2007: The Sneak Preview

I'll give my world series winner, but first I wanna break down the most relevant sports team on the face of the earth, the Boston Red Sox.

A recap of last year: Last time I saw Shunta (how are you by the way?), all was right with the world. The Boston Red Sox were in first place in the American League East. However, they fell apart big time right after I left Chicago. They lost three in a row to the Royals, then to the Devil Rays, then they took 1 of 3 from the Tigers at Fenway...I was at the game they won. David Wells pitched. He was shortly traded because he didn't get the whole "losing" memo. Then they lost five in a row to the Yankees. Manny shut it down and Schilling shut it down and Papelbon shut it down. The one bright spot was Julian Tavarez, who in September started five games and went 3-0 with a 3.60 ERA which included a complete game 1 run victory over the Second Place Toronto Blue Jays. David Ortiz set a Red Sox record for most homeruns in a single season with 54. The Sox finished in third place for the first time since I can remember...93ish? They finished below the Blue Jays for the first time since the last place 1996 year when Roger Clemens was the still the ace. It was a very disappointing year which snapped their three year postseason streak even though they won three more games in the regular season than the eventual World Series Champs.

This year: The rotation is a big question mark this year, aside from the fifth starter Julian Tavarez. It's pretty clear to me the only reason he's not the ace is because 5 is his lucky number. Schilling is getting old, plus he mortgaged his body in 2004- not that I'm complaining. It was definitely worth it. In his last ten starts, Beckett's ERA was in the 11's. Diasuke Matsuzaka has never pitched against major league hitters except for this spring training and last year's pre-spring training World Baseball Classic, so he's a question mark too. Tim Wakefield's knuckleball either dances or doesn't, and on any given night is equally likely to give you 8 shut out innings or else let up five runs without recording an out, though I think it's safe to jot him down for 6 innings of 3-4 run ball. Tavarez is the man, but he'll probably only be in the rotation until Jon Lestor is ready to go. Lestor likes adding gasoline to the fire. I was at one game at US Cellular Field with Jon Scholl who should really post on this blog. Anyway, at that game Lestor walked the bases loaded every inning, then somehow buckled down and got out of it. I think he pitched 6 innings, letting up two runs and stranded 15 runners or something. It was pretty awesome.

The other big question mark is at catcher. Jason Varitek hit 230 last year. That's normally what Mirabelli hits. But Mirabelli followed the captain into the ground and also hit 40 points below his career average. I know defensively they're as good as it gets, but I mean, 230 is what a utility player hit...before the steroid era.

Red Sox prediction: 94-68, taking the division for the first time since 1995.
Pirates prediction: 68-94.

Other Predictions:
Division Winners:
-AL East: Boston Red Sox
-AL Central: Detriot Tigers
-AL West: Oakland A's
-NL East: New York Mets
-NL Central: Chicago Cubs (who finish below .500 but still win baseball's worst division)
-NL West: Los Angelous Dodgers
-AL Wild Card: Minnesota Twins (Santana pitches a nohitter in a one game tie breaker with the Yankees)
-NL Wild Card: San Diego Padres

All Star Game:
American League 7, National League 4
WP- Jeff Weaver, Seattle Mariners
LP- Ben Sheets, Milwaulkie Brewers
S- Jonathan Papelbon, Boston Red Sox
MVP- John Buck, C, Kansas City Royals- hits 3 run blast off Shawn Chacon of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning which evens the score at 4.

Divisional Series:
Boston defeats Detriot 3-0
Minnesota defeats Oakland 3-2
New York Mets defeat San Diego 3-2
Los Angelous defeats Chicago Cubs 3-0

Championship Series:
Boston defeats Minnesota 4-2
Los Angelous deats New York 4-3

World Series:
2007 Red Sox defeat 2003 Red Sox 4-2, though Grady Little out manages Tito Francona and Nomar Garciaparra is named World Series MVP, going 5-13 with 3 home runs, 14 runs batted in and 4 stolen bases in the losing cause.

Other Predictions
-Roger Clemens stays retired.
-Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's record.
-Cubs trade Mark Prior to the Dodgers and in game three of the NLDS matchup, Prior throws a two hit complete game shut out at Wriggly to clinch the series.
-Everything predicted in this post will be wrong, including this line.

