The North American portion of the 2024 baseball season is scheduled to kick off on Thursday, with a full slate of games featuring all 30 teams. For the fourteenth consecutive year, I’ve looked into the crystal ball to make my picks for the upcoming season.
East: Rays
Central: Guardians
West: Mariners
Wild Cards: Astros, Blue Jays, Yankees
AL Champion: Yankees
Cy Young: Tristan McKenzie
MVP: Julio Rodriguez
Another season of baseball season is in the books, with the White Sox disappointing their fans with their worst record since 1970 while the Cubs teased their fanbase with expectations of the postseason before their September swoon. Let’s take a look back at the offensive leaders for the 43 games that I attended this season.
Home Runs
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Luis Robert | 10 |
| Jake Burger | 6 |
| Andrew Vaughn | 6 |
| Christopher Morel | 4 |
| Dansby Sawnson | 4 |
Hits
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Andrew Benintendi | 39 |
| Eloy Jimenez | 29 |
| Luis Robert | 28 |
| Andrew Vaughn | 28 |
| Elvis Andrus | 27 |
Runs
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Andrew Benintendi | 21 |
| Luis Robert | 19 |
| Continue reading → |
With the All-Star Game in the books and a few days of rest before the second half kicks off, let’s take a look at the first half offensive leaders for the 24 games I attended at three different stadiums, starting with:
Home Runs
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Luis Robert | 8 |
| Jake Burger | 5 |
| Andrew Vaughn | 4 |
| 7 tied with | 2 |
Hits
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Andrew Benintendi | 26 |
| Luis Robert | 18 |
| Jake Burger | 15 |
| Elvis Andrus | 14 |
| Andrew Vaughn | 14 |
Runs
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Luis Robert | 13 |
| Andrew Benintendi | 12 |
| Continue reading → |
After three straight seasons of strange occurrences, the 2023 baseball season looks to kick off tomorrow without any COVID or lockout effects in sight. For the thirteenth consecutive year, I’ve looked into the crystal ball to make my picks for the upcoming season.
East: Yankees
Central: Guardians
West: Astros
Wild Cards: Blue Jays, Mariners, White Sox
AL Champion: Yankees
Cy Young: Alek Manoah
MVP: Julio Rodriguez
The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just completed baseball season, which will be announced next week. It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate. Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.
Most Valuable Player: Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani
Had Shohei Ohtani not had the season he had last year, he would easily walk away with this award. But, as they say, familiarity builds, if not contempt, at least complacency. So Aaron Judge, who broke the American League home run record, will take home the prize.
Cy Young Award: Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah, Justin Verlander
Justin Verlander returned from Tommy John surgery at age 39 and won 18 games while posting a 1.75 ERA. Seems a little suspicious to my eyes, but he will easily take home this award.
Manager of the Year: Terry Francona, Brandon Hyde, Scott Servais
As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season. Scott Servais should have won this award last year, but I don’t think he will make up for it this year. Brandon Hyde led the Orioles to a 31-game improvement over the previous year and their first winning season since 2016. That should get him the award.
Rookie of the Year: Steven Kwan, Julio Rodriguez, Adley Rutschman
Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season. While all three had very successful seasons, my guess would be that Julio Rodriguez brings this award back to Seattle.