Predictions

We are sooooo close to meaningful baseball games!  This is the time of year where everyone starts to overvalue spring training stats and worry about who the last bullpen guy is going to be. Every team has that one non prospect that comes out of the woodwork and knocks the cover off the ball. Lots of hot takes that go something like this, "I think x non prospect is better than x established mlb guy and should get a chance to make the roster." I'm speaking in terms of the Pirates, but I'm sure all of you have heard the same thing.

I figured I would go ahead and do my 2017 predictions.  My wife is out of town this weekend and I'm likely not going to get much computer time before the season starts. I'm sure these will look really stupid by the end of the year. 

AL East: Red Sox - The team has some depth issues, but on paper they are the most complete team in the division.  Injuries are already starting to pile up so its not hard to see it go to shit, but for now they are my pick. 

AL Central: Indians -  On paper this is probably the weakest division in baseball.  So the AL Champs look to be clear cut favorites. 

AL West: Astros - This one feels close, but I'll take the team with the best lineup. So many good young position players on that team. 

Wildcard 1: Mariners

Wildcard 2: Yankees

Best Record in AL:  Indians

ALCS: Astros over the Red Sox

NL East: Nats - They won a lot of games last year with Harper having a huge dropoff from his 2015 year. He will likely be better so they are still top of the heap this year. 

NL Central:  Cubs - I really don't see how they lose the division. They have so much positional depth. The only area you can be nit picky is the rotation, but then they have the means to go get a big time starter if they need one.  The scary thing is they could easily survive a bad injury to the likes of Rizzo and Bryant because they have Baez and Zobrist. 

NL West: Dodgers - Kershaw is liking have two aces.  They have 75 starting pitchers so depth should be ok as well.  They just don't have many holes. 

Wildcard 1: Mets 

Wildcard 2: Giants

Best record in NL: Cubs

NLCS Dodgers over the Cubs

World Series: Dodgers over the Astros

AL MVP: Mike Trout

NL MVP: Corey Seager

AL Cy Young: Masahiro Tanaka

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw

AL ROY: Andrew Benintendi

NL ROY: Dansby Swanson

AL HR champ: Manny Machado

NL HR champ: Giancarlo Stanton

There you have it.  These will be all wrong.  

The only teams that would surprise me if they didn't make the playoffs would be the Cubs and Dodgers. Cleveland could be in that mix too just because that division looks so bad.  

Thanks for reading!