2056 Montreal Blazers Preview

[Krathan]

Montreal Blazers 2056 Preview
The Montreal Blazers are coming off of a season that saw them win 95 games, finish 2nd in the Atlantic Division and make the playoffs for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. They won their matchup against Boise 3 games to 1 in the Geohagen round but got beat 4-1 by the Cyclones in the Doubleday Round.
This off-season has been full of change. Bob and Erik Breum have stepped in as the new general managers of the ball club this season. The changes were not only in the front office. There are changes all over the diamond.
Catcher:
Jake Rising has been the starter behind the plate in Montreal for the last three seasons but will be replaced by 5 time champion, 2 time all-star, 1 time golden bat, and one time diamond glove award winner Calvin Johnson. Johnson was outstanding last season in San Antonio, putting up 4 WAR on the season compared to Rising’s 1.9 WAR in Montreal. Despite the fact that Johnson has been somewhat inconsistent in his career, with his last four seasons ending with WAR of 4.1, 1.9, 1.5, and 4.0, this is clearly an upgrade at the position. Johnson’s defense is noticeably better than Rising’s (16.9 Framing Runs vs. 9.6) and his career wRC+ is roughly the same as his counterpart (92 vs. 93). Rising will remain with the team as the primary backup.

First Base:
Montreal will be sending two men to the field in a platoon here after Baustio Fardos and his 2.9 WAR last season left via free agency.
Aarnoud Budding will be the left handed side of the platoon. Budding was signed as a free agent over the off-season after putting up 3.8 WAR for Phoenix last year.
40 year-old Quant Kouros will be getting the starts against southpaws this season. Kouros posted -0.7 WAR last season for the Blazers.
Middle Infield:
Eight time All-Star Lineu Aldo will return as the starter at 2B. Aldo has put up 3.9 or more WAR each of the past 4 seasons. There is no reason to believe he will be anything but fantastic offensively again this season. His defense, however, may be more of a concern. Aldo’s ZR in 2055 was -5.2, after posting -3.5 and -1.4 the previous seasons. At 36 years old, he does not have the range he used to have.
At SS, the Blazers will be starting 37 year-old Mauro Soto. He has shown no signs of diminishing range despite his age. Soto posted a ZR of 7.8 at SS in only 57 games last year with Charlotte. He has won the Diamond Glove award 5 times in his career. He is a definite upgrade defensively over the man who played short for the Blazers for the last five years, Dick Walton.
The primary backup at both middle infield positions is 30 year-old journeyman Aleksandr Ginevglekov.

Third Base:
The starter at 3B will be Eduardo Gonzalez as has been the case since 2041. He was named to his 4th All-Star team last year as he led the league with 56 doubles, his 3rd straight season with at least 50. He put up 4.8 WAR last year after posting years of 5 or more WAR two out of the previous three seasons.

Left Field:
The Blazers will employ a platoon in LF this season.
Ramao Saturnino will face right handed pitching and Ricardo Ruiz will face the lefties.
Saturnino put up 1.1 WAR for Hawaii last season and Ruiz posted 0.9 WAR as a part time player in Montreal.
Both are strong defenders who may occasionally contribute offensively.
Center Field:
Montreal will also make use of a platoon in CF after former Blazers star Pedro Rosales left for Portland.
39 year-old defensive specialist Jorge Rincon will play vs RHP and 26 year-old [=https://statsplus.net/brewster/reports/ ... 42583.html]Bill Morley[/url] will play vs LHP.
Morley was acquired in the trade that sent former ace pitcher Carl Vincent to Charm City.
Both players are outstanding defenders. Morley will likely provide more offense than Rincon.

Right Field:
With the loss of Matthew Reilly and his 3.2 WAR, Shirai Matsumoto will get the bulk of the playing time in RF this season. He was also acquired in the Carl Vincent trade. Matsumoto has not been a full-time player up to this point in his career. He has never posted a wRC+ higher than 100. He plays good defense in left and right and has great speed and base running instincts.

Starting Rotation:
After the aforementioned loss of Carl Vincent, the Blazers will go into the season with a 6 man rotation.
Ralph Boyd will return this season after his 2.5 WAR showing in 2055. Montreal will hope to have him regain his form from 2054 when he put up 4.2 WAR.
Bill Mills is also coming off of a down year in which he put up 1.6 WAR and an ERA+ of just 88.
Boris Milatovic, on the other hand, had probably the best year of his career in 2055, with 2.9 WAR.
Cheslav Evgrafov is coming back after a down year with Montreal last year as well with 1.5 WAR and an ERA+ of 87.
New to the rotation this season will be Juan Cruz who has only started 7 of his 49 BBA appearances with a variety teams since 2051. It will be interesting to see how he performs.
Also joining the rotation is Bill McIntosh who struggled in the first two starts of his BBA career in 2055.

Bullpen:
Max Birstall will continue to close games out as the closer this year. He has earned 115 saves over the last three seasons in that role and should continue to be a rock in the 9th inning.
Mitchell Purssell will start the year as the stopper for the Blazers. He has a solid year last year but may need to elevate his play if he will be entering the game in the most important moments for Montreal this season.
Carlton Casson (150 ERA+) Rob Anthony (131 ERA+), Tom Miller (100 ERA+), Ming-hoa Jing (93 ERA+), and Jorge Santos (76 ERA+) round out the rest of the bullpen.
This group of relievers should be solid if most of the players can find their way to similar production as they had last year.

Season Outlook:
The Blazers are still a good team, but they lost a lot of quality players from last year’s 95 win squad. The losses of Vincent, Fardos, Rosales, and Reilly will leave holes that must be filled. The Blazers are filling those holes with platoon bats, players in their mid-late thirties and older, and players with limited experience. In addition to the upgrade at Catcher with Johnson, a few of those players are going to have to come through for the Blazers to approach that win total again. It seems more likely that the team will fall off slightly but still compete for a playoff spot with a win total between 88-92.