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There is Crying in Baseball

I’ve recently taken over my first dynasty team; it’s a flaming train wreck.

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

I have an idea that I'm not sure how the readers will respond to, but I'm going to give it a try.  It's basically going to end up being a long question, "what would you do with this thing?" I'm going to go over this team in three separate parts (hitters, pitchers, and minors).  It doesn't have a team name yet, but that's for another day.  Here are my inheritance.

Major League Roster

Minor League Roster

C: Wilin Rosario

Christian Bethancourt

C: Russell Martin

Jesse Biddle

1B: Mitch Moreland

Jose Campos

2B: Dan Uggla

Ian Clarkin

2B: Mike Aviles

Jonathan Crawford

3B: David Wright

Matt Davidson

SS: Elvis Andrus

Delino DeShields Jr.

OF: Justin Upton

Slade Heathcott

OF: Austin Jackson

Rob Kaminsky

OF: Angel Pagan

Austin Meadows

OF: Carlos Quentin

Adam Morgan

OF: Drew Stubbs

Henry Owens

SP: Justin Verlander

Jose Ramirez

SP: Anibal Sanchez

Henry Urrutia

SP: Scott Kazmir

Vincent Velasquez

SP: Tim Lincecum

Kyle Zimmer

SP: Rubby De La Rosa

SP: Kyle Gibson

SP: Jorge De La Rosa

SP: Brandon Morrow

RP: Trevor Rosenthal

DISABLED LIST:

RP: Joe Nathan

Nick Swisher

RP: Ross Detwiler

Alexei Ogando

RP: Joel Hanrahan

This league uses a Yahoo! Standard layout C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF, OF, OF, Util, Util.  This team obviously was neglected, which was a good thing, because I got the team, and a bad thing, because it's an awful team.

So if I had to use what I currently have, next season I'm starting something like this on offense. C-Rosario, 1B- Free Agent, 2B- Free Agent, SS-Andrus, 3B-Wright, OF-Justin Upton, OF- Austin Jackson, OF-Quentin until his next inevitable knee injury, Util-Stubbs until I get a full time FA to replace him, and Util-Russell Martin.  To me that means I have a catcher, a short stop, a third baseman, and one outfielder.  There are no contracts, I can keep anyone forever, and youth will be heavily emphasized in my evaluation process next season as I move along with this team.

Now with this team, Justin Upton is obviously the centerpiece.  That is a serious downgrade compared to my keeper team, but I'll use my 1.1 pick that I have to hopefully do something about that issue in the future.

My first order of business will be cuts.  I currently have 42 players, and have to slim down to 36 before the draft.  My cuts as of today will be Uggla, Moreland, Aviles, Kazmir, Urrutia, and Ogando.

In a 14 team league there isn't going to be a ton available on the waiver wire.  Obviously, I'm going to be more than willing to add basically any hot bat at the start of the year with this dumpster fire of a lineup that I'm starting the year with.  I am aware that I'm not making any playoff push with this team, so here are some of my goals going into next season because as we know, "if you don't have a plan, you plan to fail" -Louie Simmons:

  • Finish in the top 10 in the league: I think if I'm active enough, I should be able to start moving up right away, this team finished dead last in 2014
  • Be in the top 3 in moves: I have no reason to feel attached to the majority of this team, and I intend on making as many moves as possible to find someone good to replace my many duds.
  • Have 2+ consensus top 25 prospects by the end of the season: the previous owner either didn't care about the future, or knew nothing about it, regardless, I intend on getting some sort of breakout, likely in the low minors this year, hopefully through free agency (any input from the minors ranking squad on Fake Teams is welcome) and someone else in the draft
  • Get younger: for a complete loser squad, it's a surprisingly old lineup

So what do you think readers?  There are a lot of questions when you look at this roster, what should I do with productive aging players (Wright, Martin), should I move my stud?s? for a brighter future (Justin Upton), will some former bright young stars work out (Andrus, Jackson)?  I'm open to any sort of input, and if anyone wants me to write about someone specifically on my roster, i'd happily oblige.