Monday, March 31, 2008

Baseball Season!

The baseball season starts today and, hopefully, the Angels start their march to proving my pre-season predictions wrong:

AL EAST
1. Boston Red Sox- Ortiz and Manny are tough to get around.
2. New York Yankees (Wild Card) - Outside of Jason Giambi, the entire starting lineup could hit over .300.
3. Toronto Blue Jays
4. Tampa Bay Rays
5. Baltimore Orioles

AL CENTRAL
1. Cleveland Indians - Best Bullpen in the majors
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Kansas City Royals
5. Minnesota Twins

AL WEST
1. Seattle Mariners - Erik Bedard was a huge acquisition.
2. ANAHEIM Angels - I think the stacked Outfield/DH provides a little too much drama: Gary Matthews is a bit of a diva, it might be a problem. The hitting might have more power than a year ago, but the pitching is going to suffer with the loss of Escobar (forever perhaps) and Lackey (for another month and 1/2 at least). It'll be too big a hole to climb out of.
3. Oakland A's
4. Texas Rangers

NL EAST
1. New York Mets - Johan will be just fine in the NL. And if Pedro and Orlando Hernandez get/stay healthy, this is a scary playoff team.
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Washington Nationals
5. Florida Marlins

NL CENTRAL
1. Chicago Cubs - I present closer Kerry Wood. This team has very strong pitching and top-to-bottom, a lineup that can compete with any team in the NL.
2. Milwaukee Brewers
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Houston Astros
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

NL WEST
1. Arizona Diamondbacks - Brandon Webb and Danny Haren might be the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Big question is whether Randy Johnson is servicable, or if he hurts his team.
2. Colorado Rockies (Wild Card) - Last year was not a fluke. Former Irvine resident Garrett Atkins (Uni HS) and Matt Holiday lead the charge
3. Los Angeles Dodgers
4. San Diego Padres
5. San Francisco Aints

AL DIVISION SERIES
Cleveland over New York
Boston over Seattle

ALCS
Cleveland over Boston

NL DIVISION SERIES
Chicago over Colorado
New York over Arizona

NLCS
Chicago over New York

WORLD SERIES
Cleveland over Chicago - Either way a LOOOOONG streak is broken.

3 comments:

GODrums said...

this will be #4, nick.

but thanks for the invite.

GODrums said...

GO DOYERS!

Hutch said...

5 months of mediocrity followed by a hot September = a fluke. Los Doyers are due to be swept out of the NLDS again.

Is Boston fronting Cleveland all 4 games this year? Cause 3 didn't seem to be enough for them last time around.