Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Ask Dr. Lars - NL North

Dr. Lars the Greek - Cobb Times Herald

Fargo Fug Nuts (57-32, 1st place)
Ailment: None, save #5 starter Sean Monroe and a finally healthy Sioux Falls team in 2nd place.
Prescription: The Fug Nuts don't have much in the way of depth to replace a struggling Monroe. Kind of like a patient who is down to his last kidney, you can't just tell him that it's ok to cut it out because there is another one waiting to go. So Dr. Lars recommends adjusting the rotation to skip as many of his starts as possible.
Outlook: 1st place, by a hair. If there is one thing Dr. Lars has learned through his years of intense medical studies, it is that Fargo is a patient that is nearly always going to get a clean bill of health.

Sioux Falls Corn Cleats (51-38, 2nd place)
Ailment: A horrible start to the season and some early injuries to key players put Cleats in a tough spot. Victor Gandarillas has been a sore spot as well.
Prescription: Ride the now healthy Ben Harris, Vance Weaver, and Marino Sierra in addition to the rest of the powerful lineup and rotation and hope for some extended losing streaks by the Fug Nuts. Dr. Lars likes how the lineup looks with lots of power and run producing potential, and the rotation is solid outside of a suddenly shaky Gandarillas, but he can be replaced with Wally Moore if need be.
Outlook: 2nd place, with a wildcard spot being a real possibility. The Cleats are now healthy and the lineup is starting to produce like it should, which is a bad thing for the rest of the league. Unfortunately Fargo got too big of a head start and Dr. Lars doesn't think the Cleats can catch them.

New York Pick Pockets (48-41, 3rd place)
Ailment: Fausto Rodriguez's 60 day DL stint isn't helping a team that can't afford to lose any of its starters in order to try and keep pace with Fargo and Sioux Falls. The pitching has also been only slightly above average, and Omar Rosado isn't having his needed MVP calibur season.
Prescription: Hope the pitching staff picks it up, especially former Cy Young winner Juan Moreno. If they don't have some shutdown games the Cleats will put too big of a gap on the Pick Pockets and steal the 2nd wildcard spot from them.
Outlook: 3rd place, again. New York is rapidly closing the gap, but like many aspiring bodybuilders they have a little more to go before they reach the Lou Ferrigno and Arnold status of the top two teams.

Trenton Lions (27-62, 4th place)
Ailment: It's not just one ailment, the whole ML franchise is on life support! The only thing keeping this team alive is the load of talent in the minors.
Prescription: Take two draft picks and call Dr. Lars in the morning. That and international signings of high quality are what will make this team healthy again.
Outlook: 4th place, really no surprise here. The Lions are getting some very nice young talent into the system, but don't have enough built up to be dismissed from the hospital yet.

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