I know the Dodgers and Padres have technically played already, but the regular season starts tomorrow for everyone else. After seeing your team in Spring Training, assessing the lineup and cringing over injuries, where do you expect your team to finish?
I think the Yankees will contend for a playoff spot. Soto really helps their offense, but without Cole in the rotation the starting pitching is mediocre. Hopefully he won’t be out too long or get worse. I’m thinking 88-90 wins.
It really depends on injury recovery for the Yanks, if players like Cole come back solid and Rizzo & Stanton look better this year, the Yanks might make it to 95 wins. LeMahieu is another player where having an average year would be a big step up from last year.
I also have high hopes for Volpe in his sophomore season. My most expectations, this was suppose to be his rookie season and he is looking nicely improved over last year, that was suppose to be his AAA year.
Also have the incentive of Torres is on his walk year and playing for that huge first free agent contract.
The Nats are doing a nice job of rebuilding. However, two things stand in their way. One is named Corbin and the other Gallo.
Braves are winning the World Series. In all honesty, the season doesn’t matter, nor do the playoffs. I will just assume the Braves will/have won, reality be damned. This fact-free assertion will forever stand.
The Dodgers will actually do what they’re predicted to do and win it all… although they’ll have enough of a losing streak to drive their fans crazy near the end of the season
Unless there is a reprise of the Miracle of Fatima, the Sox won’t even smell the playoffs. The Cubs, on the other hand, will be a playoff contender barring injuries.
The Yankees - the starting pitching will be better than expected without Cole (not great, but above average). Stanton will have his best year in a while, and also his healthiest year in a while. Torres will produce well in his potential walk year.
But Judge, Rizzo and Soto will both miss months with injuries; Volpe will struggle at the plate and get benched; Alex Verdugo will make fans wish for the good old days of the Clint Frazier era and we’ll finish 82-80. Boone gets fired the day after the season ends.
Yeah, I’m feeling pessimistic…
The Phillies will play .500 ball until August, then become the hottest team in the league, clinching the NL wildcard with three games to play.
They will sweep the wild card and divisional series, just to lose the NL championship in 7 games.
Washington Nationals will have some good weeks, but end the season at 0.400 in fourth place in their division. There’s always next year.
Tigers win the Central, Tarik Skubal wins the Cy Young.
Let’s see. The Cardinals started spring training with two excellent candidates for center field. Now they’re both on the disabled list, and the new starting CF has played a total of 163 games of minor league baseball, no higher than AA. They spent bucks to sign Sonny Gray, only to see him go down after three innings of work, so he’ll miss opening day, as well. Their best still-healthy pitcher is equally capable of throwing a no-hitter and giving up tape measure home runs, while their most reliable starting pitchers combined for two of the worst records in MLB last year. Two relievers on the Injured list. They signed a 38-year old shortstop because they don’t have anyone ready to play the position if their starter gets hurt. Paul Goldschmidt, the All-Everything first baseman, had a disappointing season last year and batted .116 in spring training. And the schedule for the first month of the season is brutal.
But if they can get past that, things look good!
The AL Central may actually be a fun race. I think the final standings with be Detroit, Minnesota, KC, Cleveland, Chicago - but the top three are somewhat even. The Royals have done a lot of things right this off-season, filling some big holes with at least medium-sized solutions. Their offense will do well, but the pitching will be below average (an improvement upon last year’s abysmal rating).
Your analysis of KC is, I believe, spot on.
The Royals will win more games than they did last season.
Considering that they only won 56 games last year, that’s a low bar. I think they’ll be close to a .500 team and may even contend for a while.
This is likely. The one thing we know for sure, no matter how well they do all season when the World Series is over the Phillies will not be champions and they will have blown any chance they had. This kind of consistency is their hallmark.
Rangers will go to the ALCS again but fall short of the World Series.
Yankees 115 wins and beat Dodgers in WS.
I have the Blue Jays finishing 79-83 and in last place; I think their pitching will regress badly. That said, they went out and crushed the Rays yesterday (in the Trop, where they usually play horribly) so maybe I’ll bump it up to 81 or 82 wins.
That’s some dreaming there but eh whatever helps ya get through the season 