Howdy baseball fans. I recently created a little website for my Preview of the 2002 Major League Baseball season. I used to create a season preview each year to circulate among friends and collegues, but I fell out of the habit for the past few years. This season marks the first Preview I’ve done in a while, and this time I decided to publish the thing on the Net. The address is:
The Preview includes predictions and commentary for all 30 major league teams, as well as a couple of feature articles on timely topics. If you’re a baseball fan and feel like getting in the mood for the season, you might want to check it out.
Well I immediately went to your prediction of the Angels (my team). And figured anyone who doesn’t take the time to look at the roster of one of the most improved teams hasn’t done his homework. The Angels has 5 aces. Washburn, Appier, Sele, Ortiz, Schoeneweis will all make the AL west the hottest contested league.
They traded Mo Vaughn so got him off their payroll.
You obviously are biased towards the Oakland side. If you notice Seattle’s team hasn’t changed much thus the chemistry is still there for them to be a force to be reckoned with. Texas should have a vastly improved year from last with them making a run in September.
I say the AL west title could go to any of the 4 teams with the wild card also going to a team in this league.
deb, miniplan holder for the Anaheim Angels, 2world
I, of course, went to the Dodger predictions, and found it full of error.
No mention of Kaz Ishii?? Drieffort won’t make a start till after the All-Star break. Brown and Ashby are both very much in doubt.
Perez was a decent pick up, but IMO, the Sheffeild trade was a bone-headed move. The Dodgers are a team with a problem that’s been going on for years. It’s not pitching. It’s offense. Sheff provided it and pitchers feared him. That’s why Green got a lot of pitches to hit…because Sheff was protecting him. And to replace him, we get Brian Jordan. A man whose single season career BEST in HR’s is 25. Now that he will get most of AB’s in the mother of all pitcher’s parks, a 25 HR year will be a sweetly remembered dream.
And don’t get me started on Karros. Even when healthy, the guy was not an impact player. Never the guy you wanted to come up when the game was on the line.
Sadly, I think the Dodgers will be hurtin’ puppies this year.
Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do…like how Gary Sheffield is going to be a volatile element or how Ted Turner’s sex life has anything to do with Hotlanta.
So we meet again, deb2world! ::rubs hands together and grins evilly:: Are you counting the days until opening day? I sure am!
Sorry, Malchats, but I’m gonna have to disagree with you, too. Or rather say that I don’t think you have any idea of the why the Yanks lost the Series. Mo Rivera didn’t “give it away.” The thing we saw throughout the whole post-season was that the Yankees just weren’t hitting the ball. There were some spectacular last-second hits of course (at the expense of poor old Byung Hyun Kim), but those remarkable home runs wouldn’t have been necessary if the Yankees had managed to hit the ball earlier in the game. I chalk those saves (and the game 3 run against the A’s) up to luck more than offensive skill. Their luck finally ran out in game 7 of the World Series. They managed to get as far as they did because their defense was phenomenal.
And their defense will still be phenomenal. They got rid of a couple of weak links, and they have some great developing talent (Soriano).
They need to get better offensively, and their off-season moves have reflected an effort to do this. They got rid of Knoblauch and Brosius, who weren’t really producing. (Unfortunately, they also got rid of Martinez, who was a really solid producer. Ventura will likely be a solid producer too, though.). They brought in Giambi, who is, if nothing else, a great hitter. And again, they have the developing talent of Soriano.
I don’t know if they’ll win anything this year, but I don’t think the dynasty will crumble any time soon.
As far as your article on Giambi–well no duh! Giambi was considered a high-stakes gamble from day 1. The Yankees can afford to make the big wager, but that doesn’t mean they don’t realize that they are taking a big risk. If Giambi pays off, great. If not, well nobody, least of all Steinbrenner, is going to be surprised.
Ah Green Bean my nemesis. You are absolutely right, there are 11 day 6 hours and 39 minutes. Angels opening day is 31 Mar at 5:05 PST. And I will be there.
boyohboyohboyohboyohboy…baseball season is almost here again.
Ah Spring! Every team is undefeated and every team, Budzilla be damned, can dream of championships.
Malchats, nice looking site, esp the baseball in the heavens.
Now to those picks.
AL West: very competitive and your ranking is as good as any other I’ve seen.
AL Central: It’s possible the White Sox can fail to win. It’s possible they’ll finish 2nd, even 3rd if the wheels fall off. But there ain’t no way they will finish behind both Detroit and KC.
AL East: Baltimore would have trouble finishing 3rd in a 3 team division.
NL West: I like the Pads with SF a 2nd favorite. Col could surprise. Hard to see LA as high as you have them.
NL Central: Pittsburgh won’t finish within 20 games of StL and Houston. Even the Cubbies might be cheering, and for the 2nd year in a row.
NL East: Atl is older but Sheffield is huge addition and Schuerholz is not Malone. NY upgraded offense all the way to average, Phl will revert to form, Fla (who might normally be my pick) are in organizational upheaval and Mon is in receivership.
I would say Sea, Chisox, NYY, SD, StL, Atl.
Again, an enjoyable site. Let’s see how it works out.
