The MLB season has started at the beginning of the week and we already had a few great moments, and here is the place for all of you baseball lovers out there to post news, stats, predictions, and random rants on the 2016 Baseball season.


Trevor Story has already made a big splash by hitting 6 Home Runs in his first 4 MLB games and leads all of MLB in Home Runs and Runs Batted In.

I predict that Shortsop will be the most productive position this season thanks to tremendous starts by not only Story, but Carlos Correa and Jean Segura. The 3 of them have combined to hit 12 Home Runs and a combined 16 Extra Base hits in just 58 At Bats, literally a .276 average of just Doubles+.

I also see Kershaw expanding on his 2015 performance and having one of his best seasons ever.

I'm really excited for tonight's Mets Vs Marlins game because it's one of the best matchups that you can anticipate between Syndergaard and Fernandez. I decided to go to the game and my plan was to get a cheap ticket, either a $10 upper level ticket or one on field level right behind the outfield fence but I was able to get a sweet discount on one of the much better tickets.

I'm incredibly impressed by what Kenta Maeda has been doing so far this season. His most recent game was his third of his career and he gave up his first run. That's one run over 18 innings, and aside from him, Trevor Story is still being incredible with home run after home run.

tornadocam : At first they were saying that he would only be a replacement until Reyes comes back, but now they literally have no reason to keep him, not to mention that he's so much cheaper. I can't wait to see how many home runs he finishes with.

If he can hit 20-30 Home Runs in his rookie season, that's pretty legendary, especially for a shortstop. Granted he's at Coors, but after 1082 At Bats, Tulo only had 33 Home Runs, so even with those numbers, this guy can go down with a few epic seasons.

I have been really surprised by Neil Walker this year, the new mets 2nd baseman, I bet the Pirates are regretting trading him for Jon Niese because he has been amazing. After hitting a Home Run last night, he now has the MLB lead along with Arenado, harper, and Story with 9 Home Runs.

it's the most Home Runs he has ever hit in a month and tied the team record for most home runs hit in April, and there's still 2 games left to play this month. It also helps that he still has a .300 Batting average, so good hitting and good power.

Alright, about a month into the season, so I'll give out some early predictions on division standings . This thread seems pretty lonely. Just zanderlex: haha. Let's get this started!

AL EAST
1st: Red Sox - Livin the homer life IK, but they're legit good, and when E-Rod is back rotation will be serviceable! With that plus offense, I think we can take it from O's.

2nd (WC): Baltimore Orioles - Chris Davis is good. Manny Machado is ridiculous. Orioles have been real solid last few years, I expect them to take WC 1 pretty easy this year

3rd: Toronto Blue Jays - Blue Jays are good, but outside of Donaldson-Bautista-EE they don't have much going. Plus Bautista and EE are getting up there in years, so I wouldn't bet on them mashing all season, I expect about .500 ball, no playoffs for them.

4th: Tampa Bay Rays - The Rays are the Rays still. They have pitching, but no hitting. Probably finish a bit under .500. Not much to say about them

5th: Yankees - Also homerish? Maybe, but their offensive pieces are getting old, having Miller-Betances-Chapman doesn't matter much when you can't score runs and your SP's are mediocre.

AL CENTRAL

1st: White Sox - Besides Danks (lol), they have ridiculous pitching. Just average offense will keep them atop the AL Central this year. Chris Sale's slider is unhittable.

2nd (WC): Royals - Royals have some voodoo magic going on. Defense is amazing, and they are just clutch. I think they dip down from last year, but they will still pull off WC 2 just barely above next team...

3rd: Tigers - Tigers have some good pieces, but I don't think they have the rotation to get it done this year. I expect Verlander to get back to Verlander form, but even then they don't have much. I'm having trouble naming one Tiger hitter outside of Miggy (who's starting to get up there a bit ...)

4th: Indians - Indians will do what they did last year. Kluber will be Kluber, but nothing noteworthy from them. I expect another .500 year from these guys.

5th: Twins - The Twins have been real unlucky, but even when playing at expected levels they aren't that good. Joe Mauer is back to form, Eduardo Nunez is a pleasant surprise, but other then that no one is really hitting. Miguel Sano needs to pick up some of the slack, which he is not doing right now.

