2009 Baseball Predictions

The 2009 baseball season started yesterday with a 4-1 Braves victory over the Phillies. Derek Lowe turned in a stellar performance as the starter, and closer Mike Gonzalez was a little bit less stellar. Also, Brett Myers has the early lead in homeruns allowed. :)

Here are my fearless predictions for 2009:

National League:

East: Mets
Central: Cubs
West: Dodgers
Wild Card: Giants
NL winner: Mets

Of the above predictions, only my Wild Card one departs from most of the pundits. The Giants have an excellent starting staff, and I think that position players Travis Ishikawa and Pablo Sandoval are going to get really good really fast to make up for much of the weakness in the rest of the offense.

MVP: David Wright
Cy Young: Johan Santana
Rookie of the Year: I'm not sure, but I'll say Ishikawa. (Is Sandoval eligible? Doesn't he have too many plate appearances? At least one web site thinks he's a rookie.) I'll mention Cameron Maybin as well, but I'm not convinced he'll be the best rookie, even though he might well have the best career among the rookies.

Manager of the Year: Bruce Bochy (the manager of the surprise team)
Team on the rise: Giants
Team on the decline: Phillies
First manager fired: Dusty Baker

American League:

East: Yankees
Central: Indians
West: Athletics (after a fierce battle with The The Angels Angels of Anaheim)
Wild Card: Rays
AL winner: Yankees

These predictions are pretty consistent with those of the pundits, though I think most of them have the Angels over the Athletics.

MVP: Evan Longoria
Cy Young: CC Sabathia
Rookie of the Year: Matt Wieters (even though he's starting the year in the minors)

Manager of the Year: Bob Geren (the manager of the surprise team)
Team on the rise: Oakland (check out their young starting pitching); honorable mention to Texas because of their young offense (though I just can't trust them to develop any pitching)
Team on the decline: Angels
First manager fired: Ozzie Guillen

World Series: Mets over Yankees in 5 games


One final prediction: As usual, most of my predictions will turn out to be completely wrong by the end of the year.