With Opening Day right around the corner (it really should be a national holiday), I thought we'd make some predictions on the upcoming season. We can check back later to see how well we did... AL East 1. Boston 2. Tampa 3. NYY 4. Toronto 5. Baltimore Whoever finishes 2nd in this division will likely be the wild card. The top 3 can really possibly be in any order. AL Central 1. Minnesota 2. Cleveland 3. Chicago White Sox 4. Detroit 5. Kansas City Kind of the same as far as the top 3 go. It could be any of them. AL West 1. Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles, CA of the United States of America 2. Oakland 3. Texas 4. Seattle Oakland could be a surprise team this year, especially with the addition of Holiday, but I'm not sure it's still enough to overtake the Angels. AL Playoffs ALDS Boston over Minnesota Anaheim over Tampa ALCS Boston over Anaheim NL East 1. Philadelphia 2. NYM 3. Florida 4. Atlanta 5. Washington Defending champs win the division easily. NL Central 1. Chicago 2. St. Louis 3. Houston 4. Milwaukee 5. Cincinnati 6. Pittsburgh Chicago is still probably the best team in the NL and will probably still choke it away in the end. NL West 1. Los Angeles 2. Arizona 3. San Francisco 4. Colorado 5. San Diego Dodgers should win the division pretty easily. San Diego could actually be worse than last year. NL Playoffs NLDS Chicago over Los Angeles Philadelphia over St. Louis NLCS Philadelphia over Chicago World Series Boston over Philadelphia AL MVP: Matt Holiday NL MVP: Albert Pujols AL Cy Young: CC Sabathia NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels
AL East 1. Boston 2. NYY 3. Tampa 4. Toronto 5. Baltimore AL Central 1. Minnesota 2. Cleveland 3. Detroit 4. White Sox 5. Kansas City AL West 1. Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles, CA of the United States of America 2. Texas 3. Oakland 4. Seattle AL Playoffs ALDS Boston over Minnesota NYY over Anaheim ALCS Boston over NYY NL East 1. NYM 2. Atlanta 3. Philadelphia 4. Florida 5. Washington NL Central 1. Chicago 2. Houston 3. Milwaukee 4. St. Louis 5. Cincinnati 6. Pittsburgh NL West 1. San Francisco 2. Los Angeles 3. Arizona 4. Colorado 5. San Diego NL Playoffs NLDS Los Angeles over Chicago San Francisco over New York Mets NLCS San Francisco over Los Angeles World Series Boston over San Francisco I like the idea of old rivals Red Sox/Yanks and Dodgers/Giants meeting in league championships. Of course, this is all pretend because the Astros will be champs, of course of course of course.
I'm curious as to where you think the Giants offense will come from? They have good pitching, but they are going to be one of the worst offensive teams in the majors this year.
they're young, but they have a shot at being decent offensively. Renteria could recapture form, Fred Lewis has had stretches of decent play before, Sandoval, Ishikawa.. those are just off the top of my head. Then you have Rowand, who has had 1 good season before..and Winn, who has actually been solid over the years.. really they have a chance
Lincecum is Cy good defensive team LA and an otherwise weak division, i believe. (also, i expect them to be competitive enough to justify adding a bat at some point)
Haha. So basically, they have to have a bunch of guys have career years or match career years to be decent offensively. That's not a great formula for success
eh, I really only meant Renteria and Rowand that have to do that. Ishikawa and Sandoval are young, but I expect them to continue to improve and have good years. Lewis isn't great, but I think you can be pretty sure about what you'll get from him. Winn, again, you mostly know what you'll get. Even for the question marks, I think it's more likely than not that everyone will do well (except Rowand..he's a complete toss up to me) Their pitching is a bigger question to me. Can Sanchez harness his talent? Can Cain win games? Can Zito do anything worth anything? Will Randy stay healthy? And will their bullpen hold up? A lot of talent, but more uncertainty in the staff..
I am a diehard Giants fan and I believe they will win the NL West division this year. Their #1 asset is youth/pitching. SP - Tim Lincecum (Young, Cy Young) SP - Randy Johnson (Cy Young) SP - Matt Cain (Young, Stud) SP - Barry Zito (Cy Young, pitching 4th in the rotation instead of 1 will help him big time) SP - Jonathan Sanchez (Young, Stud lefty pitcher) RP - Brian Wilson (Young, Stud, top 3 in saves) Lewis, Roward, Renteria, Ishikawa, Sandoval, Winn, Molina, Burris are a combination of young/veterans. They have Buster Posey (Drafted very high 2 years ago, hard hitting catcher/1B), and Bumgarner another highly touted SP, both may be called up later in the year. We can always trade for a big bat if needed by the trade deadline. The present/future looks great for the Giants.
