I couldnt wait. Here is is BASEBALL PREDICTIONS!!!

BASEBALL PREDICTION TIME!!!!

Ahhh, yes. I know its only the first of February, but I want to put it in stone early so I can rub it into all of you how awesome I am in October.

Basically, I am going to follow the same discussion I had with a pair of really good friends last spring at McFaddens on Thursday night (I actually kind of miss that place on Thursday nights!). We predicted who would be the playoff teams, who would be the MVP, and who would win the Cy Young. My predictions last year were AL: Cleveland, Detroit, New York, and LA. NL: Chicago, New York Mets, Dodgers, and the Phillies. 5/8 ain’t bad, but I expect to improve on those predictions. I honestly do not remember my MVP predictions, but my Cy Young picks were Peavy and Santana, ouch.

AL:

AL East: Boy its hard to pick against the defending champs, especially with the pitching they have. Josh Beckett had an amazing year, which i find hard to believe he will repeat. Also, AL Hitters sure seemed to figure out the “gyroball” the Dice-K throws. Plus, they still have Lugo playing short stop for them (yikes!). The only way that the Red Sox win the division is if Manny has a monster year. Which he easily could because his performance relies on that 20MM option the team has on him next year. I cant pick a team that has 3 first year starters. Here is a prediction for you though. Joba will struggle in the starting spot, and hitters will figure him out quickly.

AL West: This one seems easy to me, its Seattle. They have done some good things to improve their rotation with the addition of Silva and what looks like the addition of Eric Bedard. I also expect a really big year from Kenji Johjima and Yunieski Betancort. The Angles also have a good rotation and a good bullpen, but are Chone Figgins and Garrett Anderson really going to have the same season as last year? Torii Hunter should have a solid season, but he seems to me like a player playing for his next paycheck. But he is guaranteed 18MM a year. Based on all these factors, I’m picking Seattle. For the record though, I wouldn’t trade Adam Jones for Bedard straight up. Seattle may win the division this year, but they will regret this trade if it goes through.

AL Central: Ahhh the division so near and dear to my heart. Its hard to stay objective here given that I actually hate with a passion every team that isn’t named after a Big Orange Cat with stripes. I will do my best. This is essentially a 2 horse race between Cleveland and Detroit. The twins added some depth to their outfield, but they lost Torii Hunter. They will also likely lose their best pitcher before spring training (watch out for Liriano, until he ultimately ends his career by trying to throw that ridiculous slider again). The White Sox will have a much better season, but they traded away so much pitching that i do not think they will be able to keep up (unless Contreras wins the Cy Young or something). I dont have a lot of faith in Floyd or Danks. And as for the Royals? Well they still have no identity and will lose confidence having to play Cleveland and Detroit 38 times.

So who is it, Cleveland or Detroit? I am going to go with Detroit. If Joel Zumaya wasn’t hurt this would be an easy decision. I like our pitching staff a lot, and I expect a bounce back year from Bonderman and Rogers. Plus, the Tigers should be able to provide run support. I just believe that going up and down that all star lineup will wear pitchers down. Here is an extra little nugget for you. Granderson will begin to figure out lefties and hit them about .275. He is going to become a mega superstar this year. Look out Miguel. I believe that Carmona and Sabathia will have worse years than last. Oh and Maggs will still hit over .330.

Wild Card: Ya know, I really want to take a team out of the West given just how bad the A’s and Rangers are. But I can’t. Cleveland certainly has a good chance here because the Central now has 2 bad teams to beat up on and one probably mediocre team. But, I think we will have to suffer through another year of the Yankees and Red Sox being in the playoffs. I wanna puke.

Cy Young: I am all about being bold (please ignore AL Central pick when i say this). And I do not know why, but I love Seattle this year. Therefore my pick for Cy Young is King Felix. If they win the west they are going to need him to step up in a big way and I think he will.

MVP: I am gonna pick Manny Rameriez. I think he will step it up in anticipation of that 20 million dollar options sitting out there.

NL:

NL East: I am going the Mets. They needed more pitching, and got it with the addition of Johan. Atlanta is getting better, but I still think the Mets get revenge from an awful year last year and win the division. Plus they now have the best pitcher in baseball, and he now has an easy out ever 8 batters. Pedro will need to stay healthy for them to be dominant however. But they will still win this division by quite a few games.

NL Central: Nobody really jumps out at me here. I really dont like the team the Cubs have put together and even if they get Brian Roberts I dont think he will be that big of an improvement. The Brewers are a possibility, but will Ben Sheets even stay healthy? Plus they are horrible defensively. Cardinals could be a better, but I dont know, they still lack pitching. Toss up here, so I will just pick the Brewers. I really have no good reasoning for it, other than because i love Prince Fielder.

NL West: This one is a pretty easy pick for me. The Diamondbacks are young but have a ton of pitching (Dan Haren, Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Nice). I really like them to win this division. They won it last year with next to no run support (actually letting in more runs than scoring). I expect a year of experience will do a lot for those young players like Justin Upton, Connor Jackson and Chris Young.

NL Wild Card: The Rockies won this last year with an amazing late season run. Not this year though. The Dodgers are going to be the wild card team this year. They have some good pitching with Brad Penny and Derek Lowe; I like the addition of Hidoki Kuroda (ground ball specialist out of Japan). They may even challenge the Diamondbacks for the division, but the wild card is definitely coming out of the West again. Its a really good division.

NL Cy Young: I’ll tell you what, I want to pick Aaron Harang. But Cy Young’s don’t generally get picked on non-playoff teams and I dont see the Reds making a run this year. So, I am gonna pick Brandon Webb. He won it two years ago, and certainly has the talent to do it again.

MVP: Prince Fielder. He will probably hit 50 HRs. That’s enough to give him the MVP.

It feels good to be able to be seriously talking about Baseball again. 14 days until pitchers and catcher report. Spring Training is coming and you know what that means, a very happy Nate.

You probably disagree somewhere with me, but put up your opinions in comments.

Mine are put in stone.