Tony's Comments on the Upcoming Season
I don't see the White Sox repeating this year. Their rotation will be good but no where near as good as last year. However, 2006 will be the year when the D-Rays get out of that cold and dark basement of the A.L East.
Too many people are jumping on the A's bandwagon. They have the pitching (though Zito might be dealt by July), but they simply don't have the lineup.
Toronto WON'T make it to the playoffs.
Could this be the year that the Yankees' rotation is healthy and they finally win that 27th ring? We can only hope! :)
We'll just have to sit back, relax and wait to see how the 2006 season will turn out.
Keith's Take
Yankees fans should hope that their rotation in NOT healthy. That way Steinbrenner will know to acquire better pitching options sooner rather than later. Whoever pitches the most innings out of Weng, Pavano, Wright, Chacon, and Small is going to lead the AL in hits allowed. The acquisition of Damon provides just a marginal improvement on what's been the worst defense in baseball for the past two years. What this club needs is more strikeout pitchers a la Randy Johnson to minimize the sting of these aging, horrendous fielders.
But other than the somewhat expected hometown bias, these picks are extremely solid. So much so that I'd even call them conservative.
See
Keith's 2006 Predictions.
Scott's Take
Tony's expectations of the major league status quo are a bit uninspired. Every year, there is quite a shakeup somewhere, somehow. His predictions don't reflect this statistical likelihood at all.
That being said, Zach Duke is an intriguing possibility as an NL dissapointment. His 2005 debut looked eerily similar to
Cal Eldred's 1992 season, and Eldred was just average for the rest of his career.
See
Scott's 2006 Predictions.
Asher's Take
See
Asher's 2006 Predictions.
Back to the
2006 Baseball Evolution Season Preview Index.
