legacyme3 : The only way Kansas City was going to beat Cleveland for 4th place this year was if they had Zach Grienke...and we both know they don't have him anymore. The indians still have Fausto Carmona and Rafael Perez for pitching, and Grady Sizemore/Travis Hafner/Shin Soo-Choo/Nick Johnson/Adam Everett for hitting. I think they may even contend for 3rd place with the White Sox this year if some of their young pitchers step up . I would be willing to bet Viz that the indians will NOT finish last in the Central this season. The only people the Royals have to actually hit (barring their young players REALLY step up) are to has-beens in Jason Kendell and Jeff Francoeur, and ONE good hitter in Melky Cabrera. They do still have Soria as a closer...but I don't think they are going to have enough games where they are winning in the 9th inning for Soria to actually be effective .

My postseason predictions are:
AL:
East: Yankees 103-59 (My favorite team!)
West: A's 87-75
Central: Twins 95-67
Wild Card: Rangers 85-77

NL:
East: Mets 96-66
West: Rockies 88-74
Central: Brewers: 88-74
Wild Card: Phillies: 92-70

In the World Series it will be the Yankees and the Rockies and the Yankees will win it out of 5 games.

dkmec20 :
NotJon :
trouble982 :

Thoughts so far this season?

Please excuse my sandwich post but I am surprised at a few things this season. The Indians have a 20-9 record and are in first place which is really shocking to most people.
Another thing that surprises me this year is the New York Mets in last place, they have a good pitching staff and good players.
That's pretty much all I have to say except that the Boston Red Sox are tied for last place but I don't think that's a problem for the Red Sox.

dkmec20 :

I'm not worried about the Red Sox. And here is why.

1. Since April 15th, their pitching staff has the lowest ERA in all of baseball, which means a lot when you think pitching wins ballgames. The Red Sox are living proof that a good offense is JUST as important as good pitching.

2. Since May has started the slow starters have shown more desire. Crawford has a 4 game hitstreak I think, and Adrian Gonzalez is showing off that muscle more now. Hitting more opposite field doubles and getting on base.

3. They are the Red Sox. They will find a way to contend.

Anyway, what surprises me the most is how hot the Yankees are playing. The Yankees aren't this good a team (BABIP shows they are playing above their norms right now, and will gravitate back to Earth soon, starting with this past Tigers series). Other than that, I'm not terribly surprised about the Indians. They have started hot yes, but I stand by my opinion. They and the Royals will soon fade and give into the stronger veteran Tigers and Twins.

If there's anything proven in years past, it's that rookies tend to get overwhelmed over the season, the Indians and Royals are both young teams, and will fade.

The only wrong in my prediction currently is the Red Sox winning 102 games. At this point 92 looks feasible, but they need to have decent months to get there. The poor start could be nothing more than a losing streak.

Other than that, I stand by all records and placements I have made. I still think the Sox will win the division and that Yankees will get the wild card.

legacyme3 : You still think the Tigers will win the AL Central?...I know it's probably false hope, but I'm finally starting to have hope, and believe that the Indians are for real and that their young talent is really just clicking on all cylinders. At the very least I'll ride it as long as I can...GO INDIANS!

Edit: By the way, did you here Shin-Soo Choo got a DUI.

trouble982 :

I did.

I think it's stupid on his part, but even stupider that MLB won't do anything about it. Remember Nick Adenhart? He's dead cuz some idiot decided to go driving drunk. Adenhart is proof of how dangerous it is.

The only more facepalming moment for me was when Liriano got that no hitter. That was about.... as ugly as Edwin Jackson's last year.

legacyme3 : A No-Hitter with 6 walks and only 3 strike-outs...Unheard Of!....Also, it was his first ever Complete Game....Just one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

I wasn't surprised to see the Red Sox scuffle so far, Liriano can look like Pedro one year and his sister the next, the baseball gods won't let me enjoy Pablo, beginning to think that we should have made more of an effort to re-sign Uribe and let Huff walk, defense > pitching, I have a mancrush on Dan Haren, it's looking like the Indians are a better team this year than the Royals , I don't think that the Giants will win the World Series at this rate (for the record, I always believed last year that the Giants were the team that would win it all last year), whathappenedtoHanley?, I really like Mike Dunn, Mike Stanton is a Greek God, I would rather have Derek Jeter than Miguel Tejada, Jose Bautista is fo' realz, etc.

