Week Two Predictions

With only one week in the books, I’m already rethinking how I feel about certain teams this year. Weeks 2 and 3 will go a long way in determining which teams look decent on paper but crumble on the field and which teams are gelling better than expected. There are several teams who are looking to justify lofty pre-season expectations and others looking to prove that the first week is just the beginning of great things to come. I’ll highlight four games this week that I feel have the most long term meaning for the teams involved. Once again, I will not make a final prediction for any games involving my own team.

Mamone vs. Lapine

Team Mamone is built for Union Hill, but with Mamone and Turner missing this week, the scene is set for Lapine to continue to take most of the league by surprise. This isn’t going to be a cakewalk though. Mamone is still going to bring it with their bats this Sunday. The question is whether or not they have enough outfielders to keep Team Lapine in check. While Team Mamone is going to win a lot of games this year, I think they’re missing enough guys to fall to a very underrated Team Lapine.

Winner: Lapine

Wallman vs. Harris

Before the season started I imagined Team Wallman as this year’s Team Goldfarb- a team that wins a lot of games by playing solid defense and getting on base as opposed to hitting a lot of homeruns. But while one week might not be enough to draw any conclusions, Wallman’s disappointing performance against Lapine makes me wonder if the lack of any consistent power threat is going to cost this team. The good news is If there is any field that can showcase this team’s strengths and hide its weakness then it’s Municipal. It’s also the perfect field to play Team Harris who has several fly ball hitters who might be silenced by the dreaded Municipal outfield. This game is crucial to Wallman. If they win, then they can write off the first week as an anomaly. If they lose on a field that’s tailor made to their strengths, then they could be in for a dreadful season.

Winner: Wallman

Schefkind vs. Feldman

Looking back on it, my 13-9 Schefkind prediction may have been a tad bit optimistic. While I still think the team is well-balanced, I don’t think they deserve a better outlook than teams like Mamone, Lapine, Goldfarb, or their Sunday’s opponent Team Feldman. This is clearly a different Fledman team from years past(despite a third of the team being the Feldmans themselves) and I actually see them as the top team in the NL East this season. These are two good teams, but I think this will be a big Statement game by Feldman’s crew. One side note: What should Team Feldman’s theme song be this year? I think for many people “We Are Family” is the family song that immediately comes to mind, maybe because it was adopted by the 1979 Pirates. For me it's always been Sly Stone’s “Family Affair” so I’m going with that.  I hate disco anyway.

Winner: Feldman

Pollock vs. Carlin

With Ron Carlin going a perfect 3 for 3 and Brad Goldstein hitting 2 hrs, everything seemed to be in its right place for Team Carlin to win its first of many games this year. So how did they end up losing to Beilis? Clearly, the supporting cast is going to have to step it up and help Brad, Mark, and Ron if they’re going to rise to the top of the American League. Team Pollock’s first week, however, went as predicted(by some people at least) as we used a heavy dose of offense to beat Harris. This is a matchup that has bigger ramifications of Carlin’s team loses than if they win. If Team Carlin loses, then perhaps the much discussed penalty was fair and Team Carlin isn’t the superpower some of us thought. A Pollock win would also show the league that Team Pollock’s 2011 season wasn’t a fluke.

For the rest of the matchups the projected winner will be in bold:

Beilis vs. Sarcona- Beilis is coming off a huge victory over Carlin. One or two more wins then maybe I’ll become a believer. I still think Sarcona will rebound from a tough first week.

Jacoby vs. Younger- Same exact commentary as Beilis vs. Sarcona. Only difference is Jacoby’s squad might need a few more weeks for their abundance of rookies to get acclimated to the league. Team Younger might be off to a much better start than I originally predicted.

Applebaum vs. Goldfarb- One of only two games where both teams were victorious in week one. I see this as one of those weeks where Ari Mesmer goes 5 for 5 and Schindelheim hits a huge 3-run home run at some point.

Granese vs. Randell- Randell’s big hitters will be salivating for the chance to play at Union Hill.