Steve's 2010 MLB Predictions
I don't know what it is with me and this time of the year when it comes to sports writing. The original Is It Sports? site died at this time of the year in 2006 when I pretty much just stopped posting new things on it, which caused Ryan to start this site. It's not like it isn't exciting time of year. You have March Madness, Spring Training, the start of the NBA and NHL playoffs, etc. In 2006, I was preparing to move to a new city, but this year, I have basically no excuse. Oh well, I'll pretend to blame the amazing Arizona spring time weather.
Speaking of Arizona spring time weather, unfortunately for me, the major league season has already started and now I am stuck with only the D-Backs playing locally instead of half of the entire sport. This year, I went to 4 spring training games. I saw my first ever tie when the White Sox played the Reds in Goodyear. I saw the Swinging' A's win twice in 3 days in Phoenix, beating the Diamondbacks and the Cubs. To finish the season, I went to my 100th ever White Sox game in Glendale against the Royals. They were winning when they had their starters in, but by the end of the game, every single player on the Sox was literally wearing a number in the 80s or 90s. I think AJ Pierzynski may have rounded up a bunch of starters and left early to go watch Wrestlemania, which was happening about 3 miles away. So it was a little disappointing to see them lose that game, but hey, its only spring.
So now, here are my picks. Hopefully I didn't gain any inside info by making them 2 weeks into the season. If I picked the current standings as my order of finish, I would probably be very, very wrong....
NL EAST
Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
You'd have to think that the Phillies are the clear favorite to win the NL Pennant again this year. They are one of the only NL teams with an AL-caliber offense and now adding Roy Halladay to their rotation makes them even tougher to beat. The Braves, I think, have a good chance to climb to the top of the scrap heap of mediocrity in the NL and maybe steal the wild card spot. The Marlins always seem to be better than they look on paper, but usually just don't have the experience to get over the hump. The Mets are set for another disappointing season. I called their collapse in this preview last year and I'm pretty proud of it. The Nationals are....vomit inducing...but so are Philadelphia fans.
NL CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Houston Astros
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cardinals are one of the major bang for the buck success stories of the past decade, and I think they look solid again this year. It's obvious that Matt Holliday is an NL-only legend after returning back to his Colorado days after being traded to St. Louis this year, and the Cards pitching staff is solid, but not too flashy. The Brewers remind me of the poor man's version of the Cardinals. They have 2 big time hitters (Fielder and Braun) fill the gaps with other decent players, and have a not-so flashy but serviceable rotation (but not nearly as good as the Cards). The Cubs did basically nothing to improve their team this offseason, and they are an older team that now is just older and still not as good as the Cardinals. Third seems about right in the division. The Reds probably have the most upside of the bottom 3 teams, but will probably finish at least 15 games below .500. The Astros are getting a bad rap early this season, and they aren't very good, but they are probably still better than the Pirates, who I am sure will find a way to get into last.
NL WEST
San Francisco Giants
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Diego Padres
I like the Giants this year...a lot. They have the best pitcher in baseball backed up by an above average rotation. Offensively, all they need to be is a little better than last year to make the playoffs, considering how their pitching carried them all year. Can adding Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa make them that little bit better? The Rockies are coming off another nice season and finally seem to have a balance between pitching and hitting. They are my pick for the NL Wild Card this year. The Dodgers are much better offensively than the Giants but their pitching scares me. Chad Billingsley is very good at being mediocre, and Vincente Padilla....really? The Padres won't be very good. Run Adrian Gonzalez, run.
AL EAST
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles
The Yankees are just too good. I think we're stuck in one of those "Yankees are unstoppable, why bother even playing the season?" runs of years. How....depressing. The Red Sox are off to a slow start, but they still have what it takes to be 2nd in this division and probably win the wild card too, thanks to the rest of the AL not being so great. The Rays will probably be the Red Sox top competition for the wild card this year, but I still feel like their 2008 run was kind of a planet's aligning experience. They will need to spend some more money if they want to be competitive in this division for a prolonged period. The Blue Jays and Orioles are both not so good. I think the Orioles are relying too heavily on young players that haven't really proven themselves to be very good so far, and the Blue Jays are doing the same thing to a lesser extent. So in toss up, I take Toronto for 4th.
