Louisville Sluggers

[CrazyEights]

Louisville Sluggers
14) Francisco Liriano SP
47) Delmon Young LF
74) Chad Billingsly SP
107) Prince Fielder 1B
134) Randy Johnson SP

[redsrbetter]

per David Cubbedge's Blog:

NASHVILLE, Tn-- The 2006 SBSL draft is complete. It is a pretty picture for Louisville fans as we will be looking at a rather talented team this year and the future looks to be just as positive. I am very proud to be apart of this organization and I look forward to supporting this team in all its endeavors.

This year's draft will be the definition of how each team will be contributing their goals to the league. Louisville chose to go young and cheap early and then filled in the gaps with high dollar big time talent. Overall this team is going to be balanced with three great hurlers to anchor the rotation and two young studs waiting for their chance to break into Louisville. The lineup will not be as strong as the Slugger name professes, but it also has some nice young talent looking for a callup some time in the 2006 season. The strength of this team is going to be its bullpen. With guys like Trevor Hoffman, BJ Ryan, Todd Jones, and Tom "Flash" Gordon the only problem that will arise is deciding who will be the closer and who will pitch in the set-up role. These guys have been closers for most of their careers and they all have the talent to finish games in winning fashion. With this bullpen, we have a very good chance of ending games after the 6th inning.

This is how our roster looks after the draft:

SP:
Randy Johnson
Mike Mussina
Matt Clement
Francisco Liriano
Ryan Franklin
RP:
BJ Ryan
Trevor Hoffman
Tom Gordon
Todd Jones
Jaret Wright
Craig Breslow
Franklyn German
C:
Johnny Estrada
Javier Valentin
1B:
Prince Fielder
Phil Nevin
2B:
Ryan Freel
Miguel Cairo
3B:
Edwin Encarnacion
SS:
Clint Barmes
Orlando Cabrera
LF:
Garret Anderson
CF:
Mike Cameron
RF:
Charles Thomas

Prospects:
Delmon Young RF
Chad Billingsley SP
Justin Echols SP
Elijah Dukes CF
Scott Mathieson SP

This team is young and has replacement talent for the players that are older and more expensive. A great balance to cover the $75 million salary cap and an overall impressive performance displayed by redsrbetter and company for the first draft in the SBSL. I have no question that this team can and will contend. Our next adventure will be to see how they will set the lineup and rotation for this team. No matter what, we have a good nucleus of ballplayers that I am looking forward to watching this summer. Let's play ball!

http://strike3blog.blogspot.com/

[redsrbetter]

per David cubbedge's blog:

CINCINNATI—the teams are aligned to get the season started. The SBSL is ready to kick things off with their opening day events today. Baseball is in the air and we are all ready to get a breath of it. As every team in the SBSL has been going through their training routine the Sluggers have spent the past few weeks in an unparalleled level of conditioning. Slugger’s manager, Dusty York, has had plenty of opportunity to run this team from the ground up. And that is just what they are doing. This team is running every chance they get.

As far as York’s focus on the new season, he wants to go back to the basics and stress fundamentals as much as possible. “It is the little things that help a well put together team become victorious.” York said. “We are focused on everything these guys learned while coming up in their days as a youth learning the game of baseball. This team is very young and there is not a whole lot of cumulated big league experience. So we have to be sure that these guys can get the little things done as their talent will help us along with the technical part of the game.”

With Opening Day starting today there is more than just excitement fluttering the clubhouse.

“I am definitely ready to get things started. It seems like this process has taken quite a while, but it was all worth it.” Newly appointed team captain Randy Johnson stated. “I am happy to be apart of this team, we will be in contention with anybody this year.”

Sounds like the Big Unit is ready to go which could only mean great things for this team. He will be the starter for tonight’s game against the Cincinnati Royals.

“It would be real nice to get off with a great start. I have complete confidence in Randy to come out strong and keep us in the game.” York said confiding in his staff ace. “The Royals have a very strong lineup and it is going to be tough to keep their bats quiet, so I am thankful to have a pitcher like Randy Johnson to get us through.”

I am very excited to see this team finally take the field. The lineup will crush and the pitching will shut bats up. This team is well balanced and I can’t wait to see how the lineup will be constructed. The only thing that has me worried is the overall inexperience this team has because of their youth. I hope the veterans can give them a push and allow them to see how to handle the big league experience.

So let’s go Slugger fans. It is time for some baseball.

http://strike3blog.blogspot.com/