It's the most wonderful time of the year! When baseball writers and bloggers everywhere pretend they have some sort of inside scoop or analytical advantage over the average fan and attempt to wow folks with virtually impossible-to-predict prognostications! And we're no different! We've already taken you through our divisional previews, but now we'd like to foist our playoff and award predictions upon you, kind reader. Please feel free to criticize our outlandish guesses and to share your own outlandish guesses in the comment section.
To highlight some of our award selections, we believe that Dusty Baker will win Manager of the Year in the National League when he bumbles his way towards a winning record and a distant second place behind the Cubs in the Central. He's got a significantly improving powerful and speedy offense and could luck out with a young rotation. Just don't expect him to repeat success in 2010 when every one of those pitchers blows out their rotator cuff. Felix Hernandez is entering the prime of his career and should put up crazy strikeout numbers this year. He'll win the Cy Young if the defense behind him keeps his ERA low and the potential tater tots all end up caught on the warning track at Safeco.
We picked Grady Sizemore to win AL MVP to appease our two Indians fan readers, while we chose Manny Ramirez to win NL MVP because (a) he's really good (b) he's the best RBI guy on a high-OBP team and (c) he's really good, y'all. Dick Harden has great stuff and should notch 20 wins as long as he stays healthy, while Bob Geren will look like a genius just by putting out Billy Beane's new lineup every day.
Enough of the prattling! Onto the picks!
| Division Winners & Wildcards | ||
| AL | NL | |
| East | Yankees | Phillies |
| Central | Indians | Cubs |
| West | Athletics | Dodgers |
| Wild Cards | Red Sox | Mets |
| - | ||
| Playoff Results | ||
| AL | NL | |
| Division Series | Yankees over Indians Red Sox over Athletics |
Cubs over Mets Dodgers over Phillies |
| LCS | Yankees over Red Sox | Cubs over Dodgers |
| World Series | Cubs over Yankees in 7 | |
| - | ||
| Postseason Awards | ||
| AL | NL | |
| Manager of the Year | Bob Geren, OAK | Dusty Baker, CIN |
| Cy Young Award | Felix Hernandez, SEA | Dick Harden, CHC |
| Most Valuable Player | Grady Sizemore, CLE | Manny Ramirez, LAD |
| Rookie of the Year | Elvis Andrus, TEX | Cameron Maybin, FLA |
After the jump, check out our predictions for each team's record and a link to the written previews for each division. You'll want to bookmark this page so you can come back in September and guffaw at our many missteps.
| American League East | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | New York Yankees | 99-63 |
| 2. | Boston Red Sox | 95-67 |
| 3. | Tampa Bay Rays | 92-70 |
| 4. | Baltimore Orioles | 79-83 |
| 5. | Toronto Blue Jays | 76-86 |
| - | ||
| American League Central | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Cleveland Indians | 83-79 |
| 2. | Detroit Tigers | 82-80 |
| 3. | Minnesota Twins | 81-81 |
| 4. | Kansas City Royals | 78-84 |
| 5. | Chicago White Sox | 70-92 |
| - | ||
| American League West | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Oakland Athletics | 87-75 |
| 2. | Anaheim Angels | 85-77 |
| 3. | Seattle Mariners | 75-87 |
| 4. | Texas Rangers | 69-93 |
| - | ||
| National League East | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Philadelphia Phillies | 92-70 |
| 2. | New York Mets | 90-72 |
| 3. | Florida Marlins | 79-83 |
| 4. | Atlanta Braves | 76-86 |
| 5. | Washington Nationals | 66-96 |
| - | ||
| National League Central | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Chicago Cubs | 99-63 |
| 2. | Cincinnati Reds | 89-73 |
| 3. | St. Louis Cardinals | 82-80 |
| 4. | Milwaukee Brewers | 79-83 |
| 5. | Houston Astros | 75-87 |
| 6. | Pittsburgh Pirates | 68-94 |
| - | ||
| National League West | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Los Angeles Dodgers | 88-74 |
| 2. | Arizona Diamondbacks | 84-78 |
| 3. | San Francisco Giants | 81-81 |
| 4. | San Diego Padres | 74-88 |
| 5. | Colorado Rockies | 67-95 |
I hope you are as wrong as you were last year.
Only one way to find out. MAKE WITH THE BASEBALL SEASON ALREADY
I took the liberty of extracting the WoW Theme Song. It was compressed a few times, so the quality isn't the best, but I figured every reader needed to know their favorite site's theme song.
Cubs over Yankees in 7? Come on Rob, bring your homerism hard or don't bring it all.
You've done the Lord's work, Colonel. Thank you.
You know, wild card teams occasionally win playoff series. Several, actually.
Yankees over Red Sox
Cubs over Dodgers
Cubs over Yankees in 7
I think that is Fox's wet dream right there.
I had no idea who Oakland's manager was until this post. Thanks WoW!
Also, since everyone is bookmarking this for September...
The Braves will not finish worse than 2nd in the division.
Prediction for posterity: Reds will not finish higher than the Cardinals.
Kris did the NL standings prediction while I handled the AL standings predictions this year. That's my way of saying "I agree with Matt, the Braves will finish at least in second place". The Phillies got worse in the offseason. Chan Ho Park? Really?
Other than that, I see nothing egregious about his predictions, except maybe that the Reds will win closer to 80 games than 90, but still finish in second. Also, if you add up all the wins and losses across the league, we're off by about 20. Which really isnt that bad considering there will be over 2400 games played this year.
This is the best April Fools joke I've seen so far today.
This is one savvy post, boys. You've appeased the massive Yankees and rowdy Phillies blogospheres, as well as the mighty Geoff Baker, and Chief Wahoo. And in the same stroke, you've drawn the ire (and unique impressions) of the, um, enthusiastic Blue Jay nation. To top it off, if the Cubs somehow make a run, you'll be the only sane blog to have called it. I tip my cap to you.
Thanks, Gewurztraminer. I love your crisp wine.
Twins win 90. Cubs don't make the playoffs
Just had Shazam FAIL on the theme song, which is the greatest theme song I've ever heard.
I thought "Rookie" by FLOW was the WoW theme song?
Forgive me for asking but are you guys doing the thing where we have to predict third place again?
I vote winner gets to hear the Street Team croon for them!
Joba brings up a good point. BRING BACK THE MEANINGLESS MEDIOCRITY MEASUREMENT MADNESS!
So wrong about the Blue Jays. Just. So. Wrong.
And like Rob says, we did different leagues. The only way the Yankees make the World Series in my AL is if we let 3rd place teams in the playoffs.
DEY TOO OLD
Average age of Red Sox starters (incl rotation): 31
Average age of Yankees starters (incl rotation): 29
YOU WERE SAYING?!?
Yankees over Indians? How'd that work out for you last time?
The last time the prediction was a bit buggy.
Isn't gnat the truth.
Not so sure about Oakland winning the west, but Grady Sizemore is definitely the MVP of the AL. Please delete this comment in October, something is going to make me look dumb.