Just ride the wave. Good for the Braves.But this lineup probably won’t score 600 runs. There are former stars who could rise from the ashes, and there are emerging stars who could break through. Trading Cole Hamels might even improve spirits, considering that he reminds everyone that this team used to be so excellent.For now, though, appreciate them for what they’re best at: giving the world a chance at 600 at-bats from Jeff Francoeur in the year 2015. It’s not like this roster is substantially worse than the roster that opened last season, and those Tigers were consensus favorites. Formidable. They have a minor league system of note, with one of the most compelling power prospects of the last decade. By Eric Stephen @ericstephen Updated Nov 2, 2015… They quietly won 85 games and finished just four games back of the Royals in 2014, and now they've added Brandon Moss' bat to the mix. MLB MLB Ballpark MiLB First Pitch R.B.I. The 2015 season is not about getting the Twins to compete. There is power there, and Castillo's glove and speed are also positives, so expect a well-rounded contributor once he's in the bigs to stay.Norris didn't have an obvious spot in the Jays' rotation until Marcus Stroman tore his ACL, ending his 2015 before it began. If they can surprise in the first half, though, I could see the Reds going bananas at the trade deadline, buying instead of selling. But as Abraham Lincoln said to Abner Doubleday when giving him a medal for inventing baseball and winning the war: You can’t steal first.Can’t trust them, though. If things go well for them, the holes will be obvious and fixable. If they can find offense anywhere, anywhere at all, they’ll be better than expected. Why not the Marlins?Right. They always land on their feet. That isn't to suggest that Harper is on that Bonds path, but that it is utterly absurd to suggest he's overrated because he was merely good before he was 21, not great. The lineup probably won’t be strong enough to carry them 40 percent of the time, which makes .500 seem like a small victory. We present them here for purely educational purposes.
Mets fans told me that the team’s inactivity was expected, considering the state of the Wilpons’ finances. He’s hitting fifth in the lineup. Ha ha ha. Hearty. Now if Mookie Betts wants to break out? If he can't do that, all he'll have to do is rehabilitate whatever is hurt. Except for the bullpen, but they’ll figure that out. The 23-year-old has turned heads all spring long as he hits homer after homer, and while sure, it's against spring training opponents, this isn't the first time he's managed the feat. The 2015 regular season is almost here; where does your team stand heading into the year? With Derek Jeter retired, longtime commissioner Bud Selig replaced, and young talents like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Yasiel Puig asserting themselves as the next generation, the whole game is getting a makeover. If either (or both) of them falter, there aren’t a lot of thrilling options to replace them unless 2014 first-round pick Carlos Rodon is even more special than believed.I still almost put them ahead of the Tigers. Try to love your neighbor as you love the game. Derek Norris has well-chronicled problems throwing out baserunners, and he It’ll bother you until the next dinger, which will usually be a half-inning away.They still have Buster Posey, mind you. In a power-starved open market, everyone still passed on Jonny Gomes because it’s been a couple years since he hit enough to justify his strangeglove ways. Please note that I'm always dead last in my fantasy league and that the Cardinals are always good, so you have the counterpoint right there.The injuries are already worrisome, the pitchers are either old, bad, hurt, or overworked, and they're playing in the same division as a team that just spent $60 million-plus to fill a position they didn't need filled. The Cubs have Jon Lester now and Theo Epstein has said the 2015 goal is the playoffs, and from there, maybe the World Series victory that has eluded them since 1908. The Mets didn’t have any use for Eric Young because he couldn’t hit enough. The fourth starters have fifth-starters-in-waiting, and the fifth starters have sixth-starters-in-waiting. They have a chance. Surgically inserting the Phillies lineup into the middle of the Nationals’ roster would probably still give us a contender, if not a favorite.They don’t have the Phillies’ lineup, of course. Baseball writers should Chances of the fifth-place team winning the division: Not ludicrous or 80-point-font-on-the-Times-front-page surprising, but not great.Chances of the fourth-place team winning the division: See the above. He could start 2015 in the minors once more while the Sox sort out their crowded outfield, but make no mistake, it's not because Castillo is an inferior alternative.Castillo projects to be a high-average hitter who, while happy to swing often, has a discernible eye at the plate.
The 2015 season could be a weird one for the Yankees, as they're intentionally sitting back to assess what this roster is capable of before making any other franchise-altering commitments.