Home Run Derby

  OK, I am purposely using the Pirates logo circa 1979 (actually it was used from 1968-1986), because let’s face it, there hasn’t been a lot to celebrate in Pittsburgh baseball since the days of Will Stragell, Bill Madlock, Bert Blyleven, John Candelaria, and my personal favorite, the Cobra, Dave Parker. Not to mention the managerial prowess of the legendary Chuck Tanner.  But those days are long gone.

Yes, they flirted with relevence in the early 90’s with Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Doug Drabek, but when I was a young lad, I had two teams the Chicago White Sox (above all others) and the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Boy does it pain me to see them now.  15 straight seasons of sub .500 ball and this one is going to be #16.

By the way, speaking of Barry Bonds, do you remember when he used to look like this?  Neither does he! Anyway, enough with the fond trip down memory lane, let’s look to the future or at least to 2008 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Win Total Over/Under is 68.5.  The Pirates have some decent hitting with Jason Bay, Xavier Nady and Freddy Sanchez (please don’t overreact…I said decent not great).  Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell are good anchors to the starting rotation.  Not to mention the play in the same division as the Reds, Cards and Cubs (say it with me….OVER-RATED. clap, clap, clap, clap. OVER-RATED).  Even the Brewers are good not great, so their division schedule will help the make the over, just barely.

Player most likely to have a Home Run Break Out Season: This isn’t really a break out prediction…it’s a rebound prediction.  Jason Bay will return to normal production and hit about 35 Home Runs. Prior to last year, his OPS+ the previous three seasons: 132, 150, 138.  Then last year he had an off year with a 93.  I say he returns to his normal production, especially if he gets traded.

Player most likely to have a disappointing Home Run Season: Freddy Sanchez.  Not really a good pick but he did hit 11 Home Runs last year. He will hit half that many this year.

Bold Statement: The Pirates will win the season series with the Cubs.

Best Case Scenario for the Team:  Gorezelanny and Snell set the pace with 15 wins a piece and Matt Morris and Zach Duke each hit double digits. Pirates finish 3rd in the division and just a couple games under .500.

Best Chance for Hardware (League Awards):  None but Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez will be All Stars.

The roundtable is still in progress, I will add it later.

Next up: The Northside crew, the Chicago Cubs (E-gad).

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 10:30 pm and is filed under 2008 MLB, 30 Teams in 30 Days, Pirates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.