Predict the ending of 2010 MLB

[hifigator]

Now that we are at roughly the halfway point, if we are even close to the sports experts that we claim to be, we should have more than enough information to predict how the season will finish.

Who are your division champs and then who do you see advancing to the conference finals?

For "extra credit," who wins the World Series?



NL

East -- Braves
Central -- Cubs
West -- Giants
WildCard -- Padres

AL

East -- Yankees
Central -- Indians
West -- Rangers
Wildcard -- Devil Rays


NLCS Braves over Padres
ALCS Yankees over Rays

World Series Braves over Yankees


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OK, so I was kidding about both central divisions. I would love to see the Cubs and Indians win, but it will be the Cardinals in the NL and the Tigers in the AL.


I know, I mostly have the teams that are leading right now, but that is how I see it. I do think the young Giants will continue to improve, and overtake the Padres and Rockies. In fact, I think the wildcard race between the Padres and Rockies will be tight. I'm just giving it to the Padres right now because of their relative road success. They are the still the only team in the NL with a winning road record.

As for the AL ... I just don't know, so I went with my gut instincts.


How do the rest of you see it?

[HoyaFanNY]

it's obvious, the Reds win the world series.

[prhoya]

I predict the rest of the season will be two months too long.

[hoyarooter]

I'm going to wait until the trade deadline. As of today, I would say Yankees over Braves (and I seriously doubt that anything that happens in the next two weeks will change the Yankees prediction, curse them.

[hifigator]

Jul 20, 2010 8:42:29 GMT -5 prhoya said:

I predict the rest of the season will be two months too long.

That's tough to argue pr. As far as I'm concerned, the MLB is truly the "pastime," meaning something to pass the time until football season. In a strange sense, I feel the same way about Nascar. While I actually pay casual attention during the summer, once football starts, I couldn't tell you who won the race, where the race was, or for that matter, if there even was a race. When baseball gets "important," it runs head on into football. And by the time the World Series starts, both the NFL and college football are getting really, really interesting. I could go for spring practice starting a week after the Super Bowl and the World Series being in late August/early September. That would probably put the All-Star game sometime around Memorial Day. What would be wrong with that?

[hifigator]

Jul 20, 2010 6:39:34 GMT -5 HoyaFanNY said:

it's obvious, the Reds win the world series.

Not unless they bring back Concepcion, Foster, Morgan, Rose, Bench and of course, my Aunt who worked for the team as well as at Proctor and Gamble.

[AustinHoya03]

Jul 19, 2010 13:05:31 GMT -5 hifigator said:

AL
Central -- Indians

Wow.

How exactly will this happen?

[HoyaFanNY]

Jul 20, 2010 12:22:53 GMT -5 hifigator said:

Jul 20, 2010 6:39:34 GMT -5 HoyaFanNY said:

it's obvious, the Reds win the world series.

Not unless they bring back Concepcion, Foster, Morgan, Rose, Bench and of course, my Aunt who worked for the team as well as at Proctor and Gamble.

this coming from the guy that picked the cubs and indians

[RDF]

Hifi just says this due to his fetish for all things LaPorta. By the way--I know those of you on the board won't care about this--but here it goes anyways: funny story for you, I was cleaning Urban Meyer's balls (at the golf course--you silly guys...) and who wanted to join our 3some----it was none other then Matt LaPorta's 4th cousin on his mother's side. She was just a peach and we go back to the days that we had some good squishins after a Gallagher concert--she was 2 seats to my left as we shared a slip'n'slide to sit under to avoid "MR G's" hammer smashin's. What a lovely girl--and she said Matt will be Lou Ferrigno of his time-but we knew she meant Gehrig--so anyways--we all went to watch Billy D's "Mighty Gators" and Vernon Macklin came over to thank the mighty Urban for allowing him to be a Gator--and for the sacrifices Timmy Tebow made to allow us to live in this tuff world--and that isn't an error--because being a Gator means you can't spell "tuff" without "UF"--the extra "F" is in case you don't understand how "effing" powerful being a Gator is.

