Friday, September 16, 2011

Chows at a CrossRoads After a Down Year

Illinois Times -- Every move made, both draft and trade, were done to set Illinois up for a successful 2012. However, Illinois will have some tough decisions to make going into the new year.

Figuring to have a strong season next year are Aramis Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Michael Bourn, Roy Halladay and Dave Robertson and very limited use of Ike Davis.

Figuring to be serviceable are Jonathon Lucroy, Kosuke Fukudome, Josh Willingham and Francisco Cordero.

Question marks include Max Scherzer, Homer Bailey and Rich Harden.

So the Chows are left with several holes - but a lot of picks including 3 in the first round. In what figures to be a pitching rich draft - do the Chows fill in their rotation with aces early on and hope to scrounge up enough offense? Do they take some of the limited good hitters early and figure they can fill in the pitching later. Do they trade some picks to those not going for 2012? Or do the Chows decide they don't have the horses and go young?

It will be interesting to see what direction Illinois heads. No matter what choices are made it will be difficult for the team to lose as many games as they did in 2011.


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