AL CENTRAL
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals
Cleveland Indians
I admit this year that the Twins are probably the best team in this division, and maybe they will be even more than just winning this division by default like they usually do when no one else is too good. Ergh....I guess I get to watch the Twins waste the AL Central's playoff spot yet again this October....The Tigers scarily fade every year in September, and I don't really see a reason why they won't again this year. Unlike in 2006, they won't be good enough to still make it as the wild card even after choking away the division. On to the White Sox, I'm getting a little tired of Kenny Williams just throwing together a completely random team every year and making moves for the sake of making moves. I don't think the Sox will be any more than mediocre (if even that) this year, but hey, they look somewhat impressive on paper, right? At least this year a healthy amount of their players were born in the 80s and could potentially all hit their primes together in the next 2 or 3 years. I just hope the random players thrown in with them in the future are decent and not absolutely washed up. I think the Royals are trying their best to be competitive, and could challenge the White Sox for 3rd. Are the Indians doing this on purpose to have Major League 4 based on them?
AL WEST
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
I'm not going to pick against the Angels in this division until one of these other 3 teams proves to me why I should not. The Rangers were surprisingly good last year, despite having no pitching. If Rich Harden can stay healthy and Scott Feldman can develop more, along with their other developing young hitters (and Josh Hamilton and Ron Washington both stay off the crack) the Rangers could be legitimate challengers to the Angels this year. The A's have their usual group of prospects, probably good enough for 3rd. The Mariners have gotten a little bit of media love this year, but I'm not buying it. They seem to like to take the Kenny Williams philosophy of making moves to make moves but they do it significantly worse.
PLAYOFFS
Divisional
Phillies over Rockies
Giants over Cardinals (That pitching in a 5 game series is scary)
Yankees over Angels
Red Sox over Twins
NLCS/ALCS
Phillies over Giants
Yankees over Red Sox
World Series
Yankees over Phillies (yeah boring, but I think its going to happen again)
Awards:
NL MVP: Albert Pujols, Cardinals
NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, Giants
NL Manager of the Year (aka Steve's Kiss of Death): Bruce Bochy, Giants
NL ROY: Jason Heyward, Braves
AL MVP: Joe Mauer, Twins (The Yankees will be just too good for the media to pick one)
AL Cy Young: C. C. Sabathia, Yankees
AL Manager of the Year (aka Steve's Kiss of Death): Ron Gardenhire, Twins
AL ROY: Neftali Feliz, Rangers
Speaking of Arizona spring time weather, unfortunately for me, the major league season has already started and now I am stuck with only the D-Backs playing locally instead of half of the entire sport. This year, I went to 4 spring training games. I saw my first ever tie when the White Sox played the Reds in Goodyear. I saw the Swinging' A's win twice in 3 days in Phoenix, beating the Diamondbacks and the Cubs. To finish the season, I went to my 100th ever White Sox game in Glendale against the Royals. They were winning when they had their starters in, but by the end of the game, every single player on the Sox was literally wearing a number in the 80s or 90s. I think AJ Pierzynski may have rounded up a bunch of starters and left early to go watch Wrestlemania, which was happening about 3 miles away. So it was a little disappointing to see them lose that game, but hey, its only spring.
So now, here are my picks. Hopefully I didn't gain any inside info by making them 2 weeks into the season. If I picked the current standings as my order of finish, I would probably be very, very wrong....
NL EAST
Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
You'd have to think that the Phillies are the clear favorite to win the NL Pennant again this year. They are one of the only NL teams with an AL-caliber offense and now adding Roy Halladay to their rotation makes them even tougher to beat. The Braves, I think, have a good chance to climb to the top of the scrap heap of mediocrity in the NL and maybe steal the wild card spot. The Marlins always seem to be better than they look on paper, but usually just don't have the experience to get over the hump. The Mets are set for another disappointing season. I called their collapse in this preview last year and I'm pretty proud of it. The Nationals are....vomit inducing...but so are Philadelphia fans.
