Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Prediction Day!!
Good Morning! This afternoon, I am flying down to Minneapolis and will be there the rest of the week. Although you know I hate to do it, I will be taking the next two days off from the website. I will be quite busy so won't have a lot of time. I will be around in the Comments though. I will definitely return on Monday and be around for good. I just thought it would be good for me and my mental well-being to take a couple of days off before the start of the season. So, the site is really yours the next couple of days. I think it is still worth stopping by each day and even throughout the day. That is, IF people are interactive and participating in the discussion/predictions below. It should be a lot of fun. Obviously, I expect commenters to be respectful of each other's opinions, but let's get some debate and discussion going.
For those that are interested, I had a fantasy baseball draft after work last night. It is a weekend points league, mixed. I have included our team's picks below today's posting and you are more than welcome to let me know what your thoughts on the draft were. It is strange looking back at the draft and feeling so uncertain going in, and then realizing that we drafted according to plan throughout most of the draft. It really went as we wanted to with just a couple of exceptions. For our picks, see below.
As I mentioned previously, I am heading out of town, to the Twin Cities actually. Today will be the day for everyone to go on record with your thoughts about the 2007 Minnesota Twins season. Then throughout the season we can take a look back and brag about how smart we are... or selectively forget how far off we were! Please enter your predictions in the Comments section. I am going to break it into several sections so we can break out the predictions. So, let's just get started right away.
Team Success
What do you feel the Twins record will be at the end of the season? If you were a Vegas odds maker, where would you set the over-under for number of wins? Maybe most importantly, do you think that the Twins will win the division, win the Wild Card, or fall short of the playoffs?
|The Hitters
Many seem to believe that Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau will regress. Last year, Mauer hit .347/.429/.507 with 36 doubles, 13 homers and 84 RBI. Will he win another batting title? Can he maintain the batting average and will he add power? Justin Morneau hit .321/.375/.559 with 37 doubles, 34 homers and 130 RBI. Can he hit 40 homers? What do you expect from these two young stars?
Which Twins hitter are you expecting to bust out? Likewise, which hitter will regress? The easy answer is Nick Punto. I don't think any of us think he will duplicate his numbers from 2006, but where will he end up? Feel free to project any and all Twins hitters. Or just talk in general about what you think will happen.
Which minor league hitters will come up throughout the season and contribute the most? How much time will Alexi Casilla see at 2B? Will any others make their mark?
|The Pitchers
Let's start with the positive. Johan Santana won his second Cy Young Award in 2006 with another stellar season. What do you expect from him in 2007? Can he be even better? Maybe more importantly, although the Twins don't like talking contract during the season, can they work out an extension with the dominant lefty?
Carlos Silva, Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz are all veterans with a lot of question marks and negative history the last few years. Each will be in the Twins starting rotation to start the season. Try to predict how each will do. Will any or all of them remain in the rotation all year?
Matt Garza, Glen Perkins and Kevin Slowey are all top of the line pitching prospects. Scott Baker is still in the mix. Discuss your thoughts on how these guys will do in 2007, in AAA or with the Twins.
The Bullpen is baseball's best. Joe Nathan is the best closer in baseball. Juan Rincon, Jesse Crain, Pat Neshek, Matt Guerrier and Dennys Reyes are all solid. Do you expect them all to remain great, or do you expect some to fall back? Maybe there will be a trade? Try also to predict how each will be used throughout the season. |
Team Leaders (Hitters)
Who will lead the team in (feel free to include other categories):
Batting Average -
Hits -
Doubles -
Home Runs -
Runs -
RBI -
Team Leaders (Pitchers)
Who will lead the team in (feel free to put Santana for each starter category, but also feel free to add a second prediction for non-Santana predictions. In other words, aside from Johan, who will lead the Twins in...):
Wins -
ERA -
WHIP -
K/9 -
Saves -
HELP ME!!
I know that many of you enjoy coming to this site because of all of the links that it provides, links to Twins articles from all over the web. Some articles are from other Twins bloggers, or bloggers in general, and some are from newspapers. Since I will be out of town, I would like everyone to help me out with this one. If you read a good Twins article that you think the readers of this site would enjoy, please copy the web link into the comments below and encourage others to read the articles. I encourage newspaper articles on big leaguers and minor leaguers from blogs, affiliate city newspapers or hometowns.
|With that, I would like to tell everyone to have a great rest of the week! Thank you for understanding my need to just take a few days off before the regular season begins. Of course, you still have time to send me your Home Run Derby Contest picks. If you have any other general thoughts, please leave some Comments, and as always, e-mail me any time!
|FANTASY BASEBALL DRAFT #2
We had the 4th overall pick in a 10 team serpentine draft (we we picked 7th in the 2nd round). We are able to draft Five OF, three Corner Infielders, three Middle Infielders, a Catcher, an Extra, 9 Starting Pitchers and 2 Relievers.
Any Thoughts?
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