Baseball Season is Here!

After a long and cold (though thankfully not very snowy) winter, today is the first day of the 2006 baseball season. It’s been three years since I’ve made my predictions for the season public in this space, and really, who can blame me: I picked the eventual World Series Champions Florida Marlins to finish fourth in the NL East. But I’m older and wiser now, which still does not explain why I’m posting my predicitons here where they can be mercilessly mocked almost four months after the fact.

And so, with the caveats that I am a (somewhat biased) fan first and an analyst…well, not at all…I give you my predictions for the 2006 baseball season.

AL East

1. New York Yankees
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Toronto Blue Jays
4. Baltimore Orioles
5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Easy one to pick, with the caveat that I do not think that the wild card will come from this division this year. The Red Sox aren’t as good as they’ve been the past two years, and the Yankees are still the Yankees. I’m not a huge fan of the moves that JP Riccardi made in the offseason, but there’s not much they could do at this point to get out of third place. The Rays are making strides toward respectability (give them a few years), and the Orioles are pretty screwed.

AL Central

1. Cleveland Indians
2. Chicago White Sox
3. Minnesota Twins
4. Detroit Tigers
5. Kansas City Royals

Hey, this is an exciting division! This pick is not a knock on the White Sox, because I really think that the Indians are going to put it all together this year. They’ve got a great young core and a solid pitching staff, and they’re looking to be very good for the next several years. The Twins don’t quite have the offense to compete, the Tigers will continue their mediocrity (but at least they’re better than they have been), and the Royals are an embarrassment to the game of baseball.

AL West

1. Oakland Athletics
2. Anaheim Angels (Wild Card)
3. Texas Rangers
4. Seattle Mariners

Two very good teams and two not-so-good teams. Flip the top two if you like, but I think they’re both playoff teams. That’s all I really have to say about this division.

NL East

1. New York Mets
2. Atlanta Braves (Wild Card)
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. San Antonio Florida Marlins
5. Washington Nationals

And the bias is made apparent. I’m a Mets fan, so this pick isn’t terribly surprising, but I really feel like Omar Minaya addressed the problems the team had last year and that they’re finally going to end the Braves’ dominance. That’s not to say I love all the moves the Mets have been making this spring (and a lot depends on Willie Randolph’s maturation as a manager), but I suppose that could be an article of its own. Elsewhere in the division, I think that the Nationals have the potential to completely fall apart under the watchful eye of Jim Bowden, winning 55 games or fewer. Sorry, Washington fans.

NL Central

1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Milwaukee Brewers
3. Houston Astros
4. Chicago Cubs
5. Cincinnati Reds
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Brewers finishing in second is a bit of a long shot, but in any case, it looks like the best thing to ever happen to the Seattle Pilots was for the Selig family to finally sell them. I don’t think they’ll necessarily challenge the Cardinals this year, but I don’t really see any other team stepping it up here. The Pirates are on their way to becoming the Royals of the NL.

NL West

1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. San Diego Padres
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. Colorado Rockies

Just like the AL West, I don’t really have a lot to say here: with the unbalanced schedule, it’s hard to follow the teams on the west coast too closely. This assumes a decent season from Barry Bonds, so if he’s hurt or otherwise unable to play cough cough, the Giants will finish lower.

NLCS: Mets over Cardinals
ALCS: Indians over Athletics

World Series: Mets over Indians

And there you have it! Just a note: if you’re reading this after June 1, 2006, mock away, I can take it.