AL WEST

1st: Rangers - The Rangers have some good guys in Andrus & obviously Hamels, Prince Fielder will pick it back up, and Adrian Beltre is a beautiful, beautiful man. This is the only team that stands out as <.500 in this division, so next predictions are a bit iffy.

2nd: Angels - Despite the awful, awful situation the Angels are in, I still think they finish 2nd a tad over .500. Mike Trout is Mike Trout and will drag this team from 72-90 to like 82-80. Pujols will hit better (how much better who knows. that contract tho :/) Jered Weaver defies all logic by pitching at a decent ERA with a fastball that dips into the low 80s!

3rd: Mariners - I feel real bad for Felix. Not many pitchers can pitch sub-2 ERA and end up with a losing record. Outside of Cano and Cruz, no one can really hit. This team reeks of just below .500

4th: Athletics - Even Rich Hill defying logic can't save this team. That guy has such a great story, only to be stuck on the A's, pretty much has gone unnoticed . I'm sure the A's would appreciate a bat like Donaldson in their lineup headlined by Josh Reddick and Jed Lowrie (lol). Billy Beane can't Moneyball his way up the standings this season.

5th: Astros - But it's still early in the season they say, They made the playoffs, they will bounce back!!!. The Astros severely over performed last year. Even if Keuchel was performing well, the rest of the rotation is garbage. They have two players with 1.000 OPS and yet they are still 7-15. I think Altuve and Rasmus are good, but they will not keep up that pace.

Alright, that's the AL, I will cover the NL in a separate post!

EDIT: Well, turns out when you try to post after you have already posted, not only does it not let you, but it then deletes the standings you spent the last 20 minutes writing. I won't give the NL blurbs, but I'll tell you about them in this post.

NL East
1st - Mets
2nd - Nationals
3rd - Marlins
4th - Phillies
5th - Braves

NL Central
1st - Cubs
2nd - Cardinals
3rd - Pirates
4th - Brewers
5th - Reds

NL West
1st - Giants
2nd - Dodgers
3rd - Diamondbacks
4th - Rockies
5th - Padres

If you want explanations for these, let me know, but I can't be bothered to write that whole thing out again.

Right now I have been paying a lot of attention to Michael Fulmer, who has easily been the best player over the past few weeks. I've been a huge fan of his since his Mets days before he got traded to the Tigers for Yoenis Cespedes last year and he struggled since his debut at the end of April but then changed things around.

Heck, he has given up 14 Earned Runs in his first 19.2 IP, an ERA well above 6, but since then has been able to work his ERA down to 3.24 in just 3 starts.

During those 3 starts, he has given up only 1 Run on JUST 9 hits in 22.1 IP while striking out 22. That's a 0.4 ERA and a 0.58 WHIP

Im still keeping up with Michael Fulmer and he's still lights out. I was watching his game against the Rays yesterday which was easily the best game of his career so far. He now has 8 straight starts giving up 1 ER or fewer which is unbelievable. In 4 of those starts, he's gone at least 6 innings while allowing only 2 hits. Allowed 3 hits or fewer in 6 of them. He also has a few really good games when it comes to strikeouts with 2 10+ K games in that same span, this guy is amazing so far. Other than him, guys like Edwin Encarnacion, Kris Bryant, and Jon Lester have all been on incredible streaks recently.

tornadocam : Who are your candidates for some of the awards? Think Kershaw can put up a good enough show once he comes back to win stuff?

tornadocam : hmm you wouldn't consider Betts for AL MVP? For me it would either be him or Trout.

tornadocam : You're not a Cubs fan, are you? You're completely ignoring the two best pitchers in the National League for your Cy Young candidates.

How do you not include Arrieta and Lester? Sure, Lester might not win but he has to be in the discussion before Kershaw, who's back is still busted up.

Here are my picks for each award. Nothing is going to really change between now and the end of the season, probably.

AL MVP - Mookie Betts. I have to give Mookie the nod, because he's done something that hasn't been done since 2012. 200+ hits, 100+ RBI, and 30+ HR. The last person to do so? Miguel Cabrera, who won an MVP with the same type of line. But Mookie, somehow, has been even better than that, adding some of the best defense ever in right field, and adding incredible value through his ability to steal bases (26 this year). He also almost never strikes out, in comparison to his walks. His biggest fault is that he lacks a high OBP. If he had an OBP over .400, this award would be locked up. He's the best player, on a great team. A team that is going to the playoffs, and yes, that does matter.