Anyways--what I was talking about--MLB--who cares--it's all related to UF--which reminds me--now that the Heat have Mike Miller and re-signed Udonis Haslem......

[hifigator]

RDF, on one hand I want to respond with "Blow Me!" But on the other hand, that was pretty damn funny.

Seriously though, why is it such an severe breach of acceptable behavior to start a mid-season MLB prediction thread?

To Austin and HoyaFan: did you really miss the footnote in my original post? I think it's pretty clear that I predicted the Cardinals and Tigers to win the central divisions.

Finally, I looked back to double check and I was right. I made no mention or even subtle implication about the Gators, much less Tebow, Meyer, Billy D. or any other Gator. Once again, it's pretty clear that your criticisms are not very well founded.

[hoyarooter]

Jul 21, 2010 11:12:14 GMT -5 hifigator said:

RDF, on one hand I want to respond with "Blow Me!" But on the other hand, that was pretty damn funny.

Seriously though, why is it such an severe breach of acceptable behavior to start a mid-season MLB prediction thread?

To Austin and HoyaFan: did you really miss the footnote in my original post? I think it's pretty clear that I predicted the Cardinals and Tigers to win the central divisions.

Finally, I looked back to double check and I was right. I made no mention or even subtle implication about the Gators, much less Tebow, Meyer, Billy D. or any other Gator. Once again, it's pretty clear that your criticisms are not very well founded.

Please cease these ad hominim attacks on RDF.

[hifigator]

Person "A" writes these comments, clearly poking fun at person "B:"

I was cleaning Urban Meyer's balls (at the golf course--you silly guys...) and who wanted to join our 3some----it was none other then Matt LaPorta's 4th cousin on his mother's side. She was just a peach and we go back to the days that we had some good squishins after a Gallagher concert--she was 2 seats to my left as we shared a slip'n'slide to sit under to avoid "MR G's" hammer smashin's. What a lovely girl--and she said Matt will be Lou Ferrigno of his time-but we knew she meant Gehrig--so anyways--we all went to watch Billy D's "Mighty Gators" and Vernon Macklin came over to thank the mighty Urban for allowing him to be a Gator--and for the sacrifices Timmy Tebow made to allow us to live in this tuff world--and that isn't an error--because being a Gator means you can't spell "tuff" without "UF"--the extra "F" is in case you don't understand how "effing" powerful being a Gator is.

Anyways--what I was talking about--MLB--who cares--it's all related to UF--which reminds me--now that the Heat have Mike Miller and re-signed Udonis Haslem......


Person "B" responds:

RDF, on one hand I want to respond with "Blow Me!" But on the other hand, that was pretty damn funny.

Seriously though, why is it such an severe breach of acceptable behavior to start a mid-season MLB prediction thread?

To Austin and HoyaFan: did you really miss the footnote in my original post? I think it's pretty clear that I predicted the Cardinals and Tigers to win the central divisions.

Finally, I looked back to double check and I was right. I made no mention or even subtle implication about the Gators, much less Tebow, Meyer, Billy D. or any other Gator. Once again, it's pretty clear that your criticisms are not very well founded.


Now how exactly is it that person "B" is the one guilty of personal attacks?

P.S. I think it is "hominem" but not positive.

[Deleted]

Hifi-larious! Nice work from RDF and hoyarooter...



I predict two things about the baseball season:
1. The "Devil Rays" will not win anything. In fact, there won't be a single game won by the "Devil Rays" the rest of the year.
2. Not a single MLB team will advance to the "conference finals"

[hifigator]

Man, you all are relentless.

1. I refuse to recognize the "Rays" as such. They are the Devil Rays. There is nothing wrong with that, regardless of what some politically correct twits otherwise say.
2. I apologize for the egregious error of calling the Championship Series the Conference finals. For the record, when I listed them individually, I labeled them the "ALCS" and "NLCS." Now would you care to actually answer the question and give your predictions?

[hoyarooter]

Poor hifi.

Anyway, as someone who still occasionally refers to the Wizards as the Bullets, I'm willing to cut hifi a small amount of slack on his Devil Rays reference.

