Which Team Slides The Most In 2011 (1 Viewer)

[Limp Ditka]

Couple of obvious ones here IMO

Tampa Bay Rays (-10 games) - Lost Crawford and Garza. I know the farm is supposedly stocked, but these are big hits to any team

San Diego Padres (-15 games) - No A Gone, no offense, no pennant race. I also think Latos takes a step back this year (back to back years on the Verducci list = yikes)

St Louis Cardinals (-10 games) - Pujols distraction will be there no matter what anyone says. He will be the talk of the trade deadline. Today's news about Wainwright just kills this team. The MI sucks and bad. I think they fall back to around .500.

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

This will be a devestating season for the Cardinals - Pujols in limbo, Wainwright with career threatening elbow injury....and to think I already ordered the Extra Innings package...a full season of misery on demand.

 

[Dr. Awesome]

The Twins are my pick (though it seems foolish to bet against the Padres).

 

[cheese]

The Padres are the most obvious for sure, but how about the Braves. Bobby Cox was turning magic tricks down there last year and that is not (and probably was not last year) a 90 win roster.

Padres 79-83

Braves 84-78

The rest should be close to duplicating or improving.

 

[dparker713]

A) Losing Garza will have little to no impact on TB - all their bullpen losses are a greater concern.

B) Despite all the claims otherwise, the Padres had a middle of the pack offense last season. Park adjusted, they ranked 8th in the NL and 16th in MLB. Losing Gonzales will hurt alot, but he wasn't the entirety of that offense.

C) The Verducci Effect is a sham.

 

[cheese]

A) Losing Garza will have little to no impact on TB - all their bullpen losses are a greater concern.

B) Despite all the claims otherwise, the Padres had a middle of the pack offense last season. Park adjusted, they ranked 8th in the NL and 16th in MLB. Losing Gonzales will hurt alot, but he wasn't the entirety of that offense.

C) The Verducci Effect is a sham.

I'm interested in your case for this.

 

[dparker713]

A) Losing Garza will have little to no impact on TB - all their bullpen losses are a greater concern.

B) Despite all the claims otherwise, the Padres had a middle of the pack offense last season. Park adjusted, they ranked 8th in the NL and 16th in MLB. Losing Gonzales will hurt alot, but he wasn't the entirety of that offense.

C) The Verducci Effect is a sham.

I'm interested in your case for this.

By wRC+, Stairs, Denorfia, Venable, Tejada, Torrelba, Cunningham and Headley were all atleast league average hitters last season.

 

[Eephus]

A) Losing Garza will have little to no impact on TB - all their bullpen losses are a greater concern.

B) Despite all the claims otherwise, the Padres had a middle of the pack offense last season. Park adjusted, they ranked 8th in the NL and 16th in MLB. Losing Gonzales will hurt alot, but he wasn't the entirety of that offense.

C) The Verducci Effect is a sham.

I'm interested in your case for this.

By wRC+, Stairs, Denorfia, Venable, Tejada, Torrelba, Cunningham and Headley were all atleast league average hitters last season.

Torrelba, Stairs and Tejada are gone. Denorfia and Cunningham weren't full time players last year. Venable and Headley are just better than park adjusted OPS+ neutral.Their starting pitching after Latos is meh at best.

 

[dparker713]

A) Losing Garza will have little to no impact on TB - all their bullpen losses are a greater concern.

B) Despite all the claims otherwise, the Padres had a middle of the pack offense last season. Park adjusted, they ranked 8th in the NL and 16th in MLB. Losing Gonzales will hurt alot, but he wasn't the entirety of that offense.

C) The Verducci Effect is a sham.

I'm interested in your case for this.

By wRC+, Stairs, Denorfia, Venable, Tejada, Torrelba, Cunningham and Headley were all atleast league average hitters last season.

Torrelba, Stairs and Tejada are gone. Denorfia and Cunningham weren't full time players last year. Venable and Headley are just better than park adjusted OPS+ neutral.Their starting pitching after Latos is meh at best.

Well, they'll have a full season of Ludwick. They've added Hawpe, Bartlett, Maybin, and Hudson. All of those guys project to league average or just below. Even Hundley projects to just below average. Is that a good lineup? Certainly not, but its hardly the black hole people think it is.And as meh as the starting pitching is after Latos, thats no different than last year. The question really is how good is the bullpen after trading away several pieces and without Towers there to work his magic.

 

[Eephus]

I'm interested in your case for this.

