What are your team's three biggest problems coming into 07?

[McKain]

Washington Nationals:
1) The rotation is John Patterson and four unproven guys (Shawn Hill, Jerome Williams, Jason Bergmann, Matt Chico). Chico's put up some good results in the minors but he's never topped AA. Shawn Hill had some good starts last year and came out with a solid year, but it was in six starts and he's the expected number two. J-Will has constantly disappointed and pretty much all that untapped potential he had remains untapped and is probably rotten by this point. Bergmann just sucks as a starter, there's nothing else to say. Even when Jason Simontacchi comes back, things look bleak, because he's been out of the majors since 04 and was pretty bad back then. He's pitched in 10 games in an independent league and nothing else in 05 and 06.

2) Nook Logan and Cristian Guzman are expected to start a majority of the games at center field and shortstop respectively, and are also expected to bat 1/2 in the order. If either of them posts an OPS above .650, I would be shocked. If they aren't 1 and 2 in the league in outs, I would be shocked. If they still have their jobs at the end of the season in spite of their incompetence, I will be depressed. Ryan Zimmerman, Austin Kearns, and Nick Johnson when he comes back are going to be robbed of any chance of producing runs for the team because nobody will be on base in front of them.

3) Manny Acta's rookie year in the majors as a manager. He's made some very questionable decisions already (namely Logan and Guzman being handed starting jobs and high spots in the lineup from the beginning without him having even them in action), but he's also made some solid choices, like putting Dmitri Young on the MLB roster as the 1B replacement for Nicky J, Kory Casto starting in left field for the duration of Logan's injury to see what he can do. I don't see any sort of adaption period for him to get acclimated to the goings-on of being an MLB manager since he's been in the managing game in minor leagues and independent leagues before, but I can see the wear and tear of managing a team who is going to finish last in the majors taking a toll on him, and seeing how he handles that is going to define his year.

[ATLien]

3 Questions for the Atlanta Braves

1)Can the Braves identify a productive lead off hitter?
2)Can the bottom half of the starting rotation prove itself? Smoltz is great and all, but I do not have very much trust in Mike Hampton staying healthy nor Mike Hampton staying healthy & playing well. Lance Cormier and Kyle Davies don't provide much confidence either.
3)Can the offseason acquisitions in the bullpen produce? I think I can say that the bullpen is the number one reason why the Braves missed the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. They shaked the unit up, so let's see if it works.

[HollywoodLeo]

- Kevin Kouzmanoff and Termell Sledge need to produce in the regular season as they have in spring

- Josh Bard needs to carry over his numbers from last season into this season while carrying the full time starting role.

- Khalil Greene needs to stay healthy

[Fishercat]

Boston Red Sox

1. The Bullpen

This is by FAR the largest problem with this team. With all the money spent in the offseason, they were unable to put a lot of quality talent into the bullpen. Papelbon closing is a quick fix and should be very effective, but who will get the Sox through the 7th and 8th innings in those 6-5 games? Of the RPs MLB.com lists, only Romero and Donnelly have had recent success in the AL, and even they have been declining and are B to C level RPs. Okajima looks like a solid player, but Japan players are always unknowns, especially RPs. Tavarez showed few glimmers last year, Snyder is good for emergency starts and junk innings, Lopez is a LOOGY and Piniero is a "throw it and see if it sticks" guy. If the Sox don't find at least one good RP in house (Tavarez or Snyder), one good FA RP (Okajima, Romero, or Donnelly), and one good call up (Hansen or Delcarmen), the Sox will be in trouble

2. Catcher

This is purely offensive reasoning, not including Tek's very good game management skills. However, Varitek is coming off an injury and a year where he delved into Adam Dunn BA territory without the power or patience. He's making 10 mil for 2 more years and until Kotteras is ready, he's the only semblence of an MLB catcher on the roster. Wake's skills are forcing Belli to be kept, but if Varitek gets injured or can't produce, the Sox have a black hole in the lineup. Those can sting a team.

3. Age

The Red Sox, as most high-spending teams tend to be, are an old team. Only 1/5 of their roster was born from 1980 on (26 years or younger), and while many of those guys have great potential and ability (Beckett, Papelbon, Dice-K, Pedroia, Pena, etc.). They have some solid guys in their late-20's too, but many key guys are hitting a decline period or have passed their peak. Ortiz should be fine as a DH who didn't play full-time early on. We have two SPs at 40 years old, our catcher will be 35 soon and the backup is 37, Lowell turned 33 and Manny will be 35 in May. All of them could decline or have been declining, and in a worst case scenario, Manny decreases to simply a "very good" hitting OF, Varitek and Lowell become black holes, Wakefield and Schilling lose it...and the Sox are in third, or worse.

