2008 Anchorage Blizzards
OFFENSE OBP .334 19th. Russel Martin
is a nice offensive catcher. He is full time and gets on base 38% of the time.
Demitri Young as well has a nice obp and is better against Righties than lefties.
Mark Ellis at 2b is good only against lefties. Khalil Green fits the
free swinging SS that us Cubs fans know so well. 3b is going to be below average even in a platoon situation. Bobby Abreu had a down year his obp is way under
his normal .400 and he hit more hr's in the HR derby then he did all season.
RATING 2
STARTING PITCHING ERA 4.11 12th Joe Blanton is hittable lefties even hit
.291 against him, but it might take three hits to score against him as the slugging
against is still under .400. Aaron Cook is much the same story though he allowed
about the same amount of HR's in 50 less innings pitched. Do not start any
lefties against Tom Gorzellanny righties hit about 80 points higher against him.
Derek Lowe is a real nice starter and even does better against righties than lefties
though neither side really hits him that well. Shawn Hill is 5th with a really
nice ground ball percentage of 62 and righties particullary have difficulty with
him.
RATING 6
RELIEF PITCHING I'm not sure how much White Sox fans like him but Bobby
Jenks has some great numbers. Only 2 HR allowed, 7 extra base hits, and 7
less runners than innings pitched and a slugging pecentage under .250 against.
Im not quite sure how he blew 6 saves last year though that is only 1 a month.
I thought that maybe unearned runs/errors led to blown saves but he didn't allow
1 unerned run all year. Kevin Greg is great againt lefties and righties only
have limited success against him and he is always good when you need a strikeout.
Octavio Dotel is one of the best Strike Out pitchers in the game striking out 12
batters pre 9 innings, but at what cost?
His 13.2
runners per 9 is quite high.
Lefties seem to get to Ryan Dempster but he only blew 3 saves all year. Manny
Corpas has a great 70 ip with a r/9 under 10. RATING
6.5
CATCHING If Russel Martin could hit righties they would really
have something here. Back up catcher Micheal Barret is a little worse in offense
and deffense.
RATING 4.5
DEFENSE Fld% .986 5th The OF range and arms and fld%,
is pretty good including
backups, except
for Abreu's Fr range. Jacque Jones has a Ex rating in both
corner OF positions. Up the middle Ellis and Greene are both Vg and. Young
at 1b is a problem bad fld% and Pr range. RATING 5
MANAGMENT Veteran Bill Blazek had a great draft last year. Keeping
his top three picks of Martin, Gorzelanny, and Jenks, and 12th pick Shawn Hill is
starting to pay dividends. Late 2005 Joe Blanton has turned into a number
one starter. Most of all he really cares about his team and the league.
The success just has not been there as of late. RATING 7