About 3 weeks ago, on a long drinking binge, I made my MLB playoff predictions on the Bullpen Catcher. While most of the article was coherent, a couple of the picks were not. Since I'm competing with The People's Champ, I'm giving myself a 2nd chance and posting my revised playoff predictions. 100% sober. No need in breaking every team down completely as there are a number of teams that are simply not worth mentioning. Example: 60% of the AL East.
New picks:
AL East-Boston. The Yanks will make a couple of nice trades and make this a race before it's all said and done, but at 10 games behind it's going to be very hard to make up. I disagree with Paul about the Sox. They are good, but not all that. Good team, will win the division...but the Yanks will play better ball than the Sox in the 2nd half.
AL Central-Detroit. OK. I'm a complete idiot by picking Minnesota before. Not that they are a bad team, it's just the Tigers are the best team in baseball right now. Hitting .295 as a team, they are the first team EVER to score more than 500 runs before the All-Star Break. Their starting pitching is solid and there is a high probability they will make a trade to get an arm or two in the bullpen. Team to beat in the AL as of today.
AL West-LA Angels. This team has reinvented itself as more offense than pitching. Escobar and Lackey are under-rated and Weaver is a solid #3 if his back stays healthy. Ervin Santana and Bartolo Colon have become huge liabilities this year. The middle relief is God awful, but Shields and K-Rod are probably the best setup-closer combo in the game if the starters can get it that far. Seattle appears to be the team that will chase them instead of Oakland, but I'm sticking with my original pick.
AL Wild Card-Cleveland. Let's face it, it's going to be one big mailto:cluster@# between Cleveland, Minnesota, Seattle, Oakland, and the Yanks. So to give myself the best chance of beating Paul, I'm taking the team with the best record currently. No science, no analyzing, no coin flipping. That's it.
NL East-NY Mets. Only up by 2 games, they are not a lock to win the division...but I still say they win going away. Atlanta and Philly will hang around and compete for the Wild Card.
NL Central-Chicago. There I did it. I'm still not sold on the Brewers. There is no question they have young talent, but I'm betting they don't have what it takes to win down the stretch. The Cubbies are finally playing good baseball and have stayed relatively healthy. Now that the cancer is gone (Michael Barrett), the team is finally headed in the right direction. And after all, August is their month. *snicker* If it isn't the Cubs, it easily could still be the Cards or the Astros. One of the 3 will make a 2nd half run to overtake Milwaukee, my money is on the Cubbies to make believers of us all. (for at least a week or two in October)
NL West-San Diego. The pitching out there is outstanding. Getting very little publicity since they are on the West Coast, they have quietly played very good baseball. If this team could add a bat or two to their lineup before the deadline, I'd call them the odds on favorite to win the NL this year.
NL Wild Card-LA Dodgers. Like the AL, competition is going to be tight for the wild card. We'll call this race a super cluster#%^!. Atlanta, Philly, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Houston, LA, Arizona. All those teams, but I'm still convinced the NL West is going to get the wild card this year. Arizona will compete, but I'm not sure their offense can win them enough games down the stretch.
So there you go, not a lot of surprises. But why should there be? Although I'm sure I'll want to change these picks in another 3 weeks, I won't. Standing firm on these. I think.
Take the AL -130 to win the All-Star game tonight. If they played 10 times, the AL wins 7. Bet 130 to win 100.
Rich Kim
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