Who's your odds-on-favorite to win this year?

[SultansOfSquat (Man)]

Just for kicks. Figured maybe this would help get more of you lame, "chatterbox" GMs to shut up and do something good at your keyboard for a change. ;D

[Former I'm Not Creative (INC)]

Commish Office
but really The Birds

[Old BIG WOOD (Adam)]

i think Im Not Creative has one of the best starting staffs in the league and has a solid core on the offensive side so hes a team to watch out for. so is The Birds and hopefully myself.

[SultansOfSquat (Man)]

Thing is both of you still had good shots at it in Sept last year, but for whatever reasons, both of you sorta disappeared, instead of making good runs at The Birds. So maybe the same thing will happen again this year?

If you look at the 2006 Standings, the various actual totals and projected totals should give a good indication of what I mean -- though they obviously won't tell the full story. Certainly, you guys could've easily finished much closer w/ better shots at the top than I had in late 2005, if not for the disappearing act...

[Former Goodbye Slicers (Kiwi)]

Melbourne Demons are a dark horse but not included on the pole.

[SultansOfSquat (Man)]

kiwisplinter said:

Melbourne Demons are a dark horse but not included on the pole.

Haha. You're part of "The Field...". ;D Besides, I don't think we can fit a horse on a "pole".

[Former I'm Not Creative (INC)]

After missing the draft the answer is clearly no longer me.

[SultansOfSquat (Man)]

Hard to say. You probably still have the strongest core players in the league, so it probably depends on whether Alou can stay healthy all year or at least long enough for you to find a solid replacement before he gets hurt again. Most of the RPs you got in the draft aren't bad either though you'll probably need to work on your bullpen (and maybe another SP) like everyone else. None of the league winners have been able to win w/out doing some amount of bullpen revamping (along w/ one or two SP changes aside from occasional spot starts) throughout the season, and I think that probably won't change this year either.

[Former I'm Not Creative (INC)]

Relievers I'm not too worried about. Missing out on Giles and good backup fielders/SP is what is going to hurt my chances the most.

[Old BIG WOOD (Adam)]

i think one of the keys to winning this year could come from the prospects and how they far late in the season/ when they come up. since there was a lot of thm in the draft that could be the difference.

[SultansOfSquat (Man)]

imnotcreative said:

Relievers I'm not too worried about. Missing out on Giles and good backup fielders/SP is what is going to hurt my chances the most.

Then I guess you probably feel The Birds have become the favorites (to repeat). ;D That might be so though depending on how one looks at it, but I personally don't believe he has too much on you (in terms of what's already there on your rosters), especially if you really think the bullpen won't be an issue.

I think one of the keys to winning this year could come from the prospects and how they far late in the season/ when they come up. since there was a lot of thm in the draft that could be the difference.

Big Wood, I guess that's certainly possible, but that's probably been the case for the last couple years too. However, I wouldn't count on prospects that haven't won regular jobs yet to be the real diff makers.

IMHO, the real diff maker will likely still be whether certain team owners decide to give up too soon or undervalue certain aspects of the game and not make the most of their situations. That's pretty much how it's been for the last 2-3 years, if you ask me. That's not to say that all non-winning team owners didn't do their best, but certainly, some teams didn't come close enough in Sept in large part because of those reasons.