Projected MLB Standings

[Leftwich]

AL

East
Boston
New York
Tampa Bay
Baltimore
Toronto

Central
Minnesota
Detroit
Cleveland
Chicago
Kansas City

West
Los Angeles
Oakland
Texas
Seattle

NL

East
Philadelphia
New York
Florida
Atlanta
Washington

Central
Chicago
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Houston

West
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Arizona
Colorado
San Diego

AL Wildcard
New York Yankees

NL Wildcard
New York Mets

AL Champion
Boston

NL Champion
Chicago

World Series
Chicago beats Boston in 7

These are just early season predictions. In all the years I've watched Chicago play baseball I've never said they'd win the World Series but after the debacle in the playoffs last year I think they're gonna put that all that behind them and take it all this year.

Feel free to post your predictions also.

 

[FirstTimer]

No way IMO that the Ynakees win the AL wildcard. With A-Rod and matsui injured they don't have enough offense. I think Tampa wins the Division again and Boston gets the wild card.

 

[Lanteri]

AL

East
Boston
Tampa Bay
New York
Baltimore
Toronto

Central
Minnesota
Cleveland
Kansas City
Chicago
Detroit

West
Los Angeles
Oakland
Seattle
Texas

NL

East
Philadelphia
Atlanta
New York
Florida
Washington

Central
St. Louis
Chicago
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
Houston
Pittsburgh

West
Los Angeles
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado
San Diego

AL Wildcard
Tampa Bay

NL Wildcard
Chicago

AL Champion
Boston

NL Champion
Los Angeles

World Series
Boston over LA in 7

No real basis to it. Homerism aside, the Sox when you look at them have everything they need to make a deep run. Bullpen is stacked with Papelbon, Masterson, Delcarmen, Okajima, Saito, and Ramirez. Rotation is solid with Beckett, Dice-K, Lester, Wakefield, and either Buchholz or Penny to start the season. Probably Buchholz, since I'm pretty sure Penny is dealing with arm issues, and Smoltz won't be ready until June sometime. Add Smoltz to the rotation at that point as a #4 starter, and they got a ridiculous rotation.

Biggest question mark for the Sox is offense at this point. Will they be able to generate enough offense if Ortiz doesn't get back to form. Will Bay and Youkilis be able to put up numbers like they did last season? Will Drew stay healthy?

As for the rest of the AL: The Twins got to be the favorites in the central with that young pitching staff of theirs. They don't get themselves into trouble with walks, and they're only going to get better.

The west, is really a toss-up. The Angels are the favorites, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if Oakland made a run. They have a very solid offense with the additions of Giambi, Nomar, Cabrera, and Holliday, and a strong bullpen. It remains to be seen what their starters do though.

As far as the NL is concerned, all three divisions are really up for grabs. I'm not convinced that the Phillies have what it takes to make another run. Their pitching staff doesn't impress me at all. Their offense, obviously, will win them a lot of games, but I could just as easily see them missing the playoffs. The Mets aren't as good as people make them out to be. Their lineup is extremely top heavy, their rotation outside of Santana is extremely inconsistent at best, and their pen outside of the 8th and 9th innings in Putz and K-Rod, blows.

I gotta give the Cardinals the nod in the central. Carpenter looks like he's back to form and they always seem to compete with whatever they got. The Cubs are solid once again, but I don't think they have enough pitching. Zambrano's overrated. Harden's injury prone. Dempster was a fluke, IMO. Marmol is filthy, but the rest of that pen is just plain bad.

Dodgers have the west. The Giants could surprise some folks as they have a sick rotation, but there's no offense there at all. Sandoval's a beast though.

 

[Primetime]

I don't understand how anyone can give the Cubs a preseason title. People have been doing that for the last 100 years. You'd think they would learn. I'll post mine a little later.

 

[Buzzman]

I dont think Detroit will finish dead last. Hopefully last year was a fluke with every single pitcher struggling and they pull it together this year. If they can do that then we will win the division.

