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| Brand New Padres Outfield (NY Post) |
We are about two months away from baseball season and there
have been a number of offseason moves that will impact Major League Baseball. From
the likes of Jon Lester to the Cubs, Max Scherzer to the Nationals, this season
will be quite an interesting one. Our hometown Phillies will likely still be
one of the bottom feeders as it is probably time to blow that team up as they
began to with trading Jimmy Rollins and Marlon Byrd. They still have a decent
one, two punch with Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee in the rotation, but the offense
will probably struggle this year. With that being said, other than the Phillies
it’s time to take a look at a few teams who made big moves this offseason.
San Diego Padres. It will fun to watch how this team does
this year with the offseason moves they made. Trading for Justin Upton, Matt
Kemp and Wil Myers, the Padres have a whole new outfield this year and they
will be a good offense. It will be interesting to see how much stronger the
offense is with these three commanding their outfield. They play in a big
ballpark but making all three of these trades show they want to be more
offensive minded. Last year, they were pretty weak on offense so it made sense
to go get a few potent offensive players. I doubt anyone expected them to make
all three of these trades, but it will definitely improve the team this year.
The rotation still needs some work behind Andrew Cashner, but at least pitchers
will not feel as uncomfortable after giving up a few runs with the lineup
behind them this year.
Chicago Cubs. Will the drought end? It will be tough, but
with the addition of Jon Lester they become that more dangerous. The offense is
led by Anthony Rizzo and they have a number of up and coming stars. One player
to keep an eye on this year is Kris Bryant who absolutely destroyed the minor
leagues last year. It will not surprise anyone if they start the season with
him in the minors but he will likely be in the big leagues by midseason. They
also acquired Dexter Fowler who will make an impact at the top of that lineup.
By season’s end, the Cubs will have a very dangerous lineup. Jon Lester will
also have help with Jake Arrieta who came out of no where last year and
dominated for a large portion of the season. The Cubs will be a dangerous team,
will it be enough to end the drought?
Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox may have had an awful season
last year, but they will try to correct that this season by signing Hanley
Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. The real question of this team isn’t the offense,
but it will be the pitching. They traded
Jon Lester to the Oakland Athletics last season and they have been searching
for consistent pitching ever since. They did sign Justin Masterson, but he
struggled mightily last season. They also acquired Rick Porcello and Wade Miley
to help bolster their rotation. There doesn’t seem to be that ace on the team
that all dominant teams have, so a lot of their success will be dependent on
their offense.
It’s likely going to be another rough year for us Phillies
fans, but just being a baseball fan in general is getting me excited for the
baseball season already. We are a little less than a month before pitchers and
catchers report to camp, so if you’re not in baseball mood…get ready.
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Alan Liang is a senior Drexel Sport Management major with minors in Marketing, Business Administration, and Communication from West Windsor, NJ. Alan scores baseball games for Baseball Info Solutions and was on co-op with the Philadelphia 76ers in the camps department. Follow Alan on Twitter @AlanLiang29.
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