TheAce, I agree with a lot of what you wrote.. but pitching 4th in the rotation won't help Zito if he still sucks It's premature to call Sanchez a stud for sure. He has the talent, but he hasn't put it all together just yet. And last, I really wouldn't call Brian Wilson young or a stud. He's already 27.. and yeah he saved a lot of games last year, but they weren't pretty. He's solid, but certainly not in the top tier of closers
I would like to sincerely thank the 1st 2 posters for picking my team to win the World Series!! I'll admit, it'll be hell trying to beatdown the MFY. Good luck to you guys!
in that division, if their pitching is good enough, they should have a decent shot. LA isn't that good of a team
This is gonna hurt, but...: AL East 1. MFY 2. Boston 3. Tampa Bay 4. Toronto 5. Baltimore AL Central 1. Minnesota 2. Cleveland 3. Chicago White Sox 4. Detroit 5. Kansas City AL West 1. LAAAA 2. Oakland 3. Texas 4. Seattle AL Playoffs ALDS MFY over Minnesota LAAAA over Boston ALCS LAAAA over MFY NL East 1. NYM 2. Philadelphia 3. Florida 4. Atlanta 5. Washington NL Central 1. Chicago 2. St. Louis 3. Houston 4. Milwaukee 5. Cincinnati 6. Pittsburgh NL West 1. Los Angeles 2. Arizona 3. San Francisco 4. Colorado 5. San Diego NL Playoffs NLDS NYM over St. Louis Chicago over Los Angeles NLCS NYM over Chicago World Series NYM over LAAAA I expect both the Mets & Angels to come out swinging.
Dude - you are not going to find a bigger Red Sox homer on this board than me (MadMax is pretty big too but I say I am bigger!), but I really think the Yankees are overrated. Their starting pitching is surreal even with Sabathia getting roughed up but their bullpen is nowhere near where Boston is even with Rivera still being tough as nails. Their defense sucks out of the ass with the exception of the pussywhipped Texeira at first and they better hope to get A-Fraud back soon because their offense isn't anything to be feared, either. They are going to have to hope to beat people 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, etc. because their offense is just not the same as their old teams and their defense is really bad. And knowing the MFYs (I take it that you visit or post on the Sons of Sam Horn board), they will probably either burn out their starters or their pen. Does anyone actually expect A.J. Burnett to go through the whole season healthy? Don't hold your breath on that one. Boston and Tampa both have more balance and depth than the Yankees. The Rays still have issues with their pen in the closer by committee/Percival being ancient (the closer by committee never works) so I give the Red Sox the edge there. Plus we have depth in our starters with Buchholz and Bowden being in AAA and Smoltz starting on the DL. When he comes off the DL, it will be like acquiring a major player in a trade. He will be a difference maker. Personally, I am hoping that Rocco Baldelli beats this mysterious ailment that has sapped him of his strength. If he can beat it, he will be a steal for the Red Sox.
I predict that the Astros won't win a championship this season. Let's see... ... this will be their 47th year and zero championships.
me?? a red sox homer??? you have the wrong MadMax. i'm an Astros homer. i've rooted for the red sox off and on during my lifetime, mostly as a counter to the yankees. but nothing nothing nothing approaches Astros baseball on my sports radar. nothing. nothing even close.
!!! Another Sox fan on ClutchFans!!! Yeah, I visit SoSH all the time. Are you a member on there yourself? And its just a mental thing for me I guess. Setting myself up for the worse so when better stuff surfaces, it's even better. The Yankees $441 Million was an absolute joke yesterday, but then again thats just one game outta very, very many. Thing is, I'm confident in the Sawx too. Just that $441 has me bugging. And yes, Teixiera will be very, very fun to boo. He is whipped, he said the only reason he didn't come to Boston was because of his wife. Joke if you ask me. Glad to see more Sawxheads over here. In other thread, I got mini-flamed for just asking a question about the Astros. Go Sox!!!!
