Willis: Working his way back

I think Dontrelle Willis will slowly become decent again.  He will have good games and flashes of his old self but won’t be his old self again.  He should be back to that around the end of the year.  Willis just needs to keep his mechanics they way they are.  I think he should strike against good teams too.  Willis won’t be more than a fourth starter this year.  His walks need to go down.  I think where he is as far as stats right now should be where he is around the end of the year.  He will be wold a lot too and blow some games because of that.  Willis won’t be good all-around for a while and he won’t be dominant a lot yet.  Willis should do fine off his Thursday performance and should continue to impress for how, but if his walks skyrocket he will be back to step one and might not ever be good.  Willis has some of the tools, but he might not use them.  if he does he should have some good seasons or half seasons ahead of him.

How good will the Tigers play the Twins?

I think they will play them hard and good this year.  Verlander should have some very good games against them.  They can hit Baker and Blackburn very well and will.  They might get shut down from time to time but they should have a just above .500 record against the Twins this year.  Their pitching should give up a lot of runs but there hitting should save them a lot.  There bullpen shouldn’t have to much of a struggle against the Twins.  The one guy they won’t be able to shut down is Jason Kubel, Mauer will be tough.  The Tigers should find a way to squeeze these games out.  When they play the Twins starting Monday they should play them a s tough as they did this series.  The Tigers should be great and not back down against the Twins and should win because of that.  The Twins should win soke games just because their style of ball.

What will these Tigers do?

Brennan Boesch:  He will come up with some big hits and a lot of RBIs right now but he might cool soon.  He will slowly get better each game though and be a big contributor by the end of the year, I would keep him on the team and for now hit him where;’s he is hitting, he should do very good right now and his defense will be very nice for this team.  He is going to be a very good player.

Ryan Raburn: For his next few starts he should get a double now and then but I see him besting his homer mark and hitting at least .270 and doing very well for a chunk of the season.  He won’t be this bad and should soon be back to normal.  His versatility will keep him on the team right now but I wouldn’t start him much until he starts to get a few more hits.

Alex Avila:  He is going to make big steps behind the plate, but his hitting might not be there all year.  Starting Laird more is a good idea.  Avila will be a decent MLB hitter but he needs time to get there and right now he won’t go up at all.  He should be okay every now and then though.  Avila should be decent at least for one span this year, probably after the All-Star Break.

Chad Billingsley: When will he rebound?

He will rebound but it mght take a while, he’s very good and just needs to get better with his stuff.  He should be an average pitcher until then.  The Dodgers will be okay without him for a while with Kershaw and Kuroda.  He’s going to be a big strikout guy.  When he does start to rebound he might have a bit of trouble now a and then.  Billingsley is good and he will get it all striaghtened out.  His walks should start to come down soon and he should really start tog et good again.  He looks like he’s headed in the right direction everything is there except control over his stuff which may never be really great.  He should start tog o up after his next few starts.  FOr now the Dodgers should just keep him on a short leash and he shouldn’t have really bad games and he can get his way out of jams easy, but maybe not yet.

Rick Porcello: A sophmore slump?

I think it is just a regular slump.  I don’t think he will be dominate this year but he should continue to improve and have some very good games in the process.  Right now it might take him a while to get back to normal, he’s playing the Angels next time and I don’t see anything big coming form him in that game, I think he just needs to trust his stuff again and that’s when he will be back.  When Porcello is on this year he might be better than Verlander.  He won’t go through anything like today again anytime soon, at worst when slumping he will be average.  Porcello should find his groove after the Angels start and when he does he will have a few really good starts.  I think he won’t slump big again this year though.  Porcello is great all-around and when he finds his stuff he should be great every time out.  Porcello will get consideration for the all-star team if he just fixes turning more hitters into outs.

Kelly Johnson: What will he be?

I think he can keep his average up but if worst comes to worst he will be a decent power low average guy.  His defense and base running won’t be really good, but his hitting should stay good.  I think Johnson should hit decent in the clutch.  Johnson will keep getting on base and he should get a tiny bit worse but I see him being a great second baseman for this club this year.  He won’t hit two home runs in a game again this year.  Johnson might do a but better if he’s slotted up in the order, but I wouldn’t put him too high.  His strikeouts are going to hurt him this year and he might not draw as many walks.  Johnson should slump big though, he won’t get a single hit.  He will be a .260 hitter most of the time after this.  Johnson is going to be a good hitter for right now and then he will get worse, he’s going to stay out of double plays and be very good at that.  He will do for this year and should be one of the best players on the team at times.

MLB Power Rankings

1. Tampa Bay Rays
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. New York Yankees
4. Minnesota Twins
5. St. Louis Cardinals
6. Florida Marlins
7. Toronto Blue Jays
8. Detroit Tigers
9. Atlanta Braves
10. Seattle Mariners
11. San Francisco Giants
12. Colorado Rockies
13. Los Angeles Angels
14. Los Angeles Dodgers
15. Pittsburgh Pirates
16. Oakland Athletics
17. New York Mets
18. Texas Rangers
19. Arizona Diamondbacks
20. Milwaukee Brewers
21. Washington Nationals
22. San Diego Padres
23. Cleveland Indians
24. Chicago Cubs
25. Boston Red Sox
26. Chicago White Sox
27. Cincinnati Reds
28. Kansas City Royals
29. Houston Astros
30. Baltimore Orioles

Based on how teams will improve record next few days.

Why sending Zambrano to bullpen is good

This is a great move by the Cubs.  He keeps getting worse in the rotation and won’t get better anytime soon.  It’s worth a try.  His heat should come in handy but his walks could blow some games.  I don’t think he will be anything special in the bullpen but he wouldn’t do any better in the rotation.  He will be devastating at times and put together good stretches but that will be about it.  Him and Marmol should be devastating when there on but it also could be big trouble, trouble that isn’t worth it.  If they do put him back in the rotation he will do okay but get beat up.  He might be good at in the seventh and sixth too.  I think with his velocity going up could give him a slight advantage.  I think he could overpower some good hitters and get them out.  By the end of this they should want to keep him in the rotation.

Will Hughes pitch well?

I don’t see him fizzing off.  The only problem he might have is having a bad game once and a while and home runs.  He should live up to all the hype he had before.  He will pitch some very good games this year and should be the Yankees best pitcher sometimes.  His ERA and Whip should stay low and for right now he should pitch very well.  All his stuff will be there and he might have one of his best years this year.  Hughes is overpowering and he should step up as a top of the rotation pitcher soon.  His walks should get down but it may take a few games.  I think he should be very streaky this year but should get more consistent quick.  Hughes should have his bad days.  If he pitches in the postseason he will do good.  The games he does bad should be against good teams.  Hughes is going to be great for a long time.

Ike Davis: How productive?

He couvisld be more productive than Carlos Beltran this year.  Right now he’s on fire and his swing and everything is great, I think he has a really good chance to hit everything the first few weeks.  His power will be biggest thing.  I think his future will be better than this year because he might slow down, but his defense should always be solid and even when he’s not doing good he can come up with a hit.  If he starts to do bad I might give him some rest, because he might keep it up if they keep playing.  He will have strong games and there’s a lot he can do, he might not do it all this year.  At times he should just hit and him and Wright should carry this offense.  Someday there will be no stopping him.  Davis will hit very well all the time soon.  Davis is going to be very good and he will do a ton for the Mets, without him they might not do good in the future.  He will be very productive all the time.