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Since it's an extremely slow news day let's take a look at Buster Olney's top 10 series he's been running every day this week on his blog at ESPN. The full lists are behind a paywall but I'll re-print the rankings here, minus his analysis.
Top 10 rotations: Tigers, Nationals, Dodgers, Phillies, Reds, Rays, Jays, Braves, Giants, A's
Top 10 outfields: Angels, Nationals, A's, Dodgers, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers, Braves, D'backs, Orioles
Top 10 infields: Rangers, Tigers, Reds, Rays, Yankees, Braves, Jays, Nationals, Giants, Royals
Top 10 lineups: Angels, Brewers, Cardinals, Rangers, Nationals, Red Sox, Rockies, Jays, Reds, Yankees
The Rays appear only twice and likely would have finished with a top three rotation if Shields was still with the team. As Olney notes in his write up, they'll climb as far as Matt Moore can carry them. The infield is going to have excellent defense and above average offense, assuming Longoria stays healthy so that rank is no surprise.
The lineup certainly wasn't going to crack anyone's top ten list, but the outfield has a chance. Some combination of Desmond Jennings/Matt Joyce/Ben Zobrist/Wil Myers is going to be good, and could be very good if Jennings takes a step forward and Myers comes in and shines. At the very least they can be better than the Orioles who are putting Nate McCloth back in left field.
Washington was the only team to appear on each list. I'm glad they're in the National League.
What do you all think? Are those rankings fair? Unfair?
Links
-At FanGraphs, Dave Cameron delves into the value of draft pick compensation tied to free agents. His conclusion: it's usually worth it to sign the guys.
-At BaseballProspectus, Sam Miller looks at the saddest age 27 seasons of 2012. Age 27 is a player's supposed "prime" and is also the time baseball fans stop caring about you if you haven't panned out yet. There's a Joel Guzman sighting at number 2!
-Darren Oliver, 42, is proposing his own version of Operation Shutdown if the BlueJays don't want to give him a raise.