Baseball-Related Program Activities

And without further adieu...



Looking forward to another baseball season!

Labels: bill james, predictions, sports illustrated

I can't believe I forgot to do this last year, especially given what happened in the American League East! In my defense, I was more interested in this prediction at the time.

For those of you just joining us, every year, baseballrelated.com presents the predictions from the baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated, as well as the predictions produced by an extremely quick-and-dirty formula from a Bill James Baseball Abstract of the 1980s. It's now time to compare the 2008 predictions against the 2008 final standings.



Neither prediction did particularly well in 2008. Both failed on the surprising Rays, and on predicting the Tigers to finish first (actually, the Bill James formula had them tied with the Indians). The Bill James formula also predicted the Padres to finish first -- yikes.

But now we start with a clean slate for 2009, and two fresh sets of predictions. They will be posted here soon.

Labels: bill james, predictions, sports illustrated

On this very blog, on May 25, 2004, Levi made a comment referring to a future Barack Obama presidency. As you may notice, that was several months before Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention brought him into the spotlight. See for yourself.

However, Levi assumed Obama's election would come in 2012 (presumably, after John Kerry served two terms) -- and Levi's not so good at predicting who is and isn't going to do something stupid to ruin his political career.

Labels: barack obama, eliot spitzer, predictions

Yes, this blog is still in business. It's time for our annual look at the Sports Illustrated baseball predictions, all the better to laugh about later when the Cubs do not win the National League pennant. (Yes, that's what SI has predicted -- a Tigers-Cubs World Series, in fact, with the Tigers victorious.) As usual, they are accompanied by a set of predictions made using a quick-and-easy formula found in a Bill James Baseball Abstract from the '80s (double last season's win total, add the win total from two years ago, divide by 3).



In other news, although I have upgraded my TV watching to high-definition since last year, I have also had a schedule change at my job. I now work a normal Monday-through-Friday week, which means I will not be at home to watch the Opening Day games, as I did in 2007 and 2006 and 2005. Sorry about that. Perhaps by 2009, I will be independently wealthy, or I'll use a day of vacation time.

Labels: bill james, predictions, sports illustrated

The predictions were posted on March 29th, and exactly seven months later, it's now time to see how everyone did.


(Levi's predictions, made in the comments to the March 29th post, didn't actually include the Rockies, which I didn't notice until I was preparing this table. If he wants to lie in the comments to this post and claim he meant to put them in first or second place in the NL West, that's his prerogative.)

Labels: bill james, predictions, sports illustrated

Yes, my Sports Illustrated baseball preview issue arrived a week ago, but their predictions were printed on a dark green background in white text that came out a little blurry in my copy. And that's why it's taken me so long to post these!

Also, I realize I haven't yet used Bill James's quick-and-dirty prediction formula as I've done previously.



The biggest surprise in the Sports Illustrated predictions is the position of the Cubs, but I guess that's the eternal optimism for you.

Their World Series pick is for a freeway series, Angels over the Dodgers. Incidentally, they've changed the parking procedures at Dodger Stadium this year (and raised the parking rate from $10 to $15 in the process), so any late-arriving fans can be ascribed to the parking attendants not knowing what they're doing, rather than the usual apathy.

My schedule is clear for Monday and MLB Extra Innings will definitely be on DirecTV, if nowhere else, so I'm ready for another year of Opening Day blogging.

(Note primarily to myself for future reference: here's how I fixed the problem with the table.)

Labels: bill james, cubs, dodgers, predictions, sports illustrated

As has become baseballrelated.com custom, it's time to look back at the predictions for the 2006 regular season. This year, not only did we have the Sports Illustrated predictions, but I had also used a simple Bill James formula to make advanced predictions way back on the first day of November 2005.

So...uh, well, nobody foresaw the success of certain AL Central teams, or the non-success of a certain NL East team that's not in the playoffs for the first time since what seems like when Hank Aaron was on the team.

