Chows Trade for Another Pitcher and eye 2012

Last year the Chows led all of NASBL in pitching and were 5th in runs scored. Unfortunately, the Chows were 4th in runs scored in the mighty TGE leading to another season without reaching the play-offs. Going into the draft, the Chows figured to address their offense in the early part of the draft. Instead, Sherlag traded the Chows 1st pick for A PITCHER - getting Liriano and a 3rd.

"We figure our strength is pitching, and after having traded Carpenter, we were not as strong there. After adding Liriano, we really like our staff for this year and beyond. We dubbed draft day Project 2012 and we feel we set ourselves up to contend in the mighty TGE in just one year. We really believe we will not have to draft a single starting pitcher in 2012 allowing us to focus on our offense. "

The Chows have 8-9 starting pitchers on the current roster. Halladay, Liriano, Anderson, Scherzer, Volquez, Zambrano, Duensing, Wells and potentially McClellan. They should be able to assemble a solid starting 5 out of that bunch and may be able to leverage some of that strength to fill in some holes.

Here is how Project 2012 shakes out with a lot of uncertainty in a few categories:

Avoid Regression

Prado, H Ramirez, Willingham, Duensing, Liriano

Get Healthy

Nathan, Anderson, Beltran, Volquez

Bounceback

A Ramirez, Suzuki, Hawpe, Lee, Bradley, Zambrano

Reach Some Potential

Smoak, Davis, Colvin, Beckham, Scherzer

Potential Useful Parts

Fukudome, Wells, Bourn

Will these parts lead to a solid nucleus of 17 for 2012? Only the next season will tell.

Morandini will have a challenge to manage usage in some spots and comply with the 50% rule in others. Having only one lefty in the bullpen and two subpar closers (Gregg and Cordero) should pose additional challenges.

The starting pitching should keep the Chows in games this season, the lack of power and the suspect bullpen figures to lead to a lot of low scoring losses.