Runners up - Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson, Jose Altuve, and Manny Machado

NL MVP - Kris Bryant. I'm not sure this is at all close, either. He's done something insane for the Cubs, this year... turn them, almost singlehandedly, into a real World Series contender. His line (.295/.388/.561) as of right now is ridiculous, he's doing it at a premium position, and he's also clearly the most important player for any team in all of baseball right now. He's played every part of the game exceptionally well.

Runners up - Corey Seager, Freddie Freeman, Daniel Murphy, and Anthony Rizzo

AL Cy Young - Chris Sale. I'm giving it to him because of one thing, consistency. Kluber has been just as good, but he has had periods of time where he's just not been the guy you'd give the award to. Sale's had ugly starts too, but they are usually one offs, and not long stretches of meh. He's got a high k rate, low bb rate, and thrown the most innings in the AL as of this post (outside of David Price, who has pitched 3 more games). Sale is averaging 7 innings a start, and is a guarantee to go deep into any game. It's close but he gets the edge.

Runners up - Corey Kluber, Rick Porcello, David Price, and Michael Fulmer

NL Cy Young - Jose Fernandez. Death aside, there are six games left in the season, and the only person truly close to being able to beat him is unlikely to get a huge chance to go deep in his game, because their team needs them for the playoffs. People have been ignoring him this season for whatever reason, and it makes no sense. His ERA/FIP/xFIP scores are better than Scherzer, and roughly on par with Syndergaard. He also has a terrible defense working behind him. His 2016 features the 6th highest strikeout rate in ALL of history. And three of those seasons were pitched by Pedro Martinez, the greatest pitcher to ever live. Syndergaard will get his, maybe next year. Fernandez won't have a chance. So since it's close, I'll give the tiebreaker to the guy who is dead. (although, even if he wasn't, I'd still give it to Jose, for coming back from a debilitating injury to be the ace of the Marlins)

Runners up - Noah Syndergaard, Max Scherzer, Madison Bumgarner, and Jon Lester. Clayton Kershaw is presently 6th on my list, due to missing so much time.

AL Rookie - Michael Fulmer. You have to give it to him. He's the only rookie in contention for a major award. He's pitched too well this season to be ignored. It doesn't hurt this year's rookie class is extremely weak. If Gary Sanchez had played all season, this would be a very interesting race.

Runners up - Blake Snell, Christopher Devinski, Gary Sanchez, and Tyler Naquin

NL Rookie - Corey Seager. At this stage it's impossible to give it to someone else. A few months ago, I would have said Story had it locked up, but Seager is playing far better. Seager is second in my MVP rankings. I'm not going to give him 2nd in this award.

Runners up - Trea Turner, Jon Gray, Trevor Story, and Kenta Maeda

Post season predictions post...

Alright, so with the regular season done, and the playoff games starting tomorrow... I think it's time I predicted what happens in the final month.

Full disclosure, the playoffs are an utter crapshoot. In 2013, I was like 17th or so in mlb.com's huge playoff prediction contest, correctly predicting EVERY matchup and getting the first two tiebreakers right. I only lost because of a typo and a third tiebreaker. But in 2014, I wasn't even close. I completely flubbed the entire post-season. So anything can happen.

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AL Wild Card game - Orioles/Blue Jays

In this game, I have to go with the Blue Jays, to go on to face the Rangers, and here's why... flat out, they are the superior team. If not for the Red Sox amazing end of season streak of wins, this team would be the division winner. The Blue Jays are pitching Marcus Stroman, and the Orioles are throwing out Chris Tillman.

Pitching matchups alone would tell us the Orioles win. Stroman has been horrible against the Orioles this year. However, the Orioles pen is absolute trash, and they come into the playoffs looking like the worst team for either league.

In a game where both teams have huge home run ballclubs, and both teams are one game from elimination, it's going to come down to the bullpen. It doesn't matter if the Orioles clobber Stroman, because unless Tillman pitches a complete game gem, it's going to be difficult for their pen to shut down the likes of Donaldson, Tulowitzki, Encarnacion, and Bautista (among others).

