So, what kind of year do you think your favorite MLB team will have this year? Personally I’m a cardinals fan through and through and I’m kind of nervous about what kind of numbers they will put up this year. There batting order is solid, and should be able to drive in a fair amount of runs barring any unforseen injuries.
David Eckstein (SS)
Larry Walker (RF)
Albert Pujols (1B)
Scott Rolen (3B)
Jim Edmonds (CF)
Reggie Sanders (LF)
Mark Grudzielanek (however you spell his last name) (2B)
Pitcher
I think that their rotation should be able to bounce back and be pretty competive if Morris and Carpenter can put together high quality starts for the whole season.
Mark Mulder
Matt Morris
Chris Carpenter
Jeff Suppan
Jason Marquis
I do think that their Bullpen is suspect, but I think Walt Jockety will make some moves and get some closers to help pull the team closer if they are in contention past the all star break.
With all this being said, I don’t see why they wouldn’t make back to the World Series next year.
So what do you think will be happening with your favorite team this upcoming year?
They stand no chance of repeating, but if my Sox can put up a winning regular-season record against the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Yankees I’ll call it good.
I dunno. The Angels have a couple of question marks, but fortunately, every other team in the division has more. I think they have to be considered the third best team in the AL right now.
Bullpen - should kick ass as usual. Percival was past his prime and is easily replaceable at this point.
Rotation - should be better than last year. I don’t expect Colon to repeat his horrific first half. Escobar should be almost as good as last year. Wash is Wash. I expect Lackey to be better this year than last since he showed some real gains towards the end of the season. Byrd is an upgrade over the gruesome twosome of Ortiz and Sele. Ugh.
Lineup - probably better than last year. Big question is whether Anderson is healthy and what the hell is going on with McPherson’s back. The outfield should be better this year than last if Anderson is healthy. And even if he’s not, the Angels have truly stunning outfield depth, their reserve OFers would make pretty decent starters on lots of other teams. Infield is a question. What’s McPherson’s back situation, do we get good Erstad (midseason form) or evil Erstad (beginning and end form), was Figgins’ performance last year a fluke, and what’s up with Cabrera?
All in all, they should win 95+ games and win the AL West. If everyone’s healthy, there’s no reason they can’t make it to the World Series.
I actually think the cubs might put together a pretty good year. I know that is blasphemy coming out of a stl cardinals fan mouth, but they are pretty stacked. The loss of Clement will hurt a lot, especially because Maddux will at best be so-so, and Prior and Wood seem to always injuries come up at the wrong time. Their bullpen is even shakier than the Cardinals, so that’s a problem that might need to be fixed up. Other than that though, they seem to be pretty stacked. Of course loosing Alou and Sosa will leave some holes, but nothing Corey Patterson and Nomar Garciaparra can’t replace with solid years. As much as I hate to say it, I think the Cubs could win the National League Penant this year. :rolleyes:
Ha! Cubs have no chance. They have a good rotation on paper, but wait until Dusty Baker gets done with it. Zabrano is going to break down this year, as will Wood and possibly Prior. The bullpen is a mess.
Then again, who is their competition? The Reds? The Brewers? The Pirates? The Astros? Frankly, it comes down to the Cubs and Cards, which is good news for the Cardinals.
I’ve been a Mets fan for forty years, and I’m still an optimist. But I think they’ll be much improved; I think it’s a very long shot to beat out Atlanta, but they do have the talent to contend for the wildcard. Their everyday lineup is the best in ages, and it looks like the two major question marks – Can Matsui handle second? Will Cameron be happy in right? – have been answered positively. They also have an excellent set of starters. The big issues:
How is the middle relief? They could use help, but it’s not as bad as some have said.
How is Piazza? He’s not the big gun he used to be, but he is still one of the top offensive catchers in the game. He’s also happier behind the plate than playing first.
What about injuries? That killed them last year. Reyes and Floyd are the biggest issue, having been on the DL much too often. But injuries are mostly a matter of luck.
Improvements:
Beltran, Martinez, and Mientkewitz. All a big step up. Not to mention Wright at third.
