Fun With “Pre-preseason” Picks

On February 4th, 2011, I challenged myself and a friend to come up with a rather crude assessment on how the season would play out in the standings. Taking into consideration only the offseason activity, no Spring Training games, etc., we picked the MLB standings and even picked the Wild Card winners.

There are some good looking picks, and some not so good looking picks. Here’s how that went for me:

In the AL East, I had the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rays, in that order.

In the AL Central, I had the Tigers, White Sox, Twins, Royals, Indians.

In the AL West, I had the Rangers, A’s, Angels, and Mariners.

My AL Wild Card was the White Sox.

Stop laughing.

For the NL East, Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Mets, Nats.

For the NL Central, Brewers, Reds, Cardinals, Cubs, Astros, Pirates.

For the NL West, Rockies, Giants, Padres, Dodgers, Diamondbacks.

My NL Wild Card was the Braves.

In all reality, none of this looks horrible, unless you look at the 2 of the teams I predicted to finish in last place who actually made the playoffs. My NL Wild Card pick crapped out on the last day of the season. Another team I picked to finish in last place actually finished 2nd (Indians).

This season, I will try and have the same kind of fun. I’m sure for me and for all of you, it’ll be fun to tell me how wrong I am now, and at the end of the 2012 season too. So here goes:

AL East: Yankees, Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles.

AL Central: Tigers, Twins, Royals, Indians, White Sox.

AL West: Rangers, Angels, A’s, Mariners. Wild Card pick: Angels.

NL East: Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Nats, Mets.

NL Central: Reds, Cardinals, Brewers, Cubs, Pirates, Astros.

NL West: Giants, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres. Wild Card pick: Braves (again).

Full Disclosure: there was no formula of success or failure used here, I didn’t spend hours (or days) looking at the schedules, etc. As crude as a projection can get, especially this time of year, it’ll be interesting again to see just how I’ve done.

A closing thought though, as the American League will be a genuinely tough league to fully determine or project, as there are about 6 teams that are (on paper) playoff caliber and ready, all competing for 4 spots (assuming the new WC rules haven’t been implemented yet). While the AL Central looks like the Tigers division to lose, the East has 3 teams, and the West 2 teams that can all contend. Which means for us, potentially exciting pennant races come August and September.

With that, Spring Training starts in a little over a couple of weeks. Time to start getting excited for baseball again.

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Follow me on Twitter, @DisplacedTgrFan.