We are about 1/3 of the way through the baseball season so I thought I’d check to see how my preseason picks were doing. This is the link to my post where I predicted the MLB season outcomes for this year. So now you can check that original post to make sure that I’m not lying about my Billy Martin level of baseball genius.
I had the AL division winners as the Angels, Indians and Red Sox. The Angels currently lead the West and the Red Sox are only a game out of first behind Tampa Bay (more on them in a moment). So on that front I’m looking pretty good. The Indians, however, are letting me down. I did not expect the White Sox to be so good. I had the Indians winning the Central with the Tigers taking the Wild Card spot. Currently both those teams are below .500. Not so good, but it’s a long season and I have to believe that the Indians will start to make a run for first place in the division. But of course I have to believe that because I had the Indians making it to the World Series!
I picked the NL division winners to be Arizona, Chicago and Atlanta. Two outta three ain’t bad my friends. Arizona is the best team in baseball and Chicago is winning the Central. The Braves got hot recently and almost took over first place of the East, but then had to go back on the road where they can’t score any runs for some reason. Nevertheless, they are only 2 ½ games out of first. My Wild Card pick for the NL was the Phillies, who like the Braves are challenging for first place in the division. What I didn’t expect was Florida to be holding first place instead of either the Braves or Philies. But really no one saw that coming.
Thus, on division leaders I did well, only being really off the mark with the Indians and my NL Wild Card pick is looking good enough despite my not so good AL Wild Card pick. So on that segment I’ll give myself a B+.
Now here’s where I really nailed it! On my “notes” section of my predictions I wrote that Tampa Bay would start to assert itself, be better than the Yankees, and possibly contend for the Wild Card. Considering that they are leading the East, I think I nailed that one. And speaking of the Yankees, I predicted that they’d be a .500 team and as of now their record is 26-27. Good call me. I also had Toronto making some noise, which they are. All I missed in the AL notes was that Seattle would be pretty good and they are anything but.
In the NL notes I also did well considering the fact that while all the “experts” handed the pennant to the Mets I predicted that they would have clubhouse turmoil and would not make the playoffs. And guess what, if the playoffs were held today they wouldn’t make it. They’re under .500 and they are fighting in the clubhouse to the point that their manager might get canned. All of which I foresaw. On a sour note, I thought the Reds would be a great sleeper pick and they are currently 25-28.
Anyway, for nailing the Yankees, Mets and Rays predictions and for only being off on Seattle and the Reds I have to give myself on the “notes” section an A-.
So for my overall grade on my preseason predictions I am going to round up to A-. The reason being that no else saw the Mets collapse and few others were ballsy enough to say that the Rays would be better than the Yankees. So forget Baseball Tonight, I’m the REAL source for all your baseball needs!
Real quick, a quote from ESPN: “The Yankees’ starting infield alone makes more money ($76 million) than these two rosters [Rays & Marlins] combined (about $65.6 million).”
Sonavabitch, I don’t know a whole lot about managing a baseball team, but I’m almost positive that’s not good. And in regards to media preference, we’re hearing as much about the Rays great season so far not purely for its own merit, but in comparison to how lowly the Yankee’s are. I hear the arguments about the massive media markets, but still, when will the Yanks start playing well or generating some real news other than, ‘The Yankees are not playing as wonderfully as we all know them capable of!’
Yeah, I think, not sure though, that A-Rod by himself makes more money that all of the Florida Marlins combined. Or at least that was true until the Marlins gave Hanley Ramirez a contract extension.
On the media thing I’m with you. That Does Boston Deserve it post I wrote drew the wrath of some devoted Boston fans and while they made the sound point that not all Boston fans are massholes, it is hard to argue the fact that Boston/New York get media attention regardless of whether or not they are good. San Antonio gets no media attention, Detriot gets written off as thuggish, but the Celtics get every benefit of the doubt from the media dispite all the poor decisions and whatnot that I pointed out in that post.
with baseball it’s the same thing. No one points out that Hanley Ramirez came from the Red Sox minor league team. So instead of having Julio Lugo at Short Stop they could have Hanley. Think how much better they’d be with him in the lineup. Yet if you ask any media person about Theo Epstein they’ll say, “he’s a GM genius”. Really?
Meanwhile, both New York teams suck, but instead of focusing on good teams like Arizona or the White Soxs they continue to focus on the Mets and Yankees. Why? I guess we all know why, but logically it doesn’t make sense.
I’m just glad I predicted both the Yankees at .500 and the Mets clubhouse blowing up and both have happened. I can’t wait for the inevitable headline, “Delgado incites riot in dugout”