{"id":2493,"date":"2012-10-04T08:02:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T14:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=2493"},"modified":"2012-10-03T21:06:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T03:06:46","slug":"2012-predictions-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/2012-predictions-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 Predictions Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exactly six months ago,\u00a0I looked into my crystal ball and tried to\u00a0predict the outcomes<\/a>\u00a0of the upcoming baseball season.\u00a0 Now that the season has come to an end, and half of my predicted\u00a0divison winners are headed home instead of the playoffs,\u00a0let\u2019s take a look back at how things unfolded.<\/p>\n

American League<\/h3>\n

East<\/strong>: Yankees<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Yankees went down to the wire, not with the Red Sox as expected, but with the surprising Orioles.<\/p>\n

Central<\/strong>: Tigers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After picking up free agent Prince Fielder, the Tigers were expected to run away with the Central division. \u00a0Instead, they underachieved much of the season and battled the overachieving White Sox for most of the season. \u00a0However, a late season collapse by the White Sox offense helped the Tigers take the division.<\/p>\n

West<\/strong>: Angels<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Angels just may have been the biggest disappointment in the league this year. After dropping over $330 million in one day on Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, the Angels were expected to be at the top of the heap this year. \u00a0Unfortunately, things just did not work out and, even with the addition of rookie of the year shoo-in Mike Trout, the Angels were unable to make a serious run and finished in third place, behind the surging A’s, who swept the Rangers in the last series of the season to take the division title.<\/p>\n

Wild Cards:<\/strong>\u00a0Rays, Rangers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Orioles and the Rangers will face off in the first wild card play-in game.<\/p>\n

National League<\/h3>\n

East<\/strong>: Braves<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I was right about the Phillies giving up their hold on the division title and about the Braves making it to the playoffs. What I, and most everyone, did not expect was for the Washington Nationals to run away and hide with the division, bringing postseason baseball to our nation’s capital for the first time since 1933.<\/p>\n

Central<\/strong>: Brewers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be honest, I went out on the ledge with this pick, hoping that the loss of Prince Fielder would propel the Brewers in a similar way that the loss of Alex Rodriguez did the Mariners back in 2001. \u00a0After a disappointing start to their season, they traded away ace Zach Greinke and then, when nobody was looking, started to make a run. \u00a0Unfortunately for them, the Reds had built to large of a lead and became the first team to clinch a playoff spot and their division.<\/p>\n

West<\/strong>: Giants<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another one I got right, and this one wasn’t even much of a battle. The Dodgers put up a bit of a fight early, but were never able to make any kind of sustained run.<\/p>\n

Wild Cards:<\/strong>\u00a0Phillies, Dodgers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Braves and the Cardinals will face off for the privilege of facing the Nationals in the NLDS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exactly six months ago,\u00a0I looked into my crystal ball and tried to\u00a0predict the outcomes\u00a0of the upcoming baseball season.\u00a0 Now that the season has come to an end, and half of my predicted\u00a0divison winners are headed home instead of the playoffs,\u00a0let\u2019s take a look back at how things unfolded. American League East: Yankees The Yankees went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[123,2087,2585,110,125,121,2584,57,116,256,124,2381,117,50,254,594,111,255,53,230,49,51,2088],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-as","tag-albert-pujols","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-angels","tag-braves","tag-brewers","tag-c-j-wilson","tag-cardinals","tag-dodgers","tag-giants","tag-mariners","tag-mike-trout","tag-nationals","tag-orioles","tag-phillies","tag-prince-fielder","tag-rangers","tag-rays","tag-reds","tag-tigers","tag-white-sox","tag-yankees","tag-zach-greinke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2552,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions\/2552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}