This is pretty amazing and it's worthy of its own post. A Yankees blog took Baseball Primer's ZiPS projections and ran them through a Diamond Mind simulator. The simulator predicts the Pirates will win 82 games and says they'll have a 17% chance of making the playoffs. Even if the Pirates actually played guys that ZiPS likes (Ryan Doumit at catcher, Craig Wilson in right field, Nate McLouth in center), I don't see how it could reach those conclusions. And obviously, these things need to be taken with a grain of salt. The simulations also have Minnesota winning the AL Central, the Braves finishing at .500 (it thinks the Pirates will have a better record than the Braves!) and the Padres finishing last in the NL West. None of those things seem likely. But maybe the 2006 season isn't quite as bleak as it seems?
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