{"id":12,"date":"2011-02-17T01:17:12","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T01:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/?p=12"},"modified":"2011-02-17T01:26:46","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T01:26:46","slug":"jenkins-division-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/?p=12","title":{"rendered":"Jenkins Division Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jenkins Division<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Predicted Order of Finish<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. North Bay<\/li>\n
  2. Grand Rapids<\/li>\n
  3. Hamilton<\/li>\n
  4. Langley<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of all the division, this division is the least volatile.\u00a0 The only two teams in the running are North Bay and Grand Rapids.\u00a0 Hamilton and Waterloo (for once) has some talent and therefore hope in the next coming years.<\/p>\n

    North Bay<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n


    \n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    For the first time in league history, the Trappers did not make it to the league finals, being ousted in the first round by the Beaconsfield Pathfinders.\u00a0 This year the Trappers are favored to win this division but making the finals is of great concern.<\/p>\n

    Strengths:\u00a0\u00a0 North Bay features the strongest offense in the league.\u00a0 Cabrera, Cano and Holliday make up a trio of All Stars and they are supported by some above average bats in A Rod and Dunn.\u00a0 Their pitching staff is helped by one strong arm in Santana \u2026 but not much else.\u00a0 If they team gets anywhere it\u2019s going to be because of their ability to plainly outscore the opposition.<\/p>\n

    Weaknesses:\u00a0 The pitching staff is not like it used to be with Johnson and a younger and less injured Santana.\u00a0 Although Lilly makes for a fine #3 starter, as a #2 he is a significant downgrade.\u00a0 The final three of Floyd, Rodriguez and Greinke all make fine #5 starters\u2026 but three of them are two too much.\u00a0 The bullpen is also a glaring hole which usually can be fixed in the draft but North Bay is not too heavy on top selections.\u00a0 Uribe and Pence remain their two biggest weaknesses in their lineup, and when all is said and done, that is not too bad.<\/p>\n

    Overall:\u00a0 This could be a tough transition for the Trappers.\u00a0 Although there are some solid youngsters with the bats Trapper management is hoping that Greinke and Floyd can get back to their promise.\u00a0 If North Bay wants to make it to the finals, they will need to add another arm to the mix.<\/p>\n

    Grand Rapids<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    If there is a team that could easily take down the Trappers this year, it\u2019s the Grand Rapid Reformers.\u00a0 The Reformers never seem to jump out at you with star power but there is rarely any weakness in their lineup.<\/p>\n

    Strengths:\u00a0 When Josh Beckett goes down with one of his worst years, one would think that would spell disaster for your team.\u00a0 However the Reformers have three other solid pitchers in Lester, Danks and Myers.\u00a0 On the back end of their rotation one finds youngster Romero and the veteran Zambrano.\u00a0 This team will go as their starting pitching goes.\u00a0 On the offensive front the main punches are going to come from Werth, Uggla and Cruz.\u00a0 Thus far their pen in the best in the division, but that is not saying a lot.<\/p>\n

    Weaknesses:\u00a0 Offensively their biggest hole is at firstbase with the injury to Kendry Morales.\u00a0 The best thing about this is that it\u2019s the position most easily to replace to look for Grand Rapids to move quickly to fix this problem.\u00a0 The bullpen needs shoring up and a few more platoon players and all will be will in Michigan.<\/p>\n

    Hamilton Splitterz<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Hamilton has been in the thick of the fight these past two years as the BDB Wildcard team, once making it to the finals, and this past season being outed in the first round by the eventual Champions, the Tri Color.\u00a0 Last season Hamilton, knowing they had a chance at the title leveraged some of their future for the present.\u00a0 This season they will begin to pay the price of this run at the playoffs.<\/p>\n

    Strengths:\u00a0 Soto, Gonzalez, Ramirez and Ethier\u2026 the Hispanic French Connection remain this team\u2019s offensive threats.\u00a0 Josh Hamilton and his MVP performance are gone supplying the Splitterz with their best starter in Kershaw.\u00a0 Wainright is also gone, in his place stands Billingsley.\u00a0 Hudson provides some youth and hope for next season.\u00a0 Besides these guys, hope will remain in the off years of Sandoval and Kubel is only for a season and that Stubbs will become the star many have predicted.<\/p>\n

    Weaknesses:\u00a0 No hitting at second, third nor in the DH position, the latter being the easiest to remedy.\u00a0 The back end of the rotation is pretty unspectacular with Morrow and de la Rosa.\u00a0 Morrow remains an interest pitching one of the finest performances in BDB last season.\u00a0 The pen is a complete mess and will need a full makeover in order to go anywhere.<\/p>\n

    Overall:\u00a0 When one thinks of the Splitterz, one has to be reminded of the great US General, George Patton who\u2019s standing command was never to retreat.\u00a0 It\u2019s this same mantra that resides in the Hamilton ownership ironically enough in Dutch owner Jordan Spoelstra.\u00a0 Look for the Splitterz to be fast and furious on the trade front and have them look no further than next year as a year in which they will be back in the hunt. There is plenty of youth on the team to bounce back that there is no need for a major overhaul here.\u00a0 No chance at contending in 2010 \u2026 however this statement will at least spark another two to three wins out of this team<\/p>\n

    Langley<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    It\u2019s been a long time since anything good was written about the Royals however as Bob Dylan reminds us\u2026 \u201cThe times are a changing\u201d<\/p>\n

    Strengths:\u00a0 All those draft picks are starting to develop a very young and talented pitching core.\u00a0 Buchholz, Sanchez, Kennedy, Hughs, Pelfry are all beginning to pay big league dividends.\u00a0 The offense is a two player lineup, MLB Rookie of the Year in Buster Posey and Super Uber Shortstop Troy Tulowitski.\u00a0 Both players look to improve their solid stats with a full year of playing time.<\/p>\n

    Weaknesses:\u00a0 Still plenty to speak of.\u00a0 Although their pitching prospects are paying dividends, their hitting prospects are barely going to be able to be used as trade bait.\u00a0 The outfield of Fowler, Snider an LaPorta are all easily replaced and may all need to ride the pine for the seasons.\u00a0 Barton, although somewhat productive, is not the right option at first.<\/p>\n

    Overall:\u00a0 It will be interesting to see what owner Mike Sambrook will do with this team.\u00a0 It is near impossible to build a championship team from the farm system\u2026 as the difficulty of having the hitting and pitching combine to be great is pretty limited.\u00a0 Look for Sambrook to not be afraid to trade if the deal warrants it.\u00a0 He is sitting on some good stock such as Matt Weiters so do not be surprised if he takes in more picks and young talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Jenkins Division Predicted Order of Finish North Bay Grand Rapids Hamilton Langley Of all the division, this division is the least volatile.\u00a0 The only two teams in the running… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[9,6,8,4,7,5,3],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preview","tag-draft","tag-grand-rapid","tag-hamilton","tag-jenkins","tag-langley","tag-north-bay","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}