Montreal Expos 2002 Season Preview

by Barry Swanton

If you have any Montreal Expos memorabilia, you had better save it. It's a safe bet the Expos will be contracted in 2003 or at least moved to another city. Years from now kids will be asking, "Who were the Montreal Expos?" The failure of the Expos over the past few years can be traced to a bad stadium, a low Canadian dollar and owners who were happy with the teams' status quo.

This season the Expos will be owned and operated by Major League Baseball. In other words, the Major League owners. Conflict of interest you say??? Frank Robinson has been installed as the manager, and this was a good choice. He will have a number a good players to work with.

The infield is a bright spot. First baseman Lee Stevens had a career year last season with 25 home runs and 95 RBI's. Jose Vidro (.319) led all National League second baseman in batting average. Shortstop Orlando Cabrerra improved from the previous season and should be even better this year. The Expos hope that Fernando Tatis can stay injury free and get his power numbers back to where they were when he was with the Cardinals. Michael Barrett is a catcher on the rise, one who batted .250 with 33 doubles.

Spring training will determine who will play in the outfield with Vladmir Guerrero (.307, 34 HR., 108 RBI). He is as good a player as there is in the league.

Javier Vasquez (16-11) was 7-1, 0.90 ERA in his last nine starts and is the ace of the staff. Tony Armas (9-14) is solid and should improve his performance over last season. Carl Pavano has always been rated highly and the Expos hope he can get over the injury bug. The rest of the starting staff and bullpen are questionable. This could open the door for youngsters like Justin Wayne, Zach Day and Josh Karp. The Expos have always been able to produce good young players who thrive when given a chance.

What would happen if the Expos are challenging for a wild card spot and need that one player to get them into the playoffs? It would be interesting to see the owners reaction to that scenario. It should be an interesting year for the Expos.

Ten Years Ago...

Our Expos Preview from April 1992, by Len Shepard:

Strengths and weaknesses: Their strength is speed and their weakness is consistent power. One lineup will give you good defense, the other might give you good hitting. I can't imagine one lineup giving you both. What is youth, a strength, weakness, or both? Consider this potential lineup: DeShields-2B, Barberie-3B, Grissom-CF, Calderon-LF, Wallach 1B (or traded), Walker-RF, Reyes-C, Cordero-SS, Nabholz-SP.

Except for Calderon and Wallach, you've got 7 players with at most 2 years experience, and Wetteland is the potential closer. Who are these guys?

General Outlook for '92: They'll be battling the Phillies for last.

Perspective: Will the roof fall in on them this year? No. That happened last year. Gary Carter is back! He can certainly help with the young pitching staff and no doubt he'll bring back some veteran fans

Interesting-things to watch for: SPEED. It'll be Runnells' runners. The Expos will push a lot of little runs around. If you want to see the three-run homer, watch the Cubs. Expo pitching, except when Dennis Martinez is throwing, won't be good enough to make up for the lack of run production.

Further Comments: Lineup possibilities : C-Reyes, Santovenia, Carter, Colbrunn. 1B-Calderon, Walker, Wallach (or traded?). 2b-Deshields. SS-Cordero, Owen. 3B-Barberie. OF-Calderon, Grissom, Walker, Vanderwal, Darren Reed, Moises Alou. SP-D. Martinez, Ken Hill, Nabholz, Mark Gardner (Barnes, Haney). RP-Wettland is the closer, Fassero, Rojas, Sampen.