Upcoming Debut: Stephen Strasburg

I think he will be one of the better players in the game right when he comes up, he will need to develop a bit, when he does he will be great.  He will strikeout tons of players at the start and won’t fall into a slump.  He should do pretty good his first few starts then start pitching better and better.  He will pitch tons of great innings this year and he will be Washington’s best pitchers.  I think the Nats should let him go six or seven innings most of the time because he will shut down so many hitters.  He needs to use his fastball mostly to be succesful, he can mix in the other pitches, but his fastball will make him the starter he is this year.  I don’t see any trouble for Strasburg and he should have a Cy Young in at least 3 years.  He will be one of the best at almost everything immediately.
PREDICTED DEBUT: Game- 5 IP 2 ER 6 H 8 K 2 BB  Year- 4.04 ERA 102 K 8-3 W-L

Upcoming Debut: Mike Stanton

I think he will tear up the majors the moment he gets there and won’t stop, he could help the Marlins make a run.  He won’t be good all the time and he will not do everything real good but the Marlins would benefit big with Stanton.  His defense won’t suffer much but the amount he strikes out will rise.  He can hit against any pitcher and will hit pretty good other than that too.  Right now he will only really be a power guy.  Stanton is going to be a great player and should have a great debut.  For a while Stanton won’t be stopped but he isn’t going to adjust like pitchers do and should start to suffer there, he should rebound from that though and his hitting will be amazing at times.  He will be the Marlins best hitter besides Hanley real soon.
PROJECTED: Season: .281 AVG 17 HR 54 RBI 43 R 2 SB GAME: 2-4 1 2B 2 K

Tigers Designate Willis for assignment

The Tigers have also recalled Max Scherzer.  I don’t think this is a bad move, Willis will be wild and won’t give you what you need a lot this year and Scherzer has regained his control, he will do very good coming back.  Willis won’t ever do good again and if he would have continued to pitch for the Tigers he would have one good inning then a bad one and they would lose game when he’s on the mound.  Scherzer should help the Tigers rebound tomorrow and should pitch a very good game.  If Willis pitches again this year he will be terrible and will ned some time to get better.  Willis just isn’t ever going to regain anything of his and would have started to fall apart.  Scherzer should be one of the Tigers best pitchers for a while and was well worth the price of Willis.

How much longer until Austin Jackson’s average goes down?

I think he will be an on and off hitter for most of the year and end up with around 170 hits, so it should drop a bit below .300 a few times year and then go back up, he should finish around .300.  His homers and RBIs will become bigger though.  Jackson will get on base at key times and will still be a big and good part of this team.  He should hit good for now and start to go down in a  few weeks and start his streak from there.  He will put together a few hit streaks too and shouldn’t be any less productive than he’s been in the last few weeks.  He won’t be bad at all at times.  Jackson should start hitting homers really soon.  He’s going to be fine in the leadoff spot and there’s nothing to worry about with him, at worst he will do into a small slump.

If Zambrano rejoins rotation who will go?

I think it’s a bad idea to put him in the rotation, he just keeps getting worse and will follow that pattern plus the rest of the rotation is doing good and there’s no reason to mess with it.  I think Carlos Silva should leave at some point but the way he’s pitching I’d leave him in for a few more starts, but Silva won’t keep anything up and should fall apart very soon.  Tom Gorzelanny should be decent the whole year, he has good stuff but will just have a problem controling it at times, it won’t happen often though and he should do very good a lot.  I think Gorzalanny should go out first but make a lot of spot starts for a few weeks.  Gorzelanny will be a lot better than Silva and Zambrano when the season comes to an end.  If Gorzelanny does go to the bullpen he will help them a lot and they need that to stay in contention.

Reds: What will happen?

I think they will cool off a bit but then surge again.  I think the one problem they will have is Drew Stubbs, he won’t perform anywhere.  Joey Votto will hit really well this year and just be awesome for this team.  Jay Bruce should have his bright spots and that will be kind of like the whole offense.  The pitching won’t be this good all year but Mike Leake should surprise many people.  Johnny Cueto should steadily improve  and keep getting more and more strikeouts, but his walks should creep up too.  Orlando Cabrera being the number two will help this team so much.  Everything is there for this team to do good, but a few mistakes will cost them.  They should keep going really strong for right now.  They shouldn’t be that bad even when there at their worst.

Projected Standings Update

AL

East

                   W     L

Rays         102    60
Yankees  96       66
Red Sox   85      77
Blue Jays 80     82
Orioles    69      93

Central

                    W      L

Tigers         93      69
Twins         92      70
Royals        75     87
White Sox 74     88
Indians     72    90
West

                   W     L

Angels       95    67
Rangers     91    71
Mariners   76     86
Athletics   71     91

NL

East

                  W     L

Phillies     98    64
Marlins    89    73
Braves     84     78
Nationals  79   83
Mets        76    86

Central
                          W    L

Cardinals         95   67
Reds                 87   75
Cubs                 82   80
Pirates             75    87
Brewers           73    89
Astros              67    95

West
                         W       L

Dodgers          96      66
Rockies           89      73
Diamondbacks 83   79
Giants             81      81
Padres           74       88

TIEBREAKER:  Marlins over Rockies 5-4

PLAYOFFS
NL: Phillies over Cardinals 3-1             Dodgers over Marlins  3-2

AL: Rays over Tigers 3-2                        Yankees over Angels 3-2

NL: Phillies over Dodgers   4-3
AL: Rays over Yankees   4-2
 

WS: Rays over Phillies 4-1

Are Red Sox better than Phils?

I don’t think so, if they were to meet in the World Series the Red Sox would have a chance but the Phillies just has a bad weekend.  Their pitching is a lot better.  Roy Halladay should continue to do good and John Lackey bad.  The Red Sox should have a better offense at times, but that won’t help them win.  The Phillies also can comeback and win.  They just have a lot better team.  The Red Sox should continue playing .500 ball for a while and the Phillies should jump out to a bigger lead in the NL East.  Daisuke Matsuzaka should keep getting better from his no-hit bid on Saturday.  The Philies offense could be better than the Red Sox at times.  When they meet again the Phillies might sweep the Red Sox, but the Red Sox will put up a fight.

Andrew McCutchen: Will he not hit for power?

I think Andrew McCutchen will be a least a 20-20 guy every year of his prime.  McCutchen tool swill keep getting better and he will never lose any of his power, and a few times he should hit tons of homers and steal a few less bases.  McCutchen will be an all-star and play great center field because of his speed.  He should be able to hit most pitchers good.  This year he should come close to twenty homers and keep getting a few more each year.  He shouldn’t hit first or second, he will do almost everything and should hit third.  He will hit many doubles and get many line drive hits.  McCutchen should be better than Carl Crawford and he should make the Pirates good.  He will have his struggles which will take a while to get over, but when he does he should just rake the ball a lot of the time.  He could be very good.

How good can Braves be?

I don;t think they will e good enough to make it to the playoffs.  The pitching should go through many struggles, Billy Wagner and Tim Hudson should be the two best pitchers tough.  Heyward will cool down a bit, but the team should hit very good the whole year.  The should get better and better each day and should only have a few minor losing streaks.  Brian McCann will be very valuable all this year.  I also think Troy Glaus should do very well and if he does cool, he should stay an average player.  The Braves will do what they did today a few times again but not in an extreme form.  The back-end of the bullpen should be steady and do good.  This should be Chipper Jones decline year.  The Braves should have a late surge and come close to the playoffs.