March 28, 2014

2014 MLB Preseason Predictions!

Oh, shit, that's right.  I have a blog!  OK, I'll use it to post baseball predictions!

Hello! Fresh off my recent Spring Training trip, its time for me to predict the upcoming baseball season.  Needless to say, I’m pretty awesome at predicting things.  Last season, I got 3 of 5 AL playoff teams correct (AL Central, AL West, and I had TB in, although in the wrong spot), including the BACK TO BACK AL WEST CHAMPION ATHLETICS!  Boo Yah!  In the NL, I got 4 of 5 playoff teams correct, which is amazing.  I correctly predicted the winner of the NL West.  I also had Cincy, Atlanta, and St. Louis making the playoffs, although in different spots. So that’s all pretty good!  Let’s try to do better this year.

Division and Wild Card Winners:

AL West: Oakland (2nd: Texas, 3rd: Seattle, 4th: Anaheim, 5th: Houston)
AL Central: Detroit (2nd: Cleveland, 3rd: Chicago, 4th: Kansas City, 5th: Minnesota)
AL East: Tampa Bay (2nd: Boston, 3rd: Baltimore, 4th: New York, 5th: Toronto)
Wild Card: Boston
Wild Card: Cleveland

So I was going to pick Kansas City as the “Pittsburgh” like story of the season this year…long suffering team who breaks through and makes a run.  But then Dave Stewart told me he thought Cleveland was good enough to go to the World Series…and I can’t bet against Stew!  So Cleveland is in KC’s wildcard spot.  The A’s look like the team to beat in the West.  The rest of the division has shit for pitching.  Which is nice.  I’ll take Tampa to win the East (their pitching is insane), and Boston to come close and win a wild card…because they're still pretty good.

NL West: Los Angeles (2nd: San Francisco, 3rd: Arizona, 4th: San Diego, 5th: Colorado)
NL Central: St. Louis (2nd: Cincinnati, 3rd: Pittsburgh, 4th: Milwaukee, 5th: Chicago)
NL East: Washington (2nd: Atlanta, 3rd: Philadelphia, 4th: Miami, 5th: New York)
Wild Card: Atlanta
Wild Card:  San Francisco

LA has more money than God…and smartly spent it on pitching depth.  Which is awesome.  They should take the West.  I actually really like the Giants this year too, so I’ll give them a wild card.  That probably makes me a bad Dodgers fan, but such is life!  St. Louis has to be the team to beat…they are so so good.  I think Pittsburgh fades back to the pack this year…but their future is bright.  And look for a rebound from Washington…who was too good to suck as much as they did last season.


Playoffs

Cleveland def. Boston
San Francisco def. Atlanta

Detroit def. Tampa Bay
Oakland def. Cleveland
St. Louis def. San Francisco
Los Angeles def. Washington

Oakland def. Detroit (FINALLY)
St. Louis def. Los Angeles

St. Louis def. Oakland

Gah!  So close to my dream World Series again!  I'd be way too much of a homer to pick an A's vs Dodgers World Series, though.  I'll take the A's and their pitching and depth on offense in the AL, though.  But I don’t think anyone is beating St. Louis this year.  They can go 7 deep in the rotation with Cy Young caliber arms…and have a top to bottom lineup that can hang with anyone.  They’re my champion prediction this year, and I feel pretty confident in it.

Then again, Dave Stewart said he thought the World Series would be San Francisco v Cleveland…so we’ll see what happens.

Season Awards:

AL MVP: Mike Trout - ANA
NL MVP: Yadier Molina - STL
AL Cy Young: David Price - TB
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw - LAD
AL RoY: Jose Abreu - CWS
NL RoY: Archie Bradley – ARI
AL Manager: Ned Yost - KC
NL Manager:  Mike Matheny - STL


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

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