Bold Predictions Revisited: Zach Sanders

by
July 3, 2015

Earlier this year, I presented some bold predictions to you, the readers, and since we are now halfway through the season, it’s time to revisit them to see how things are progressing.

1a. Clayton Kershaw will be the No. 1 fantasy player…
It’s going to take a shit-hot second half to propel Kershaw to the top of the board. His ERA needs to sit closer to 2.00 than 3.00, which it is currently above.

1b. …but Max Scherzer will lead the NL in Ks
Off again. Kershaw’s ERA and WHIP may be higher than you’d like, but his K-rate has actually improved. Scherzer is just 10 behind Kershaw and 11 behind Sale, but is there a chance that 1a and 1b will be flipped at the end of the year?

2. Matt Shoemaker will be a top-24 SP
Well that didn’t go right. Shoemaker has fallen victim to homers this year, and his velocity — while trending up — hasn’t been where it needs to be.

3. Jay Bruce will be a top-24 OF
Hey, this one may actually be right! Bruce’s average is up 20 points from last year, and his ISO is nearly 50 points higher.

4. There will be four members of the 20/20 club
Right now we’re on pace for 7-8. No bueno for this guy.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

5. Kennys Vargas will hit at least .260 with 20 HR
Does it count if Vargas may hit .260 with 20 HR in Triple-A?

6. Three Padres will record at least five saves (for the second straight year)
Trading for Craig Kimbrel isn’t fair, you guys.

7. Rubby de la Rosa will have a WHIP of at least 1.50 as a starter
1.24, but dammit, his ERA is still above 4.50.

8. Phil Hughes will be the only Twins starter with an ERA under 4.00, but no starter will have an ERA over 5.00
Kyle Gibson, Tommy Milone, and Mike Pelfrey are all under 4.00, while Hughes is not. Ricky Nolasco is over 5.00 at the moment.

Scoreboard: Right now I’m on pace to be one-for-nine, but I could pick up one more; and y’all said I wasn’t bold enough.





 

Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anonymous
10 years ago

Ouch.

1