Some Opening Day Musings

by
April 6, 2009

As the season begins, here are some of the areas that I think I differ on from the generally agreed upon consensus, for better or worse.

Teams I Like More Than Consensus

Baltimore – the pitching is better than people think and Wieters is on the way.

Atlanta – There are more strengths than weaknesses, and this is a roster with upside.

Seattle – Good defense and a couple of top notch arms make up for some other problems.

Teams I Like Less Than Consensus

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Minnesota – A ~.500ish club when Mauer is healthy, and he’s not.

Philadelphia – Too many areas for expected regression. Long shots to repeat as champs.

LAnaheim – A ton of health problems and not as much depth as in past years.

Units I Like More Than Consensus:

Indians Rotation – Even if the experiments flop, there’s depth ready to step in.

Yankees Bullpen – Good arms, even if you haven’t heard of most of them.

Mets Offense – Could challenge the Cubs for the highest run scoring line-up in NL.

Units I Like Less Than Consensus

A’s Defense – Supposed to bail out the rotation, but I’m underwhelmed.

Red Sox Offense – Lowell’s back? Ellsbury’s bat? Varitek’s starting? Too many questions.

Cubs Bullpen – No relief aces in sight, which Lou will yell about frequently.

Players I Like More Than Consensus

Kosuke Fukodome – He’ll play a decent center field and hit enough to be useful.

Yunel Escobar – The Braves should be thrilled the Padres didn’t take him.

Josh Hamilton – It’s become cool to call him overrated. He’s not even at his upside yet.

Players I Like Less Than Consensus

Dustin Pedroia – Had a really good 2008. I doubt we ever see a repeat.

Matt Cain – When HR/FB rate regresses, people are going to wonder what’s wrong.

Jake Peavy – Padres should have sold high when they had the chance.





 

Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.

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Judy
16 years ago

I’m a Red Sox fan, so I love Dustin Pedroia, but even I’ll admit that when he had to leave the WBC, my first thought was that Team USA just lost the AL MVP, and replaced him with an upgrade.

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