Mile High Minute :: 2010, Week Zero

The second best part of the season (draft) is now over and within a week the ECB will be rolling into its 10th season. That’s tin or aluminum if anyone wants to buy the league an anniversary gift. Speaking of presents, ECB draft day is akin to a child’s Christmas morning for most owners. Even better for some. Mile High, for instance, gets to draft a shiny new Hanley Ramirez every year, which is much better than a Brett Favre jersey or a Brio train set. What else did Mile High receive on draft day? Let’s analyze… After Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton went to New Haven and Woosta respectively, Mile High’s hand was quickly forced. Electing to put off pitching until a round or two later, they took the Mets new star Jason Bay (6RD, 43OVR). GM Jon Bielecki hopes that Bay will produce numbers similar to those he put up in Boston, especially later in the season with the returns of Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes to the Met lineup. Until then, Bielecki and Bay are both huge David Wright fans. The first somewhat-coup of the draft for Mile High came with the selection of Jon Lester (8RD, 59OVR) even sooner than his ADP on Yahoo (69.6). One of the few “upside” guys drafted by Mile High this year, Bielecki will be looking for bigger production out of a guy who put up almost 600 points last year. “We’ll be looking for him to fill the roles of Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay in the past. I would like to be able to start Jonny and Timmy both every week and not have to worry about them. That’s up to him…” With Lester, Bielecki will now have one pitcher who defies the laws of physics (Tim Lincecum) and one who defied Mother Nature herself.Bielecki rounded out his staff by drafting three straight pitchers in the middle of the draft. “I wanted to get some quality before it was gone. It seemed like a lot of pitching slipped to the later rounds, so I wanted to get my choice of pitchers before they were gone. Other than Ubaldo (Jimenez), I think we did okay.” The Mack drafted Heath Bell (13RD, 102OVR), Jered Weaver (14RD, 107OVR), and Brian Wilson (15RD, 118OVR) as their 5th, 6th, and 7th pitchers, giving them three solid closers, and four strong starters. “Bell and Wilson will probably share playing time,” Bielecki said, “But I like having the option of using three closers if I have a short pitching week.” He added that, “the clubhouse was short on tatts and muscles,” which was another reason for the signing of Wilson. The revolving door up the middle has already begun. Second base and the MI spots are without question the weakest of the Mackerel lineup. Alongside Hanley Ramirez, the Mack will probably be starting Felipe Lopez (16RD, 123OVR) at second and young buck Ian Desmond (UNDRAFTED) at the MI spot. “Not sure yet how we’re going to work this,” Bielecki said, “I like Lopez hitting around Holliday and Pujols. With Desmond, I’m not sure what we’re in for. It’s a definite gamble.” Early on it’s looking like Mile High will be relying heavily on its keepers to lead the charge. “We can afford to get a slow start,” Bielecki said, “But over the course of the season, we’re going to need the big name players to step up and carry this team like they did last year. Anything less than the playoffs will be considered a failure.”

Gentlemen! You can’t draft in here, this is the War Room!

Well, now that all the draft slots have been chosen and all of the keepers have been announced (Right? No one still has to announce their keepers?) it is time for a mock draft.

We kid, Watts. For the sake of this mock we are going to assume that Watts is keeping some combo of Mariano Rivera, Carlos Lee, Andre Either, Dusty Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, CC Sabathia, or Kendry Morales. The good news? Whatever combo he goes with has n'an impact on this mock. So Frieds may as well enter these picks after the keepers:

NEW HAVEN TRAFFIC CONES
Justin Upton

The old jokes about closers and old people have no place in this mock draft. At least that's what we wanted to do. Turned out it's impossible. We think Ffej looks for a proven player to help lift his Cones to playoff contention. That player is Justin Upton. Grashow’s last minute keeper change-of-heart reinvents the Cones as they land the kid who many say is the next Griffey (Ken Jr. not Craig).

WOOSTA PIMP ROOSTAS
Pablo Sandoval

Woosta is looking to right the ship that was partly weighed down by Josh Hamilton and his injuries. Rich has an enviable stable of keepers who are surprisingly all hitters. One is even a catcher! Given that we don't all have 15 keepers, we don't see Rich taking a pitcher here. In fact we believe there was more to his trip to San Francisco than just work. It's obvious he was out there asking about his pick, everyone's favorite panda, Pablo Sandoval. This was clearly the missing piece between winning the regular season in '08 and missing the playoffs in '09. Rich reclaims him here. Also we take back what we said about the ship being weighed down. Panda’s not going to help that problem.
 

