Now that all of the teams in Major League Baseball's postseason tournament have been determined, it is now time to give my fearless postseason predictions.
National League:
NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers in 4 games (I'm sorry to say, but my mind just won't let my heart predict a victory for the Dodgers) and Phillies over Brewers in 5 games
ALDS: Angels over Red Sox in 5 games and Rays over White Sox in 4 games.
NLCS: Phillies over Cubs in 6 games (NLCS MVP: Jimmy Rollins)
ALCS: Angels over Rays in 5 games (ALCS MVP: Torii Hunter)
World Series: Angels over Phillies in 6 games (World Series MVP: Mark Texeira)
However, I wouldn't really trust my predictions given some utter failures in my preseason predictions.
I got two of the NL playoff teams right (Dodgers and Brewers), though I thought the Brewers would actually win the division. My other two (Mets and Diamondbacks) competed until the very end. My NL MVP (David Wright), Cy Young (Johan Santana), and Rookie of the Year (Joey Votto) predictions all produced solid choices who won't actually win. Though my Cy Young choice will probably finish third in the voting (he deserves to finish second) and my ROY choice will finish second. (My MVP choice probably should finish second but will probably be in the lower reaches of the top 10.) My NL team on the rise was the Brewers, so I was solid there. My choice was Giants as team on the decline was reasonable, though some of their young players definitely matured slightly faster than I thought, so they may well be my NL team on the rise for 2009.
In the AL, I got two very obvious teams right for the playoffs: The Angels and Red Sox. My other two were the Yankees (giggle), who I thought would be the Wild Card team, and the Indians. My AL team on the rise was the Rays, so I was spot on with that one. (Hell, they did even better than I thought.) My team on the decline was the Twins, though I considered choosing the Orioles, which were my "honorable" mention here. I failed on that one. Also, my MVP (Travis Hafner) and Cy Young (Erik Bedard) choices were epic failures. Ouch! My ROY prediction of Daric Barton also failed miserably, though at least my honorable mention Evan Longoria will actually win the award.
Anyway, I certainly hope I'm wrong about the NL playoffs. The Cubs are a better team than we are, but let me raise my latte cup in a toast to small sample sizes!
1 day ago
2 comments:
Well, looks like one of your predictions (or should that be two?) is no longer possible. Go Dodgers! :)
I'm personally a bit stumped by the Angels' failure so far, I had thought it would be a closer series there. Same for the Brewers, but at least they got one so that it's not going to be all 4 series sweeps.
Yeah, my Dodgers-Cubs prediction was an epic fail. That's what I get for going with my mind rather than my heart. In that series, my heart obviously prevailed! (Let that be a lesson to me.) As long as what I want to happen actually happens, I am very pleased to be wrong...
The Phillies are actually a much stronger team than the Brewers, especially given that Sheets is gone. (The multiple starts on 3 days' rest for Sabathia also didn't help.)
Not all of the series being sweeps is also good. The Angels are the best team, but the Red Sox are quite strong and the series is quite short.
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