Overall, everything's been a surprise. I did not expect the Yankees to be in first place this long, the Marlins to be this strong, the Giants defense to be this bad, Choo getting a DUI (that made me really sad to hear), the Cardinals to be in first place, Matt Garza to be the best pitcher according to FIP, etc. I like surprises in baseball.

*cough* revive thread

Jim Thome is back with the Indians!!! It's looking more and more like the Indians will miss the playoffs once again, but I'm still holding on to my false hope that they will overtake the Tigers!

trouble982 : There's still time. The Tigers just had a stretch of playing well while the Indians played bad during that same span. Over thirty games to go. Whether or not the Indians make it, they had a much more exciting season than most thought (LOOKING AT YOU LEGGY). Next year they'll still have a great 1-2 punch in Jimenez and Masterson, a nice core of Santana-Cabrera-Kipnis-Choo-Chisenhall, etc. There's a lot for Cleveland to look forward to. Nice to see Thome return as well.

NotJon : ok ok haha...

Well so far, I'd say I'm doing pretty well with my guesses. I may even get the Red Sox win record right this year.

The Indians have been pretty lucky given the strength of schedule, as well as their role players playing better.

Jimenez is NOT an ace in the American League. He is a very good pitcher, but not an ace. Sooner or later teams will adjust. His stuff will not be good enough to warrant being called an ace.

I stand by the Tigers for first though, I don't see the Indians finishing the season at the top of the division. If they somehow do, they should lose in the ALDS to either the Red Sox or Yankees, however the playoff matchups go.

I'm going to say my surprise this season has been how great Jacoby Ellsbury has been. I may sound like a homer here, but I've never given up on Ells when all of Boston did. He's had the best possible bounceback season, producing MVP numbers and really setting a good tone. It'll be a shame to lose him when he eventually goes to free agency.

legacyme3 : What role players do you speak of? Why can't Jimenez be an ace in the American League? He throws very hard, gets a lot of grounders, has decent control, and he's used to playing in parks that aren't pitcher friendly (Coor's, Chase, etc.). He's been hurt this year but when healthy he is nothing short of an ace.

I don't think the Red Sox will lose him in free agency. Heck, this season may be an outlier. It's not everyday you see a player hit for power out of nowhere. Let's see how he does next year before we decide this or that.

Also, just because something "should" happen, doesn't mean that it will.

We have witness the 2 biggest collapses in MLB history this September. On September 2nd, the Tampa Bays Rays were 9 games back in the AL Wild Card to the Boston Red Sox, and the Atlanta Braves were 8.5 games above the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Wild Card. The biggest comeback after September 2nd before this season was 7.5 games. It is amazing that everybody was grumbling about how their were no good playoff races this season at the beginning of September. It turned out to be on of the most amazing last days of baseball in history to watch.

I'm not even watching the playoffs this year.

We had probably the single worth collapse in the history of baseball.

I am in denial.

I am not willing to believe that really just happened.

And in the most dramatic way possible.

Time for the stages of grief...

legacyme3 : It litteraly was the single worst collapse in the history of baseball. No team has ever come back from 9 back on September 2nd. I do feel pretty bad for them though. I still can't believe it happened.

I did think it was kind of amusing that the last run that Baltimore scored was a ball that Crawford couldn't catch...kind of the tone of the entire season :/.

trouble982 :

I don't feel bad for the Red Sox at all.

They straight out f***ed up.

If they had played like they needed to, they would have been fine.

I'm only sorry for Red Sox and Braves fans. They are suffering because their team couldn't get it done.

2 seasons of futility.

f***.

legacyme3 : Do you think it's time for Terry Francona to go? It really seemed like he was always so melancholy about the entire thing, and that he was never trying to light a fire under their butts.

trouble982 :

Honestly, I think he should stay. He's getting more flak for this than the real problems.

Curt Young (pitching coach), and the entire Red Sox Medical Team.

He was melancholy, but that's how he is. He maintains the players well. Generally speaking, this is the first year the team looked... defeated.

Interesting upset to say the least! I had a feeling that everyone was counting out the Rays and Cardinals too soon. Logic has its place...but not in predicting future baseball performance. Even though my Giants won't make it back this year, at least I can take solace in knowing that there were plenty of other upsets as well.

It seems what really derided most of these teams was the injury bug. Feels like there were so many injuries this year. Hopefully next year, the whole league will be good as new.

I think I'll enjoy the playoffs without having a mini-heart attack for every inning like I did last year. I just don't want the Phillies to win (even though they probably will).