Predictions Through Memorial Day

Hey! Been a while for me to post, sorry about that.

A lot of teams and players use Memorial Day as a benchmark to see how they're doing in the season so far. I think I'll check out the SIH Staff 2010 Preseason Predictions, and see how everyone's doing.

The MLB Leaders, this year:
AL East: Tampa Bay Rays
AL Central: Minnesota Twins
AL West: Oakland Athletics
AL Wild Card: New York Yankees
NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds
NL West: San Diego Padres
NL Wild Card: St. Louis Cardinals

The best team in each league is italicized.

Let's start with the teams no one had in their predictions. No one had the Rays, Athletics, Yankees (everyone had them winning the AL East), Braves, Reds, Padres, Cardinals (same case as the Yankees). Most of the writers had the Twins in the central, that being the only case of good predicting. No one expected the Padres, Athletics or Reds to be this good, or for the Mariners to be this bad. But that's baseball.

I had predicted the MVPs, Cy Youngs, and MOYs, as well as saying Stephen Strasberg would win NL ROY. My AL MVP was Ichiro, with Joe Mauer and A-Rod behind him. Ichiro is having a very good season, 2nd in the AL in hits (70- three behind Cano), and 5th in AL batting AVG. Despite this, he's not having as good of a season compared to guys like Justin Morneau of MIN, Jose Bautista of TOR, Miguel Cabrera of DET, or even Cano. I had picked CC to win AL Cy Young, with King Felix behind him. Right now, Ricky Romero of TOR looks like an early favorite.

My NL MVP was Pujols with Hanley behind him, and despite a power shortage lately, The Machine looks like an early favorite for yet another MVP award. My NL Cy Young was Halladay with Wainwright coming in 2nd. Roy is having a great season, but Ubaldo Jimenez of Colorado has been basically untouchable.

My predictions seem to have been okay, at best LOL, but we'll see how they turn out the rest of the year. Feel free to criticize my predictions, or talk about your own.

Yanks Number One in Heyman's Preseason Rankings

Jon Heyman of SI.com ranks all 30 MLB teams and as you can see in this article the Yankees are preseason favorites. Here is what Jon has to say about our boys in pinstripes:

1. Yankees. Most of the stars are still aligned. Although, the loss of clutch offensive performers Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui doesn't help.

Here is the complete list:

1. Yankees
2. Phillies
3. Rays
4. Red Sox
5. Rockies
6. Cardinals
7. Angels
8. Diamondbacks
9. White Sox
10. Rangers
11. Braves
12. Dodgers
13. Twins
14. Mariners
15. Tigers
16. Giants
17. Brewers
18. Cubs
19. Marlins
20. Mets
21. Reds
22. Orioles
23. Indians
24. Athletics
25. Padres
    
26. Astros
27. Blue Jays
28. Nationals
29. Pirates
30. Royals

As you can see Heyman's rankings are in line with many of the writers here at SIH (Check the "2010 SIH Preseason Predictions" post). Hopefully the Yankees live up to the expectations and repeat as World Series Champions. Only a little over 48 hours until first pitch. Let's play ball!

Joe's 2010 NL Predictions + Playoffs

Once again, it is early, but I've got a pretty good picture of what this season could turn out like.

NL East:
1. Phillies, 93-69
2. Marlins, 86-76
3. Braves, 85-77
4. Mets, 81-81
5. Nationals, 76-86

NL Central:
1. Cardinals, 92-70
2. Cubs, 85-77
3. Reds, 82-80
4. Brewers, 79-83
5. Astros, 77-85
6. Pirates, 69-93

NL West:
1. Dodgers, 90-72
2. Diamondbacks, 87-75*
3. Giants, 85-77
4. Rockies, 80-82
5. Padres, 72-90

*=wild card, these wins/losses are just off the top of my head (just what seems right)

NL MVP: 1. Albert Pujols, STL; 2. Hanley Ramirez; FLA.

NL Cy Young: 1. Roy Halladay, PHI; 2. Adam Wainwright; STL.

NL MOY: 1. A.J. Hinch, ARZ; 2. Fredi Gonzalez, FLA.

(I don't really know any rookies, so I'm going to hold off on that, although just putting Stephen Strausburg would be easy, LOL.)

Now the playoffs:
Division Series:
Yankees def. Twins, 3-1; Mariners def. Red Sox, 3-2.
Phillies def. Diamondbacks, 3-2; Cardinals def. Dodgers, 3-1.

ALCS: Yankees def. Mariners, 4-2.
NLCS: Cardinals def. Phillies, 4-3.

World Series: Yankees def. Cardinals, 4-3.
World Series MVP: Mark Teixeira, NYY.

Am I possibly biased? Yes. Am I wrong? Hopefully not. But seriously, is there any reason to believe the Yanks can't repeat as champs? I don't think so.

Yanks 2010= #28

My AL 2010 Predictions

These are preliminary, but seeing as the free agent market isn't full of very many impact players, I'm going to go ahead and put up my predictions.

AL East:
1. Yankees, 98-64
2. Red Sox, 95-67*
3. Rays, 93-69
4. Orioles, 73-89
5. Blue Jays, 64-98

AL Central:
1. Twins, 84-78
2. White Sox, 82-80
3. Tigers, 80-82
4. Royals, 75-87
5. Indians, 70-92

AL West:
1. Mariners, 92-70
2. Angels, 89-73
3. Rangers, 81-81
4. Athletics, 79-83

*=wild card, these wins/losses are just off the top of my head (just what seems right)

AL MVP: 1. Ichiro, SEA; 2. Joe Mauer, MIN.

AL Cy Young: 1. CC Sabathia, NYY; 2. Felix Hernandez, SEA.

AL MOY: Don Wakamatsu, SEA.

(I don't really know any rookies, so I'm going to hold off on that.)

I'll put up my NL Predictions in a day or so. Feel free to comment below.