Jacksonville Hurricanes 2057 Preview

[neugey]

GM Aaron Weiner and the Hurricanes have been sneaky good in the last few years, and perhaps overshadowed by Charm City’s titles and prolific regular season records in the Atlantic. But tomorrow brings with it a new start and given some of the momentum Jacksonville has been building, I wouldn’t be shocked to see them take the Atlantic in 2057 given some breaks fall their way.

It's been awhile since Jacksonville’s 2029-2040 dynasty that saw them qualify for the postseason 12 years in a row and win 3 Brewster titles in that stretch. Thus the older fans in in the Jacksonville market can tend to be an overly optimistic bunch when the team starts to see a little success. But this seems like a team built to manage those expectations and continue to give themselves a shot for the postseason.

Last season the Hurricanes finished 3rd in runs in the Johnson and 4th in pitching. These numbers should remain steady as most of the 2056 will return. The biggest departure is lefty SP Mark Thomas who went 11-8 last year. He’ll be replaced by new arrival Gavrilovich Mastinsky, who has a better fastball and is less prone to home run. In the bullpen, righty Todd Schroeder may be missed as he contributed 6 holds and 7 saves with a 2.75 ERA. His successor appears to be Arthur Dunn. Dunn is an interesting case in that he is only 27 years old but is already severely injury prone. If the Hurricanes can keep him healthy though he has a flamethrower for a fastball. The other additions seem pretty minor – some budget bullpen pieces and a few depth options for shortstop. No worries – the team is pretty well set.

The rotation features dual aces in Bob Anderson and Bernie Stuart. Behind those two the rotation is steady but not spectacular. The team would really benefit SP Juan Marroquin could shave a run or so off his ERA.

Alejandro Chavez returns as the team’s closer and still seems to be in great form at age 31. There do seem to be a lot of new faces in the bullpen however, and a new pecking order will need to be established so the team can turn the ball over to Chavez near the end of the game.

Catcher Luis Gonzales is defensive dynamo. But it seems like the team will be without him for a few weeks due to injury. The team hit paydirt in free agency in 2056 with Daniel Pepper, who hit 28 homers and 128 RBI. The team is hoping for a repeat performance. CF Manoell Whanon is 36 but can still hit for solid average and play good defense. The Hurricanes also have one of the better cleanup hitters in the game in RF Donald Miller (38 HR, 123 RBI in 2056). Pablo Lara is a very well-rounded hitter and is dependable defensively. Captain Stefan Adilov mostly plays 3B and his forte is hitting doubles (36 in 2056). The team would also love to see 1B Pedro Hozven hit .310 again.

I’ll predict 95 wins for Jacksonville in 2057. Whether that is enough to win the division or not will probably depend on what Charm City does.

[aaronweiner]

So confused. That’s like 40 more wins than the “Predictions” gave us.

Also tracks much closer to my own analysis. Thanks.