For the Orioles to win, they need Tillman to have a career game, and hope the bullpen doesn't get involved.

For the Jays to win, they just have to get to Tillman. Force him to leave the game, and they will have a better opportunity to score.

NL Wild Card Game - Mets/Giants

This might be heresay since it's the Even Year Giants, but I'm going with the Mets. Noah Syndergaard is the best pitcher in the National League, and he's going to be pitching with the team's season on the line.

The Giants will be pitching Madison Bumgarner, who is an excellent starter, but they lack the pop the Mets bats do.

Without diving into Syndergaard v. Bumgarner, I can tell you straight up, the thing that will decide this game is not the bullpen or how spot on the starters are... but how the offenses perform. The Giants are going to have to hit an absolute ace. Something that I don't have confidence in, but they do have the even year magic coming through so who knows?

The Mets on the other hand, have an absolute monster in Cespedes. Cespedes has had enough looks at the Giants this season that he is certainly capable of making good on his offseason promise. He has yet to really tee of on the Giants like he has every other team... that's because he was saving it.

He's due. And so are the Giants. They've had enough luck.

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ALDS 1 - Rangers/Blue Jays

In this series, I'm going to go with... the Blue Jays. I think the Rangers are an overall better team, but the Blue Jays will have the momentum from beating up on the Orioles, while the Rangers will probably be too rested.

The Rangers pitching is superb, Yu Darvish and Cole Hamels are a 1-2 punch the Blue Jays cannot offer... yet. But they don't have to. The Rangers arrive into this series, as the 15th ranked offense in baseball by wRC+, whereas the Jays rank 7th. The Jays are a much better offensive team that takes more pitches, draws more counts, and beats these pesky pitchers.

With all that said, this series is going to come down to the bullpen, something the Jays showed they have now. Based on xFIP, the Jays relievers are the 9th best in baseball, and that's skewed since they didn't even improve their bullpen much until the deadline. The Rangers on the other hand? They rank 20th in reliever xFIP.

So Hamels and Darvish are nice, but unless they both throw a combined 4 complete games, they won't have an easy road to winning the series. The Jays pitchers are not to be overlooked, either. The Blue Jays starters on the whole have been far superior to that of the Rangers.

Yes, even without the Hamels and Darvish tandem, they have just flat out outpitched the Rangers. The Rangers are perhaps the most overrated team in the playoffs right now, and I would fully expect them to lose this series.

ALDS 2 - Red Sox/Indians

Going to have to go Red Sox here. The Red Sox may have entered the playoffs on a bit of a tailspin, but let's face facts, even with their offensive inconsistencies, they have proven themselves to be the best offensive team in baseball, and it's not even close. The second best team in the AL is as close to the Red Sox as they are to the last team in the AL.

And the Red Sox pitching has been surprisingly good as of late. Porcello has been an absolute ace. Price is dominant against teams that aren't the Yankees as of late. Buchholz and E-Rod have magically become #3 level starters. Even with Pomeranz pitching out of the bullpen, this team should be fine.

The best thing the Sox could do is piggy back Buchholz with Pomeranz, and let both go 3 or 4 innings, to save the bullpen, which is very deep, and very talented.

The Indians can still win this series. They have home field and are a fantastic home team. But to do so, they have to outslug the Red Sox. They are without two of their best three pitchers, and won't win if it comes down to who has the best pitchers.

NLDS 1 - Cubs/Mets

This will be wicked fun to watch, but the Cubs are just too good to fail this early... or at least you hope. The Mets would be the favorites for me if they weren't missing everybody in their rotation outside of Syndergaard. But with Syndergaard pitching the WC game, he can't pitch 3 games in the series (and him pitching two might be too much honestly, given how much he's had to work this year).

They need the offense to light up the Cubs stellar pitching, and I don't think they are capable of it. This would be my choice of series to be a sweep out of the three DS series. The Mets are good, but they draw the worst opponent possible. A Cubs team that was good enough to win 100 games during this uber-competitive era of high level pitching.

If the Cubs f*** this up, they'll never win a WS ever again.