By wRC+, Stairs, Denorfia, Venable, Tejada, Torrelba, Cunningham and Headley were all atleast league average hitters last season.

Torrelba, Stairs and Tejada are gone. Denorfia and Cunningham weren't full time players last year. Venable and Headley are just better than park adjusted OPS+ neutral.Their starting pitching after Latos is meh at best.

Well, they'll have a full season of Ludwick. They've added Hawpe, Bartlett, Maybin, and Hudson. All of those guys project to league average or just below. Even Hundley projects to just below average. Is that a good lineup? Certainly not, but its hardly the black hole people think it is.And as meh as the starting pitching is after Latos, thats no different than last year. The question really is how good is the bullpen after trading away several pieces and without Towers there to work his magic.

I think Harang is a good buy low candidate but he and some #5 still have to replace the innings of Garland and Correia. Hawpe, Bartlett, et.al. aren't going to make up for the loss of Gonzalez.

 

[griff321]

The Twins are my pick (though it seems foolish to bet against the Padres).

Why?Their pitching staff last year was one of the worst since they were below .500. It's not going to be any worse and now we have an MVP back in Morneau.

 

[pollardsvision]

While I wouldn't bet on it, the Braves could still win 90 games. Gonzalez is no Bobby Cox, but he kept the Marlins relevant when they had no business being relevant.

Of all the moves made in the off-season, the Braves adding the best power-hitting 2B in the league seemed to go unnoticed. For a team in desperate need of power, that'll be a huge help. There are plenty of question marks, but the Uggla addition, the chance for a full season of Prado, and the maturation of Heyward make this line-up clearly better than last season's.

While there's not much reason to expect Hudson to be as good this year, the rotation can be on-par with last year's too. Lowe was great down the stretch and Hanson is progressing towards studdom right on schedule. It's asking alot, but if Jurrjens can stay healthy, he's very good. Minor growing up in a hurry would be a big help, but he could certainly be something between '10 Medlen and '10 Kawakami.

Losing Wagner hurts, but they've got some outstanding young arms in the pen.

I think they are actually a little better than the '10 team that had absolutely no business winning 90 games.

 

[DCThunder]

Nobody thinks the Yankees are regressing this season? Maybe it's wishful thinking, but beyond CC (and maybe Hughes), that starting rotation would worry me if I were a Yankee fan.

 

[pollardsvision]

Nobody thinks the Yankees are regressing this season? Maybe it's wishful thinking, but beyond CC (and maybe Hughes), that starting rotation would worry me if I were a Yankee fan.

I don't think anyone thinks that pitching staff is any good, but I'd guess most people think either they'll make a move or it just won't matter. Their pitching staff wasn't anything special last year and that worked out just fine.Plus, if they don't find another ace, I hear MLB will adjust the post-season schedule to one game every 5 days.

 

[Wrigley]

Nobody thinks the Yankees are regressing this season? Maybe it's wishful thinking, but beyond CC (and maybe Hughes), that starting rotation would worry me if I were a Yankee fan.

I don't think anyone thinks that pitching staff is any good, but I'd guess most people think either they'll make a move or it just won't matter. Their pitching staff wasn't anything special last year and that worked out just fine.

Plus, if they don't find another ace, I hear MLB will adjust the post-season schedule to one game every 5 days.

It would be best for the game

 

[Smack Tripper]

Texas. I don't like messing with Feliz, no lee, and an improving A's team. Don't see them winning the division

 

[culdeus]

How can the Padres not be dominating this with 90+%?

 

[Time Kibitzer]

As a Blue Jays fan, I'm surprised the Blue Jays only have 1 vote of 52. With half of the coaching staff being new to the organization, I'd be surprised if the Jays don't regress considerably. John Farrell wants to play more small ball and greatly lessen the "all-or-nothing" batting mentality of years past, but the Jays lineup has little speed and few players who can hit for average. Their rotation is very young, relying a lot on players playing to their upside this season. Though the Jays do have a stacked bullpen going for them. The Jays will be a sub .500 team this year imo.

 

[Dr. Awesome]

The Twins are my pick (though it seems foolish to bet against the Padres).

Why?Their pitching staff last year was one of the worst since they were below .500. It's not going to be any worse and now we have an MVP back in Morneau.

We'll see if he can finally stay healthy. How is their pitching staff suddenly going to get better? Are we relying on the 'stache to not meltdown again? I think the Tigers and ChiSox are much improved as well. And having a tougher division plays as big a factor as anything else.