The 2007 Season Preview
I think it's about time to stop complaining about red uniforms and everything Jack Wilson says and kick into some serious baseball talk. Specifically it's time to start thinking about 2007. Last year I did a post for each player and did predictions, but those turned out poorly, were mostly just guesses, and aren't nearly as good or fun as Charlie's community projections. Accordingly, I'm going to try something different this year. Accordingly, I'm going to do something different this year. I probably will preview the individual players at some point, likely much closer to the season. Until then, I'm going to look at what needs to happen for the Pirates to be good in 2007. It's not very likely that they'll be good, but it does seem to be at least a little more plausible this year than in the past. I'm going to try and look at all of the puzzle pieces that need to fall into place and just how likely those pieces are to end up where they need to be. I am going to do this at least in part to try and keep myself being negative just for the sake of it, which I tend to do from time to time. The things I plan on looking at will include (but probably won't be limited too):
- Chris Duffy must be a consistent offensive contributor
- One of the Jose's must step up on offense.
- We must get 2003-2004 Craig Wilson level performance out of whoever plays right field.
- Jason Bay must continue to produce at a high level.
- Freddy Sanchez must do a reasonable impression of his 2006 self.
- The four pitchers at the top of our rotation must not get hurt.
- The four pitchers at the top of our rotation must improve considerably on their 2006 seasons.
- The bullpen must find a way to replace Mike Gonzalez and the Salomon Torres innings we potentially lose with him at closer.
- Jack Wilson must play well in the field and be a reasonable offensive player (as opposed to the bad one he normally is).
- Adam LaRoche must adapt to PNC Park and at least approach the power numbers he put up last year.
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