2011 Baseball Preseason Predictions

With baseball starting up its engines this week, its time for me to do my annual beginning of the year predictions again!  Hooray!  Last season, I got 1 of 4 AL playoff teams correct, and 2 of 4 NL playoff teams correct.  My predicted World Series winner didn’t even make the playoffs.  I did get 1 of 6 season awards right (NL Cy Young).

That’s not very good.  But that doesn’t mean I should give up!  I gotta go at it harder than ever!  So, let’s try this again.  Here are my 2011 baseball season predictions.

Division and Wild Card Winners:

AL West: Oakland (2nd: Texas, 3rd: Anaheim, 4th: Seattle)

AL Central: Chicago (2nd: Minneasota, 3rd: Detroit, 4th: Kansas City, 5th: Cleveland)

AL East: Boston (2nd: New York, 3rd: Tampa Bay, 4th: Toronto, 5th: Baltimore)

Wild Card: New York

I’m pretty sure there’s a baseball rule that states the Wild Card has to come out of the AL East, so that’s where I’ll go with it.  New York and Boston are pretty much interchangeable.  I hope they both lose and miss the playoffs (Go Orioles!), but that’s as likely as me being approached by Mila Kunis while I’m out and about for a night of epic romance.  Not happening.  I’ll go homer and pick the A’s to win the West.  Their pitching is unreal…so hopefully their offensive additions can keep up.  The Central is dumb…I’ll just flip a coin.  Tails never fails, so Chicago it is.

NL West: San Francisco (2nd: Colorado, 3rd: Los Angeles, 4th: San Diego, 5th: Arizona)

NL Central: Cincinnati (2nd: St. Louis, 3rd: Milwaukee, 4th: Chicago, 5th: Houston, 6th: Pittsburgh)

NL East: Philadelphia (2nd: Atlanta, 3rd: Washington, 4th: New York, 5th: Florida)

Wild Card: Colorado

Philadelphia went out and signed pretty much every pitcher ever, so their pitching is pretty much on par with Oakland’s now.  The difference being that the Phillies have an offense to match their pitching.  They win the East running away.  I’ll take Cincy in the Central again…mostly because the Cards lost Adam Wainwright for the season, and that really sucks for them.  All the NL Central teams are crap.  The West should be an interesting race!  The Giants somehow won the World Series last season, after barely clinching their division on the last day of the season.  LA kinda sucks now…Colorado should be good, though…but probably not Giants good.  Shit, I hate picking them to win anything.  I’ll give the West the Wild Card as well with Colorado.

Playoffs

Oakland def. New York

Chicago def. Boston

Philadelphia def. Colorado

San Francisco def. Cincinnati

Oakland def. Chicago

Philadelphia def. San Francisco

Philadelphia def. Oakland

You know, this is pretty homer of me, picking Oakland to go to the World Series…but with their pitching, they can mow through anyone in October.  I mean, if they just can make the playoffs, I think they make a run!  Getting in will be tough for them, though.  Philly, on the other hand, is just a great team.  Them losing to SF last season was a fluke, and won’t happen again.  They’re just too good right now to not win another World Series.  But imagine a World Series with Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, Hamels, Anderson, Cahill, Gonzalez, and Braden.  I’m pretty sure all 8 of those pitchers had obscene QS and ERA+ stats last year.  What a pitchers duel every night.  I’m going to hope for that!  Although I’ll be crushed if the A’s actually make the World Series, only to lose…

Season Awards:

AL MVP: Adrian Gonzalez - BOS

NL MVP: Albert Pujols - STL

AL Cy Young: Brett Anderson - OAK

NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay - PHI

AL RoY: Jeremy Hellickson - TB

NL RoY: Brandon Belt - SF

And, I'll steal this disclaimer from Gregg Easterbrook: "All predictions wrong or your money back!"