Major League Baseball Playoff and Award Predictions

The Major League Baseball season is rapidly coming to a close, and the playoffs are around the corner. A few races are all-but decided, but I thought I would give my predictions for the division champions, wild-card teams, playoff resutls and major award winners for this season. I realize it's easy to call these things now that there is a week and a half, two weeks at most, to go, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Starting with the American League....

East champion - Boston Red Sox
Central champion - Cleveland Indians
West champion - Los Angeles Angels
Wild card - New York Yankees

As of games yesterday, the Red Sox lead the Yankees by three and a half games with 11 to go (Yankees with 12). The Yankees have the easier schedule on paper but their remaining teams have given the Yankees a lot of trouble this season. New York won a huge three game set this past weekend in Boston, but are now done playing the Sox this season which will make it tougher to overcome the gap.

In the Central, Cleveland leads by five and a half games over last year's AL champion Detroit Tigers. The Indians also have a game in hand (12 to the Tigers 11). The Indians have been playing extremely well as of late (as have the Tigers). For the Tigers to win this division they will have to win the rest of their games and that will only tie the Indians if the Indians play .500 baseball over the last twelve. The Indians have this sewn up.

Out west, the Angels have the largest lead of any division leader (8 and a half over Seattle) and their magic number is down to five coming into Tuesday's games. It would take a miracle for Seattle to pull this one out.....wait....Seattle won't pull it out. Go ahead and put the Angels in the playoffs in ink.

The Wild Card race is similar to the Eastern division race as New York leads Detroit by three and a half games. As I said, the Tigers have been playing well and the Yankees have a schedule that is tougher than it appears, but the Yankees know how to get the job done. They will take care of business. No worries.

In the playoffs, the Indians will be extremely scary as their pitching staff is among the better ones in the game. I think the Indians will beat the Red Sox in four games (3 to 1) and the Yankees will beat the Angels in 5 (3 to 2). The Yankees will then go to the World Series by beating Cleveland 4 games to 2.

As far as the awards races in the American League. The Most Valuable Player award is going to go to Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees. As of today, A-Rod leads the American League (and the majors) in home runs (52) and runs batted in (142). He is also just outside the top 10 in batting average (12th with .313). More important tahn his numbers, A-Rod was the one who carried this team through their tough times early this season. Like him, love him or hate him....Rodriguez has earned this award. Other potential candidates are Vladimir Guerrero (Los Angeles), David Ortiz (Boston) and Curtis Granderson (Detroit).

The Cy Young Award is much harder to call with Josh Beckett (Boston), C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland), Felix Carmona (Cleveland), Chien-Ming Wang (New York) and Kelvim Escobar (Los Angeles) all with a legitimate argument in their favor. I think C.C. Sabathia has the best argument but with a teammate in the running they could split votes and this will give Josh Beckett the award. Beckett leads the majors in wins with 19, tied for 8th in the AL in strikeouts with 180 and 5th in ERA with 3.20.

Rookie of the Year - Dustin Pedroia (Boston). Pedroia does not have unbelievable numbers (.321, 7, 49) but has been the rookie who has gotten the most publicity. Alex Gordon of Kansas City ranks up there as well but considering Kansas City is going nowhere it will be difficult for him to get much attention.

Manager of the year - Another tough award considering Mike Hargrove from Seattle was most likely going to win it hands down after the way the Mariners started the year out. Since he resigned halfway through the season though and considering nobody really gave Cleveland much attention this year...I have to give the nod to Eric Wedge from the Indians.

Now to the National League

East - New York Mets
Central - Chicago Cubs
West - San Diego Padres
Wild Card - Philadelphia Phillies

East - The Mets have been the class of the division all season with some blips on the radar lately. The Phillies are knocking on the door (2 and a half back) but have no more games with the Mets remaining. The Mets will hang on barely and head to the postseason again.

Central - The Cubs and Brewers have been going back and forth all year and this division could go either way. The Cardinals were even in the mix until a 9 game losing streak and having lost 11 of thier last 12 to fall out. They are now closer to the 4th place Reds than the 1st place Cubs. The Cubs are 1 game ahead of the Brew Crew and I think they can hang on (even though they are the Cubs and have been known to choke in the past).

West - All my other picks I went with who was leading at the time. This is my first going against the trend. The Padres are 1 game behind Arizona and have two more games to play. They are even in the loss column and I think the Padres will overcome the young Diamondbacks.

Wild Card - Another against the grain pick. Right now the Padres lead here but since I picked them to overcome the D-Backs that would leave the D-Backs and Phillies fighting it out. The Phillies have more experience and while the D-Backs are a wonderful story I don't see them hanging on. Wait till next year in the desert.

NLDS - Mets over Cubs 3 games to 1 and Padres over Phillies 3 to 1. Short series are made for pitching and the Mets and Padres have the better pitching staffs among the four playoff teams.

NLCS - Mets over Padres 4 games to 2. The Mets have a bitter taste in their mouths after last year's NLCS (7 game loss to St Louis) and will be looking to redeem themselves and will set up yet another subway series with the Yankees.

The Most Valuable Player has a few candidates. From New York you have David Wright and Carlos Beltran. Philadelphia has Ryan Howard. Even Colorado has a candidate who deserves mention in Matt Holliday. Beltran and Wright could split votes just like with the AL Cy Young award. My prediction will be Prince Fielder of Milwaukee even though I think Holliday deserves it. Fielder leads the NL in homers (46), hitting near .300 (.291) and has 110 RBI. He has held Milwaukee near the top all year offensively. I think Holliday deserves it because the guy is tied for 4th in homers (32), leads the NL with 122 RBI, and is 2nd in average at .334.

The Cy Young Award goes to Jake Peavy of San Diego. Peavy leads the NL in the pitching triple crown categories of wins (18 - two more than 2nd place), ERA (2.39 - near half a run better than 2nd place) and strikeouts (225 - thirty more than 2nd). The last National League pitcher to lead in all three was Randy Johnson in 2002.

Rookie of the Year goes to Troy Tulowitzki from Colorado. Tulowitzki is a superstar in the making and already one of the top shortstops in the National League. He is the only rookie who has made a major name for himself this season and even though this has no bearing on the award...the guy turned an unassisted triple play this season!!! Can't get much more exciting than that.

Manager of the Year - Bob Melvin (Arizona). Melvin has led this young team to the top of the NL West and even though I see them coming up short in the playoff chase he is still deserving of this award as nobody expected much from Arizona this year. Clint Hurdle from Colorado is a close second.

In the World Series, we have the Yankees and the Mets (ugh on both). In a repeat of 2000, the Yankees will win the World Series (their first since 2000) for the 27th time. The series will last 7 games with the Yankees winning at Yankee Stadium in Game 7.

In a few weeks we will begin to see if these predictions are accurate. If not, I will gladly take any bashing you want to hand out.