Nov. 1, 2005 prediction         Sports Illustrated      Actual result

NL East

Atlanta Braves (90-72)          Atlanta Braves          New York Mets (97-65)
Philadelphia Phillies (86-76)   New York Mets           Philadelphia Phillies (85-77)
Florida Marlins (83-79)         Philadelphia Phillies   Atlanta Braves (79-83)
New York Mets (80-82)           Washington Nationals    Florida Marlins (78-84)
Washington Nationals (78-84)    Florida Marlins         Washington Nationals (71-91)


NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals (97-65)     St. Louis Cardinals     St. Louis Cardinals (83-78)
Houston Astros (88-74)          Milwaukee Brewers       Houston Astros (82-80)
Chicago Cubs (82-80)            Houston Astros          Cincinnati Reds (80-82)
Milwaukee Brewers (78-84)       Chicago Cubs            Milwaukee Brewers (75-87)
Cincinnati Reds (76-86)  Pittsburgh Pirates Pittsburgh Pirates (67-95)
Pittsburgh Pirates (72-90) Cincinnati Reds  Chicago Cubs (66-96)


NL West

San Diego Padres (83-79)        L.A. Dodgers            San Diego Padres (88-74)
San Francisco Giants (81-81)    San Francisco Giants    L.A. Dodgers (88-74)
L.A. Dodgers (79-83)            San Diego Padres        San Francisco Giants (76-85)
Arizona Diamondbacks (72-90)    Arizona Diamondbacks    Arizona Diamondbacks (76-86)
Colorado Rockies (71-91)        Colorado Rockies        Colorado Rockies (76-86)


AL East

New York Yankees (93-69)        New York Yankees        New York Yankees (97-65)
Boston Red Sox (91-71)          Boston Red Sox          Toronto Blue Jays (87-75)
Toronto Blue Jays (77-85)       Toronto Blue Jays       Boston Red Sox (86-76)
Baltimore Orioles (76-86)       Tampa Bay Devil Rays    Baltimore Orioles (70-92)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (71-91)    Baltimore Orioles       Tampa Bay Devil Rays (61-101)


AL Central

Chicago White Sox (90-72)       Chicago White Sox       Minnesota Twins (96-66)
Cleveland Indians (87-75)       Cleveland Indians       Detroit Tigers (95-67)
Minnesota Twins (84-78)         Minnesota Twins         Chicago White Sox (90-72)
Detroit Tigers (73-89)          Detroit Tigers          Cleveland Indians (78-84)
Kansas City Royals (62-100)     Kansas City Royals      Kansas City Royals (62-100)


AL West

L.A. Angels (91-71)             Oakland A's             Oakland A's (93-69)
Oakland A's (87-75)             L.A. Angels             L.A. Angels (89-73)
Texas Rangers (82-80)           Texas Rangers           Texas Rangers (80-82)
Seattle Mariners (70-92)        Seattle Mariners        Seattle Mariners (78-84)

Comparing the teams' expected numbers of wins to their actual 2006 wins, here are the teams ranked from least to most disappointing (playoff teams in bold):

1. Detroit Tigers +22
2. New York Mets +17
3. Minnesota Twins +12
4. Toronto Blue Jays +10
5. L.A. Dodgers +9
6. Seattle Mariners +8
7. Oakland A's +6
8. Arizona Diamondbacks +5
8. Colorado Rockies +5
8. San Diego Padres +5
11. Cincinnati Reds +4
11. New York Yankees +4
13. Philadelphia Phillies +1
14. Chicago White Sox EVEN
14. Kansas City Royals EVEN
16. L.A. Angels -2
16. Texas Rangers -2
18. Milwaukee Brewers -3
19. Boston Red Sox -5
19. Florida Marlins -5
19. Pittsburgh Pirates -5
19. San Francisco Giants -5
23. Baltimore Orioles -6
23. Houston Astros -6
25. Washington Nationals -7
26. Cleveland Indians -9
27. Tampa Bay Devil Rays -10
28. Atlanta Braves -11
29. St. Louis Cardinals -14
30. Chicago Cubs -16

Cardinals: ouch!

