Baseball is my favorite sport. There are games every night. You can dip in and dip out as you please. You can take a hour nap, and might not miss a thing. You can go to the games, and not take out a loan. The season spans three seasons, spring, fall, and summer. So I've decided to do a baseball preview this year. We can look back in October and see how I did. Feel free to throw some predictions of your own, disagree, or agree in the comment section. That way we'll see who is truly a great baseball mind.
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE TWINS
1. Joe Mauer's injury scares me a little. The fact that no one is picking a return date, or even really sure what the problem is. There is no question that he's the key to success for the Twins and the best catcher in baseball, so to say we need a healthy Joe Mauer is a colossal understatement.
2. I think Morneau is growing into a true leader and superstar. I think he is our best player, and the leader in the clubhouse. I think he has a presence about him, and leads by example. I think the thing that sticks out for him, is he's not afraid to be that guy. It seems like Mauer is fine just being the hometown hero, batting champ. And that's fine too. They seem to work well together.
3. Delmon Young will have a good year. I'm talking .295-.300 with 20 HR's and 85 RBI's.
4. Carlos Gomez is going to be really good. It might not be this year. But he will hit 30 home runs, and he might do it for 5 years. I think a guy to compare him to is Carlos Beltran.
5. Who would have ever thought our bullpen would be our biggest question mark?
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE AL CENTRAL
1. I'm sick of the Indians being the fashionable pick every year.
2. The White Sox did nothing but get older. This team has about 1 or 2 years left, and then Konerko, Thome, Dye, and Pierzynski are going to be done.
3. The Tigers basically have the same team that was predicted to score 1000 runs last year. There pitchers are all either hurt or insane. But this team could win 95 games, or 75???
4. The Royals . . . . Screw the Royals.
5. The central will be very competitive. I think the key is to never find yourself 7,8,or 9 games out early in the season.
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE AL
1. The AL East has 3 teams as good as anybody in baseball. That will create some big series along the way. Get ready to hear about the Yankess and Red Sox and the 19 epic battles they will have.
2. The AL West is garbage top to bottom. The Angels will start their decline. I'm sick of hearing about A's GM Billy Beane. What has his moneyball theory done? The Rangers again will have a great offense and no pitching. Who's running that team Mike D'Antoni?
3. What's it like to be the Blue Jay's and Orioles, and know you have no chance for success?
4. Can we stop talking about Joba Chamberlain until he becomes a decent starter or closer. Until then he's a middle reliever who had a lot of bugs on him in a playoff game. He also drinks and drives.
5. Can Tampa Bay keep up with the Yankees and Red Sox?
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NL
1. Doesn't the NL want home field advantage in the World Series? They haven't won an all star game since 1996.
2. I love the fact that the Met's choke every year to the Phillies. I love it even more that both teams know that.
3. I love the fact that the Cubs will never win, no matter what they do.
4. Manny Ramirez will piss off everybody but Dodgers fans
5. The Pirates have not been above .500 since 1992.
THREE THOUGHTS ABOUT MLB
1. I love the fact that we continue to call it the World Series.
2. I think baseball is really worried about what's going to happen financially when some of these teams are basically eliminated by June, July in this economy. You might see some small crowds. The Pirates and Royals play in late June. Who in their right mind would pay money to see that?
3. Steroids has been the biggest story in baseball for a decade. When we will start to trust these guys again?
All right time for my predictions. I will list each division and how many games behind the teams will finish. I did not go through and do that math to make sure it is mathematically possible. There are 2430 games each year, in case you are wondering.
AL EAST AL WEST AL CENTRAL
Yankees Angels Twins
Red Sox 4 GB A's 6 GB Indians 3 GB
Rays 5 GB Rangers 12 GB Tigers 4 GB
Blue Jays 11 GB Mariners 14 GB White Sox 7 GB
Orioles 29 GB Royals 12 GB
NL EAST NL WEST NL CENTRAL
Philles Dodgers Cubs
Marlins 1 GB Diamonbacks 5 GB Cardinals 1 GB
Mets 2 GB Rockies 8 GB Brewers 6 GB
Atlanta 16 GB Giants 10 GB Astros 10 GB
Washington 22 GB Padres 25 GB Reds 15 GB
Pirates 19 GB
PLAYOFFS
Yankees defeat the Twins in 5 games
Red Sox sweep the Angels
Yankees beat the Red Sox in 6 games
Dodgers defeat the Marlins in 4 games
Cubs beats the Phillies in 6 games
Dodgers beat Cubs in 5 games
Yankees beat the Dodgers in 5 games to win the world series.
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
AL MVP
1st - Mark Teixeira
runner up - Miguel Cabrera
NL MVP
1st - Albert Pujols
runner up - Hanley Ramirez
AL Cy Young
1st - Fransisco Liriano
runner up - Roy Halladay
NL Cy Young
1st - Johan Santana
runner up - Cole Hamels
So there you have it. My 2009 MLB predictions. I'm sure you won't agree with everything here, so voice your opinion.
1. Joe Mauer's injury scares me a little. The fact that no one is picking a return date, or even really sure what the problem is. There is no question that he's the key to success for the Twins and the best catcher in baseball, so to say we need a healthy Joe Mauer is a colossal understatement.
