Brin-l, May 24, 2001 Hi Doug. Thanks for the greetings and congratulations. I do indeed still have faith in the A's. In fact, I can proudly claim that I told Dan _weeks_ ago that I still thought they'd win around 90 games, even after their horrible slump. I think they'll win the Wild Card, actually. I am, however, still very confused about why they aren't hitting for power this year. It's very strange. Hitting for power is one of the most stable baseball skills. I'm very puzzled. OTOH, if they are currently _still_ not playing up to their potential and winning like this then I have hope for them still. The Twins I have no faith in - Cleveland will win, particularly once Lofton starts hitting. I _do_ have faith in the Red Sox, despite my suspicion of any team willing to employ Dante Bichette. The upper levels of the Yankee farm system may be too barren to trade, as they are surely too smart to trade Nick Johnson (possibly the best hitting prospect since Frank Thomas, imho) for anything, so they may be crippled in terms of offense. They might take some poor sap of a GM for a ride by trading Alfonso Soriano, though, come to think of it. Thank goodness the Orioles don't have anyone worth trading for, or I'm sure they'd take advantage of us somehow. Ummm, I still think the Braves will recover and win the NL East, but only if Schuerholz figures out that no, you _really can't_ win if Rico Brogna is playing first base for you. I can't figure that man out - it really doesn't take much to realize that they desperately need hitting. Neither B.J. Surhoff nor Brian Jordan has ever been all that good. But I think Lopez and A. Jones will come back to form, so they should be okay. The NL Central is a tossup, I guess, but my money's on St. Louis instead of Houston just because their pitching looks a little better - Albert Pujols is just not real, however. He _has_ to come back to earth eventually, but we're already looking at quite possibly the best third baseman of the next decade, is my guess. Phenomenal. And, umm, I haven't even thought about the NL West - the Giants have been weakened too much since last year, the Padres are too young/weak, the Rockies can't hit all that well, the Dodgers seem to be cursed - but I guess I'll go with the Dodgers. Not too confident in that one, though. So how's that for my ruminations on the season? :-)
*** Not bad. You missed Arizona (but said you weren't sure about the NL West) and said you had confidence in the Red Sox (but who could have predicted what happened there?) -- Doug email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.zo.com/~brighto