Labels: predictions

I'm not sure if "honor" is the right word, but in honor of Barry Bonds' current home run total, here's Milo Hamilton's call of Hank Aaron's 715th home run on April 8, 1974, while both members of baseballrelated.com were ensconced in wombs.

Meanwhile, Albert Pujols is on the cover of Sports Illustrated again, for the second time in less than two months, and why not? Also in the issue is Baseball Prospectus's projected home run leader board from the year 2020, which I want to reproduce here for posterity:

1. Barry Bonds (765)
2. Hank Aaron (755)
3. Babe Ruth (714)
4. Alex Rodriguez (678)
5. Willie Mays (660)
6. Adam Dunn (638)
7. Ken Griffey Jr. (637)
8. Albert Pujols (620)
9. Manny Ramirez (589)
10. Sammy Sosa (588)
11. Robotic Hitting Unit HR-1 (587)
12. Frank Robinson (586)

One of the above was actually my own addition to the Baseball Prospectus list, solely to make Levi chuckle.

Labels: Albert Pujols, barry bonds, milo hamilton, predictions, robots, sports illustrated

In Levi's honor, Albert Pujols is on the cover of the Sports Illustrated baseball preview issue this year. And once again, here are their predictions, posted here so we can refer to them during the season and laugh at them in October.

NL East
1. Atlanta Braves
2. New York Mets
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Washington Nationals
5. Florida Marlins

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

NL West
1. L.A. Dodgers
2. S.F. Giants
3. San Diego Padres
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. Colorado Rockies

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

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

AL West
1. Oakland A's
2. L.A. Angels
3. Texas Rangers
4. Seattle Mariners

The two wild-card teams, they believe, will be the Angels and the Mets. White Sox vs. A's in the ALCS, Cardinals vs. Braves in the NLCS, and White Sox over the Cardinals.

Labels: Albert Pujols, predictions, sports illustrated

The Vernal Equinox has passed. It's time for predictions.

Some ground rules:
1) Pick the Braves to win. Seriously. Just give up not doing so. I hate this rule, but if I'd followed it even once since 1991, I'd have picked better.

2) Pick the Royals for last.

3) If you're really inspired, list the order of finish for each division in each league. If you're lazy, pick each division winner and the wild card for each league.

4) Pick the MVP and Cy Young. Don't pick Rookie of the Year, unless you pay more attention to the minor leagues than I do.

5) As you do your calculations, remember that Operation Shutdown is, so far as I know, still in effect. The Pirates will not have the use of theservices of Derek Bell.

Play Ball, boys!*

*and girls. Girls are encouraged to post. Got lots of female friends who are rabid fans, don't want to slight 'em.

Labels: braves, operation shutdown, predictions

The magic robots over at Diamond Mind have released their annual player projections disc, in advance of their 2006 version of their game. Over at the Baseball Primer, a guy named SG ran 100 seasons with their projections, which Diamond Mind tends to do itself at some preseason point. The average number of wins they come up with over 100 seasons tends to be a reasonably good predictor of the actual season.

SG's top teams?
AL East: Toronto, with 86 wins, tops the Yanks by 1
AL Central: Cleveland takes it with 92
AL West: Oakland with 96, the best total in baseball
NL East: Mets. Really. The Mets, with 93
NL Central: The Cardinals, falling a bit to only 94 wins.
NL West: Padres, climbing to 85 wins

The Cardinals make the playoffs 80 out of 100 seasons, either via a title or the Wild Card. Cubs win 85 and make the playoffs 38 times. Dodgers come in at 83 wins and 30 playoff appearances. Special to Toby: Pittsburgh averages 82 wins and makes 20 playoff appearances!!!

Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Florida are the only three teams never to make the playoffs. But I suppose their fans didn't need magic robots to tell them that, did they?

You can see SG's table here, scrolling down to comment #76.
Oh, this means the season's getting close. Time to hie myself to my local bookstore and order Baseball Prospectus 2006.

