How many homeruns will Kearns hit this year?

[OnBaseMachine]

I've started a little series of posts to see how many homeruns everyone thinks the starters will hit this year...so far we've established how many we think EE and Felipe will hit. It's Kearns' turn now.

Austin showed some promise in the second half of last season, putting up an .851 OPS in 217 atbats. This Spring he has came in looking a lot thinner and in better playing shape. I think he is primed to have a big breakout year this time around. A healthy, 2002-early 2003 Kearns makes this lineup possibly the best in baseball, in my opinion.

I think he hits somewhere in the range of .285-.300, boasts a solid OBP of .385 or higher, posts an OPS in the .900 area and hits 31 homeruns.

[KronoRed]

25, 4 a month.

[Barbarossa]

I'm thinkin' 28. No particular reason. Just a hunch.

[shredda2000]

23

[Sabo17]

I will have to go with 26 if he can stay healthy..

[M2]

A part of me hopes Kearns doesn't hit a lot of homers this year. IMO, a lot of what him such a revelation in 2002 was his BA/OB skills. Kearns can be a very good player hitting twentysomething HRs.

He doesn't need to try to hit HR. Instead concentrate on consistency and let the HR fall where they may.

[Highlifeman21]

A part of me hopes Kearns doesn't hit a lot of homers this year. IMO, a lot of what him such a revelation in 2002 was his BA/OB skills. Kearns can be a very good player hitting twentysomething HRs.

He doesn't need to try to hit HR. Instead concentrate on consistency and let the HR fall where they may.

The better question should be how many walks will Kearns have? For him to help this team to his full potential, I easily think he'll need to have an OBP over .375 to offer protection on both sides of him, which means he'll probably need somewhere in the ballpark of I wanna say 70 to 80 walks. Does he have that in him?

[Falls City Beer]

He'll get injured when the losses mount up.