[guamyank]

March 15th, 1874 - SEASON PREDICTIONS

The new season is almost upon us, so let's take a look at this year's teams.

Baltimore Canaries - Lip Pike and a swarm of other players have abandoned the Canaries, leaving pretty much nothing behind. The team will be going with a 2 man rotation of Asa Brainard and Jack Manning. Brainard pitched 46 innings with a 1.93 ERA, while Manning only pitched a few innings with 12.00 ERA. Oscar Bielaski and Johnny Ryan are good hitters...after that...not much to look at here. The Canaries will struggle.

Boston Red Stockings - Boston picked up outfielders George Hall and Cal McVey from Baltimore, making their lineup the most powerful in the league. Al Spalding returns as the starting pitcher, and the Red Stockings look like they are set to win their 3rd pennant.

Brooklyn Atlantics - Rookie Pitcher Tommy Bond is the Atlantics main hurler, this season. He's a bit of a question mark, along with several other players on the team. There's some good and some bad here, overall these Atlantics look like a .500 club at best.

Chicago White Stockings - In their first year back since the great fire, Chicago looks to actually field a decent team this season. Their infield is excellent, and while the outfield is a bit more suspect, it isn't terrible either. George Zettlein had a mediocre season last year (3.71 ERA), he's going to have to pitch well for this team to compete. Still, they have a shot at finishing the season with a winning record.

Hartford Dark Blues - Lip Pike, and several other .300 plus hitters join the new Hartford Dark Blues, to make up a team that should be competitive right out of the gate. Bill Stearns pitched well last year for the Blue Legs (2.94 ERA). Hartford has a shot at a second or third place finish.

New York Mutuals - New York has a solid lineup and their pitcher is Bobby Mathews. After winning the triple crown in 1872 with a 1.69 ERA, Bobby came back to earth a bit last year as his ERA jumped to 2.92. Still, this is a very good team, and they could challenge Boston for the pennant.

Philadelphia Athletics - The defending champs still have a solid lineup, but aging Dick McBride has seen his ERA rise steadily over 3 seasons. McBride is the key to this team...he needs to find a way to get his ERA in check if the Athletics want a chance to repeat.

Philadelphia White Stockings - With several key players from Baltimore and New York jumping ship to the White Stockings, this looks like the Philly team to beat this season. Here are the new players for the Whites: Candy Cummings (2.93 - BAL), John Radcliff (.366 - BAL), Dave Eggler (.331 - NYM), Tom York (.385 - BAL), Jim Holdsworth (.317 NYM), Bill Craver (.340 - BAL), Nat Hicks (.318 - NYM). Chick Fulmer (.327) and Denny Mack (.267), are the only returning top position players. The pennant might stay in Philly this year, but if it does it will likely be on a different Philly team.