Holy cow. I’ve been looking at various types of projections for about four years now and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a set worse than the ZiPS projections for the Pirates in 2009. Only three hitters, (Adam LaRoche, Nate McLouth, and Ryan Doumit) are projected to have an OPS+ of over 100 (that is, better than average) and only Matt Capps and John Grabow (two relievers) are projected to have an ERA+ of over 100.
If you’ve got time, there’s some good discussion as to why some of the projections are so low and why they might not be accurate (Ian Snell and Andy LaRoche figure prominently), but that doesn’t change the fact that we could be in for one awful year of baseball this summer.
When do pitchers and catchers report again?
