results from day 2 of the sim tournament are directly below, in this post.
here's a quick comparison of opening-day lineups, last year vs this year, by position:
| 2007 | 2008 | |
|---|---|---|
| molina | C | molina |
| pujols | 1B | pujols |
| kennedy | 2B | kennedy |
| eckstein | SS | izturis |
| rolen | 3B | glaus |
| duncan | LF | duncan |
| edmonds | CF | ankiel / rasmus |
| en'cion | RF | ludwick / ankiel |
the cards take a step backward at shortstop, but that's seemingly offset by the mild upgrades in center and right; with the addition of glaus, a clear improvement over rolen v2007, st louis can probably count on a more potent offense next season. of course, rolen v2008 probably would have been better than rolen v2007 too, so it remains to be seen whether the st louis offense actually comes out ahead on the exchange of 3bmen. but i don't think this team will finish 13th in the league in homers, as last year's did.
here's a comparison by batting-order position:
| 2007 | 2008 |
|---|---|
| eckstein | kennedy? |
| duncan | duncan |
| pujols | pujols |
| rolen | glaus |
| edmonds | ankiel |
| encarnacion | ludwick |
| molina | molina |
| pitcher | pitcher |
| kennedy | izturis |
again, weaker production out of eckstein's slot, offset by better production through the rest of the order. and remember, one potential contributor (rasmus) isn't listed here.
today's question: how many runs do you see the cards scoring (they plated 725 runs last year)? where do you think they will rank (they were 11th last year)?