[Dry1313]

The New York Yankees
Starting Rotation, Bullpen, Age.

[rockin500]

cubs: defense, starting pitching after zambrano and closer

[DravenX]

3 Questions for the Atlanta Braves

1)Can the Braves identify a productive lead off hitter?
2)Can the bottom half of the starting rotation prove itself? Smoltz is great and all, but I do not have very much trust in Mike Hampton staying healthy nor Mike Hampton staying healthy & playing well. Lance Cormier and Kyle Davies don't provide much confidence either.
3)Can the offseason acquisitions in the bullpen produce? I think I can say that the bullpen is the number one reason why the Braves missed the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. They shaked the unit up, so let's see if it works.

What I was thinking. I am a little worried with Cormier and Davies but I will wait and see what happens. There are a lot of questions with the Braves this season and hopefully everything will turn out for the good.

[Molina00]

Rangers
1) Starting Pitching. Big surprise I know, but you know you have a problem when Jamey Wright is in the rotation. I expect the 1-3 spots to be solid with Millwood, Padilla, and McCarthy, but I don't have a lot of faith in the bottom 40% with Wright and Robinson Tejeda. If they had put Kam Loe in the rotation like I really think they should have, then they wouldn't be too bad off for starting pitching.

2) Catcher, maybe. Mainly seeing if Gerald Laird really is ready for an everyday starting job. He played a career high 78 games last year but was solid batting .296 with 20 doubles, but he has never played more than half a season, and they don't really have anyone else who is proven capable of starting if Laird falters.

3) I'm really not sure, so I'll go with replacing Gary Matthews Jr. in centerfield as a problem. It's hard to replace a guy who hit .313 with almost 200 hits, 44 doubles, 19 homers, and 102 runs scored. The Rangers answer in centerfield was the duo of Kenny Lofton and Marlon Byrd. Lofton turns 40 in a couple of months but is still a pretty good hitter with plenty of stealing ability left in his (hit .301 with 32 steals last year), but he is still pushing 40. Can he keep it up for 1 more year? And if he can't then it falls to Marlon Byrd who hit .223 last year and hasn't been an everyday starter since 2003, although he did hit .303 with 28 doubles that year. That was still 4 seasons ago.

[General]

For the Braves, it's the clear lack of a leadoff hitter, a gap in LF and 2B, and no clear starter after Smoltz and Hudson, other than James, who had a good year last year and I wonder if he'll go into a sophomore slump.

[GiantsFanatic]

Giants

1- Closer, Benitez has had a good spring, but last year every time he went up to close a game, I had 0 confidence in him, he needs to bring his A game this year and win over the Giants fans confidence.

2- Starting pitching, Besides our top two guys, Zitto and Cain, Morris, Lowry and Ortiz need to pitch there asses off this year in order for us to have a chance at all to win the division, that means Morris needs to stay off of the DL, Lowry needs to hurry up and fix his mechanics, Ortiz has had a great spring, he needs to carry this momentum over to the regular season.

3- Pedro Feliz, this guy can hit homeruns and drive in runs, but he needs to quit striking out, and lift up his avg, if he can be productive, then we have a a very good lineup.

[browntown653]

The New York Yankees
Starting Rotation, Bullpen, Age.

It always seems to be so.

[BnGBleeder]

Pirates:

1. Starting pitching...we have a lot of young guys with experience and a ton of potoential,but can any of them reach that potential?We were close a lot last year,and our starters were a big reason for that...however they were also part of the reason we lost close games.

2.Bullpen...we lost our closer when we traded for LaRoche.Also,I am not all that confident in our bullpen as a whole.They are also a big reason why we lost those close games.

3.Ownership...will they make the trade at the trade deadline to put us into the playoffs if we are in the mix come that time?Or will they trade away guys like LaRoche,Bay,and Sanchez for more prospects?

[brewersfan19]

THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS

1.) NED YOST- He has plenty of of players this year, he is going to be patient and allow players to work throough slumps, and allow players that are on a hot streak to play. Most importantly, he is going to be able to keep Jenkins and Mench both happy in a platoon situation?

2.) HEALTH/YOUTH/EXPERIENCE- Hopefully the youngster have blossomed enough to contend and will they produce. Injuries riddled our season last year, hope the key components stay heathy this year.

