{"id":7489,"date":"2015-10-05T05:28:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T11:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=7489"},"modified":"2015-10-04T19:15:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T01:15:58","slug":"2015-predictions-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/2015-predictions-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Predictions Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"baseballs2\"<\/a>Six months ago, as the 2015 baseball season was scheduled to\u00a0kick off at Wrigley Field, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what. \u00a0Now that the regular season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.<\/p>\n

American League<\/h3>\n

East<\/strong>: Blue Jays<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After a middling first half, the Blue Jays turned things around after the All Star break, especially after acquiring David Price and Troy Tulowitzki at the trade deadline, earning them their first division title since 1993.<\/p>\n

Central<\/strong>:\u00a0Indians<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I correctly predicted the end of the Tigers reign after four seasons, but I wrongly assumed that the Royals would regress after their World Series appearance last year. \u00a0Instead, they went and ran away with the AL Central crown while the Indians struggled to stay out of the cellar.<\/p>\n

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

It came down to the final day, but the Rangers, who finished in last place in 2014, managed to hold off the Astros and the Angels to win the division.<\/p>\n

Wild Cards:<\/strong>\u00a0Tigers, Mariners<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I completely missed the boat here, as both teams failed to live up to their pre-season expectations. \u00a0The Yankees return to the post-season and so do the surprise Astros.<\/p>\n

AL Champion:<\/strong>\u00a0Angels<\/p>\n

Cy Young: <\/strong>Felix Hernandez<\/p>\n

MVP:<\/strong>\u00a0Mike Trout<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Only one of these seems like a possible choice at this point, with Mike Trout the frontrunner for the MVP award.\u00a0 The Cy Young award is up in the air at this point.<\/p>\n

National\u00a0League<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

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

Well, the Nationals seemed poised to win the NL East, but a late season fade, along with a surge by the Mets, left them out of the post-season and trying to pick up the pieces of yet another disappointing season.<\/p>\n

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

The Cardinals managed to win the division once again, but, despite falling far behind early, the Pirates took them down to the wire, finishing with the second best record in all of baseball.<\/p>\n

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

The Dodgers, with their $750 million payroll, managed to hold off the Giants and win the NL West, their third straight division title.<\/p>\n

Wild Cards:<\/strong>\u00a0Cardinals, Marlins<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wrongly assumed that this would be the year that the Pirates overtook the Cardinals and won the division, but instead they took the first wild card with the second best record in all of baseball.\u00a0 Of the young teams that took that giant leap, it was the surprising Cubs that took the second wild card, while the Marlins finished far out of the race.<\/p>\n

NL Champion:<\/strong>\u00a0Dodgers<\/p>\n

Cy Young:<\/strong>\u00a0Stephen Strasburg<\/p>\n

MVP:<\/strong>\u00a0Giancarlo Stanton<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of these choices, only the NL Champion piece still seems reasonable.\u00a0 The Cy Young is going to come down to either Zach Greinke or Jake Arrieta, while Bryce Harper seems to have the MVP nailed down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six months ago, as the 2015 baseball season was scheduled to\u00a0kick off at Wrigley Field, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what. \u00a0Now that the regular season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right. American League East: Blue Jays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[110,113,119,5914,57,120,3332,116,591,5132,256,115,5735,124,114,261,2381,117,112,111,126,4630,230,5581,595,51,2088],"class_list":["post-7489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-angels","tag-astros","tag-blue-jays","tag-bryce-harper","tag-cardinals","tag-cubs","tag-david-price","tag-dodgers","tag-felix-hernandez","tag-giancarlo-stanton","tag-giants","tag-indians","tag-jake-arrieta","tag-mariners","tag-marlins","tag-mets","tag-mike-trout","tag-nationals","tag-pirates","tag-rangers","tag-royals","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tigers","tag-troy-tulowitzki","tag-wrigley-field","tag-yankees","tag-zach-greinke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7489"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8880,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions\/8880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}