Obsessive baseball fan and heavily-cited statistician Bill James' 2015 Baseball Handbook has just been released, and it contains favorable projections for a few Los Angeles Dodgers players slated to have key roles for the team next season.
Here's some of the highlights, with information courtesy of True Blue LA's Eric Stephen:
- James' offensive projections are usually skewed favorably for hitters, but Alex Guerrero is projected to hit .278/.300/.483 with 24 home runs in 2015...provided he finds playing time.
- Joc Pederson is projected to hit .269/.355/.462 with 26 home runs and 29 steals, which would instantly vault Pederson to favorite status for the NL Rookie of the Year award.
- Andre Ethier is projected to slash .270/.350/.420 with 12 home runs.
- James projects Yasiel Puig to post an eye-popping .316/.399/530 slash with 23 home runs, ranking him fifth in MLB in OPS, behind only Mike Trout (.992), Miguel Cabrera (.965), Paul Goldschmidt (.955) and Giancarlo Stanton (.950).
- Clayton Kershaw is projected to go 21-5 with a 2.37 ERA and 245 strikeouts in 232 innings pitched, making him the only pitcher in Major League Baseball projected in the handbook to win more than 16 games.
Once again these are just projections, but these are at least exciting numbers to keep in mind with spring training nearly two months away.
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