Baseball Journal-Regular Season Predictions Recap

OMG!  How could I have gotten this so wrong!

I was so sure about everything, and yet half of my post season predictions are already wiped out.  At least I’m not alone in that.  Everyone else had the Washington Nationals in the World Series too.  Let’s get down to it.  I’ll be flagellating myself in between each wrong prediction, since you, dear reader, are not here to do it for me.

AL East 

I said this division wouldn’t produce a World Series winner this year, but right now the Red Sox are looking like the American League representative.  I only picked them for last.  Chris Davis aside, my pick, the Orioles, underperformed, but were competitive.  I did peg the Yankees and Blue Jays correctly.  The Rays nearly played their way out of the Wild Card, but did come through in the clutch (especially David Price’s 9-inning, bullpen-saving, play-in game performance).

AL Central 

Tigers all the way, but Verlander’s breakdown is very troubling.  The Twins were indeed, “Whatever.”  The White Sox did overachieve last year, but their pitching is still pretty good.  The Royals really did need more offense to go with their great pitching.  I was wrong about the Indians attracting a bigger crowd for their home games, but Terry Francona and a few great player acquisitions have really turned these guys around.  This is not going to be a one-team division any longer.

AL West 

Yep, the A’s won.  I don’t ask me how I got that right and everyone else didn’t.  Oh wait, it was because everyone else picked the sub .500 finishing Angels.  Ha ha ha!  (Though Trout did not have a sophomore slump.)  The Mariners and Astros were fodder for everyone, except the Angels.  The Rangers did have good pitching, that mostly ended up injured for a good deal of the season.  They did have a power outage, but this seemed to be more due to a lack of a Right Field jetstream and losing Nelson Cruz.  It’s hard to really judge how good the A’s and Rangers are given how many games they played against decidedly sub-par teams in their division.

I should feel worse about the Rangers being bounced from the playoffs, but there are several mitigating factors.  First, they weren’t eliminated by the Angels.  Second, they lost to a team that I also like, the Rays.  Third, it’s debatable if the Rangers deserved to get in.  Finally, it was only for the Wild Card spot, the cameo role and consolation prize of the current playoff format.  Look for the Rangers to, hopefully, make a couple of good moves and contend next year.      

NL East 

Let’s just move on. 

Oh, very well.  Everybody was wrong about the Nationals.  We’ll see if they get it together next year.  The Braves were a great team, but they’re smoke and mirrors team.  Come on, there’s two regulars in the line up hitting under .200.  None of their pitching is star caliber.  Their offense relies on the home run.  A Braves team at Turner Field relying on the long ball?  (Without Chipper Jones, they have to do something, and chicks dig the long ball.)  Have the walls been brought in?  Everyone else sucked as predicted.

NL Central

Or should I say, “NL Playoff Central.”  You get that nickname when you stick three teams in the playoffs.  I was wrong about the Reds taking it, definitely.  I underrated the Pirates, but after 20 losing seasons (especially the last two), how could you blame me?  The Cardinals’ great young pitching was indeed ready for prime time, bolstered by their prodigious offense.  The Cubs, meanwhile, continue on their new current 100-year rebuilding plan.  And as far as the Brewers go, my fan crush, Front Row Amy , is going to have to wait until next year, again. 

NL West 

Blurraugh!  There went my lunch.  I’m not sure if that came up because of my complete cluster foxtrot of a prediction or watching the Dodgers go “wee” in the Diamondbacks’ outfield pool in their victory celebration.   You guys still suck (as you will prove in the playoffs), and unless Ben Bernake and Fed start printing money to prop up your team, you’re going to soon go bankrupt from your payroll excesses.  (But I’m not bitter. . . yet.)  I was so right about the Dodgers this season, up to a point, or should I say, a “Puig.” 

Rockies, Padres, whatever.  The Diamondbacks were actually decent, thanks to Paul Goldschmidt’s awesomeness.  And all of the questions about the last place Giants have been answered, except how they won two World Series in three years. What they got by on last year, didn’t show up this year.  They probably shouldn’t have stood pat in the off-season, and I’m concerned they’re about to make the same mistake this off-season.

Somewhat more humble post-season reset predictions.

Apparently, Bob Costas and Colin Cowherd and probably any number of other pundits have proclaimed if the Dodgers and Red Sox aren’t playing in the World Series it will be a complete failure for the MLB.  (I jokingly said something similar in my pre-season predictions.)  This match up is apparently the only thing that can save the sport.  Anything less, will kill it.  If this is true, then the sport is already finished and just doesn’t know it yet.  If baseball must have its most popular teams from big media markets in the championship, the league will not prosper, it will collapse. 

That some ESPN tool is talking down baseball, as usual, is nothing new.  (And why a network would continue to allow any of their hosts degrade a product that they pay good money to feature is beyond me.)  But a baseball fanatic like Costas doing it, truly disturbs me.  I have some extremely sarcastic ideas on how the league could become more popular, but I fear posting them, lest someone take them seriously and attempt to implement them.  Look, I want to enjoy the playoffs, not dissect what’s wrong with baseball.  Let’s wait till the off-season for any such discussion.        

As tempting as it is to switch to the Red Sox over the Dodgers in the Series, I’m still going with Tigers to win it all.  In this scenario, they’re going to beat the Cardinals to do it.  Yes, I am counting on the Dodgers to flame out either way.