Labels: diamond mind, predictions, robots

Now we can get back to Bill James. Using a quick little formula provided in the 1986 edition of the Baseball Abstract, here are the early predictions for 2006:

AL East

N.Y. Yankees (93-69)
Boston Red Sox (91-71)
Toronto Blue Jays (77-85)
Baltimore Orioles (76-86)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (71-91)

AL Central

Chicago White Sox (90-72)
Cleveland Indians (87-75)
Minnesota Twins (84-78)
Detroit Tigers (73-89)
Kansas City Royals (62-100)

AL West

L.A. Angels (91-71)
Oakland A's (87-75)
Texas Rangers (82-80)
Seattle Mariners (70-92)

NL East

Atlanta Braves (90-72)
Philadelphia Phillies (86-76)
Florida Marlins (83-79)
N.Y. Mets (80-82)
Washington Nationals (78-84)

NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals (97-65)
Houston Astros (88-74)
Chicago Cubs (82-80)
Milwaukee Brewers (78-84)
Cincinnati Reds (76-86)
Pittsburgh Pirates (72-90)

NL West

San Diego Padres (83-79)
San Francisco Giants (81-81)
L.A. Dodgers (79-83)
Arizona Diamondbacks (72-90)
Colorado Rockies (71-91)

Labels: bill james, predictions

That's right, it's time once again to compare the Sports Illustrated predictions with what really happened in 2005. Oh, and I might as well throw in Bob's picks, while I'm at it, and I hope I've managed to correctly decipher all the cute names he used for the teams...

SI Prediction             Bob's Prediction            Actual Results

                                 NL East

Atlanta Braves            N.Y. Mets                   Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins           Atlanta Braves              Philadelphia Phillies
N.Y. Mets                 Philadelphia Phillies       Florida Marlins
Philadelphia Phillies     Florida Marlins             N.Y. Mets
Washington Nationals      Washington Nationals        Washington Nationals

                                NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals       St. Louis Cardinals         St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs              Chicago Cubs                Houston Astros
Houston Astros            Milwaukee Brewers           Milwaukee Brewers
Cincinnati Reds           Cincinnati Reds             Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee Brewers         Pittsburgh Pirates          Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates        Houston Astros              Pittsburgh Pirates

                                 NL West

San Francisco Giants      San Diego Padres            San Diego Padres
L.A. Dodgers              Colorado Rockies            Arizona Diamondbacks
San Diego Padres          L.A. Dodgers                San Francisco Giants
Arizona Diamondbacks      San Francisco Giants        L.A. Dodgers
Colorado Rockies          Arizona Diamondbacks        Colorado Rockies

                                 AL East

New York Yankees          New York Yankees            New York Yankees*
Boston Red Sox            Boston Red Sox              Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles         Toronto Blue Jays           Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays         Baltimore Orioles           Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Devil Rays      Tampa Bay Devil Rays        Tampa Bay Devil Rays

                                AL Central

Minnesota Twins           Detroit Tigers               Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians         Minnesota Twins              Cleveland Indians
Chicago White Sox         Chicago White Sox            Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers            Cleveland Indians            Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals        Kansas City Royals           Kansas City Royals

                                 AL West

L.A. Angels               Oakland A's                  L.A. Angels
Texas Rangers             L.A. Angels                  Oakland A's
Oakland A's               Seattle Mariners             Texas Rangers
Seattle Mariners          Texas Rangers                Seattle Mariners

*-The Yankees and Red Sox both finished with the same record (95-67),
and the MLB standings I'm looking at have the Red Sox on top for what
I believe are reasons relating to alphabetical order.  But it seems weird
to me to have the division champion listed under the wild-card team.

Sports Illustrated was better with their predictions than they were last year, but here's a special salute to Bob for predicting the correct division champion in the NL West (and they managed to finish with a winning record, too!).

One thing I noticed while perusing the final standings: the Cardinals had the same record at home and on the road (50-31). I believe earlier in the season, I made a tongue-in-cheek comment in this blog that the Cardinals were "boring." Clearly, the word I meant was "consistent."

Labels: predictions, sports illustrated

Prediction time. Everyone should make picks in the comments. And remember: pick the Braves. It's evil, but it's better to hate them now than to hate them later.

