2012 Preview: Arizona Diamondbacks

Baseball models have a certain degree of elegance to them owing to the interconnected symmetry of pitching and hitting. Just as debits must always equal credits in the world of accounting, runs scored across MLB must equal runs allowed. That seems obvious, but if Albert Pujols and Cecil Fielder are moving to the AL, if Yoenis Cespedes is adding a 30/30 bat to the league as well, then it stands to reason ERAs must rise in the AL this year.

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2012 Preview: San Francisco Giants

By the time the 2011 season began, the city suddenly had a generation of Giants-gear-wearing kids following baseball, and not only was there a noticeable patron increase in the Union Street and Marina-area bars during a game, twentysomething women all over the city were overriding their fashion instincts and entering those bars wearing orange.

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2012 Preview: San Diego Padres

Given that 30 Teams in 30 (Week) Days moves today to the last remaining division, the National League West, and given that the previews are presented in a top-to-bottom format, today’s headline begs the question: Were you expecting someone else at the top of these pages?

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2012 Preview: Houston Astros

The staff at Baseball Prospectus released their pre-season predictions yesterday. The 27 staffers submitted an expected-order-of-finish ballot for all six divisions and there was only one unanimous selection. Only one team was placed in the same slot by every voter. Last place for the Baltimore Orioles? 22 out of 27 votes. First place for the Detroit Tigers? 26 out of 27 votes (K.C. got the 27th, which should bring a smile to the face of readers who hate, hate, hated my Royals’ preview.) The team that everyone has exactly the same outlook for? The Houston Astros, even in the largest division in baseball, were a unanimous pick for last place.

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2012 Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates

On July 25th of last year, 100 games into the 2011 season, the leaders of the NL Central were not the St. Louis Cardinals, who would go on to win the World Series, not the Milwaukee Brewers who would end the season comfortably winning the division, and not the defending-division-champion Cincinnati Reds. With a record of 53-47 after 100 games, the Pittsburgh Pirates were atop the NL Central. This was significant for two reasons: One, the Pirates had not had a winning season for 18 straight years, the longest such streak in professional sports in the United States and two, the Pittsburgh Pirates were in first place after 100 games!

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