Reviewing Jeff Zimmerman’s 2014 Bold Predictions

Another season, another look back at my ineptitude at going BOLD.

1. Miguel Cabrera will not be one of the top two fantasy players.

Miguel Cabrera was the consensus #2 player ranked coming into the season. I saw his health being a concern and someone would leap over him. Not just one player did better, it was 12 plus Trout. Even his teammate Victor Martinez did better.

1 for 1 (considering stopping now)

2. Billy Hamilton will have more stolen bases than base hits.

56 SB vs 141 hits.

I did not think he could hit good enough to be an everyday player. In the first half, he proved me wrong by hitting: .285/.319/.423. In the second half, it was only .200/.254/.257. Even more interesting to me was his .304 BABIP on the season. With his speed, he should be able to bunt and get on more than 30% of the time.

1 for 2

3. Dean Anna will produce more than Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts.

Anna just couldn’t get it going. .136 AVG, 0 SB and 1 HR in 25 PA. The established pair or veterans did better based on just playing time (Roberts got 348 PA and Jeter 634 PA). It wasn’t like either one set the world on fire with their bats, so someone could have stepped up.

Name: AVG/OBP/SLG
Jeter: .256/.304/.313
Roberts: .237/.300/.360

1 for 3

4. Victor Martinez will be a top three catcher at the end of the season.

He would have been the number one catcher if he had caught more games, but he only had two.

1 for 4

5. R.A. Dickey will be a top five pitcher in AL-only leagues.

48th in the MLB, I counted five AL players better than him, so more failure on my part.

Not a horrible season and improvement over 2013. The biggest issue keeping his value down is the lack of strikeouts.

1 for 5

6. Ervin Santana will put up better fantasy numbers than Masahiro Tanaka.

Tanaka #27, Santana #67

Even with the time lost, Tanaka’s work was better. The main is with Santana, besides Tanaka being lights out when he did pitch, was a near 4.00 ERA. It fine for most of the season, except for in May (5.75) and September (6.51).

1 for 6

7. Carlos Quentin will play in a career best 132 games in 2014.

50 games played

I think I must have added the ‘1’ to the 132 by mistake. Or had been drinking heavily.

1 for 7

8. All three of Jose Fernandez (33), Michael Wacha (92), Gerrit Cole (91) will under-perform their average draft position.

Fernandez (#339), Wacha (#355) and Cole (#233)

Injuries and/or sub-par production cost each of these three some value. Nailed my second hit.

2 for 8

9. Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau, Troy Tulowitzki, and Carlos Gonzalez will spend less than 50 days combined on the DL.

Cuddyer: 91 days
Gonzalez: 88 days
Tulowitzki: 71 days
Morneau: 15 days

I think I hit into a triple play on that one. Morneau was the only one by himself who was under 50 days.

2 for 9

10. One RotoGraphs writer will get half of their BOLD predictions correct. Someone will breakout and have a career year.

Holy cow, Eno Sarris and Chad Young got their total all the way up to five out of ten.

3 for 10

Just not a good year again on the BOLD prediction front. I had the right idea in a few places (Yankees infield would suck, Dickey would improve), but I needed to go BOLD and failed. There is always next season.