We are getting closer and closer to Opening Day of the 2012 season, and excitement is high. Here's some bold predictions, and some not so bold predictions.
This would qualify as a bold prediction. Bedard hasn't started 30 games since 2006, but I just have this feeling that he's ready to do it this year. He has said that this is the readiest he has felt for a season in a long time, and he has looked good thus far this spring.
You all know that I absolutely love J-Mac, so this might be a little biased or whatever, but I really do think McDonald is ready for a huge season. The strikeouts were there last year, he just didn't control the ball as well as he would like to. I think he figures it out this year and has a stellar season on the mound.
This might be more of a testament to me being lower on Presley than most people rather than me being really high on Marte. You certainly can't argue with what Presley has done in his career, and he has been crushing the ball this spring as well. However, there is still this doubt in my mind that he's going to be a major league starter for very long. Also, Marte has been one of the best hitters in the game this spring and I expect him to put up huge numbers in AAA, so I don't think the Pirates are going to have much of a choice come June-July; they're going to have to give him a shot.
Obviously there's no basis for predictions like this; you can't just randomly call an injury. The eye injury isn't something that you can re-aggravate or anything like that, so this is pretty much a crapshoot predictions that I hope is horrible wrong. It would kind of seem like the Pirates luck to get a big name pitcher and then not see him pitch more than 10 games.
I like GFJ. I especially like GJF against right-handed pitchers, and that's who he's going to be facing most of the time this year. Jones isn't a young player that is ready to breakout, at the age of 30 we know what we have in him. However, I think not seeing lefties as much will be huge for him, and I think he's going to put up some big numbers. I can see him hitting something like .270/.345/.485, which isn't a monster year but that's pretty dang good for a Garrett Jones.
- The Pirates win exactly 81 games
Wouldn't it be something to see the Pirates end their losing streak with an even .500 season? It wouldn't break the "___ years without a winning season" streak, but at least we would have finally seen a team that didn't lose more games than they won. Chances are they'll be a few games under .500 come October, but I can see the team winning 81 games.
