Coming this week on the Continuum:
The latest Bizarre Baseball Culture will be up soon, but until then, here’s a little preview:
…Don’t miss it.
It’s time. Who will be the division winners? Who will win the World Series? Time to see my predictions… without further explanation (except for one).
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: Texas Rangers
AL Wild Cards: Tampa Rays, Oakland Athletics
AL Champion: Detroit Tigers
NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL West: LA Dodgers
NL Wild Cards: Reds and Giants
NL Champion: St. Louis Cardinals
And finally….
World Series Champion: St. Louis Cardinals
So why do I think the Cardinals are going to win it all this year? Well, it’s partly my gut, but there is also plenty of good logic behind it. While they have lost Carlos Beltran, the fact remains that their young players- and they have some good ones- will be one more year experienced. And, what’s more, many of those young players are pitchers (such as 2013’s postseason hero Michael Wacha and fire-balling reliever Trevor Rosenthal), and as always pitching is the way to October success. Mix that with their experienced players like Adam Wainwright and Matt Holliday, and you have a team that should be one of the favorites to win the World Series in 2014.
To predict awards is often even harder than to predict the actual results of the season. So I’m going to just get this out of the way quickly, without any explanation. So you can try to guess why I’m going out on a limb and predicting Matt Moore as AL Cy Young winner, but I’m not telling. Unless I’m right, in which case you can be sure I’ll go into detail on my brilliant genius.
And, yes, that was meant to be sarcastic.
AL MVP: Mike Trout
NL MVP: Andrew McCutchen
AL Cy Young: Matt Moore
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
AL Rookie of the Year: Xander Bogaerts
NL Rookie of the Year: Billy Hamilton
AL Manager of the Year: Brad Ausmus
NL Manager of the Year: Fredi Gonzalez
Tomorrow, come to the Baseball Continuum for the NL East Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios!
This week on the Baseball Continuum, I’ll be starting my season preview and also do some other stuff. Cool, right?
The next installment of “Bizarre Baseball Culture” remains under construction. I know I said it’d be out today- Tuesday- but I guess I underestimated the time it would take me. Either that, or it was not I who posted that message from the future yesterday, but rather an alternate-universe doppleganger. One of the two.
Until then, here’s a picture from the next installment:
I have no clue. I have basically zero clue as to what will happen in this upcoming series between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers. It’s like trying to determine who would win between an unstoppable force (the Red Sox) and an immovable object (the Tigers, especially their pitching staff). That said, there are some hints as to what the outcome may be, and it suggests that the Red Sox will be the ones coming out on top.
Most importantly, the Red Sox have their rotation set-up how they want it, a result of finishing off the Rays in four while the Tigers had to go five against Oakland. That means Max Scherzer will have to wait until game 2 and Verlander won’t be in until game 3. In contrast, the Red Sox have it all set up for Jon Lester to pitch game 1 against Anibal Sanchez, with Clay Buchholz set up to go ace-on-ace against Max Scherzer. In other words, they are set up to have a great chance at winning game one and have perhaps an even chance at game 2. And, in fact, that could be pretty important for the Red Sox, as it would mean they could stumble against Verlander and still be in command of the series.
Besides that, though, I feel like the Red Sox have an advantage in bullpen and in general health. The Tigers’ bullpen was rather shaky during the ALDS (remember how they allowed the tying run to come to the plate in game 5?), which was the complete opposite of what the Red Sox was, as Koji Uehara (aside from one bad pitch to Jose Lobaton) was lights-out and Craig Breslow was similarly effective. As for health, despite that home run, it’s obvious that Miguel Cabrera is still far from what he’s supposed to be, and that could change everything.
With the better pitching set-up, better bullpen, and better health, I’m going with the Red Sox in 6.
It could be a classic series in the making in the National League Championship Series. After all, we are seeing two pitching-rich members of the “Original 16” facing off, with exciting hitters old and new dotting their lineups as well. Who holds the edge? Well… I don’t know. As I’ve said before and will say again, it’s really difficult to predict a series, where one funny hop or blown call can change everything. So, let’s go aspect by aspect.
First, starting pitching. In this aspect, the Dodgers have an edge. Not too big of an edge, but an edge nontheless. First off, the fact that they were able to finish off the Braves in four games means that they can set up their rotation roughly how they want, with the exception that they will have to swap Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in the rotation, which, while not what they would have preferred, is hardly a death-blow. By comparison, the Cardinals will be unable to call upon their ace, Adam Wainwright, until Game 3, although they will be able to have young phenom Michael Wacha go against Kershaw. This leads to another advantage that the Dodgers’ rotation has over the Cardinals: depth. Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly are certainly capable pitchers who could defeat the Dodgers, but they aren’t quite at the one-two punch level of Hyun-Jin Ryu (who would be a Rookie of the Year candidate most seasons) or Ricky Nolasco.
Now, lineup. This goes in St. Louis’ favor. They have a deeper bench, more depth, and have Carlos Beltran, who, as has been noted before and will be noted again, is the greatest postseason hitter of our era, if not any era. The redbirds scored 77 more runs this season than any other NL team, and there’s really only one hitter of their eight position players (Pete Kozma) that I wouldn’t fear due to either numbers or reputation.
So, what about bullpen? I give this one to the Dodgers, slightly. Kenley Jansen is an awesome reliever, especially when you consider he once was a catcher. And they also have Brian Wilson, who seems to be back to normal (or whatever he calls normal), as well as other good relievers like J.P. Howell. While the Cardinals certainly aren’t hurting in the bullpen, with Trevor Rosenthal at the helm most notably, but I feel like the Dodgers have a slight advantage here- I’m not entirely sure why, I just feel that way.
However, there are other factors to keep in mind: the Cardinals have home field and more experience, for example, and, well, Don Mattingley still hasn’t won a World Series, despite playing for and then coaching with the Yankees, so you have to wonder if there is some sort of hex upon him.
I don’t believe in hexes, though. Well, not for the purposes of this article at least, as I predict the Dodgers will win in 7.
The Baseball Continuum 