too much to the Pen.