3.) CONSISTENCY- The Brewers aer one of the most streaky teams. win 3 games, loose 6. I just want them to play better on the road and win at home. I understand that all teams go through streaks/stretches where they can do nothing wrong or nothing right, but we need to see less of these streaks and just wins series. 2 out of 3, split 2 and four game series, especially the 4 game series.


BONUS (4)-BULLPEN- We need Turnbow to get his head on straight and trust his stuff, plus Cordero to dominate again, and middle relief to be better as well. A dominant bullpen is critical in today's game!! We need to be nasty!!!

GO BREWERS!!! KNOCK'EM OUT IN 2007!!!!

[brewersfan19]

Hey Molina, not to rain on your hope or parade, but I can things of two things for the Rangers. Sammy Sosa, please, go back to retirement, and Gagne on the DL. Especially Gagne, they picked him up and they announced he was the closer and the guy, (forgot his named at this moment), that replaced Cordero, is not in the same role when Gagne was acquired and now the Rangers want, expect him to step in I suppose now huh!!


Just trying to keep you on those toes!! haha. I will trade you Turnbow for Young, haha, jk again!!! Good ,uck to your Rangers this year. Ah the smell of hope in the air. Everyone is tied for first place right now, I love the sound of that, cause I don't get to say that often enough as a Brewers fan!

[BnGBleeder]

Now I'll do my other team,the Cleveland Indians:

1. Bullpen...Last year our Bullpen was horrible.It was a big reason we went from 93 wins to 70-something.We traded Wickman and then did the Carmona Experiment,which failed miserably.Then we signed Foulke to close,and he retired.Now Joe Borowski is the closer,without being challenged by anyone.Carmona was supposed to be in the bullpen,but will be starting due to Cliff Lee's abdominal injury.

2. Infield defense/defensive catcher...I lump these two together because they gio hand-in-hand.The Indians were the worst team in the AL and I think even MLB when it came to throwing out runners.Some of it had to do with the fact that our pitchers couldn't hold runners,but a good defensive catcher will still throw out the guy many times,Victor Martinez didn't.

There is the four-man platoon at first base.Eric Wedge has this ingenious (or is that not-so-genius) plan to platoon Casey Blake,Travis Hafner,Victor Martinez,and Ryan Garko at fist base.How the hell are Barfield and Peralta gonna get a feel for the DP when it seems like there will be a different guy at first ever day?Blake was converted from third base to the outfield,now he's gona platoon at first,in the outfield,and play some third base this season too?!Garko can hit,but his defense needs a lot of help.Hafner could be an everyday first basemen if they'd just let him play the position,but they don't so he doesn't get a chance to really get better at the position.And Martinez only played a few games at first last year,but they expect him to play about 20-30 games there this year.

Peralta has played very good defense this spring,but can he keep it going in the season?Last year,his horrible defense was a big reason we lost so many games.It also parlayed into a bad year at the plate.If he plays defense this well,his plate troubles should dissapear.

Andy Marte has been unimpressive this spring,too many errors and a poor bat.If he can play stellar defense,I can live with a below-average bat.But if he plays below average defense to go along with that bat,it will be unacceptable.

The only infielder I have complete faith in is Josh Barfield,this guy will be winning gold gloves pretty soon.

3. Starting pitching...After Sabathia and Westbrook we have Lee/Carmona,Sowers,and Byrd.

Sabathia is a solid 12-15 win guy who could dominate if he stayed healthy and stayed in shape.

Westbrook will have a career year and be gone at season's end,he'll end up a Yankee or Red Sox.

Lee is pretty solid,but for some reason I don't trust him.Carmona I think can end up being a star,but won't get a full-time chance until after Wesbrook leaves.

Sowers will win ROY and blow everyone out of the water.He won't blow a fastball by you at 100 MPH,but he can spot his pitches and get you out with his nasty breaking balls.

Byrd is a bum,and if he sucks this year,Carmona migh take his place in the rotation.

We also have Matt Miller who'll be in AAA to start the season,but if there are injuries to just crappy pitching,expect to see him in the rotation.

And an extra...the corner ourfield platoons.There is Delluci/Michaels in left and Nixon/Gutierrez/Blake in right.

So there are platoons at left field,right field,third base,first base,and catcher.And if Peralta falters defensivly,expect a platoon at shortstop.So the only definate positions on this team seem to be 2nd Base (Josh Barfield) and CF (Grady Sizemore).