Baseball
Baseball season is back. Most teams have played one game so far, with a few teams (six, I think) having played two. First, a note on opening days: it really bugs me how Major League Baseball decides to put all this pomp into opening days and then not only goes with multiple opening days (to a degree, I can live with that), but will give teams a day off immediately after their opening day to make the schedule thinner the next day so more focus will be on the other teams' opening days. If you follow baseball, you can probably figure out what I meant there, and if you don't, it's probably almost indecipherable, but that's okay because you probably don't care.
Anyways, I'll make a few predictions for this baseball season. Let's say ten. At the end of the season, I'll look back and see how well I did (or didn't do, as the case may be). These predictions are over somewhat random topics, none of the highly focused predictions you'll see like in ESPN's expert predictions. Okay, here goes:
First, some division winners; not all, but just a few:
1. The Yankees will win the AL East division title.
2. The Cubs will win the NL Central division title.
3. The Giants will win the NL West division title.
Second, some player predictions:
1. Despite saying he'd miss half the season, if not more, Barry Bonds will be back by mid-May.
1a. Conditional on his return roughly following my prediction, he will hit at least 30 homeruns this year, and pass Hank Aaron next year (I just tossed in that last part; we'll consider this prediction fulfilled if he hits 30+, and I'll toss the Hank Aaron prediction into the mix for next spring)..
2. Pedro Martinez will be a bust for the Mets.
3. None of these new Diamondbacks will have very good seasons:
a. Troy Glaus
b. Javier Vazquez
c. Russ Ortiz
3d. At least one of the Vazquez/Ortiz duo will fail to have a winning record for the season.
4. Sammy Sosa will continue his decline (note: he may be healthy enough that he plays more games, so his homerun or other totals will be similar, or slightly better than, last year, when he played 126 games).
5. Craig Biggio will pass Don Baylor for the modern record for being beaned the most in a career (though he'll have to wait until next season to make a run at the all-time record).
And here's a prediction that doesn't focus on a player so much as a group of players:
Babe Ruth currently ranks 71st on the all-time list for most career strikeouts. By the end of the season, his rank will be in the 80's.
Okay, by my count, that comes out as a baker's dozen, which happens to be my favorite number, so it's a much better number of predictions than ten. Plus, the luckiness of the number should result in me getting a bunch right. I tried to make some predictions that were either not-mainstream, or at least contested; we'll see how it all turns out in about six months.
Anyways, I'll make a few predictions for this baseball season. Let's say ten. At the end of the season, I'll look back and see how well I did (or didn't do, as the case may be). These predictions are over somewhat random topics, none of the highly focused predictions you'll see like in ESPN's expert predictions. Okay, here goes:
First, some division winners; not all, but just a few:
1. The Yankees will win the AL East division title.
2. The Cubs will win the NL Central division title.
3. The Giants will win the NL West division title.
Second, some player predictions:
1. Despite saying he'd miss half the season, if not more, Barry Bonds will be back by mid-May.
1a. Conditional on his return roughly following my prediction, he will hit at least 30 homeruns this year, and pass Hank Aaron next year (I just tossed in that last part; we'll consider this prediction fulfilled if he hits 30+, and I'll toss the Hank Aaron prediction into the mix for next spring)..
2. Pedro Martinez will be a bust for the Mets.
3. None of these new Diamondbacks will have very good seasons:
a. Troy Glaus
b. Javier Vazquez
c. Russ Ortiz
3d. At least one of the Vazquez/Ortiz duo will fail to have a winning record for the season.
4. Sammy Sosa will continue his decline (note: he may be healthy enough that he plays more games, so his homerun or other totals will be similar, or slightly better than, last year, when he played 126 games).
5. Craig Biggio will pass Don Baylor for the modern record for being beaned the most in a career (though he'll have to wait until next season to make a run at the all-time record).
And here's a prediction that doesn't focus on a player so much as a group of players:
Babe Ruth currently ranks 71st on the all-time list for most career strikeouts. By the end of the season, his rank will be in the 80's.
Okay, by my count, that comes out as a baker's dozen, which happens to be my favorite number, so it's a much better number of predictions than ten. Plus, the luckiness of the number should result in me getting a bunch right. I tried to make some predictions that were either not-mainstream, or at least contested; we'll see how it all turns out in about six months.
Labels: baseball
posted by DC | 4:23 AM
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