Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Bundy
3 out of 12 ain't bad...
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1) Beast mode Eric Hosmer
2) Continued dominance from Alex Gordon
3) Great up-the-middle defense from the combo of Perez-Escobar-Cain
4) A full season of second-half 2011 Luke Hochevar
5) Danny Duffy harnessing his stuff
6) Jonathan Sanchez being more 2010 than 2011
7) Joakim Soria returning to form
8) Yuni Betancourt getting no more than 250 at-bats
9) Mike Moustakas keeping up what he started in September 2011
10) A great All-Star game
11) A Royals pennant chase
12) Mike Montgomery making an appearance on the scene
Oh, I think 3/12 is a low estimate. I'd say the five bolded things look like they're going to happen.
Gordon has continued to be an excellent all-around LF.
We haven't seen much of Cain, but what we have seen has shown serious defensive ability (even the play he made today, running down the ball in the right-center gap off Ryan's bad). Escobar and Perez have been just as great defensively as expected.
What I saw of Danny Duffy was a guy harnessing his stuff and learning how to pitch rather than just throw. Small sample size. Call that one incomplete.
And Moose has been a revelation. Much better defensively than expected, and having a very strong offensive campaign.
when I wrote that, it was a "best case scenario" type thing. Hosmer struggling is the most surprising, in my opinion.