Eleven Warriors

Pittsburgh Pirates? I can't give you a good reason why, though.....ahhh because we're not good & haven't been since 1992. Oh wait, we drafted Joe Bauserman. There - that's reason enough.

Tribe!!!

Tribe. Misery loves company.

The Yankees are an easy pick beacuse they win all the time and have almost always been on of the best teams every decade. I grew up in Toledo and am a Tigers fan. They have the best hitter (Cabrera) and best pitcher (Verlander) in the game right now. They have a beautiful park that averages 35,000 fans a game despite the terrible economy in Detroit. Most importantly they have an owner in Mike Ilitch that will do whatever it takes and spend whaever he needs to sign great players and win. However I am a realist and unless you live in NW Ohio or have the MLB pkg you will be able to watch very few Tigers games while FSOhio and STO carry almost every Reds and Tribe game. The Tribe has the worst attendance in baseball by 5000 fans so God knows they could use some more. 

I'm not even a serious Baseball fan. Too much nut scratching and playing with gloves in between pitches. But I'm a die-slow Browns fan, so the Indians make sense. 

Where do you live? If it's within an hour of a baseball team, pick that one.  

The Reds are the team to pick.  They have had some disappointing seasons to be sure, BUT it really has taken many years to finally get the organization healthy after the mess Schott left behind.  Lindner did nothing to help them either.  Now that Castellini owns the team and has been able to rebuild the franchise, I truly see a bright future.  The minor league system is in the best shape I've ever seen it.  The team is almost completely under team control through 2015 and beyond, and they are on the brink of having a lot more revenue to spend.  Plus, as Ian put it, GABP is a great park to attend a game. 

The group of players they have with Votto, Bruce, Phillips, Cozart(who is quickly becoming one of the better young shortstops I've seen in a long time) Stubbs, Mesoraco/Hannigan, Cueto, Leake, Bailey, Latos, Chapman, Ondrusek, Marshall, Arendondo, and others will be around for several seasons.  

They've been pitching very well this season so far, and now the offense is getting hot.  It's about to be very entertaining time to be a Reds fan.  Jump on the bandwagon now because it won't be long till the thing fills up. People scoff at the contracts the Reds have signed and some of the moves they've made, but this is the same front office group who signed supposed crazy contracts in St. Louis and they built a team that had been very good for a long time.  I trust the group running the Reds, and they aren't going to lose a lot of ball games going forward.  

Take the Tribe. The Prog is an awesome ballpark. We have some serious talent locked up for a while in Cabrera, Santana (will be the best catcher in baseball), Kipnis, Chisenhall, Choo, Brantley, Masterson, Jimenez, Perez, Pestano and Tomlin. The Tribe will break your heart, but they're fun to watch and they have the best farm system in the league, the Clippers are a part of it now.

Hodge, I will say Chapman is a beast but he's on the verge of a meltdown game.  They aren't using him enough.  His last 3 outings he's walked all 4 of his batters and hit 1.  He's really showing some rust.  I hope they start working him in a little more often.  Chapman is a blast to watch though.  His fast ball has been down this season but he has also learned to pitch.  He doesn't go full out every pitch but if he needs to reach back he can still hit 100 on the gun.  His slider is nasty and he's developed a split finger.

Cueto, to me, is the best pitcher no one outside of Reds Country has really heard of.  He didn't have his stuff on Saturday at all.  He really looked off, but he threw 7 shutout innings inspite of it.  He's pitched terrific this season and last year he was really good too.  He could be a Cy Young candidate if he improves from here.  He would of been one last year, except for the fact that he missed the first month or month and a half of the season.

Ya know, it's hard to say when he'll see the rotation, I'm guessing mid summer.  Bray his doing extended spring training right now to rehab his injury and it looks like Massett is quite a ways from coming back yet.  I'm guessing it could be June before Massett is back. 

As long as the rotation is healthy, I'm ok with it how it is right now.  Cueto, Arroyo, and Bailey have been very good.  Latos is off to a slow start, but he never does well in April and take into account he's adjusting to a new ball park, new catcher and is trying to impress the new team.  The guy who needs to really get it together is Leake.  He has not looked good at all this season, though he pitched poorly last April went to AAA and came back up really looking good.

If I had a guess I'd say until Masset and Bray get back and are healthy, barring an injury in the roatation it's going to be a while before Chapman sees the rotation.

I would go for the Reds they have Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto locked up for a long time. And GM Walt Jocketty accually knows what he is doing. The only problem with Cincy is they are not exactly TOSU friendly. Plus Great American Ballpark is a great stadium.

I don't neccessarily disagree with you about Dusty, but I really don't think he's as bad as some people say either.  I doubt he's back next year, and had they not made the playoffs in 2010, he probably wouldn't have been brought back for 2011.  This team will probably end up a playoff team when it's all said and done, but anything short of a World Series berth and I think Dusty is out.  The signs are there already.  The Reds brought David Bell and Jim Riggleman into their farm system so they could promote a replacement from within.

Last year the Reds didn't succeed and it had to do with bad luck, injuries, and just not having enough horses to pull it off.  A few guys they were counting on to improve, took steps back, etc.