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.
I just copied that entire paragraph from last year's predictions compendium but be confident: these prognostications are all Brand Spanking New, except for the one where we forecast the Yankees will win the AL East and the Red Sox, the wild card. We could use that, or swap it up, every year and it wouldn't be out of place. Thanks, competitive financial advantage!
Also, we could explain our choices for the postseason awards (like we did last year) but really, there is no more difficult task than projecting not only the performances of individuals but the whims of sportswriters. One year they're rewarding Justin Morneau for coming up to bat with tons of runners on base and the next they're giving awards to pitchers with historically low win totals. So screw it! We're just randomly throwing darts at a Bud Selig photograph like the rest of ya. You really need me to explain why we think Albert Pujols will win MVP?
So, have at it. In the comments, tell us teams that will be better than most people think, or teams that will shit the bed, or player most likely to get suspended for assaulting a racing sausage with a bat. Whatever floats your boat!
| Division Winners & Wildcards | ||
| AL | NL | |
| East | Yankees | Phillies |
| Central | Tigers | Cardinals |
| West | Mariners | Rockies |
| Wild Cards | Red Sox | Braves |
| - | ||
| Playoff Results | ||
| AL | NL | |
| Division Series | Yankees over Tigers Red Sox over Mariners |
Cardinals over Phillies Braves over Rockies |
| LCS | Yankees over Red Sox | Braves over Cardinals |
| World Series | Yankees over Braves in 4 | |
| - | ||
| Postseason Awards | ||
| AL | NL | |
| Manager of the Year | Jim Leyland, DET (posthumous) | Dusty Baker, CIN |
| Cy Young Award | Felix Hernandez, SEA | Dan Haren, ARI |
| Most Valuable Player | Mark Teixeira, NYY | Albert Pujols, STL |
| Rookie of the Year | Wade Davis, TAM | Jason Heyward, ATL |
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. (yet another sentence I copied and pasted!)
| American League East | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | New York Yankees | 97-65 |
| 2. | Boston Red Sox | 96-66 |
| 3. | Tampa Bay Rays | 85-77 |
| 4. | Baltimore Orioles | 75-87 |
| 5. | Toronto Blue Jays | 67-95 |
| - | ||
| American League Central | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Detroit Tigers | 83-79 |
| 2. | Minnesota Twins | 82-80 |
| 3. | Chicago White Sox | 82-80 |
| 4. | Cleveland Indians | 69-93 |
| 5. | Kansas City Royals | 60-102 |
| - | ||
| American League West | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Seattle Mariners | 94-68 |
| 2. | Texas Rangers | 92-70 |
| 3. | Anaheim Angels | 83-79 |
| 4. | Oakland Athletics | 77-85 |
| - | ||
| National League East | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Philadelphia Phillies | 87-75 |
| 1. | New York Mets | 87-75 |
| 1. | Florida Marlins | 87-75 |
| 1. | Atlanta Braves | 87-75 |
| 5. | Washington Nationals | 61-101 |
| - | ||
| National League Central | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | St. Louis Cardinals | 90-72 |
| 2. | Cincinnati Reds | 83-79 |
| 3. | Chicago Cubs | 81-81 |
| 3. | Pittsburgh Pirates | 81-81 |
| 5. | Milwaukee Brewers | 76-86 |
| 6. | Houston Astros | 74-88 |
| - | ||
| National League West | ||
| Team | Record | |
| 1. | Colorado Rockies | 89-73 |
| 2. | Arizona Diamondbacks | 84-78 |
| 3. | San Francisco Giants | 81-81 |
| 3. | Los Angeles Dodgers | 81-81 |
| 5. | San Diego Padres | 69-93 |
First Iracane prediction to go horribly wrong: Wade Davis will fall down a well and eat Lassie for sustenance. He will be on the DL for three months with Dog AIDS. No ROY award.
Despite having Him in RF, I still don't think the Braves lineup is good enough to make it the World Series. I have the Cardinals beating the Yankees.
The Braves are the only NL team I can find without a hole in their lineup or rotation. If you go by the old "a team is only as good as its weakest link" theory, they're a good bet. No MVP or Cy Young candidates but enough above average humans to seriously challenge the Phillies this year.
This will all be for naught if Glaus, Chipper, Hudson, and Wagner all spend three months on the DL, of course.
Very clever April Fool's Day joke with the Dusty Baker pick, but I'm on to you whippersnappers.
Hey guys, I found a calculator! You know, for two dopes who never purported to try to get the wins and losses to add up, your league totals came in at 2440 wins and 2420 losses, meaning you missed the mark by only 10 games, an average of only .333 games wrong per team. Good work, er, guessing.
Now when the Rangers finish 20 games below .500, you'll know where you went wrong.
Stop making us bad by making us look almost smart!
BrianMatuszBrianMatuszBrianMatusz
Y'know, just to make it clear in case it isn't... these are Rob's picks except for the division. Not me. I can be unbiased enough to pick the Yankees to win the division but the series? C'mon. I'd quit first.
If the Braves make the playoffs (and I think they will) Bobby will win manager of the year, and ride a horse off into the distance
I see nothing wrong with this picks, especially the WS prediction. Great work Rob.
*these picks
I gotta say, you people are all going to be astonished when the Red Sox win a hundred games. I'm serious. This will happen. The Yankees are going to be stunned when they're left in the dust after the first month of the season and everybody absolutely CRUSHES Sabathia for being a slow starter. Like it's his fault they have Vazquez and Hughes at the back of the rotation.
And I am fully prepared to eat crow at the end of the season, but I feel good about this prediction.
Jacka"homer"licious
The Sox winning 100 is so very much within the realm of possibility. The Yankees left in the dust? I can only see that happening because of (a) injuries or (b) a freak duststorm in the Bronx.
No way the Orioles win 75 games