Quote Originally Posted by thorpe:
Bautista, Lawrie, Escobar are above average. Encarnacion is average. The rest of the hitters look to be below average or average at best.
Morrow and Romero look like very good pitchers. The rest of the starting staff look average at best. Maybe Henderson or Cecil hasa good year. I wouldn't expect much from McGowan.
Bullpen looks good.
Manager seems to be pretty good.
That looks like a .500 team to me playing in the tough AL East.
What players am I underrating?
You're underrating Rasmus. He was bad last season but in 2010 he was one of the very best CF'ers in the entire game.
You're underrating Arencibia. He was a rookie catcher last season who still showed tons of power and was much better defensively at the end of the season compared to the start.
Thames was a rookie who put up a good OPS for a first year player while showing good power to all fields. He is certainly at least a average hitter or better.
All 3 of those guys are at least "average" players and all 3 have the potential to be better.
Even if you want to throw in Lind and Johnson into the below average category, they certainly have shown to be better then that at certain points in the past.
Romero is a budding ace.
Morrow was injured to start the year last season and never got on track.
Henderson Alvarez is the real deal. Take his age into consideration and he was almost as impressive as Lawrie in both players small callups.
Cecil has lost 30lbs over the summer. He was decent the second half of the year last season and posted almost identical #'s that he did in his 2010 season where he had like 15 wins. For a #4 pitcher hes more then solid enough.
Mcgowen? Who the hell knows if hes good, average or bad. He hasnt pitched in so long that really noone knows. They do say however that hes been throwing the really anyone in camp. If he can stay healthy I dont see anything wrong with him being a #5 pitcher.
To me when people look at the rotation they look at the "Worst case scenario". They dont take into account that Romero has a chance to get better, that Alvarez might very welll be the real deal, that Cecil could easily pitch like he did in 2010. They almost say Alvarez is a young pitcher so he wont pitch well, Cecil sucks and McGowen has been out so long that he will most definitely not be very good. I think this rotation is better then what they showed last year but I guess thats why these are predictions. Spring training is spring training but after 20 games the entire starting rotation has looked very good.
Im not sitting here trying to say they are going to make the playoffs. I am saying that they are easily better then a .500 team. Heck they finished .500 last year with one of the worst bullpens in the league. Morrow was never on track because he started the year injured. They had a scrub in Jason Nix a good amount at 3rd. They have a scrub in Rivera in LF. They had one of the worst pitchers in the game in JO JO Reyes. There starting rotation had one of the worst ERA's in the league and a bullpen who blew more games then anyone else. To me they are easily a better team on paper this year with a much improved bullpen.
This team is a team with alot of uncertanties and question marks but they are legitiment question marks, its not like im asking something unrealistic like Rajai Davis to be the CF'er and hit .300 with 15 home runs and post a .900 OPS. You can look around the diamond and every position player has the potential to have a strong season.
Ill let you know that expectations around this team are high. The media coverage they are recieving is massive and if they finished below 80 wins there would be a big outcry amongst the fanbase. Again this team has many uncertanties but the talent is certainly there.
To me the starting rotation is better then last year.
To me the lineup is better then last year.
To me the bullpen is better then last year
They prolly finish with something like 85-87 wins.