 

[FirstTimer]

I don't understand how anyone can give the Cubs a preseason title. People have been doing that for the last 100 years. You'd think they would learn. I'll post mine a little later.

Uhh no they haven't. The Cubs have been downright awful for most of the last 100 years and many times entered the year with little to no expectations. This is maybe the 10th time in the last 100 years they have been picked to win the division, let alone the World Series.

 

[stevsta]

Dodgers winning the west for sure

Possible La vs La championship

I WISH

 

[celtsxpatsxsox]

AL East
Boston Redsox
Tampa Bay Rays
New York Yankees
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays

AL Central
Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals
Detroit Tigers

AL West
Texas Rangers
Los Angelos Angels
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners

NL East
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets
Florida Marlins
Atlanta Braves
Washington Natonals

NL Central
St Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Houston Astros
Milwaukee Brewers
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks
Los Angelos Dodgers
San Fransisco Giants
San Diego Padres
Colorado Rockies

AL Wildcard
Los Angelos Angels

NL Wildcard
Chicago Cubs

 

[JRoZe410]

AL

East
New York
Boston
Tampa Bay
Baltimore
Toronto

Central
Detroit
Cleveland
Minnesota
Chicago
Kansas City

West
Oakland
Los Angeles
Texas
Seattle

NL

East
New York
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Florida
Washington

Central
Chicago
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Houston

West
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Arizona
Colorado
San Diego

AL Wildcard
Los Angeles Angels

NL Wildcard
Philadelphia Phillies

AL Champion
Detroit

NL Champion
New York Mets

World Series
New York Mets beat Detroit in 6

 

[Champ]

M E T S Mets Mets Mets

 

[killgod]

jays first place

everyone else in last


haters.

 

[Lanteri]

I dont think theres any way that Detroit and Cleveland finish 4th and 5th. Also, The Braves dont have the pen to compete for the Phillies.

I'm going to have to disagree with the latter part of your statement there.

The Braves, as long as they stay healthy, have a strong bullpen.

They get Soriano back who has career marks of 2.91 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. Dude is one of the harder to hit relievers around with a BAA of .200.

Mike Gonzalez is back as their closer. He struggled a little bit after coming back from injury, but he's a good pitcher and I'm sure will get it together.

Peter Moylan is back from TJ surgery. He posted a 1.80 ERA in '07 and was off to a hot start again in '08 with a 1.59 in 7 appearances before hitting the DL.

Buddy Carlyle provides solid middle relief. Really only had one bad month last season that bumped up his numbers. He allowed just 1 run, 2 hits, and Kd 9 in 7 IP vs. the Phils.

They got enough in the pen to be effective.

As far as the Tigers and Indians are concerned, either of them could easily finish down at the bottom of the division. The Tigers still have no pitching whatsoever. That's nice that they have a loaded offense, but they're going to have to score 5+ runs a game if they want to be competitive.

The Indians, could be in the thick of the division race, or they may not be. A lot of it depends on whether or not Cliff Lee was a fluke (which I firmly believe he was). They're also going to need Hafner or Victor Martinez to return to form if they want to make any kind of serious run. I think they have too many "what-ifs", and their rotation outside of Lee and Carmona blows. They got Pavano, Sowers, and Anthony Reyes. Reyes got lit up consistently in the national league, so I really don't see him being that particularly effective. Pavano's pitched in what, 9 games over the past 3 years? He's done. Sowers didn't miss very many bats at all last year. He looks like a decent control pitcher, but he's nothing more than a #4 or #5 at this point.

 

[Hasselbeck]

I think the Braves success rides on Tommy Hanson.. if he pitches outstanding, we can ride that to a playoff spot.. if not.. we're looking at 75 wins.