The Crystal (Base)Ball

SEASON PREDICTIONS!!!

The playoffs aren't for another six months. But why wait? Here's the results of the 2007 MLB season just in time for opening day.

Pirates finish: Most Pirate fans are, as always, taking the delusionally optimistic route and predicting around 83 wins, hoping we can finally break the streak of losing seasons. This is, of course, silly. Other fans are predecting a small improvement from 67 wiins to something like 70 wins. How someone can see that the team is improved and predict three more wins is beyond me. I predict a solid 10-game improvement. The Pirates will go 77-85.

NL West winner: Padres
NL Central winner: St. Louis
NL East winner: Mets
NL Wildcard: Milwaukee

AL West winner: The L.A. Angels of Aneheim
AL Central winner: Sox!
AL East winner: Sox!
AL Wildcard: Yankees

NL champ: St. Louis
AL champ: Yankees
World Series: Yankees in 5.

Other predictions: The NL will still suck. The Cubs will suck. Pirates GM Dave Littlefield will not be fired. The Pirates will win Apriil 27 when I'm at the game. At this game, I will catch a home run hit by Adam LaRoche. The baseball will turn out to be radioactive and give me magical baseball powers. After a short stint as a crime-fighting superhero, I will join the Pirates in 2009 and take them to the World Series. The movie rights will be sold to MGM studios for $18 mil. The part of Jack Wilson will be played by Tom Hanks. Of course, my character will be played by Ice-T.

Tomorrow I will post some predictions for how the Pirates will do individually.

i can't believe i'm posting on a site whose title refers to the mets...

... but alas... here i am.

yup... andy and i are in the great lakes cru staff yahoo fantasy baseball league. it's a glorious thing. i'm infatuated with draft day. the winner gets a trophy and everything. not surprising... with andy being the commisioner... or whatever.

i think the phils have a fighting chance this year. their season really picked up around the all-star break last year... when they got rid of bobby abreu... and cory lidle... trading both to the yanks. sadly cory crashed his plane into a building... and bobby isn't missed in the least bit in philadelphia. how bout that, huh? the problem with the phillies is that for the past two years they decided to start playing baseball for real around august or september... and missed the playoffs by a game or two. hopefully they've learned their lesson and will realize that the season beings in april.

ps... one sad thing about my favorite team before i get on to my fantasy team.

chase utley got married in the offseason... and to another woman besides me. that was very disheartening for me. he's my favorite current player. but even though i can't call him my boyfriend anymore... i'll still wear his t-shirt with pride. : )

speaking of chase... here's my team... [at least i snagged him today!]


2007 Fantasy Baseball Team

C Michael Barrett
1B Travis Hafner
2B Chase Utley
3B Aramis Ramirez
SS Miguel Tejada
OF Jermaine Dye
OF Scott Podsednik
OF Magglio Ordonez
Util Richie Sexson
SP Jeremy Bonderman
SP Aaron Harang
RP Chris Ray
RP Brian Fuentes
P Cole Hamels
P Matt Cain
P Jonathan Broxton
B Ryan Dempster
B Rich Harden
B Brad Hawpe
B Adrien Beltre
B Jose Valverde

we'll see how it goes. i think i have a pretty good team. except that when i put my lineup together i realized that hafner only plays dh... so i can't put him at 1B. not real sure what i'm gonna do about that... cuz i'm not really feeling like richie sexson will pull through for me like i'd like my 1st baseman to. i'm not sure how i feel about rich harden, either. we'll see how that goes. otherwise... i think i have a pretty decent set of guys. what do you think?

Other authors

I was just talking to Shunta. I think she will be ranting about the Phillies here soon. I told her I don't think Andy will join because he is getting married tomorrow. She said she was currently on speaker phone with him because they're doing their fantasy baseball draft. That's amazing.

Season predictions to appear soon.

Joe's Intro

Hi. This is Joe. I am a 22 year old senior at Muskingum College in Ohio. I was born in Wheeling, WV and I am a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. The Pirates have won the World Series five times. However, if we have three more straight losing seasons, the Pirates will wrongly be thought of as Baseball's losingest franchise, historically. We must do everything in our power to stop this.

