The end of March is a time of great anticipation in the baseball world. Fans are nearly as anxious as the players to see the teams head north and start getting some hard answers to the questions that surround their favorite ball clubs. Since veterans have generally established expected levels of performance, much of the buzz and uncertainty surrounds rookies who have survived the spring sifting.
The NL East is a mess, with overpaid teams, overrated teams, teams with no
ownership and teams that might be better off with no ownership. It’s possible
that no team will win 90 games, and that the spread from top to bottom won’t
be 20 games.
Readers critique BP’s Tout Wars team, go below the belt for an injury question, and challenge the notion of set rotation roles.
The American League East is moving slowly from a 2-3 configuration to a 2-1-2,
as the Toronto Blue Jays put together not just a good team, but an
organization that will sustain success. The division will be 3-2 by 2005, but
for now, it’s the same rivals dueling for supremacy.
Outfield defense is, at first glance, one of the easier things to measure. If there’s a fly ball and an outfielder catches it, they get at least one out, which is recorded statistically as a putout. But outfielders will almost never get a putout on a ground ball–the best they can do is pick it up and throw it to someone who will touch the base, or tag the runner. Can something that easy provide useful information?
The Red Sox have 682 first basemen, the Reds revamp half their bullpen a week before Opening Day, the Rockies’ three non-Helton infield spots could be the best collective bargain in baseball, and the Pirates choose one set of jounreymen over another for the back end of the pitching staff.
Over the past month or so, Baseball Prospectus staffers from around the country have had the unique opportunity to host Pizza Feeds in seven different states, celebrating the coming of a new season. And what a celebration it’s been. At these Feeds, we’ve met some of the most loud, opinionated, knowledgable, and entertaining baseball fanatics in all the land–(lots of) men and (a few) women who share the same passion and exuberence for the greatest game in the world that we do. I think I speak for the entire BP crew when I say that it’s been a legitimate pleasure to convene on a few random, lonely Wednesdays and talk baseball with a group of people who are as obsessive as I am, and we thank those who attended for their support and participation. BP is nothing without its readers, and we remember that.
Troy Glaus and Jarrod Washburn causing hand-wringing in Angel Nation, injuries to Mariano Rivera and Steve Karsay have Brian Cashman frantically searching for Alejandro Pena’s phone number, and Will’s readers weigh in on Eli Marrero’s stomach ailment and a name for the labrally-impaired.
The nerdiest part of our preseason blitzkrieg, this is the second of two articles describing the final standings in each league as compiled based on our PECOTA forecasts.
Are the Twins standing too pat? Are the White Sox finally ready to fulfill
expectations? Are there really five teams in the AL Central? Joe Sheehan comes
back from vacation to answer these questions and more.
After more than nine years as manager of the Montreal Expos and a short stint as bench coach for the Detroit Tigers, the San Francisco Giants hired Felipe Alou as their new manager this off-season. The architect of the strong, young Expos teams of the mid-90s faces a different challenge in San Francisco, managing a veteran club led by Barry Bonds. Continuing his series of articles from spring training in Arizona, BP correspondent Craig Elsten sat down with Alou recently, and asked him about job battles among some of the team’s weaker veterans, the challenge of nurturing pitching prospects like Kurt Ainsworth and Jesse Foppert, and building an optimal lineup around Bonds.
Well, it’s that time of year again–the time for Baseball Prospectus authors to emerge from out of their respective caves, and provide readers with further evidence that they know absolutely nothing about this game they call “base ball.” In other words, it’s time for the annual set of Preseason Predictions.
For this survey, 13 members of the Baseball Prospectus staff submitted their predictions in time for publication, covering–among other things–divisional standings, postseason standings, and end-of-season awards. Later this week, a Roundtable discussion will run in this space, discussing the predictions seen below, and probably a bunch of other topics as well. Enjoy.