NL CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Houston Astros
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cardinals are one of the major bang for the buck success stories of the past decade, and I think they look solid again this year. It's obvious that Matt Holliday is an NL-only legend after returning back to his Colorado days after being traded to St. Louis this year, and the Cards pitching staff is solid, but not too flashy. The Brewers remind me of the poor man's version of the Cardinals. They have 2 big time hitters (Fielder and Braun) fill the gaps with other decent players, and have a not-so flashy but serviceable rotation (but not nearly as good as the Cards). The Cubs did basically nothing to improve their team this offseason, and they are an older team that now is just older and still not as good as the Cardinals. Third seems about right in the division. The Reds probably have the most upside of the bottom 3 teams, but will probably finish at least 15 games below .500. The Astros are getting a bad rap early this season, and they aren't very good, but they are probably still better than the Pirates, who I am sure will find a way to get into last.
NL WEST
San Francisco Giants
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Diego Padres
I like the Giants this year...a lot. They have the best pitcher in baseball backed up by an above average rotation. Offensively, all they need to be is a little better than last year to make the playoffs, considering how their pitching carried them all year. Can adding Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa make them that little bit better? The Rockies are coming off another nice season and finally seem to have a balance between pitching and hitting. They are my pick for the NL Wild Card this year. The Dodgers are much better offensively than the Giants but their pitching scares me. Chad Billingsley is very good at being mediocre, and Vincente Padilla....really? The Padres won't be very good. Run Adrian Gonzalez, run.
AL EAST
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles
The Yankees are just too good. I think we're stuck in one of those "Yankees are unstoppable, why bother even playing the season?" runs of years. How....depressing. The Red Sox are off to a slow start, but they still have what it takes to be 2nd in this division and probably win the wild card too, thanks to the rest of the AL not being so great. The Rays will probably be the Red Sox top competition for the wild card this year, but I still feel like their 2008 run was kind of a planet's aligning experience. They will need to spend some more money if they want to be competitive in this division for a prolonged period. The Blue Jays and Orioles are both not so good. I think the Orioles are relying too heavily on young players that haven't really proven themselves to be very good so far, and the Blue Jays are doing the same thing to a lesser extent. So in toss up, I take Toronto for 4th.
AL CENTRAL
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals
Cleveland Indians
I admit this year that the Twins are probably the best team in this division, and maybe they will be even more than just winning this division by default like they usually do when no one else is too good. Ergh....I guess I get to watch the Twins waste the AL Central's playoff spot yet again this October....The Tigers scarily fade every year in September, and I don't really see a reason why they won't again this year. Unlike in 2006, they won't be good enough to still make it as the wild card even after choking away the division. On to the White Sox, I'm getting a little tired of Kenny Williams just throwing together a completely random team every year and making moves for the sake of making moves. I don't think the Sox will be any more than mediocre (if even that) this year, but hey, they look somewhat impressive on paper, right? At least this year a healthy amount of their players were born in the 80s and could potentially all hit their primes together in the next 2 or 3 years. I just hope the random players thrown in with them in the future are decent and not absolutely washed up. I think the Royals are trying their best to be competitive, and could challenge the White Sox for 3rd. Are the Indians doing this on purpose to have Major League 4 based on them?
AL WEST
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
I'm not going to pick against the Angels in this division until one of these other 3 teams proves to me why I should not. The Rangers were surprisingly good last year, despite having no pitching. If Rich Harden can stay healthy and Scott Feldman can develop more, along with their other developing young hitters (and Josh Hamilton and Ron Washington both stay off the crack) the Rangers could be legitimate challengers to the Angels this year. The A's have their usual group of prospects, probably good enough for 3rd. The Mariners have gotten a little bit of media love this year, but I'm not buying it. They seem to like to take the Kenny Williams philosophy of making moves to make moves but they do it significantly worse.
PLAYOFFS
Divisional
Phillies over Rockies
Giants over Cardinals (That pitching in a 5 game series is scary)
Yankees over Angels
Red Sox over Twins
NLCS/ALCS
Phillies over Giants
Yankees over Red Sox
World Series
Yankees over Phillies (yeah boring, but I think its going to happen again)
Awards:
NL MVP: Albert Pujols, Cardinals
NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, Giants
NL Manager of the Year (aka Steve's Kiss of Death): Bruce Bochy, Giants
NL ROY: Jason Heyward, Braves
AL MVP: Joe Mauer, Twins (The Yankees will be just too good for the media to pick one)
AL Cy Young: C. C. Sabathia, Yankees
AL Manager of the Year (aka Steve's Kiss of Death): Ron Gardenhire, Twins
AL ROY: Neftali Feliz, Rangers
Labels: Crazy Predictions, MLb
posted by Steve | 11:29 AM
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