[Click here for the rest of BS&S.com's Opening Day Series]
At this time of year, making predictions is almost as natural a tendency as breathing. After reaching down deep into the area of my diaphragm, here's my best stab -- five predictions for the upcoming season...
...The Phillies will make the playoffs. I'm not bold enough to predict how they'll make the playoffs, winning the NL East or the Wild Card, because the division is just too close to call at this point -- and probably not even five months of baseball will change that. But I refuse to believe that a team that has Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and of course, Ryan Howard can miss the playoffs. Now, to quote Bill Cosby, I told you that story so I can tell you this one...
...Chase Utley will be named the National League MVP. Yeah, so these first two make me seem like a real homer. But here's the thing, the national media is already pre-anointing Clutchly the MVP. And if you believe the Phillies will make the playoffs, and if you believe Utley will play as well as he usually does in the manner that he usually does, then he stands a great chance to be the MVP.
...Brett Myers will have a monster season. Since the moment pitchers and catchers reported to Clearwater in February, no one performed better under the Florida sun for the Phils' than Myers. He had a 1.13 ERA in 3 major league starts in spring training, plus a few minor league starts that weren't that much different. He's a horse and 200+ innings from him is much more popular than 70 or 80 from the pen.
...2008 is going to look a lot like 2007. The offense will score a lot of runs and despite the best efforts of a pretty good defense, the pitching will surrender a lot of runs. Also the same: Pat Gillick is going to keep on searching and searching for the right match of pitchers, and that isn't such a bad thing. Remember, J.C. Romero, who seeming pitched every game in September last season and ended up with a sub-2.00 ERA, was released by the Red Sox earlier in the season. In Gillick We Trust.
...Speaking of Gillick, Ruben Amaro, Jr. is going to take over for him as general manager when he retires at the end of the season. No, that's not a stretch, but some things are easy to predict. Look, assuming the Phillies win 88-90 games this season, Amaro is the equivalent of a Vice-President who is deemed partially responsible for a period of some degree of national success. Let's just hope it turns out better for him than George H.W. Bush. Think Dana Carvey... "don't wanna be a one-termer..."
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Extra innings prediction: Kyle Kendrick will win 12 games for the Phillies. Kid's got heart.