  MILE HIGH MACKEREL
Chris Carpenter

Mile High has forged its way to the playoffs lately with good all-around hitting, but also with strong starting pitching duos (Lincecum-Lee in '09, Lincecum-Halladay in '08, and Haren-Hamels in '07). The bet here is that JB starts that process again by pairing an ace, Tim Lincecum, with a local boy done good. Chris Carpenter goes off the board here and gives Mile High the wicked awesome 1-2 punch that they have built their rotation around as of late and become the envy of every Major League club.
 

CHICAGO TIGER ARMY
Joey Votto

The Tiger Army has been built around bats. In fact this is the first time they have kept even one, let alone two, pitchers since 2006. To make up for that they will be looking for the best bat available, and if his wife has anything to say about it (and she does), that bat will be Joey Votto. It would appear there is more to enjoy in Cincy than chili (if you want to call it that), Bengals games, and trips to see the in-laws... Actually there isn’t, but Emily needs another carrot to put in front of Adler’s face to get him to Cincinnati.

SPEEDWAY STARWIPES
Dan Haren

GM Friedman returns arguably the best collection of keepers. The hitters can flat out rake and matched with an NL bound Roy Halladay, the Wipes are returning a scary core of players. This pick was a lock to end up as Felix Hernandez until Baltimore announced him as their final keeper. It could still end up being the man who inspired www.mattwietersfacts.com but the bet here is that Speedway goes with a familiar face in Dan Haren, enjoys the first half and curses him whole second half.

BALTIMORE DEVIL JAYS
Jason Bay

We now turn to the defending champions. The Devil Jays are known for one thing: Adam Dunn. As of right now they do not have him on their roster. The belief here is that they will re-stock their bats (after making a change that delayed the release of this mock draft) given they already have a King as the foundation of their staff. The best bat on the board looks to be Jason Bay who will be shifting back to the NL and looking to drive in Jose Reyes & Co. (not Corey Sullivan & Co.) about a billion times.

MARSHALL STREET MENACE
Jacoby Ellsbury

GM Jon "Silent Bob" Watterson is playing his cards very close to the vest this year and hasn't tipped his hand at all... refusing to even have his preliminary keepers announced. Yeah, he’s not paying attention. Also he LOVES Barack Obama. Voted for him 57 times.  The thought here is that he plays that he refuses to even tell Yahoo! who he picks when it comes his turn in the draft. Therefore the person left at the top of the rankings that will be drafted by Marshall St will be Tacoby Bellsbury (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/31/ellsbury_scores_with_fans_at_steal_a_taco_promotion/) or as he is more commonly known Jacoby Ellsbury.

NEW HAMPSHIRE 603
Jimmy Rollins

After going through a season of football Brian gets to experience the flagship sport (in our opinion) of KFS. It would appear that he is trying to get a couple of solid players after not seeing anyone he was dying to get his hands on by potentially having the number one pick. Having no draft history to go off the thought here is that he goes with a known quantity at a position that he lacks and grabs Jimmy Rollins and then ponders who he will grab on the wrap pick.

There it is, owners the picks you are all guaranteed to make. Good luck getting your name in the cup.

Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 5

In what is sure to be one of the closest finishes of the entire season, the Mile High Mackerel extended their winning streak to four weeks in a row with a 2/3-point victory over league-leading Speedway.

In the last inning of the week, Mack closer and world-class douchebag Jonathan Papelbon tallied 14 last-second points in nail-biting fashion, having what would have been the series-clinching point on third base with no one out. He promptly struck out Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton, and Carl Crawford and danced his way to his home in Gayville.

“ZOMG! IM 2 AWESOME!” Papelbon said to the media, wearing his trademark dumbass goggles, bike shorts, and t-shirt reading “ZOMG! IM 2 AWESOME!"

“I didn’t even watch the game,” said GM Jon Bielecki, “I was playing Elder Scrolls IV on XBox, assuming that I had no chance of winning the series. You can imagine my surprise when I came in on Monday and checked the scores. It was like a 6-out-of-10 on the surprise scale.”

Mile High takes on LA of Anaheim this week, who put up an impressive (albeit not enough to win) 487 points versus Chicago in Week 5.

“I feel pretty confident we can keep rolling,” Bielecki said, “We went with a bit of a strange lineup this week, sitting McLouth, J-Roll, and Paps, but we’re still tinkering around from week to week.” Bielecki also noted that Armando Galarraga and A.J. Burnett were essentially competing for a roster spot this week. If Burnett is cut, he has vowed to be picked up by Marshall Street and to go on to have a 700 point season.

Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 4

Four weeks into the season and it seems the Mile High Mackerel have finally left their Week 1 travesty in the distance. Earning TOTW honors and a 6-3 victory over rival Marshall Street Menace, the Mack extended their win streak to three weeks and are currently tied for second place with Chicago in the standings. The Mack are in control of their own destiny this week as they take on first-place Speedway, the current ECB points leader.

“We’re going to need a big week from our pitching staff this week,” said GM Jon Bielecki, referring to the fact that Speedway has 4 two-start pitchers going in Week 5. Mile High will counter with three two-starters of their own, including staff ace Tim Lincecum who has seemingly found his mojo after a few shaky outings to start the season.

“I throw fast! PEEW PEEW!” said Lincecum in his weekly press conference. Bielecki will also be looking for “peew-peew” type performances from Kevin Millwood and Chris Volstad, both of whom are making their 2009 debuts for the Mackerel in Week 5.

Offensively, the Mack said goodbye to Kelly Johnson after Week 4 due to declining performance and lack of games played. In his place, Jimmy Rollins will be making his return to an offense that lost several games last week due to injury (Hanley Ramirez, Nate McLouth) and rainouts (5 hitters rained out on Sunday). Nevertheless, the Mackerel put up 420 points as a team, which is encouraging considering much of the team has yet to hit its stride.

“This week will be a measuring rod for us,” said Bielecki, “both squads have lots of pitching and a full schedule for the hitters, so it should be fun to watch these scores accumulate.”

Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 3

Continuing their roller coaster season, the Mile High Mackerel claimed a 6-3 victory, edging LA of Anaheim by 57 points to establish their first winning streak of the season. Less impressive was the point total put up by the Mack, 353.5, which was the third lowest in the league.

“We need to get better, especially on the mound,” said GM Jon Bielecki, “We’re okay in the win column right now, but we’re a hair’s breadth from having a couple of 2-7 weeks, or worse.”

The pitching for the Mack was inconsistent again, with erratic performances both good (W, 8IP, 12K from Tim Lincecum) and worse than not playing at all (-.50 points from A.J. Burnett).

“We were in a tough spot last week,” Bielecki said, “I was banking on Lilly going twice, but he got pushed to Wednesday. Also Valverde got hurt and Papelbon has been less than solid.”

The offense dropped off a bit, producing it’s lowest score of the season. However the 238 points was very much a team effort. Six players scored 20 points or more, with no one over 33 (Nick Markakis). The Mack bats were hampered by slow weeks from Jimmy Rollins (9 points) and Chris Duncan (5 points). Rollins and Duncan have gone back to the bench for Week 4 with Kelly Johnson returning the lineup and Shin-Soo Choo joining the outfield. But Bielecki’s focus remained on the mound.

“Jimmy will start hitting one of these days,” he said, “It’s sort of like having someone on the DL right now. What we really need is to get more points out of our pitching. We’re giving up too many walks and that needs to stop. Again, I’m confident we’ve got a good core team assembled, it’s just going to take a few more weeks to get all of the pieces together.”

The Mack can take some solace in the fact that the ECB is in the midst of a league-wide parity never before seen. Although they have scored more total points than only LA of Anaheim, they trail second place Baltimore by less than 70 points.

Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 2

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Roaring back from a Week 1 bed-shitting, the Mile High Mackerel responded better than expected in their Week 2 matchup against the Marshall Street Menace. Raúl Ibañez led a well rounded offensive attack that resulted in 299 offensive points, just 26 points less than the entire team’s output in Week 1.

The pitching also came around, led by 2 wins from Gavin Floyd and a one-hit performance by Ted Lilly on Monday. Lilly was scheduled to pitch again on Sunday, and may have helped Mile High make a run for Team Of The Week honors, but the game was canceled because Adler controls the weather in Chicago.

“A sigh of relief? Yeah,” said GM Jon Bielecki, “It’s hard to know what to expect when a team stumbles out of the gates like we did in Week 1. It was nice to bounce back. Hopefully we can be more consistent in the coming weeks.”

With a 6-3 victory, the Mack move into sole possession of 3rd place in the standings, despite scoring the second least amount of total points on the season. Offensively, they rank second in the league behind Woosta and the bats will be needed this week, as Mile High only has one two-start pitcher going against LA of Anaheim.