[hoyarooter]

Not much interest here, I guess, but I had said that I would add my predictions after the trade deadline, so here we go.

NL East - Braves. I really like the composition of this team, and I think they may take Bobby Cox on one last wild ride into the sunset.

NL Central - I was prepared to pick the Reds, because I just don't see how the Cardinals can survive with only three effective starting pitchers, but I think the acquisition of Westbrook will help the Cardinals, so I'm going with them.

NL West - I cannot tell a lie. When hifi began this thread, I was going to pick the Rockies, because I thought they were the best all around team in the division. The Rockies then tanked. So I was then leaning toward the Giants, because I can't believe that the Padres can smoke and mirror their way to a division title. But then the Padres added two legitimate bats in Tejada and Ludwick (although it remains to be seen how they'll do in Petco Canyon), so I'm going with them. As for the Dodgers, please, Commissioner Gordon (and where have we heard that before, Caped Crusader?), require the McJerks to sell the team. They may be Hoyas, but I disavow them. They can gae kack.

Wild card - Phillies, but this could go any which way.

AL East - Evil Empire. If a $200 million payroll isn't enough to get it done, let's just buy more players. Lance Berkman and Austin Kearns, come on down!

AL Central - I've thought since day one that the Twins would win the division, but I have to pick the White Sox out of loyalty. And has anyone in the majors pitched better in the last month or so than Floyd and Liriano? Floyd couldn't get anyone out for the first two months, with an ERA lurking around 7, and in his last I believe it's 11 starts now, his ERA is around 1. Baffling.

AL West - Rangers.

Wild Card - Rays, but of course I'm hoping they beat out the Evil Empire.

World Series - Evil Empire over the Cardinals. I think there are three teams in the AL better than anyone in the NL. And don't sleep on the Rangers. I think they have a real shot this year.

[SFHoya99]

I think the Cardinals got worse at the deadline.

I don't think Jay is all that for real and Westbrook ain't much. It wasn't much of a haul for Ludwick.

[RDF]

Brian Cashman did an awful job at the trade deadline--Lance Berkman is horribly out of shape and just Andy Pettitte's BFF. He can't turn on any pitch inside and is going to do nothing more then what Yankees got out of DH--which was best place to hide Posada--and it forces Posada to catch more-which weakens the team defensively. Berkman also makes Cashman's Nick Johnson move look bad--but who could've guessed Nick would end up on the DL? That NEVER happens.

Austin Kearns is hitting .200 since June--and is strictly acquired to move Gardner to CF and bench Granderson against LHP--which makes Cashman's move for Granderson look stupid.

Kerry Wood brings nothing--but past glory as a Cub. Throws hard--doesn't know where it's going, good teams will have guys on base at will--so he'll be Chan Ho Park-but Park wasn't that bad in 1 inning outings--its when Yankees tried to stretch him he failed miserably and honestly--if you try to stretch Wood--he'll end up on DL--as always.

I see Rays winning AL East---Yankees who offensively are built too much like the '02-'07 version offensively and that is total FAIL come Postseason or against elite pitching.

Red Sox will be in race for Wild Card by end of week and they could overtake Yankees too.

Cashman needs to use Yankee $ to make a positive move--because his trades usually suck and produce nothing.

[SFHoya99]

I wouldn't write off the Berkman move. He's been bad this year, but sometimes a sudden cliff is a sudden cliff, and sometimes it is a bad half-season.

(And yes, I know he's been bad since the All-Star break last year).

He's an elite hitter when on, and I think it's a nice upside play for the Yankees. It's hard to improve that team on the bat side.

I'm not sure if the power will come completely back, but I think he'll hit .285+ in NY and slug better in the second half.

[GIGAFAN99]

Who cares about the Yankees' defense? That's not why they're the best team in the league right now. It's because they have no easy outs. They had one (Cervelli) and now they have none.

This is Miami Heat part deux as far as denial. The worst hitter in the Yankees starting lineup right now might be Derek Jeter. Read that and tell me that doesn't make you cry a bit.