Preseason Predictions
or Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t I?
American League East
- Boston Red Sox
- Baltimore Orioles
- New York Yankees
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Tampa Bay Devil Rays
The big thing that everybody’s going to notice here is putting the Yankees in third place and out of the playoffs. Here’s the thing: they’re old and thin. Randy Johnson is 42 with a bad knee—and, in 2003, put up a line of 6-8, 4.26. Kevin Brown has a bad back and, apparantly, a problem with punching walls. Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright are just guys. Their lineup is old, too, and they’ve got no bench to speak of. Color me unimpressed.
The Orioles, on the other hand, can hit. But the pitching needs to step up big-time from last year to get the job done and pass the Yankees; I think it can, but only to the tune of 85-ish wins.
The rest of this division isn’t horribly interesting. The Sox are good, the Jays and Rays aren’t—although the Devil Rays have a lot of interesting young players hanging out in Durham, so in a year or two they could be worth keeping an eye on.
American League Central
- Minnesota Twins
- Cleveland Indians
- Detroit Tigers
- Chicago White Sox
- Kansas City Royals
Man, what a boring-ass division. I like Detroit’s uniforms, though.
American League West
- Oakland Athletics
- Los Angeles Angels (wild card)
- Texas Rangers
- Seattle Mariners
Everybody seems to think the A’s gave away the farm, but the guys they traded were horrible down the stretch and they only lost the division by a game. I think they’ve improved enough in the bullpen and on offense that they’ll make it through. The Angels are mighty good too, and look to be the wild-card team to me, but you could just as easily reverse the order of those two.
The Rangers don’t have any actual major-league outfielders, nor pitchers. The Mariners spent a lot of money on two guys who won’t make Randy Winn suck any less—and who have track records of being injured a lot to boot.
National League East
- Philadelphia Phillies
- New York Mets
- Atlanta Braves
- Florida Marlins
- Washington Nationals
Is this the year the Phils finally do it? Well, being rid of Larry Bowa sure helps, although their pitching is a concern.
The Mets are better than last season, for sure, with the addition of Beltran and Pedro. But Mike Piazza is old and who else is here? Doug Mientkiarwerjaipfdjapifdsdupicz? I don’t think so.
Florida might surprise, but if anybody gets hurt they’re in trouble; they also don’t look capable of being able to add anybody down the stretch.
I’m sick of hearing about Atlanta, and you already know what I think about Washington.
National League Central
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Cincinnati Reds
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Chicago Cubs
- Houston Astros
- Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cards are going to win this division going away, even if they’re not as good as last year.
The only way the Cubs contend is if Mark Prior gets a restraining order against Dusty Baker. I expect catastrophic injury to no less than two pitchers in Wrigley this year. Also, Todd Hollandsworth isn’t the kind of player who starts in left field for a contending team.
Milwaukee’s got some interesting young guys hanging around, and should ride Ben Sheets to a respectable record. Watch out next season, though.
National League West
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- San Diego Padres (wild card)
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- San Francisco Giants
- Colorado Rockies
Giants fans will get to find out just how important Barry Bonds is to their team this year. If he gets back earlier than expected, they might contend for the wild card, though.
Otherwise, the Dodgers look pretty good, the Padres decent, the Diamondbacks better than last year, and Colorado absolutely putrid. Worst team in the league.
Postseason and Awards
- World Series: Red Sox over Phillies
- AL MVP: Justin Morneau
- AL Cy Young: Johan Santana
- AL ROY: Is Joe Mauer still eligible? If not, I’ll take Dallas McPherson
- NL MVP: Bobby Abreu
- NL Cy Young: Odalis Perez
- NL ROY: Ryan Church
In other news, I’m going to Opening Day in Philly. Neener neener.
Update: I’ve had to close comments on this entry due to targeted comment spam. If you want to say something about it, either drop into the gameday open thread or email it to me and I’ll add the comment manually.