AL East: Boring

Red Sox
Yankees
Some other teams

AL Central: Not that good
Twins
Indians
Sox
Tigers
Royals

AL West: Where the action is
Anaheim
Oakland
Texas
Seattle

NL East: Dan's division
Atlanta (Sorry, Dan.)
Philly (Sorry, Dan.)
Florida (Sorry, Dan.)
New York
Montreal

NL Central: The one you've all been waiting for
St. Louis
Chicago
Houston
Cincinnatti
Pittsburgh
Milwaukee

NL West: No Barry, no excitement
LA
San Diego
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado

Tom Tippett over at Diamond Mind has done his usual 100-season simulation, and he has the Cardinals winning an average of 103 games and taking the division title 99 times. While I do think this is the strongest Cardinals team I've ever seen going into the season, I'm not quite as confident as that. Diamond Mind, for example, while taking account of injuries, assigns them more or less randomly, from what I can tell from Tippett's explanation. The Cardinals are relying on a couple of old guys who are very, very good, which means there's a chance that those guys will be very, very hurt.

But the only real competition, the Cubs, are relying on a rotation that has its own durability questions, a bench and bullpen that have chances to be catastrophically awful, and on an offense that has done nothing to change its habit of making a lot of outs.

So despite October's Washington Generals impersonation, I'm with my guys again. I know October 2005 is a long, long way away, but here's to back-to-back pennants.

And you folks?

Original comments:

Anonymous: How come you switched in the middle of the list from team names to city names?

Levi: No excuse: I was in a hurry this morning and edited poorly. That also explains why I have no links in the post.

thatbob: Baseball Related comes with a free predictions archive this year? Kewl! Introducing my first-ever sports predictions of any kind in any sport, informed by 2 days of game play, but still relying mostly on how much I like the teams.

ALE:
Sux
Sox
Js
Oos
Pansies the Wuss-Wusses

ALC:
Tuffies
Tweens
Sox
Racists
Caseys

ALW:
Proppas
LAAOAs
Microsofts
Dubyas

NLE:
Dans
Racists
Phans
Fish
Senators

NLC:
Cards
Cubs
Beers
Reds
Arrs
Orbities

NLW:
Dads
Rocks
Trolleys
Gnats
Snakes

Labels: predictions

Here we go again! Sports Illustrated has Johnny Damon on the cover of the baseball preview issue this year, because clearly, they know who people want to see. And here's their predicted order of finish in the divisions:

NL East
1. Atlanta Braves
2. Florida Marlins
3. New York Mets
4. Philadelphia Phillies
5. Washington Nationals

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

NL West
1. San Francisco Giants
2. L.A. Dodgers
3. San Diego Padres
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. Colorado Rockies

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

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

AL West
1. L.A. Angels
2. Texas Rangers
3. Oakland A's
4. Seattle Mariners

Guess you can't go too far wrong with what are basically the final standings from last year. Remember, baseball is unlike mutual funds in that quite often, past performance is a guarantee of future results.

I can already tell this season isn't going to be quite as good as 2004. No MLB team will be serving poutine at its concession stands, and worse yet, Hostess doesn't seem to be making Baseballs this year.

In other news, the famous iPod has been sold, and it is on its way to the purchaser.

Original comments...

Luke, hanger-on: Most important: Do you predict a baseball-related road trip this year?

Levi: There has been some discussion, but we have yet to finalize any plans, primarily because the "Levi" part of the team isn't very good at getting organized enough to finalize plans.

Labels: predictions, sports illustrated

Levi's obviously extremely busy at work, but if we all clap our hands, maybe he'll show up and make some observations on the playoffs once they get under way tomorrow.

Subheads in today's L.A. Times: "Angels have conjured a special season, and if the franchise is haunted by ghosts of '86 playoff loss to Boston, the players seem unaware of it" and "The Dodgers had 53 come-from-behind wins, 26 in final at-bat, but keeping that magic going against powerful Cardinals won't be easy."

Now we get to make fun of Sports Illustrated for being very wrong about the National League division winners in their before-the-season predictions. The teams we saw on the trip are in bold.