 

[zack54attack]

ROFL at the people that have the Cardinals winning the Central. They arent a bad team, but the Cubs are a step ahead of them.. The Cubs lineup is pretty solid. Adding Aaron Miles should help, even though losing DeRosa was killer. And to whoever said the Cubs pitching sucks... Your kidding right? Big Z isnt overrated, he's delivers 10+ wins a year. How can you say Dempster is a fluke when he hasnt played yet this year. Going from a closer to a starter like he did and having the year he had last year isnt a fluke, Lilly gives you quality starts every time, and when Harden is healthy he is just as good as any starter in the N.L. The bullpen is good too, with Jeff Samardzija, Gregg, and Marmol who is just filthy.

IMO I think the Red's will be the only team to contend with the Cubs in the Central. But I have the Cubs winning that division by 7 games.

 

[Buzzman]

Yea other then kenny Rodgers, the Pitchers we have now are the same pitchers that we rode to the World Series.

 

[Hasselbeck]

i dont get why people are giving tampa bay a shot. last season imo was a fluke

yankees win it is all i have to say

Far from a fluke.. the Rays may have more talent than anyone in the AL East.. including the Yankees.

Crawford, Upton, Longoria, Pena is a nasty quartet of position players.. and the Rays have a ton of young pitchers.. (Kazmir, Price, Garza, Shields to name a few)..

The Rays will contend if they stay healthy.

 

[Lanteri]

Far from a fluke.. the Rays may have more talent than anyone in the AL East.. including the Yankees.

Crawford, Upton, Longoria, Pena is a nasty quartet of position players.. and the Rays have a ton of young pitchers.. (Kazmir, Price, Garza, Shields to name a few)..

The Rays will contend if they stay healthy.

Plus they added Burrell who is another big power bat that they were lacking last year. They should have an extremely disciplined batting order as well between Upton, Burrell, and Pena. There's going to be a lot of pitches used to get those guys out.

Their biggest question mark IMO is their bullpen. Balfour and Howell had breakout seasons, but are they legitimate, or flash-in the pan.

That and Kazmir looked like shit down the stretch last year and wasn't particularly effective in the playoffs.

 

[Lanteri]

exactly. They are the same dudes, but hurt (zumaya, bonderman), inconsistent (rodney, robertson), and then theres the 'wtf is wrong with you' section of the team, consisting of Verlander of Willis.

Yeah, and that's the biggest problem is that they are the same dudes. Nate Robertson's not inconsistent, he's just plain bad. He had one good year and hasn't been good before, or after that.

Willis was also never really that good of a pitcher. He relied almost entirely on the deceptiveness of his delivery. He's got below average stuff and once his control started getting worse, he became pretty much useless.

As for Bonderman, I really don't get what people see in the guy. Even when he's healthy he's not a great pitcher. His best season wasn't even that spectacular.

Rodney has had control problems his entire career. That's bound to catch up with you at some point.

Verlander just needs to learn some control. He's got good stuff, but until he significantly cuts his walk numbers down he's not going to be particularly effective.

The rest of the bullpen is incredibly bad. You really do not want Brandon Lyon to be closing games.

 

[BazookaJoe5]

How are the O's going to finish in 4th place when two weeks from Opening Day, we still don't have a #3, #4, or #5 starter, our #1 has been terrible through the WBC/Spring Training, and the #2 has never pitched in the MLB before? We'll be lucky to win 60 games.

 

[RainboUnicorn]

If anyone really believes the Cubs aren't winning the central your crazy. They have 3 aces on their rotation (zambrano, dempster, harden). Lilly as that 4th starter is nothing to shake a stick at. That is solid. Hopefully they can get something done for peavey. Zamardjia and Marmol in the bullpen is scary.

They made their offense better with the addition of Milton bradley. Johnson and Fukudome platooning in the outfield will be very nice. Watch out for hauffpaur getting some action too. The guy bangs.

I'm dissapointed we got rid of DeRosa. He really helped us out last year. He had a solid hitting year and played just about every position in the field when we needed him to