Playoff Predictions

Alright guys, I am making some pre-season predictions for the upcoming baseball season. Here are the Division winners in each league.

American League:

Central: White Sox: Second Best Record
East: Yankees: Best Record
West: Mariners
Wild Card: Red Sox

National League

Central: Cardinals
East: Phillies: Best Record
West: Rockies: Second Best
Wild Card: Marlins

AL Central: The White Sox win this because of their strong pitching and the additions they made to their lineup in the offseason. The rotation of Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Floyd, and Garcia will be the best rotation in all of baseball hands down. Buehrle and Peavy are always consistent and reliable. Danks and Floyd have shown that they can be relied upon and be very consistent throughout a full season. Then Garcia, the "weakest" pitcher in the rotation showed last year he still has what it takes to shut down a major league club when he needs to. The starting pitching last year had 86 quality starts, that led all of baseball. That was with a rotating 5th starter due to injuries to Contreras. The defense is better this year with Teahen at third and Rios the everyday CF with Pierre in left and Quentin in right.

AL East: The Yankees are the defending World Champions and all they have done was add to the team they had last year. They only really lost Wang, who was out a majority of the season anyway with injuries. They added Curtis Granderson to replace Cabrera, a bonus in my mind due to his speed in a large outfield. The core of the team is back together and that means the team will make a prime run at the World Series Ring once again.

AL West: The Mariners have made some great additions to add on to an already solid team. They finished in third with an 85-77 record last season. They have added Chone Figgins to play third base and hit second behind Ichiro, who every year knocks out over 200 hits and plays gold glove caliber defense. They also have a young core group of players and a very good rotation led by Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez.

AL Wild Card: I think the Red Sox will win the Wild Card in the AL because of their solid pitching. They still have Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, and Wakefield. But during the offseason they acquired another top of the rotation starter in John Lackey. And with Clay Buchholz, a young but good starter, ready in case one of the starters goes down. Not to mention a great defensive lineup with the additions of Mike Cameron and Adrian Beltre. This is a team prime to make a run at the crown this year.

ALDS
Red Sox Vs White Sox
Yankees Vs Mariners

 ALCS
White Sox Vs Yankees

NL Central: The Cardinals will win this because they have the core of their team back and were able to resign Matt Holliday. They still have Carpenter to lead the rotation, Albert Pujols at first and Holliday in left. They will win the Central, but they will not move on past that much farther.

NL East: The Phillies are the clear cut winner here. They still have a great lineup with Rollin, Howard, and Utley. They also added arguably the best pitcher in baseball in Roy Hallday to an already impressive rotation, although they did trade away Cliff Lee to the Mariners.

NL West: The Rockies are a solid team with a good, young rotation to work with. The lineup seems to come around when they need it. To be honest I dont know a whole lot about this team in terms of names of players, I do know that they have been getting better every year with a good young team and the help of very good starting pitching. Hehoff can probably add a comment to add to this.

NL Wild Card: The Marlins have really been impressing me the last few years and unfortunately have not been able to crack into the playoffs. Until this year. The Marlins have good young pitching led by Josh Johnson and Andrew Miller and a very good lineup with Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Cameron Maybin. This is the year they finally make it into the playoffs.

NLDS
Cardinals Vs Phillies
Rockies Vs Marlins

NLCS
Phillies Vs Rockies

World Series Matchup: This is the year the NL finally wins the All Star game again so the Phillies have home field
White Sox Vs Phillies

White Sox win in 7. 

Post your thoughts

First Post

Hey guys, I just started this blog because I figured that I dont get to talk to many of  you a whole lot, especially those people from outside of Illinois. Ill keep you updated on what goes on and whats new in my life from time to time. Ive started to write some articles on ehow.com and xomba.com to make some extra money. If you guys want to check either of them out that would be great. Ill post the links to my profiles at the bottom of this post.

Regarding whats been going on in my life there has not been a whole lot. This winter has been a pretty uneventful winter. I have not had the chance to do a whole lot due to a lack of funds and, at times, a lack of manpower at work and an excess of snow. I made a trip to Grand Rapids at the end of February to hang out with some friends at Calvin. Luckily there was no snow around then so I was able to make it a long weekend and spend a lot of time with them. I have had a lot of time with the dog this winter since Jimmy has been working pretty much most of the time and I have rarely been working. Thankfully I have been able to get by on the 600 dollars every 2 weeks from unemployment.

In the last couple weeks talking to my boss, it looks as though we are going to be very slow this year. We have lost quite a bit of work thanks to the poor economy and I will be getting only about 40-45 hours a week. I have been used to living off of what I made in 50-55 hours a week, so this season will be a little tight for me. Dont worry though, I will be making it to Heather's wedding so I will be able to see all you Calvin people again! Its getting late so I am going to bed now. Hope everyone is doing well.

Here are the links to my profile on ehow and xomba.

Ehow
Xomba