2014 MLB Season Predictions from Across the Web

April 5, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; A general view of a flyover during the playing of the national anthem before the opening day game between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

With Opening Day on the horizon, prognosticators from near and far are beginning to pick their winners and losers of 2014 before a meaningful pitch is thrown in the season. Actually, two regular season games already took place in Australia more than a week ago, but we’ll henceforward know those games as “Bud’s Folly.”

With games beginning stateside, most notably the Detroit Tigers taking on the Kansas City Royals on Monday at 1 p.m., let’s take a look at what the so-called experts across the web have to say about the 2014 season.

As you’ll see, folks are being very kind to our Tigers, in at least to win the division and get to the postseason again.

Sporting News

American League

Central: Tigers  East: Red Sox  West: Rangers

Wild-cards: Yankees over Royals

ALCS: Rangers over Tigers

National League

Central: Cardinals   East: Nationals  West: Dodgers

Wildcard: Giants over Pirates

NLCS: Dodgers over Giants

WORLD SERIES: Dodgers over Rangers

CBS Sports

CBS Sports mostly likes the Tigers, with the exception of one writer.

Jon Heyman not only didn’t pick the Tigers to win their division, he also thinks they’ll miss the playoffs and finish behind the Royals and Indians. He also thinks the Royals go to the World Series–well okay then.

AL East: Two pick Tampa Bay, one picks Boston, and one (Heyman again) picks Baltimore

AL West: Three pick Oakland, one picks Los Angeles

Wild Card (remember there’s two now): Two for Boston, two for New York, two for Cleveland, one for Tampa Bay, and one for Kansas City.

AL Champ: Matt Snyder (from CBS) picks the Tigers while Oakland, Kansas City, and Tampa all garner votes

NL East: Clean sweep for Washington

NL Central: All pick St. Louis

NL West: Dodgers across the board

Wild Card: Two for Pittsburgh, two for Atlanta, one for Cincinnati, and three for San Francisco

NL Champ: Dodgers three, Cardinals one

World Champ: Dodgers three, Rays one

ESPN

and his Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorites of many to win it all in 2014. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

ESPN has a cast of thousands making MLB picks, so there is no way to catalog them all here in a neat form. So let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

Of the 44 people who had their picks posted by the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader, 35 of them had the Detroit Tigers winning the AL Central (nearly 80 percent), and two others had the Tigers entering the postseason as a wild-card.

Sixteen (36 percent) have the Tigers going to the World Series and five (Jim Caple, Richard Durrett, Christina Kahrl, Jeremy Lundblad, and Brendan Roberts) have them winning it all (11 percent).

Notes:

• Steve Wulf not only picked the Royals to win the division, and the Tigers to not make the playoffs, he picked them to lose to the Nationals in the World Series.
• Jeff Bennett sees the Indians not only winning the AL Central (Tigers making it as a wild-card), but WINNING IT ALL.
• The most popular World Series pick was the Dodgers, with 11 prognosticators (25 percent) picking L.A. to win their first World Series in 26 years.

Bovada

One of the sportsbooks in Las Vegas revealed their final odds for the 2014 season and the Tigers are the odd-on favorite to win the American League at 4-to-1. The odds to win a World Series for Detroit are 9-to-1, behind the Dodgers (13/2) and Cardinals (15/2).

It’s worth noting that Vegas installed the Toronto Blue Jays as World Series favorites prior to last year.

So, in other words, bet wisely my friends.