As the season marches on and more games go into the books, I
find myself, like last year, taking longer to get my team and divisional
breakdowns out. For that reason, I’m
going to jump ahead and put out my playoff predictions before too much time
goes by, which include standings for each division. I will then return to the seasonal
breakdowns, which won’t be adjusted after today and will still be based on my
preseason rankings.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NL East
Washington Nationals
New York Mets
Miami Marlins
Atlanta Braves
Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central
St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs (1st Wildcard Winner)
Pittsburgh Pirates
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
NL West
San Francisco Giants
Arizona Diamondbacks (2nd Wildcard Winner)
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
Colorado Rockies
I feel good about my picks for this league. I made no changes from my preseason picks,
which just haven’t been posted.
Obviously, picking 2 NL West teams to make the playoffs is looking rough
right now. And picking the Phillies to
finish behind the Braves looks unlikely too.
However it’s still early, though if I were to make new picks today I
might be changing those two things. As
far as the rest, the Cubs are hotter than I thought and the Cards aren’t
playing as well, but I still like that to even out a bit. I feel good about all my playoff teams at
this point, even if the seeding changes.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AL East
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays (1st Wildcard Winner)
Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles
New York Yankees
AL Central
Kansas City Royals
Detroit Tigers (2nd Wildcard Winner)
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Minnesota Twins
AL West
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle Mariners
Oakland Athletics
This league requires some explanation. I posted one division breakdown already, the
AL West. But upon viewing my notes, I
realized that I picked three wildcard winners in my un-posted divisional
breakdowns. That’s not good. So, the one I’m rescinding is the one that I
gave to the Astros. While I will
maintain that I liked the Tigers and Blue Jays better this year anyway, the
fact that the Astros are in last place right now is making this revision look
more suspect. I understand that. You either believe me or you don’t. But even in my initial post I casted doubt
over the Astros, who were very average last year after their hot first month. So, the Astros are NOT a wildcard pick of
mine.
But let’s talk about the rest. At this point, the White Sox hot start is
making my AL Central picks look suspect.
Also, the Mariners are playing far better than I expected while the
Astros are playing far worse. And while
I was right about the Yankees being bad, the Orioles and Blue Jays have both
surprised me in completely opposite ways.
I like my division winners still and also still think the Blue Jays can
make up some ground and take a wildcard spot.
While I don’t know that the rest will be right, I still think all of my
playoff teams are alive and well at this point in the season.
PLAYOFFS
NL Wildcard- Diamondbacks over
Cubs
AL Wildcard- Blue Jays
over Tigers
NLDS 1- Nationals over
Diamondbacks (3-1)
NLDS 2- Cardinals over
Giants (3-2)
ALDS 1- Rangers over
Blue Jays (3-2)
ALDS 2- Royals over
Red Sox (3-0)
NLCS- Nationals
over Cardinals (4-2)
ALCS- Royals over
Rangers (4-2)
World Series Nationals
over Royals (4-2)
Those are the picks.
Right now, the Diamondbacks beating the Cubs in a one game wildcard game
looks unlikely. And while I generally go
with pitching over hitting in the playoffs, I broke that rule with the Blue
Jays over the Tigers in the AL wildcard round, because I think Toronto really
tends to raise it up in the playoffs, based on last year. And I expect them to be playing at home. But after that, I generally went with the
better pitching staff. Now, that being
said, Toronto does seem to have an ace that I wasn’t expecting them to have, so
maybe they can upset the Rangers, because that offense is insane. But I don’t see them getting past Kansas City. And while the Giants might be able to upset
the Cards in the NLDS, I like the Nationals to beat either team. And ultimately, I think they win the whole
thing this year. (And I say that as a
Braves fan).
Okay, full divisional breakdowns starting back up. To read my AL West breakdown click HERE. NL West will be next. Stay tuned!
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