After more than nine years as manager of the Montreal Expos and a short stint as bench coach for the Detroit Tigers, the San Francisco Giants hired Felipe Alou as their new manager this off-season. The architect of the strong, young Expos teams of the mid-90s faces a different challenge in San Francisco, managing a veteran club led by Barry Bonds. Continuing his series of articles from spring training in Arizona, BP correspondent Craig Elsten sat down with Alou recently, and asked him about job battles among some of the team’s weaker veterans, the challenge of nurturing pitching prospects like Kurt Ainsworth and Jesse Foppert, and building an optimal lineup around Bonds.
Well, it’s that time of year again–the time for Baseball Prospectus authors to emerge from out of their respective caves, and provide readers with further evidence that they know absolutely nothing about this game they call “base ball.” In other words, it’s time for the annual set of Preseason Predictions.
For this survey, 13 members of the Baseball Prospectus staff submitted their predictions in time for publication, covering–among other things–divisional standings, postseason standings, and end-of-season awards. Later this week, a Roundtable discussion will run in this space, discussing the predictions seen below, and probably a bunch of other topics as well. Enjoy.
First, I want to apologize for the long absence of AFTH from the web site. In addition to the usual off-season book-writing duties, I spent the winter relocating to the east coast from California as well as welcoming a new baby to the family. But I’m getting settled now, and hope to be writing AFTH and doing other research again in between feedings and diaper changes.
Will Carroll covers Eli Marrero’s suspicious acid indigestion diagnosis, Scott Elarton’s long road back, and enough Angels bumps and bruises to worry even the most rabid Rally Monkey fans (look for the bite marks).