72-90 Improvement from the rotation, the major league debt of Singleton in June and Villar, along with the continued improvements of Dominguez and Castro lead to a 17 game improvement.
That was my prediction last year and I was looking good until Lowrie got hurt and the wheels fell off.
I'll also go with 72-90. If that means sacrificing a chance to get Carlos Rodon, so be it. And I'm all for giving the national media (Gammons, Olney, Rosenthal, et al.) the finger.
53-109. The 2 biggest winners this season's end are: #1 World Series Champ, #2 Team that gets right to draft Rodon.
63-99 I think the team is going to be quite a bit better, and I don't think the switch to the AL means doom like some others do. I would go with closer to 70 wins, but I do think Norris gets moved at some point, and if Bedard pitches well that will obviously help us win, but it will also likely get him traded also, which is fine, but won't likely help out this year's team.
63-99 E'r'body wins. We don't hit the 100 L's mark yet still edge out the Cubs for the worst record and get 1-1.
60 wins, if no trade deadline deals get done. I suspect that Peña, Veras, Cedeño, and Bedard will get moved if there are any takers. That should drop the win total to 58, methinks. If Norris or Harrell also get moved, it could get ugly. Real ugly. I also would not be surprised if Bo Porter loses the clubhouse if the second half of the season. Worst case scenario with all of the above trades and a rookie manager would be about 52 wins.
I must say I'm excited baseball is back! Now I just need a way to watch it.... We start off strong but after a few trades at the deadline we struggle. Two years ago we won 56 games, last year we won 55, so if we follow the pattern this year we end up with a record of 54-108
We should have a thread how long will the excitement last. If this year is anything like last year I'm thinking the excitement lasts about 2 weeks.
Comets... we were 22-23 on May 25th this year. Enthusiasm lasted for a decent period of time. I understand you may be a pessimist, but try to keep the rain clouds from pouring on Opening Day.
This team is going to lose a lot of games, no matter the coach. Any coach, I think, would struggle to "keep" the clubhouse on a 100+ loss team. Bo Porter appears to be a real RaRa coach, which is good for football but not necessarily a 162 game baseball season. Porter is also a rookie coach. To summarize: 100+ loss team rookie coach RaRa coach very few veteran players, maybe none after trade deadline I also do not like how Lyles was handled in Spring Training. IIRC Lyles pitched better finishing out last season. Lyles was not suppose to be in a fight for a roster spot. Lyles seriously underperformed in Spring Training. The reason given was that Lyles had too many voices in his head. This is a failure on the coaching staff. They took an upcoming prospect and messed with so bad that the prospect had to be sent down to minor leagues to get straightened out. May I be so bold as to say this is a rookie coaching mistake?
65-97 Astros will be no hit twice. One will be a perfecto. Highest HR total will be 27. Altuve will be the Astros rep in the All Star Game. Again.
