Closing in on the end of May, let's re-visit some of Da Box's Always Entertaining, Generally Wildly Inaccurate pre-season previews and projections.
I challenge my fellow forecasters to revisit their own team-by-team features and share with us the (already) so-wildly-wrong-its-funny projections contained within. Ready? Here are mine ...
Texas Rangers:
"Sidney Ponson? Really?"
The fact that this question is the "funniest" of the Rangers preview is props and kudos to Jamey Newberg, the interview subject of the preview. But yes, Ponson has been a major surprise -- at 3-0, 2.95 in his first six starts, El Sid has been the Rangers' best starting pitcher -- the 139 ERA+ gives him an edge over 6-2 (that's W-L, not height) Vicente Padilla's 123 ERA+.
But get this one ...
Cincinnati Reds:
"Can Edinson Volquez make the Josh Hamilton trade seem less like pure theft by the Rangers?"
Um ... yes. Sure, Hamilton is leading the AL in all three Triple Crown categories (at this writing, anyway), but Volquez is 7-1, 1.33 right now. Has an MVP ever been traded for a Cy Young winner the season before they each won the award?
Fellow prognosticators (and to all Bauxites who wrote comments in those previews), over to you ...
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080523143614521