Jeremy Sowers, David Wright & Gary Matthews Jr.

The debut of a new column, here at the Mop Up Duty. Many other sites will play it safe with predictions like “the Yankees will win the AL east, Ichiro will hit over .300” and the like. But we’re going to do something different, we’re going to push the envelope. We call it Wild Proclamations. Going out on a limb, we’ll predict an outcome for the 2007 season that’s a little out there, but something we feel will end up happening. Please, share your opinion with us, letting us know if we’re on the money or clearly insane. Here we go;

Jeremy Sowers will win at least 17 games

Sowers had the 2nd lowest post all-star ERA in the American League, trailing only Santana. He cut down on hits and HR allowed as the season progressed. In fact, while he only started for about half a season, he tied for the league led in shutouts. To win games he’ll need a potent offense, and all signs point towards the Indians improving in 2007. Sizemore will look to increase upon his league leading 134 runs scored, Hafner will hope to stay healthy and maintain his AL leading OPS, and the young core of Garko, Matre and company should improve.

David Wright will hit less than 17 HR

In Wright’s first season and a half in the majors, he tore the cover off the ball. But after the 2006 Home Run Derby, Mr. Potty mouth Wright seemed to lose his power. Now I’m not saying that the HR derby is directly attributably to the HR decline (although the same thing happened to Abreu), but in the post all-star split Wright hit only 6 HR in 243 AB, for a rate of 1 HR per 40.5 AB. In the first half he hit 20 and had a rate of 1 HR per 16.95 AB.

Gary Matthews Jr. will revert back to 2005 form

Matthews had a breakout season in 2006 and now he’s a FA. Odds are that he’ll leave Texas. While his 2006 splits were fairly even, I’m not buying Matthews as a late blooming superstar player. I predict a decline of 25 runs scored, 6 home runs, and 18 RBI. This guy hit .313 in 2006, and .255 in 2005, for a career average .263. Considering he’s most likely going to receive $8 – $10 million, someone’s going to get burned on Matthews.