New Britain has a definite formula for success. Starters that are replaceable, but do their job. A super bullpen (as seen by the best 3 pitchers section), and a team that hits well enough to get ahead so that the bullpen can get the win. This year William Baek and JJ Spoljaric were dropped from the team. Delanor Estes was an excellent pick up if he can rebound from last season (and at age 36 that's questionable), while John Jang can be a decent utility fielder. Dewey Halter has held off father time, and Vin Romero had a great season. This team is solid, and definitely one to keep an eye on.
Dover continues to spend big money in hopes of overtaking the Rock Cats. Chad has missed his chance the last two years and this year will be just as tough. The pitching staff is solid enough to compete, and the addition of Luis Martin ($9.5 mil), and Mike Coco ($5 mil) will certainly bolster the bullpen. The Senators stole former Rock Cat slugger William Baek to fill to the DH spot and he is a huge addition to an already potent offense. A "did you know" question...did you know the Senators didn't have a single player with a negative WAR? Ya...crazy. Chong is the reigning MVP (check out the stats...wow), while Hermanson, Frias, and Cabeza provided an excellent "supporting" cast. This might be the year that we have two teams from the same division win over 100 games.
The PawSox season was dashed upon the rocks when the injury bug struck the pitching staff spring training. Sam Tucker was lost for the year, and Brian Yammamoto went down for 3 weeks. Anytime you lose two starters things get a little dicey. Especially when the team wasn't great to begin with. The only good news is that payroll was already low, and there was no chance to compete with New Britain and Dover anyway. The PawSox made good signings and built a team that would have competed without breaking the bank. Which leads me to the question will Brad D'Amico and Eugene Robertson be made available?
Durham gave up 971 runs last season and so the first order of business was to fix that problem. They spent a LOT of money on aging, but very good, veteran pitchers in Everett and Benes. Valenzuela also gets his chance in the bigs at age 21. This should easily help the team become more respectable, but how much? There will be no drop off in offensive production so any help that they get from their pitchers will make them a better team. This team probably won't be a playoff team, but will make it interesting.
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