baseball predictions

Well, the 2010 baseball season is now underway. My Yankees are playing the Red Sox tonight in the first game of the season. So now is the appropriate time to make my predictions for the year. Just a note, the following are based on absolutely no solid evidence; they are heavily influenced by my own likes and dislikes.And please, do not use these for wagering purposes. So without further delay:

American League
East: Yankees, Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles
Central: Twins, Tigers, White Sox, Royals, Indians
West: Angels, Mariners, Rangers, Athletics

National League
East: Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Mets, Nationals
Central: Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers, Reds, Astros, Pirates
West: Rockies, Dodgers, Padres, Giants, Diamondbacks

Playoffs
Yankees over Twins in 3
Rays over Angels in 4
Yankees over Rays in 6

Rockies over Cardinals in 5
Phillies over Dodgers in 4
Rockies over Phillies in 7

World Series
Yankees over Rockies in 5

Awards
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP: Ryan Howard
World Series MVP: Mariano Rivera

Book review - "The Yankee Years"

I just finished reading "The Yankee Years" by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci. It is the story of Torre's 12 seasons as the Yankees' manager. The 475-page book could be summed up as follows: "Jeter good. A-Rod bad."

Actually, it's not quite that simple. The bigger story is: "Players who were on the championship teams of 1996-2000 good. Players who joined the Yankees in 2001 and later bad."

I have no doubt that Torre was treated poorly by George Steinbrenner and the rest of the Yankees front office during the last couple of years of his tenure. However, the book seemed to be just a long string of complaints about how things weren't as good as they had been during the dynasty. I think we all have a tendency to long for the "good old days", not realizing that those days weren't always so good.

The book ends when Torre's contract isn't renewed after the 2007 season. Since then, he has gone on to manage the Dodgers, while the Yankees won the 2009 World Series. It was a shame how things ended, but I guess that all good things eventually come to an end.

Final thought on the book: an interesting read, but I'm glad I got it from the library rather than paying for it. Overall, it was worth reading for Yankees fans.

Baseball Playoff predictions, take 2

My first stab at predicting the 2009 baseball playoffs didn't go so well. I was wrong about three of the four first round series. (The one I got right was the Yankees beating the Twins, so I'm happy about that). Here are my revised predictions for the rest of the postseason:

ALCS: Yankees over Angels, 4-2
NLCS: Dodgers over Phillies, 4-3

World Series: Yankees over Dodgers, 4-2
World Series MVP: A-Rod
Number of articles about Joe Torre's return to the Bronx: about a million :-)

Baseball Playoff Predictions

The Major League Baseball playoffs start today. Below are my predictions. These are based on absolutely no special knowledge or information. (So if you make any wagers based on these predictions, you deserve to lose your money).

First Round
Yankees over Twins, 3-1
Red Sox over Angels, 3-0
Rockies over Phillies, 3-1
Cardinals over Dodgers, 3-2

LCS
Yankees over Red Sox, 4-2
Rockies over Cardinals, 4-2

World Series
Yankees over Rockies, 4-1
World Series MVP: Alex Rodriguez