I was reading an article on boston.com’s, Touching All The Bases Blog and found it quite interesting. I figured why not follow their lead and make our own 20 predictions on the 2010 season before the season starts to see how we fair at the end of the 2010 season.
Prediction 1: Which Red Sox will player will lead the team in HR’s?Victor Martinez will lead the Red Sox in home runs with 34.
Prediction 2: Who will lead the Red Sox in victories? Josh Beckett on the last year of his contract I think he will have something to prove and lead the Red Sox with 19 wins.
Prediction 3: Which off season acquisition will contribute the most offensively?Adrian Beltre will be the one to contribute the most. Offensively he will have some power numbers, especially in the friendly confines of Fenway Park. Defensively he will have a stand out season at 3rd one of the best in his career.
Prediction 4: Who will be the Sox’ breakthrough young pitcher?We have to agree with the gang at boston.com and go with Clay Buchholz as well. I see him being the key number 5 starter for the Sox andhaving a career season with innings pitched and wins.
Prediction 5: Which player is most likely to bounce back from a difficult 2009? Daisuke Matsuzaka is our choice here. Daisuke will show Red Sox Nation the guy that appeared in the two World Baseball Classics and was quite dominant. We are predicting Dice K will have over 10 wins for the Sox this year and be a solid number 4 starter.
Prediction 6: How many bases will Jacoby Ellsbury steal? Our lucky number here will be 57 stolen bases. To give him a career total of 186 stolen bases and 115 stolen bases left to swipe to over take the Red Sox career stolen base record held by Harry Hooper.
Prediction 7: How many games will Jason Varitek play behind the plate? Jason Varitek will start 40-50 games behind the plate this year given that Managae Terry Francona has made it clear the V-Mart is the starting catcher for the Sox.
Prediction 8: How many starts will Tim Wakefield make? Wake will get 10-15 starts we believe. Whether it be a spot start here and their or to fill in for one of the other 5 starters due to injury or precautionary reason. Wake going on his 16th season as a Red Sox and being an All Star in the 2009 season will be a valuable option for the Sox in 2010.
Prediction 9: Of the potential free agents after the season, who are the Sox most likely to sign to a contract extension?
Victor Martinez is the no brainer for us. We are actually going to predict the V-Marts signing will happen before the All-Star break.
Prediction 10: Which of these players is most likely to regress from his 2009 performance? We have to agree with the Chad Flinn andgo with Daniel Bard for the exact same reasons. As Flinn said I can’t make it say I disagree. “This being the 2nd full season for the young right handed reliever it won’t so much be a regression as it will be a reminder that he needs to continue to improve if he is going to be the heir to Jonathan Papelbonas the closer. While there is a perception that Bard was dominant last season, In the second half he had a 4.74 ERA and allowed five home runs in 24.2 innings. He’s a remarkable talent, but he’s not a finished product, and we’ll be reminded of that from time to time. ”
Prediction 11: Who will lead the Red Sox in OPS? J.D. Drew is our guy here. Drew led all American League right fielders in OPS (.911) last season, and had an .999 OPS in the second half, which was second-best in the league. He’ll do it again in 2010, and rank amongst the elite in the League.
Prediction 12: How many home runs will Adrian Beltre hit? Beltre will hit 29 roundtrippers in his first season with the Red Sox.
Prediction 13: Who will be the Red Sox’ starting shortstop at the end of the season? Marco Scutaro was signed in the off season to be the Sox shorts stop and will play the whole season at short other than a night off here and there. Granted Scutarois coming off career numbers last season with the Jays and am guessing he won’t have a stand out year like he had a year ago. Defensively he will make up for it in the middle for the Sox.
Prediction 14: What will be this team’s greatest strength? This is a tough one. Its definately a toss up between the Sox starting rotation and the Sox in the field defensively. Our choice is going to be the starting rotation for the Soxin 2010. With Beckett, Lester, Lackey and Matsuzaka being your one through 4 starters and most likely Buchholzbeing your number 5 starter with Wake getting spot starts. The rotation this year has to be one of the best in the AL if not the entire league.
Prediction 15: Which low-cost, low-expectations pitching acquisition will have an impact? Boof Bonser is our pick here.
Prediction 16: How many home runs will David Ortiz hit in 2010? After the horrid slump Ortiz endured at the beginning of last season and the numbers he finally produced we think Papi will hit 26 home runs for the Sox this year a contract year possibly for the aging Ortiz.
Prediction 17: Which position player slated for Pawtucket will contribute the most in the big leagues this season? We have to go along with Chad again here and pick Tug Hulett. Hulett is a useful utility man and we predict will most likely be the first callup if the Sox need an extra infielder on the bench, since the club wants Jed Lowrie to play every day in Pawtucket. Josh Reddick is another good possibility, but the Sox want him to get at-bats and more experience in Pawtucket after his up and down 2009 season.
Prediction 18 Which infielder is most likely to win a Gold Glove? We are going with 2nd baseman, Dustin Pedroia. After a mediocre 2009 season we think Pedroia will be back. All the off field distractions of his wife Kelly being pregnant and the pressure as the returning MVP will be gone. Look out for Pedroiato be solid on the right side of the diamond this year putting up career defensive numbers.
Prediction 19: Which outfielder is most likely to win a Gold Glove? With managements decision to slide Ellsbury over to left this offseason it will play out to be one of the best position moves for the Sox with Ellsbury having a solid year covering the field in front of the Green Monster.
Prediction 20: Who will win the American League East? We have to go with the home town team andgo with the Boston Red Sox. Even though the Yankees offensively look alot better on paper than the Sox we are predicting the starting rotation is going to be the difference maker. The Sox will win the East and also have the best record in the American League.
So there you have it there is NHRSN’s 2010 predictions at the end of the 2010 season in October we will pull this post up and see how we ranked.
