Well, here we are again, another opening day which means my now one post per year – the standings and awards predictions! Last season’s predictions were not too bad. My biggest miss for a winning team was the Giants (but they were EVERYONE’s, and the worst call on a losing team was having Cincinnati winning…
Category: Detroit Tigers
Standings, Playoffs & Awards Predictions – 2021
Last season, this piece was all queued up and ready to go and then BANG… the world shut down and baseball wouldn’t return until July. With all the optimism surrounding a full season in 2021, we’re excited to again let our predictions shine (or not) over 162 games plus playoffs. Here is how we see…
Top 10 Right Now – Designated Hitters
This list is getting increasingly difficult to compile as more and more teams opt to use the designated hitter spot as more of a rotation than a set position. Only thirteen hitters qualified based on our criteria (see below). This could very well be the final DH top 10 list depending on how 2020 shakes…
The Good With The Bad – Preseason Predictions in Review (just finish when awards come out)
Each year I have fun making predictions for the coming season, and this campaign was no exception. I’m often quite happy with how they turn out since I probably put a little more effort into it than most industry insiders (that’s not a dig on them, I just probably take it a little too seriously…
Top 10 Right Now – Managers
As recent trend has it, we saw a number of managerial spots open up again for the coming season. From dismissals (Angels, Mets, Padres, Phillies, Pirates) to retirement (Giants, Royals) to a mutual parting of ways (Cubs) a total of eight teams (over a quarter of MLB!) will have new skippers at the helm in…
Dominant Teammates: MVP and Cy Young Duos
With the Astros narrowly missing a sweep of the major awards in 2019, it got me thinking about the best MVP and Cy Young teammates to win their respective award in the same year. We’ll go back to 1956, the year the Cy Young award was introduced. Not included are the seasons that saw pitchers…
Mid-season power rankings
Hard to believe the season is already half-complete. It tends to go by very quickly and then the offseason drags on. But, let’s appreciate that there is still 50% of the 2019 campaign to complete. Here are the power rankings as we look toward the second-half. 1.) Los Angeles Dodgers 2.) Houston Astros 3.) New…
2019 Quarter-Season Power Rankings
Most teams are at or just beyond the quarter-mark of the season which makes it a great time to take stock of the standings with a power ranking. Here, we rank the teams not just simply on their place in the standings but projections, run differential and other factors are also considered. How does your…
The Winning (Or Losing) Spring: What Preseason Records Actually Mean
You hear it every year: spring training records and numbers don’t mean anything. Whether that’s true or not, I’m not sure anyone can really prove it one way or another. Now that we’ve wrapped another spring, we’re going to set out to (hopefully) prove or disprove that notion. This challenge can be difficult for a…
Standing, Playoffs and Awards Predictions – 2019
I have been confident; I have been cocky. I have been attempting to go all “Sports Illustrated” and predict a 2019 World Series win for the Phillies several years out. Shortly after they traded Cole Hamels to Texas in 2015, I looked at the farm system and declared Philadelphia 2019 champs. Even as recently as…
Top 10 Right Now – Right Fielders
This was the most difficult list to compile – specifically spots 5 through 10 – due to so many players and many of similar skills/numbers/projections. I’m happy I believed in Andrew McCutchen last year because he rewarded us with a solid year thus the Phillies rewarding him this offseason. But does he crack our top…
Top 10 Right Now – First Basemen
Lots of moving parts this year with career years (Max Muncy, Jesus Aguilar and even Steve Pearce), down years (Eric Hosmer, Carlos Santana) and injuries (Brandon Belt, Jose Abreu, Greg Bird). Last year, I wasn’t into the Chris Taylor breakout which turned out to be correct, but I’m a little more bullish on Muncy being…
The Long Reliever 