Baseball Preview

OK, this is cheating a tiny bit [since the season started a couple of days ago], but here are my predictions for the upcoming baseball season.

NL MVP – Poo-holes – Best player on the best team rule. Barring injury, he’ll have an MVP run like Bonds’. Sleeper choice – Lance Berkman

AL MVP – Lots of contenders here. If the Angels win the West, it’s Vlad. If the Red Sox win, it’ll be Papi. Since neither of those teams are picked, I’m going with… Gay-Rod. He’ll put up 45 HRs, 130 RBIs and the numbers are too big to ignore. Sleeper choice – Eric Chavez

NL Cy Young – Roy Oswalt – Always good for 18-20 wins. Nasty pitching motion. If Houston wins the wild card, he’ll be in the top three voting guaranteed. Sleeper choice – Jake Peavy

AL Cy Young – Rich Harden – He’s ready. He’s already better than the much ballyhooed Hudson/Zito/Mulder troika . I see 22-6, 2.80 ERA as a real possibility. Sleeper choice – Josh Beckett

AL East
The Wankees will reign supreme. Money talks. George is already targeting who he’s gonna buy off during the midseason fire-sales. I don’t see the Red Sox contending for the division, though the wild card remains a hope. The last three [Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and Toronto]… well, who cares, though I think Tampa has a good base of young talent.

AL Central
The White Sox pitching is tough to overcome, especially now that they’ve added Thome. The Indians are the trendy pick will their young stars (Hafner, Peralta, VMart), but their year will be next year. Minnesota will be .500 again. Detroit will be within 6 games of .500, but Kansas City has already been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs… Until 2010.

AL West
The A’s and the Angels will be fighting this one out, with the A’s likely prevailing with greater depth and Vlad being so fragile. The wild card battle between the Angels, Indians, and Red Sox will be the most exciting race in the AL this year. Seattle is just like Minnesota, and Texas is just like… well, Texas.

AL Playoffs
White Sox vs. Red Sox/Angels – Either way, pitching talks, and the White Sox roll.
A’s vs. Wankees – Another tough series of experience vs. youth. Cy Young winner Rich Harden will pitch and win the decider.

White Sox vs A’s – White Sox win this one partially because the previous series will wipe out the A’s starters. White Sox repeat as AL Champs.

NL East
Atlanta will win the division. This is a recording. For 194,092 straight years, the Braves have won this division, I ain’t betting against them doing it again. The Mets are improved, but still dependent on the 72-year old Glavine and the 53-year old Pedro. The Phillies, Marlins, and Nats will all be around .500. just like last year.

NL Central
Uh, the Cards are the best team in baseball. And I hate the effing Cards! Houston will contend for the wild card, as will…. Milwaukee. Look for the Brew Crew to be in the thick of it in September. Pittsburgh is improving, now they only suck a little bit. And the Cubs have asked Fergie Jenkins to come back so Dusty can eff up his arm too.

NL West
The Giants are the best team out west… if Barry plays. Here’s a formula to try out. Take 60 games as the bare minimum this team wins. Multiple the number of games Barry starts by 0.3 and add them (e.g. if he starts 120 games, multiplying that by 0.3 = 36 games). That makes 96 games, enough to win easily. The Dodgers will be a close second, followed by the Padres, DBacks, and horrible Rocks.

NL Playoffs -
Cards over Giants – Not much to say to this other than… I hate the effing Cards!
Astros over Braves – Oswalt and Pettite vs. Smoltz and… er, some other guy.

Cards over Astros – Replay of last years’ NLCS

World Series
Cards over White Sox.