Padres News: PECOTA Projections Have Dodgers in Front of Friars in NL West
The 2023 MLB season will be here in a blink of an eye. Pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training, and a sense of new life is among many teams, including the not-so-great teams this time of year.
One of those teams outside of that department is your San Diego Padres, who will be set to make some serious noise in 2023.
San Diego had a spectacular offseason and will look to build off that in Spring Training and beyond. The gold and brown are set to take the NL West crown away from the Los Angeles Dodgers; however, the Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm (PECOTA) released their latest projections, and they have the Friars behind LA in the NL West once again.
According to PECOTA, the Padres will finish roughly three games behind their rivals and have an 88.6% chance of making the postseason. They are also projecting San Diego to score 792 runs a game which is 4.8 runs a game, a 34.7% chance to win the division, and a 53.9% chance at making the wild card.
The Friars have the best lineup in the division on paper by far. They have two young studs in Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr, two all-star veterans in Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts, and one of the best rotations in baseball.
In the meantime, LA will not be the LA we saw in 2022, and with the gold and brown eliminating their rivals in the postseason, they might have their number now.
PECOTA must still believe in Los Angeles to have them ahead of a revamped and reloaded San Diego. The pieces are nice, but the Pads will prove it on the diamond.
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