Every season the NFL experts talk about the incredible turnover that leads to bad teams suddenly becoming good in one season and vice-versa. The same thing does not happen in Major League Baseball very often but there are several teams that could go from .500 or worse to winning teams next season.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates flirted with .500 for the first time since 1992. Many doubters puffed out their chests when the Pirates finally faltered in August assuming the whole thing was a fluke but the Pirates actually have a good club and their were perfectly understandable reasons for the plunge after the All-Star break. There might not be many people that recognize the name Jose Tabata yet, but the outfielder was leading off for the Pirates and leading the team in hitting and steals-an important role for a small ball club that tries to win 3-2 games-when he went down with an injury for an entire month. His replacement, Alex Presley, proceeded to bat .333 for about a month before going down with an injury also. Meanwhile, the Pirates acquired Derrek Lee at the All-Star break and he got injured as well.
If the Pirates were healthy and they were able to start their best lineup then Tabata would bat first, Presley would bat second and Lee would be the cleanup hitter between Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker. So tell me this, how many teams wouldn’t have an awful month if their first, second and fourth batters were out of the lineup? The Phillies have a great pitching staff and don’t need offense but would they even been great if they lost Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard all at once? Admittedly the Pirates are last on this list for a reason. The pitching staff hit a wall and they probably need a legitimate ace, but if the Pirates made a few acquisitions in the offseason a .500 record next year isn’t crazy.
New York Mets
The Mets just can’t catch a break. For the second or third year in a row everything that could go wrong went wrong. Ike Davis was mashing the ball and got injured for the season. David Wright missed a huge chunk of the season. Their ace, Johan Santana, never threw a single pitch. The owner blasted his stars and then sold a part of the team. Their financial troubles forced them to trade one of their All-Stars. All of those things happened this year and yet the Mets have been hovering around .500 through the whole thing.
The number one reason is their young core. Josh Thole, Justin Turner, Lucas Duda and Dillon Gee don’t have stats that are going to jump off the screen at you but they have a lineup full of solid players. Daniel Murphy was the quietest .320 batter in all of baseball. If Wright is healthy and the Mets re-sign Jose Reyes then they are probably just an ace pitcher away from being a winning team.
Colorado Rockies
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I pick the Rockies to be a winning team next year. The Rockies were expected to be a World Series contender in 2011 but the season went in the tank after the first month of the season. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what happened to the Rockies. The pitching is worse but they only went from 12th in the league last year to 14th this year. The offense was third in the league last year and third again this year. Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez all ended up with good, but not great seasons. Maybe their slightly worse stats with the pitching staff’s slightly worse performance was just enough to result in a losing season.
Toronto Blue Jays
Okay, I’m cheating just a bit right now. The Blue Jays are actually one game over .500 but there are about two weeks left in the season. It’s still possible they will be a losing team. To make up for cheating I’ll take it a step further and say that not only could the Blue Jays be a winning team next year but they could be in the playoffs next season. The Blue Jays have a young team that can mash the ball. Jose Bautista will continue to put up MVP numbers and Daniel Lawrie will continue to get better.
The pitching needs to get better for the Blue Jays but their biggest hurdle is the division they play in. The Tampa Bay Rays are making in the American League East a three team race again and three is a crowd without a fourth team trying to butt in. Both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have weaknesses though. It’s not inconceivable that they both come down to the Rays and Blue Jays level.
Washington Nationals
Like the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Nationals flirted with .500 this season before faltering late in the season. The Nationals have even more positives going for them than the Pirates though. Number one is obviously Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg seems to have recovered from his injury well and the Nationals will be in any game he pitches next season. The Nationals also have some other young pitchers like Jordan Zimmerman, John Lannan, Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard.
The Nationals need improvement in the offensive department but Michael Morse and Danny Espinosa emerged as good players. Washington still only had Ryan Zimmerman for 89 games and they’ve gotten almost nothing from Jayson Werth. It’s an offense that could be appreciably better in 2012 and they also have the caveat that they are willing to go spend a lot of money on a free agent this season. Prince Fielder recently said he thought this would be his last season in Milwaukee. My money is on Fielder in a Nats uniform and I wouldn’t be surprised if they take the Wild Card next season.
Source:
All stats, standings and records were found at Yahoo! Sports