Friday, April 01, 2005
It's that time.
Prediction time. Everyone should make picks in the comments. And remember: pick the Braves. It's evil, but it's better to hate them now than to hate them later.
AL East: Boring
Red Sox
Yankees
Some other teams
AL Central: Not that good
Twins
Indians
Sox
Tigers
Royals
AL West: Where the action is
Anaheim
Oakland
Texas
Seattle
NL East: Dan's division
Atlanta (Sorry, Dan.)
Philly (Sorry, Dan.)
Florida (Sorry, Dan.)
New York
Montreal
NL Central: The one you've all been waiting for
St. Louis
Chicago
Houston
Cincinnatti
Pittsburgh
Milwaukee
NL West: No Barry, no excitement
LA
San Diego
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado
Tom Tippett over at Diamond Mind has done his usual 100-season simulation, and he has the Cardinals winning an average of 103 games and taking the division title 99 times. While I do think this is the strongest Cardinals team I've ever seen going into the season, I'm not quite as confident as that. Diamond Mind, for example, while taking account of injuries, assigns them more or less randomly, from what I can tell from Tippett's explanation. The Cardinals are relying on a couple of old guys who are very, very good, which means there's a chance that those guys will be very, very hurt.
But the only real competition, the Cubs, are relying on a rotation that has its own durability questions, a bench and bullpen that have chances to be catastrophically awful, and on an offense that has done nothing to change its habit of making a lot of outs.
So despite October's Washington Generals impersonation, I'm with my guys again. I know October 2005 is a long, long way away, but here's to back-to-back pennants.
And you folks?
Anonymous: How come you switched in the middle of the list from team names to city names?
Levi: No excuse: I was in a hurry this morning and edited poorly. That also explains why I have no links in the post.
thatbob: Baseball Related comes with a free predictions archive this year? Kewl! Introducing my first-ever sports predictions of any kind in any sport, informed by 2 days of game play, but still relying mostly on how much I like the teams.
ALE:
Sux
Sox
Js
Oos
Pansies the Wuss-Wusses
ALC:
Tuffies
Tweens
Sox
Racists
Caseys
ALW:
Proppas
LAAOAs
Microsofts
Dubyas
NLE:
Dans
Racists
Phans
Fish
Senators
NLC:
Cards
Cubs
Beers
Reds
Arrs
Orbities
NLW:
Dads
Rocks
Trolleys
Gnats
Snakes
AL East: Boring
Red Sox
Yankees
Some other teams
AL Central: Not that good
Twins
Indians
Sox
Tigers
Royals
AL West: Where the action is
Anaheim
Oakland
Texas
Seattle
NL East: Dan's division
Atlanta (Sorry, Dan.)
Philly (Sorry, Dan.)
Florida (Sorry, Dan.)
New York
Montreal
NL Central: The one you've all been waiting for
St. Louis
Chicago
Houston
Cincinnatti
Pittsburgh
Milwaukee
NL West: No Barry, no excitement
LA
San Diego
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado
Tom Tippett over at Diamond Mind has done his usual 100-season simulation, and he has the Cardinals winning an average of 103 games and taking the division title 99 times. While I do think this is the strongest Cardinals team I've ever seen going into the season, I'm not quite as confident as that. Diamond Mind, for example, while taking account of injuries, assigns them more or less randomly, from what I can tell from Tippett's explanation. The Cardinals are relying on a couple of old guys who are very, very good, which means there's a chance that those guys will be very, very hurt.
But the only real competition, the Cubs, are relying on a rotation that has its own durability questions, a bench and bullpen that have chances to be catastrophically awful, and on an offense that has done nothing to change its habit of making a lot of outs.
So despite October's Washington Generals impersonation, I'm with my guys again. I know October 2005 is a long, long way away, but here's to back-to-back pennants.
And you folks?
Original comments:
Anonymous: How come you switched in the middle of the list from team names to city names?
Levi: No excuse: I was in a hurry this morning and edited poorly. That also explains why I have no links in the post.
thatbob: Baseball Related comes with a free predictions archive this year? Kewl! Introducing my first-ever sports predictions of any kind in any sport, informed by 2 days of game play, but still relying mostly on how much I like the teams.
ALE:
Sux
Sox
Js
Oos
Pansies the Wuss-Wusses
ALC:
Tuffies
Tweens
Sox
Racists
Caseys
ALW:
Proppas
LAAOAs
Microsofts
Dubyas
NLE:
Dans
Racists
Phans
Fish
Senators
NLC:
Cards
Cubs
Beers
Reds
Arrs
Orbities
NLW:
Dads
Rocks
Trolleys
Gnats
Snakes
Labels: predictions