SI Prediction              Actual Results

                     NL East
Philadelphia Phillies      Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins            Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves             Florida Marlins
Montreal Expos             New York Mets
New York Mets              Montreal Expos

                    NL Central
Chicago Cubs               St. Louis Cardinals
Houston Astros             Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals        Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds            Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers          Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates         Milwaukee Brewers

                     NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks       L.A. Dodgers
San Francisco Giants       San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres           San Diego Padres
L.A. Dodgers               Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies           Arizona Diamondbacks

                     AL East
New York Yankees           New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox             Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays          Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles          Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Tampa Bay Devil Rays       Toronto Blue Jays

                   AL Central
Minnesota Twins            Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox          Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals         Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians          Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers             Kansas City Royals

                     AL West
Oakland A's                Anaheim Angels
Anaheim Angels             Oakland A's
Seattle Mariners           Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers              Seattle Mariners

In other news, over the offseason, the Dodgers are going to add 1,600 more ridiculously expensive seats to Dodger Stadium by moving the dugouts forward into what's now foul territory and putting in more seats between the current ridiculously expensive seats behind home plate and the new dugouts. They'll also be transforming the current rubberized warning track into a dirt track. I hope having the new expensive seats distracts them from raising ticket prices elsewhere in the stadium, namely, the reserved level (third deck) tickets that are currently $17, $12, and $10.

Original comments...

Toby: Levi is probably too busy still celebrating NU's big win over Ohio State Saturday. ...And rightfully so.

Jim: But he's not posting on the Football-Related Program Activities blog, either! Oh, wait, there is no such thing. Football ticket prices (especially in the NFL) and game schedules don't lend themselves to road trips.

An e-mail from my father: "Wore my NU hat to the Bucs game and was literally hugged by Buckeye haters." That's "Bucs" for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, not the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Labels: predictions, sports illustrated

Hey, remember this post? Might as well revisit it and look at the actual team standings as of the All-Star break, along with how often we're going to see each team.

NL East
1. Philadelphia Phillies (1x)
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Florida Marlins
4. New York Mets
5. Montreal Expos (1x)

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

NL West
1. L.A. Dodgers (1x)
2. San Francisco Giants
3. San Diego Padres
4. Colorado Rockies
5. Arizona Diamondbacks

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

AL Central
1. Chicago White Sox (2x)
2. Minnesota Twins
3. Cleveland Indians (1x)
4. Detroit Tigers (2x)
5. Kansas City Royals

AL West
1. Texas Rangers
2. Oakland A's
3. Anaheim Angels
4. Seattle Mariners

That's right, Sports Illustrated predicted in April that we'd be seeing only one first-place team, but if the standings stay this way for the next five weeks, we'll be seeing four.

Labels: predictions

Well, in this age when people don't have to take responsibility for their predictions, I guess Sports Illustrated will be okay despite clearly picking wrong in the National League Central.

I was going to post my picks this week, but I've been too busy with work and with hours on the phone trying to alter the car reservation Jim made. There is no reason to get a Taurus when we could get a purple Lamborghini.

Labels: lamborghini, predictions

Straight out of the baseball preview issue, this is Sports Illustrated's predicted order of finish for the various leagues and divisions, with the teams we will be seeing on this trip highlighted:

NL East
1. Philadelphia Phillies (1x)
2. Florida Marlins
3. Atlanta Braves
4. Montreal Expos (1x)
5. New York Mets

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

NL West
1. Arizona Diamondbacks
2. San Francisco Giants
3. San Diego Padres
4. L.A. Dodgers (1x)
5. Colorado Rockies

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

AL Central
1. Minnesota Twins
2. Chicago White Sox (2x)
3. Kansas City Royals
4. Cleveland Indians (1x)
5. Detroit Tigers (2x)

AL West
1. Oakland A's
2. Anaheim Angels
3. Seattle Mariners
4. Texas Rangers

Honorable mention to the Twins and Mariners, whose Midwest League teams we'll also be seeing.

Labels: predictions