what are your expectations? strenghts? weaknesses? what's on the horizon?

For the Giants, it's all gonna be about the starting pitching. Will Zito do what he's always done, will cain continue to improve, and will morris and lowry stay healthy? If those guys stay consistent, they could combine to win 55-65 games, even with the poor hitting. Speaking of the hitting, that and the bullpen are our 2 glaring weaknesses. There are a few good hitters, but will Bonds and Durham stay healthy and hit like last year? i say no. As for the Pen, we have a 2-3 good young arms in correia, wilson and sanchez (if he isn't the 5th starter). Correia has the best breaking stuff of the 3 and is the most far along. I would make him the closer, but i don't see it happening. I just have no clue as to where sanchez will be and what kind of workload wilson can/will take on. I'd like to see the top of the lineup (roberts, vizquel) set the table for the "big guys," but will aurilia be our glaring hole in the 3rd spot? probably, as will that awful signing, ryan klesko.

Within a year we have only one top notch prospect who could see the big leagues, tim lincecum. If he doesn't make it up in september, (or earlier because of injuries) expect to see him starting in 2008. Also, this season the Giants have an important draft. Last year was the first year in awhile where we've had a 1st rd. pick, this year sabean has something like 4 of them, so it'll be important to be smart and draft pitching. Also, we have a lot of expiring contracts, so if ownership doesn't want to sign a big name at the end of the season, i'm hoping they'll save the money or the 2008 offseason when miguel cabrera becomes available.

As for my predicitions; i could honestly see us winning the division, but with the weakness of the NL and the West division, i expect us to be battling the rest of the mediocrity for the division and the wild card at the same time. I'm hoping for at least 85 wins.

We are going to suck this year.......again. I'm guessing about 90 losses. I am usually very optimistic but this year we have gotten worse.

We do have some positives though. Edwin Encarnacion is a budding superstar and should be a perrinial all star, maybe even starting this year. Other than that our offense looks pretty bleak unless Brandon Phillips builds on last year.

Our rotation is very good up top. Aaron Harang is making his way to becoming a bonafide ace. Bronson Arroyo was excellent last year except for a bad stretch in the middle of the year. Other than that we have nothing in the rotation except for.............................Homer Bailey. Hopefully he goes north with the club out of spring training. Hits 98 on the fastball and has a hammer curve. However he is only 20 so he will probaly start in triple a. I can't wait to see this kid pitch.

I won't even go into the deficencies of this team...

I don't know what to expect from the Braves. It's strange, because this is the first time in my life as a Braves fan where we enter the season as the hunter in the division, not the hunted. Be interesting to see how we respond to the new role.

We should score a lot of runs again. Hopefully Prado/Johnson/Aybar/whoever will be an upgrade over Giles and someone can take over in left, because the rest of the lineup looks great. LaRoche, McCann and Francouer should all build on good '06 seasons, and you know you're going to get production from the Jones Boys and Renteria.

Everyone knows pitching was our downfall last year, and that will be the key again this year. We cut a lot of the dead weight (Thomson, Ramirez, Reitsma) but didn't add anyone to the rotation and only added Rafael Soriano (although he's a great pickup) to the bullpen. Getting full seasons from Chuck James and Bob Wickman will help, though. Kyle Davies also should be a lot better, plus we get Mike Hampton back after missing virtually two years. How he performs will go a long way towards determining how well we do this year. A bounce-back year from Tim Hudson is also necessary.

It wouldn't surprise me if we challenge the Mets in the NL East, but I'm thinking 85-88 wins and a possible wild card is realistic at this point.

laroche build on a good season? he was great! i wish we had someone like him.

flyingswoosh Wrote:laroche build on a good season? he was great! i wish we had someone like him.

He definitely was, at least in the second half. I was amazed how many people wanted to trade him this offseason.

GDawgs88 Wrote:

flyingswoosh Wrote:laroche build on a good season? he was great! i wish we had someone like him.

He definitely was, at least in the second half. I was amazed how many people wanted to trade him this offseason.

well, if those people are as dumb as the fans on the giants forum, then i can understand.