2010 Season Predictions

No fancy, schmancy* stat work - just some guesses straight from the gut. * The spell-check thought I wanted to say schmaltzy. I guess it's not really that either. AL East NYY - 95 BOS - 93 TBR - 89 BAL - 75 TOR - 71 It's the top three teams - the three best in baseball - and then a big gap before the bottom two. If things break just a little for the Rays, then they could also come in first. Should be a good race to watch, as long as you're not the Orioles or Blue Jays. By the way, I've get a friendly wager going with the Jays blog The Tao of Stieb on who'll finish in fourth place. Proceeds going to charity, but if you don't want a Jays fan to be putting up a post here then cheer extra hard for the Birds* this season. * The orange and black variety, I should say. AL Central MIN - 83 CHW - 82 CLE - 79 DET - 77 KCR - 73 The Twins are the division's best team, but losing Joe Nathan for the season dropped them out of the mid 80s for me. I like Chicago's rotation, think Cleveland is being underrated (Grady Sizemore - who very recently was one of the best players in baseball - should be fully healthy), Detroit is going to regress (plus they lost their own good center-fielder - though I like the top of the rotation), and the Royals might play Yuniesky Betancourt for a full season. AL West SEA - 84 TEX - 84 LAA - 81 OAK - 79 Oh, so close. The Angels have to take a tumble eventually, right? Honestly, I think the Rangers might be a better team than the Mariners, but (if healthy) a Felix-Lee top two and excellent defense just make Seattle look good in my eyes. We'll see if they can score some runs. I have the M's making it to the playoffs, with their horses taking them to the World Series. NL East PHI - 90 ATL - 89 NYM - 80 FLA - 80 WSN - 72 Should be quite a race between the Phillies and Braves, though I doubt anyone else gets involved too much. Both should make the playoffs, in any case. NL Central STL - 90 CIN - 81 MIL - 80 CHC - 80 HOU - 72 PIT - 71 The Cardinals have the easiest path to the playoffs of any team, I think, but the fight for second place might be interesting. Then there are the Astros and the Pirates - both bad, but trending in opposite directions. NL West COL - 86 LAD - 84 ARI - 80 SFG - 77 SDP - 73 I really like the Rockies, though the Dodgers have enough talent to give them a good run. Shame to hear about Brandon Webb's continuing injury problems in Arizona, because he and Haren could have been a great top two. The Giants are counting on Aubrey Huff to improve their offense, and the Padres have Jon Garland as their Opening Day starter. AL Cy Young - Felix Hernandez AL MVP - Alex Rodriguez AL ROY - Brian Matusz NL Cy Young - Roy Halladay NL MVP - Albert Pujols NL ROY - Jason Heyward AL Pennant - SEA NL Pennant - ATL World Series - ATL They signed Eric Hinske which means they have to at least get there, right? Might as well go ahead and win it then. You can leave your predictions in the comments, or head on over to Wezen-Ball to enter them in a predictions contest he's having like I did. Or both!