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
After 99-day lockout and a truncated spring training schedule, the 2022 baseball season is finally scheduled to kick off tomorrow with a slate of games. For the twelfth consecutive year, I’ve looked into the crystal ball to make my picks for the upcoming season, including an additional Wild Card pick for each league.
East: Blue Jays
Central: White Sox
West: Astros
Wild Cards: Yankees, Angels, Red Sox
AL Champion: Yankees
Cy Young: Lucas Giolito
MVP: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
What a difference six months makes. Back in March, at the dawn of the 2021 baseball season, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what with little idea if the season would go off as planned. Now that the regular season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.
East: Yankees
Well, that’s one down. Despite losing two starting pitchers from last year’s staff, the Rays managed to repeat as champs of the AL East.
Central: Twins
I was all set to go with the White Sox here, until a late injury to Eloy Jimenez in spring training left me feeling bad. The Twins fell off the face of the Earth, while the White Sox overcame injuries all season to cruise to their first division title since 2008.
West: Astros
Hey, here’s one I got right. The Astros return to the top of the division after a one year break.
Wild Cards: White Sox, Blue Jays
Talk about coming down to the wire. With a potential 4-way tie for the two Wild Card spots heading in to the final day of the season, the Yankees and the Red Sox both took control of their destinies with victories on Sunday, leaving the Blue Jays and the Mariners on the outside looking in.
AL Champion: Yankees
The Rays do seem to be the class of the league.
Cy Young: Lucas Giolito
That seems very unlikely. Blue Jays ace Robbie Ray seems like a popular choice.
MVP: Aaron Judge
A fine choice, but who could have seen Shohei Ohtani coming? The two-way Angels star will run away and hide with this award.
After a year of pandemic-related shut downs and a truncated 60-game schedule last year, the 2021 baseball season is scheduled to kick off on Thursday with a full slate of games and some percentage of fans back in the stands. For the eleventh consecutive year, I’ve looked into the crystal ball to make my picks for the upcoming season.
East: Yankees
Central: Twins
West: Astros
Wild Cards: White Sox, Blue Jays
AL Champion: Yankees
Cy Young: Lucas Giolito
MVP: Aaron Judge
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: Mookie Betts, Jose Ramirez, Mike Trout
Giancarlo Stanton was was my pre-season selection to win the award this year and, while he was productive, he didn’t pull away from the pack as he did last year for the Marlins. Mookie Betts should run away and hide with this award.
Cy Young Award: Corey Kluber, Blake Snell, Justin Verlander
A late season injury kept my pre-season pick of Chris Sale from competing for his first Cy Young award. My guess is that Blake Snell takes home the prize.
Manager of the Year: Alex Cora, Kevin Cash, Bob Melvin
Once again, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season. Alex Cora should be a shoo-in for the award, given the Red Sox performance in his rookie campaign as skipper.
Rookie of the Year: Miguel Andujar, Shohei Ohtani, Gleyber Torres
Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season. Despite losing time due to injury, Ohtani seems to be the odds-on favorite.