By Ken W Paczas
The weather has warmed up and that only means one thing….. It is time to be out with the old....
and in with the new
Yes!!! It is baseball time and with the season quickly approaching, here are my bold, wild, crazy and fun predictions for 2012.
Miggy will have less errors then Aramis Ramirez
This might sound crazy, but I fully expect Cabrera to play over 100 games at third base and play it well. The kid is having fun and he wants to play there. Even though he is a size of a mack truck, he is quite the athlete. Though I expect him to have 15 or 16 errors on the season that will be less than the 22 errors Aramis will have.
Andre Ethier will hit more home runs than Matt Kemp
Ethier's monster March (15 of his 18 hits have been for extra bases) shows he is prepared and primed for a salary-drive season. Having Kemp hitting in front of him in the order won't hurt, either. Both sluggers will top 30 homers, but only Ethier will reach 35.
Curtis Granderson will have less home runs then Brennan Boesch
Granderson came out of nowhere last season and showed power numbers that made Yankee fans forget about the Austin Jackson trade. Sorry but I am not buying it. Curtis is known to get hurt and I don’t expect him to show that kind of power again. He will have 29 home runs. While BB will finally blossom into the hitter Tiger’s fans have expected since his 28 HR barrage in AA. He will get plenty of balls to hit batting in front of Miggy and Prince, and he will take full advantage, hitting 32 home runs.
Adam Dunn Will Hit At Least 35 Home Runs
Adam Dunn signed a big contract and the White Sox expected big things even though he was going to play DH for first time in his career. They saw Dunn hitting in U.S. Cellular Field and fans started to drool.
What resulted was one of the worst offensive seasons in MLB History, with Dunn hitting an otherworldly .159 and hitting a career worst 11 home runs. However, this spring training Dunn has shown great signs that he is ready to bounce back. In his 32 spring training at-bats, he's hit four home runs, and more importantly has a .250 batting average to go along with a 12:4 walk-to-strikeout ratio. Though he will probably come close to leading the league in strikeouts again, he will be the offense in Chicago
The writing is on the wall, and the sooner Giants' management acknowledges it, the better. They just don't have the finances to keep both long term. Poor contracts and shortsightedness have put the Giants in this quandary that doesn't have an easy answer. The Giants are trying to preserve money to keep both, but with no offense, there is little reason for either Cain or Lincecum to stay. However with Bumgarner becoming a fantasy and pitching stud, they can afford to trade one of them for some hitters.
Cubs will make the post season on the back of Jeff Smardzija
The Shark came into baseball straight out of Notre Dame Lore. He could have been a first round pick in NFL but turned it down to pitch for the Cubs. After a couple disappointing seasons, he finally blew up out of the bullpen in 2011. This season he enters the rotation as the number three starter but will pitch like the ace. His fastball is up to 95 MPH, and he has a nasty slider that has proven to be his bread and butter. I may be a Notre Dame fan, but make no mistake about it, he has the potential to throw for 180 innings, a 3.00 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP with an outstanding K rate. Straight Stud.
AWARDS
Cy Young- King Felix & Cliff Lee
MVP- Adrian Gonzalez & Joey Votto
Coach of the year – Bobby Valentine & Dusty Baker
Playoff Predictions
The Tigers, Angels and Red Sox will win their divisions in the AL
Yankees knock out the Rays before losing to the Angels. The Red Sox defeat the Tigers in five and then beat the Angels in 7 to go back to the World Series.
NL
The Marlins, Reds, Giants will win their divisions with the Cubs and Phillies winning the wild cards.
The Phillies knock out the Cubs and then knock out the Reds in the next round. The Marlins battle the Giants to a tough 7 games, but don’t have the pitching to keep the Giants down. The Giants then knock out the Phillies thanks to Madison Bumgarners two shutouts in the series.
World Series
The Red Sox have too much power and knock out the Giants in 5 games to win their 3rd World Series of this Millennium.
