Projection Time
Over at the Replacement Level Yankee Weblog, SG has compiled two sets of Diamond Mind projections. One is based on ZIPS and has the Sox winning the AL East. The other is based upon PECOTA and has the Yanks winning the East by a comfortable margin. I am not really sure what to make of these other than to say it’s kind of fun to look at. So thanks, SG.
One thing to note, though. The ZIPS projection has the Yanks scoring 821 runs while PECOTA has the Yanks scoring 879 in 2006. I have been hearing a lot of people, most notably and lately Tim Kurkjian, saying as though it’s a foregone conclusion that the Yankees are going to score 1,000 runs this year. It’s preposterous. The Yanks scored 886 runs in 2005. Now, they did add Johnny Damon and he will enhance their production out of center field but what about their other hitters? Save Robinson Cano, each of their position players is past an age at which he could reasonably be expected to improve. So yeah, the Yanks will have a nice offense - maybe the best in baseball - but they ain’t scoring no 1,000 runs.