Despite the copious amounts of snow on the ground, baseball season is finally underway after six excruciating months of having to watch other sports. Since America's two favorite pastimes are baseball and pretending to know something that is impossible to predict, I will satisfy you, America, with a glimpse into the future. I will don my Nostradamus cap, shake my magic 8-ball, consult the stars, and watch a couple of baseball games in order to tell you what will happen in baseball, so that you can seem sports-savvy without watching a single game this year.
The NL East, the senior circuit's senior division, promises to play host to some of the most exciting games this season as it features baseball's best team, the Mets, two serious wild card threats, the Phillies and Braves, and the surprisingly impressive Marlins. The Phillies are the most improved team in baseball and their now strong pitching staff should carry them to the wild card. However, even with all the improvements, they will not make up the twelve games by which they lost to the Mets last year. Look for the Mets to win the division backed by the league's best offense as well as a deep bullpen, improved by the addition of Scott Schoeneweis and Ambiorix Burgos. The Braves and Marlins should make it tough for the Phillies as both feature strong, young rosters that will be forces to be reckoned with for the next couple of years.
By contrast, the NL Central is easily baseball's most mediocre division, despite having last year's World Series champion. Although the Cardinals made an impressive late-season run, they still finished a mere two games over .500 last season. This year they only project to be worse with the loss of key starters Jeff Suppan, Jeff Weaver and Jason Marquis. With replacement starters the likes of Braden Looper and Kip Wells, this team will struggle to match its 83 wins of last year. Since the Cardinals are vulnerable, the Astros, who made some great, undervalued pickups in Woody Williams and Jason Jennings, will outlast the rest of the division's challengers to pick up the division title. The Cubs have certainly received a lot of media attention (mainly for spending like drunken sailors, or sober congressmen, to buy a pennant), but even with Alfonso Soriano, the team simply does not have the talent or depth of the Astros.
The NL West will be a battle between the same two teams that tied for first place last year, the Padres and Dodgers. The Padres, led by stud pitcher Jake Peavy, after a relatively uneventful off-season, are just as strong as they were last year. The Dodgers, on the other hand, improved dramatically by adding Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf to an already-strong rotation. The Dodgers will eventually triumph over the Padres in the race for the postseason simply because they added better pieces than the Padres did. Another source of excitement in this division will be Bonds' race to overtake the home-run record before he dies from steroid abuse.
Over in the American league, the AL East, baseball's most over-hyped division, will feature another classic (or boring, depending on where you are from) battle between the powerhouse Yankees and Red Sox. The Yankees, despite possessing four of baseball's seven highest-paid players, have gotten worse since last year, losing stars Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield, while the Sox, who added Japanese phenom Daitsuke Matsuzaka, have improved. However, the change in relative talent will not be sufficient to overcome the eleven games by which the Yankees won the division last year. Look for a back-and-forth battle, out of which the Yanks emerge as the AL East champion and the Sox as the American league wild card.
The AL Central is another division that has a legitimate claim to be baseball's deepest. The Twins, Tigers, Indians and White Sox all feature great pitching to go along with above-average offenses. Any of the teams could get hot and win the division. Injuries will play a significant role in deciding which team is left standing at the end, which is why I am picking the Twins, who have the deepest farm system from which to draw replacement talent. However, if the Tigers, with new acquisition Gary Sheffield, can put up a similar effort to that of last year, the Twins will struggle to win the division against the team that led baseball in wins for a good portion of last season.
The AL West, like the East, is a race between two teams, the A's and the Angels. The Angels have a stellar bullpen, but their lineup and pitching staff is decimated by injuries to five key players. The A's meanwhile come into the start of the season healthy, with a young roster that is bound to improve every game. The A's will hold off a late season charge by the Angels to secure a postseason berth.
Once we get to the playoffs, it is much harder to predict a victor, since the sample size of a five-game series can negate the superiority of any given team. But, just for the fun of it, my picks are listed below. Let's go Mets.
Playoff Picture:
NLDS: Mets beat Astros, Dodgers beat Phillies; ALDS: Yankees beat A's, Twins beat Red Sox
NLCS: Mets beat Dodgers; ALCS: Twins beat Yankees
WS: Mets beat Twins
