Potvin29 said:
How is this team slightly worse than last season's?
IMO:
Overall, they need some bloody good luck with injuries for once. Shaky parts of the team were made just that much worse by them.
Defense should be much improved after the complete gong show at they had at 2b for the first 4 months. Reyes/Goins as the everyday middle infield brings hope.
Offense will be all around good to very good, plus the subtraction of JPA can be nothing but helpful. Will see if the situational hitting improves overall, which would take the offense up another level.
Bullpen should be dominant again as long as they aren't overused and run out of gas towards the end like last year.
Starting pitching remains the big worry.
The positive right now is that there are a ton of arms healthy (so far) and competing for the 3 open jobs. It should mean they can take the 3 best out of camp to start the season but have plenty of backups at AAA to bring up if any of those 3 falter.
But like you said, who knows.. could go either way. I'm not really holding out a lot of hope. Will sit back and watch and see how things go.