2. I think Morneau is growing into a true leader and superstar. I think he is our best player, and the leader in the clubhouse. I think he has a presence about him, and leads by example. I think the thing that sticks out for him, is he's not afraid to be that guy. It seems like Mauer is fine just being the hometown hero, batting champ. And that's fine too. They seem to work well together.
3. Delmon Young will have a good year. I'm talking .295-.300 with 20 HR's and 85 RBI's.
4. Carlos Gomez is going to be really good. It might not be this year. But he will hit 30 home runs, and he might do it for 5 years. I think a guy to compare him to is Carlos Beltran.
5. Who would have ever thought our bullpen would be our biggest question mark?
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE AL CENTRAL
1. I'm sick of the Indians being the fashionable pick every year.
2. The White Sox did nothing but get older. This team has about 1 or 2 years left, and then Konerko, Thome, Dye, and Pierzynski are going to be done.
3. The Tigers basically have the same team that was predicted to score 1000 runs last year. There pitchers are all either hurt or insane. But this team could win 95 games, or 75???
4. The Royals . . . . Screw the Royals.
5. The central will be very competitive. I think the key is to never find yourself 7,8,or 9 games out early in the season.
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE AL
1. The AL East has 3 teams as good as anybody in baseball. That will create some big series along the way. Get ready to hear about the Yankess and Red Sox and the 19 epic battles they will have.
2. The AL West is garbage top to bottom. The Angels will start their decline. I'm sick of hearing about A's GM Billy Beane. What has his moneyball theory done? The Rangers again will have a great offense and no pitching. Who's running that team Mike D'Antoni?
3. What's it like to be the Blue Jay's and Orioles, and know you have no chance for success?
4. Can we stop talking about Joba Chamberlain until he becomes a decent starter or closer. Until then he's a middle reliever who had a lot of bugs on him in a playoff game. He also drinks and drives.
5. Can Tampa Bay keep up with the Yankees and Red Sox?
FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NL
1. Doesn't the NL want home field advantage in the World Series? They haven't won an all star game since 1996.
2. I love the fact that the Met's choke every year to the Phillies. I love it even more that both teams know that.
3. I love the fact that the Cubs will never win, no matter what they do.
4. Manny Ramirez will piss off everybody but Dodgers fans
5. The Pirates have not been above .500 since 1992.
THREE THOUGHTS ABOUT MLB
1. I love the fact that we continue to call it the World Series.
2. I think baseball is really worried about what's going to happen financially when some of these teams are basically eliminated by June, July in this economy. You might see some small crowds. The Pirates and Royals play in late June. Who in their right mind would pay money to see that?
3. Steroids has been the biggest story in baseball for a decade. When we will start to trust these guys again?
All right time for my predictions. I will list each division and how many games behind the teams will finish. I did not go through and do that math to make sure it is mathematically possible. There are 2430 games each year, in case you are wondering.
AL EAST AL WEST AL CENTRAL
Yankees Angels Twins
Red Sox 4 GB A's 6 GB Indians 3 GB
Rays 5 GB Rangers 12 GB Tigers 4 GB
Blue Jays 11 GB Mariners 14 GB White Sox 7 GB
Orioles 29 GB Royals 12 GB
NL EAST NL WEST NL CENTRAL
Philles Dodgers Cubs
Marlins 1 GB Diamonbacks 5 GB Cardinals 1 GB
Mets 2 GB Rockies 8 GB Brewers 6 GB
Atlanta 16 GB Giants 10 GB Astros 10 GB
Washington 22 GB Padres 25 GB Reds 15 GB
Pirates 19 GB
PLAYOFFS
Yankees defeat the Twins in 5 games
Red Sox sweep the Angels
Yankees beat the Red Sox in 6 games
Dodgers defeat the Marlins in 4 games
Cubs beats the Phillies in 6 games
Dodgers beat Cubs in 5 games
Yankees beat the Dodgers in 5 games to win the world series.
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
AL MVP
1st - Mark Teixeira
runner up - Miguel Cabrera
NL MVP
1st - Albert Pujols
runner up - Hanley Ramirez
AL Cy Young
1st - Fransisco Liriano
runner up - Roy Halladay
NL Cy Young
1st - Johan Santana
runner up - Cole Hamels
So there you have it. My 2009 MLB predictions. I'm sure you won't agree with everything here, so voice your opinion.
3 comments:
I like the Liriano for Cy Young take but I think you have to throw Morneau in the MVP race. He is an RBI machine and if Mauer is healthy Morneau could have 150 by the end of the year. I also think that Joe Mauer might be the first guy in history to hit .500 for a season. Afterall, he is baby Jesus.
I don't agree with the AL east prediction though. The Rays are the real deal. 5 games back seems like a lot. But it will be fun to watch that division beat up on eachother. There will definitely be some fun games to watch in September and October.
And I agree that it doesn't matter who comes out of the AL West because they'll get beat in the first round anyway. I just hope the Twins can somehow find a way to beat the Yankees in the postseason for once. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I do like Morneau to be in the MVP race. I didn't want to sound like a homer too much. I think a guy like Mark Texiera is going to put up insane numbers like .300 40 HR and 140 RBI's. Add in the fact that he plays for the Yankees.
Mauer might bat .500 for the season, cause he'll play in 1 game and go 2 for 4.
Tampa Bay will be in the race for the majority of the season, but the Yankees and Red Sox just have to many proven parts. Tampa needs a lot of guys to duplicate career years
AL MVP: Nick Punto
Post a Comment