As Opening Day quickly approaches the baseball department at LWOS is making some bold predictions for the 2015 MLB season. Will they all come true? Probably not, but thats the fun of a new season, thinking of what could happen. Who knows, some of these just might.
Five Bold MLB Predictions for 2015 – Nick Tatarkis Edition
1) Someone on the San Francisco Giants will hit 30 or more home runs in a single baseball season in 2015. Now this has not happened since Barry Bonds did it 946 years ago, and with their best chance being Hunter “I make everything I do look painfully awkward” Pence currently recovering from a broken arm, this falls in more of the “wish” category than the “prediction” one. The sad thing is, if they re-signed Bonds today, he just may be the best bet to fulfill this prophecy. Oh, and the Pence talk wasn’t a slight on Buster, that’s just not what his sweeeeet-sweet game is predicated on. So Buster, if you’re reading this please don’t be mad at me. Please? Buster…..?
2) Chris Davis will have a very productive offensive season. Looking at Davis’ stats, 2014 was a bad year for him. The interesting thing is many of his offensive stats were basically in line with his career norms, his “line drive percentage” or “LD%, “Ground Ball Percentage” or “GB%”, and “Fly Ball Percentage” or “FB%” were all right near in line with his career outputs recently and his “Home Run-to-Fly Ball Ratio” was down just a tad but still at a decently high percentage. The culprit was an oddly low BABIP, or “Batting Average on Balls in Play”. Even a moderate regression to his career mean and Crash’s season would have looked much different, and his 2015 will look much different. I own him in my Fantasy League so I need this. You hear me Chris? Embarrass me in front of the 10 jerks I call friends and I will bench you… I swear on Buster Posey’s 2015 WAR, I will bench you.
3) The Cubs are competing for a wild card birth this year. The team’s future is exciting, like that scene in Avenger’s when The Hulk grabs Loki and smashes him to pieces, exciting. Jake Arrieta looks like he has figured it out and will be a force on the mound for years, Jon Lester is Jon Lester, and the group of power bat youngsters they have lead by Kris Bryant, Javy Baez, Addison Russell and the already-a-stud Anthony Rizzo is drool worthy. You know when you’re on a team’s message board and everyone is talking up their team’s young talent like every player is an all star? Well all these kids actually are what we pretend those players are publicly before we cry ourselves to sleep at night. The only thing that worries me is Kris Bryant’s name. Its just not a baseball name, could be a big deal. Remember that I mentioned it if he flops, and then blame his mother.
4) The Oakland Athletics will compete for a playoff spot. Everyone and their dog has been screaming at Billy Beane “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!?” after he made several questionable moves including trading away their best player after the season. What people seem to forget is that Beane is a wizard, the ultimate trade thief. I once saw him get two boxes of Samoa Girl Scout cookies and all he gave up was a half eaten bag of Goldfish crackers. Ya I said it, two boxes. Chew on that for a second…
Billy Beane has done this more than once, and Oakland still racks up the victories. It’s going to be hard with a sold Angels team and a seemingly improved Mariners squad, but the addition of the second wild card spot will help.
5) Before I get to this ladies and gentlemen, understand that I’m just a stats man. I report the stats and the facts and this has NOTHING what so ever to do with my growing up a San Francisco Giants fan. With that my final bold prediction is that this is the year Clayton Kershaw falls off the top of the pitching mountain. The story has not been confirmed publicly, so for that I begrudgingly must use the term “allegedly”, but it appears Kershaw was no longer allowed to use his main off-season conditioning program, which was centered around firing 50 fast balls a day at defenseless little puppies that Yasiel Puig would set on home plate for him. Think about that, next time you see 95 popping-the-mitt Los Angeles.
BONUS PREDICTION: I will smash Dave Spracale, fellow LWOS writer and head of the Baseball Department in fantasy baseball for the second time in a row. Hard to call this one a BOLD prediction as well, because well, I own Dave in fantasy baseball, but really I just wanted to make it even more public knowledge.
Main Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