NLDS 2 - Nationals/Dodgers

This would be way more interesting a year ago. The Nationals are going to lose this series. It's amazing they perservered to win the division at all. If Harper was Harper, and Strasburg was Strasburg, this series would be way more exciting. As it is, the Nationals have Max Scherzer, and the Dodgers have the deeper team.

Since Scherzer can't pitch 3 games, the Nationals are going to need a miracle to move on.

ALCS - Red Sox/Blue Jays

Flip a f***ing coin, this one is a doozy. On paper, the Red Sox are the better team. Their pitching is roughly equal and the Red Sox have the better overall offense. The problem is that the Red Sox are also wicked inconsistent and just blew a massive series to the Blue Jays. The good news is you can pitch Porcello and Price twice! You can also get E-Rod twice if you want. The bullpen is deep, and the offense will probably perform.

The question is, do the Red Sox have the ability to stop the big bats of Toronto? There is no doubt they can slug Toronto, but they will definitely not be as likely to be lit up as the Indians were.

But it's baseball, so who the f*** knows?

I'm going to go with the Red Sox, purely because I believe baseball is magic and that David Ortiz will end up in the World Series one last time in his final year. The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees (2004) and the Rays (2013), but they've never had the opportunity to beat the Orioles or Jays in the David Ortiz era. When facing AL East teams in the playoffs, there's something this team does in this century that makes them difficult to beat.

Ultimately, I think this will be the best series of the entire playoffs and go the full 7 games.

NLCS - Cubs/Dodgers

In contrast to the other CS, this one is going to be a snoozer. The Cubs will get a quick tune up against a wildly inferior Dodgers team, and just truck their way to the WS.

The only way I see the Cubs losing this series is if they purposely lose the series. The Dodgers are not a bad team but it's just a whole different tier.

It might go six games. It might go seven. But it will be won by the Cubs. Or should be.

WS - Red Sox/Cubs

This is a series I both expect, and want to happen. I think the Cubs will win this series, but I'm hoping the Red Sox continue to kick the Cubs while they are down. Both teams are far and away the best teams that their leagues have to offer.

Who will win between the legend, David Ortiz, and the legend of the Cubs finally winning a WS? No matter who wins, everyone should emerge happy unless you hate baseball.

David Ortiz retiring on top of the world with the best final season of all time would be just as fulfilling as the Cubs finally getting their win.

It would also be a WS matchup of the two best parks in the majors.

I don't care who wins, truthfully, this would be the matchup I want the most, even if I don't think it will be the best series.

In short...

Jays over Orioles
Jays over Rangers
Red Sox over Indians
Red Sox over Jays

Mets over Giants
Cubs over Mets
Dodgers over Nationals
Cubs over Dodgers

Cubs over Red Sox

WS MVP - Kris Bryant

I was not expecting the Indians to do so well in the playoffs. I remember sometime before the playoffs started someone said they were going to win and everyone made fun of it, and I was one of the people that believe they wouldn't go far. But now they're pulling surprises out from everywhere.

I'd like the Cubs to win it all, but personally if the Dodgers make it, then I want the Indians to win.

Just going to review my predictions.

AL Wild Card game - Orioles/Blue Jays
Prediction - Blue Jays
Results - Blue Jays

NL Wild Card Game - Mets/Giants
Prediction - Mets
Results - Even Year Giants

ALDS 1 - Rangers/Blue Jays
Prediction - Blue Jays
Results - Blue Jays

ALDS 2 - Red Sox/Indians
Prediction - Red Sox
Results - Indians (oy vey)

NLDS 1 - Cubs/Mets
Prediction - Cubs
Results - Cubs

NLDS 2 - Nationals/Dodgers
Prediction - Dodgers
Results - Dodgers

ALCS - Red Sox/Blue Jays
Prediction - Red Sox
Results - Indians (WOOPS)

NLCS - Cubs/Dodgers
Prediction - Cubs
Results - Cubs

WS - Red Sox/Cubs
Prediction - Cubs
Results - ???

Basically, I can either root for the Cubs and get a big majority of my guesses right, or I can root for the Indians, which will make my overlooking them twice in a row more painful...

Uh, yeah, go Cubs.