I hate the Cubs. The Cubs are a richer, more popular, yet inferior version of the Pirates. Last year, they were the only sixth place team in Major League Baseball. With any luck, that will continue.

Of course, I hate the Yankees like everyone else. I think the Red Sox are like the whiney, weaker younger brother of the Yankees.

The Pirate's best player who shares my last name is Dock Ellis, who, in 1974, attempted to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup. He also threw a no-hitter while on LSD.

I feel that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field suck. They should build nicer stadiums.

I don't complain about baseball needing a salary cap because the Pirate ownership and front-office are too inept for it to matter.

Once the Pirates are 10+ games back in the division, I can't guarentee that I'll be motivated to post. But until that day in late April comes, I'll be here!

JohnFromBoston 101

So, Joe and I figure we should all give introductions and as I have a huge test tomorrow I only kinda started studying for, I think now is the most appropriate time to give such an intro.

My name is John. I'm a 22 year old senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I double major in Physics and Mathematics. I'm originally from Dorchester, the largest of Boston's 20 neighborhoods. I've been a Red Sox fan my entire life. I'm honestly wearing a Red Sox hat in my high school year book baby picture. My goal in said year book was "To live forever...or at least until the Red Sox win the World Series." Mission accomplished.

Anyway, aside from liking the Red Sox, I also dislike a few teams. Obviously the I can't stand the Yankees. I don't like the Indians as a result of the intense late 90s feuds they had with the Red Sox. If the Devil Rays were good I'd probably hate them too cause they also throw at Red Sox hitters and try to start brawls, but I mean, they're so bad it's kind of impossible to hold a grudge against them for too long. My favorite player of all time is Roger Clemens. I have the entire 25 man roster of the 2004 World Series Champions memorized and feel this should be a requirement to receive a high school diploma in New England.

Just a few thoughts about Major League Baseball: I like the fact that the DH is in the AL and not in the NL because its something pretty concrete to distinguish between the leagues and makes the World Series match ups more intrieging. I dislike interleauge play because I think it would be more worthwhile to play more games against the other teams in your own league for Wild Card Purposes. I also think not having Interleague play makes the All Star game more interesting and definately helps with World Series hype. Granted I was 11 years old when interleague started, but I always got the sense before it that if you won the pennant, you were heading into battle trying to conquer a great unknown. Because the leagues never mixed before the World Series, the regular season definately had no meaning whatsoever, which seemed alot more exciting. Now, odds are you've played the team within the past 2 seasons and it's just another round of playoffs...lame. Plus, with "natural rivals" it's not fair. Tell me if the Mets and Cardinals are battling for a wild card spot, it's fair the Mets play the Yankees six times whereas the Cardinals play the Royals six times. Come on. Also, the Red Sox have a lame natural rival. The Philadelphia Phillies? Yeah...that 1915 World Series was so intense that still, 92 years later I can't stand those gosh-darn Phillies.

Lastly, I hate divisions. Mostly cause the Yankees had the 5th best record in the AL in 2000 but still made the playoffs and won the World Series. Cheap stuff always benifitting the Yankees. I'd have two big leagues play balanced schedules without interleague play and the teams with the top four records would make the playoffs, but that's just me. I mean, look at the current defending champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, who I believe won as many post season games as regular season games. I don't think they deserved one of the 4 NL playoff spots, seeing as how the Mets, Phillies, Padres and Dodgers all had better records. Under my plan, teams would be rewarded for consistant play during the regular season.

Ok. That's it for now. I'll make predictions later on.

Oh yeah, by the way, the Pirates might have beat the Red Sox 3-2, but when it really counted in the 1903 World Series, we all know who came out on top.

Pirates vs. Red Sox

I'd just like to point out that yesterday, the Pirates defeated the Red Sox 3-2. Clearly, the Pirates are going to contend for a pennant and the Red Sox will be lucky to get 65 wins.

What is this?

Welcome. This is a blog chronicling the 2007 baseball season for several baseball fans from "around" the country. I'm Joe from Ohio, a Pirates fan. There is also John, a Bostonian. If you are reading this, there is a good chance that YOU are Jon from Cinci or Andy from Detroit/Chicago, and YOU should be joining this blog as a contributor. (And I don't want to hear any lame excuses, like "I'm getting married next week!")