Defense. Reyes is good, and Beltran, Cameron and Mientkewitz are great. Matsui looks to be able to handle the transistion to second, so their pitchers are going to be much improved.
Speed – the top three batters are fast, and all are switch hitters.
That would be nice, but I am sure that injuries will kill them again. I won’t be happy until the Cubs have the deepest, healthiest rotation in MLB. Bullpen depth is what wins it all in the end, and the Cubs always seem to come up a bit short in that area.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, seem to have put together the best bullpen in the majors. Too bad they rape the offense in the process. Hard to win when the batters can’t score any runs to back up the pitching.
My favorite team is the Nats, and I have no idea how they’re going to do.
From my perspective as a DC-area baseball fan, their last season was 1971, when their lineup featured players like Frank Howard, Del Unser, Tim Cullen, and Paul Casanova; their pitching staff had worthies like Dick Bosman, Casey Cox, and Darold Knowles. Needless to say, they’re all long gone.
But the new Nats were the Montreal Expos last year, so they do have a roster and a history; it’s just not one I’m very familiar with. They finished 67-95 last year, and I have no idea what their prospects are for improvement.
None, their farm system was completely decimated by the Minaya regime. Bowden just finished trading away valuable young players for not as valuable or as cheap older players and then signed mediocre position players to moronic contracts.
Basically, they got older, more expensive and worse in the offseason. A few examples:
Bowden traded for Jose Guillen. In return, he gave the Angels a young player still on his rookie contract (Juan Rivera) that will likely be just as good as Jose Guillen and he threw in a decent shortstop prospect, to boot.
They signed Vinny Castilla to a two year deal, even though Castilla hit a whopping .218/.281/.493 outside of Coors Field.
They signed on Christian Guzman to a four year deal, even though he’s gotten worse every season since 2001 and right now barely hits well enough to be considered for a major league starting shortstop.
Bowden wanted to make a bunch of moves to showcase his abilities to wheel and deal, whether they made the team better or not, since he’s probably going to be replaced when the new ownership group comes in. Don’t expect much from the Nationals for several years.
My lord, jsgoddess, what are you talking about? The Indians should take their division this year, albeit with solid competition from the Twins and Sox. They have a solid squad.
They should have, but will they? Still lots of youngsters, plus injury-prone players like Juan Gonzalez. A couple of their players had career years last year (Hafner, Westbrook, Belliard). It’s hard to predict if they can maintain that. CC is hurt again to start the year. They got their closer back after a whole lot of blown saves early last year, but I’m not a big fan of the “make it interesting” style of closing.
I think the Central is going to be weak again, so yeah, they’ve got a good chance. But again, who knows? I just hope they’re fun to watch.
Lineup should be much improved from last year with the addition of Jason Kendall. I’m not sure what the outfiled will look like (probably Swisher, Byrnes, and Kotsay) but they should be pretty good defensively and have some pop and good OBPs. Infield should be solid but not great (except for 3rd where Mr. Chavez reigns supreme).
Bullpen - vastly improved from last year. However, considering how many games the relievers blew last year this isn’t saying a whole lot. But could potentially be the strongest part of the team.
Starting pitching - a huge hole from which not light escapes. Can you make the playoffs with two rookie starters? I don’t think so. Maybe next year. If Zito is on target (and seems to be this spring) he’ll win 20-21, maybe even more if the bullpen holds up. Harden will win 15. And then we have ???, ???, and ???
Coaching - some old crap. Front office really ought to fire everyone except Ron Washington and make him the manager. He’d make those boys play their asses off. I did hear some rumblings that Macha is considering playing more small ball this year considering the team has more speed but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Prediction - 85 wins. 2nd place behind the Angels. No wildcard.
BUT… with a little luck and some pitching magic it could come down to the last week of the season.
All fear the Braves starting rotation! Through 17 spring training innings the starters have given up zero runs - no earned runs, no unearned runs - nothing. We will ride the arms of the starters to our 14th consecutive division championship and not win the World Series.
Probably about .500. Despite losing Carlos Delgado (probably cut him loose at exactly the right time, to be honest) the team will almost certainly be better; last year’s team was an injury-ridden fiasco. The young players are starting to have an impact.
