Recap of the 2007 Baseball Season

First off, a review of my early predictions, found here and here.

Final Standings, with my predicted finish for each team:

AL East:
Red Sox 3
Yankees 1
Blue Jays 2
Orioles 4
Devil Rays 5

AL Central
Indians 2
Tigers 3
Twins 1
White Sox 4
Royals 5

AL West
Angels 1
Mariners 4
Athletics 2
Rangers 3


NL East
Phillies 1
Mets 2
Braves 3
Nationals 5
Marlins 4

NL Central
Cubs 1
Brewers 3
Cardinals 2
Astros 4
Reds 5
Pirates 6

NL West
Diamondbacks 4
Rockies 5
Padres 3
Dodgers 2
Giants 1


Aside from the NL West, moving one team would have given me the correct standings in each division (In the NL West, moving one team could have given me the inverse standings). Also, I'd say my labeling of the White Sox as most-overhyped team of the preseason was spot-on.

Roger Clemens did not pitch as well as I thought he would, and, more importantly, was hobbled by injuries. He did not surpass his win total from 2006, partly because he missed a few starts due to injury, and partially because he appeared to have a few run support issues even with the Yankees (bullpen issues, too), as he managed ten "quality starts" but only six wins. Now, not every "quality start" will yield a win, but, especially for the Yankees, most should, and it's certainly possible to pick up a win without a quality start. He was not robbed of wins to the extent he was in Houston, though.

Of the five players being touted before the season as having a shot to reach 500 homers, Gary Sheffield fell short (which should not have been a surprise to anyone), as did Manny Ramirez, fulfilling my prediction of Sheffield and one other. I'd thought about saying two besides Sheffield, but am now glad that I did not.

On the strikeout front, Thome moved into third all-time in a gimme prediction, Adam Dunn and Alex Rodriguez failed to strikeout as much as I thought they would (in Dunn's case, due to injury at season's end). Three players passed Babe Ruth on the all-time list, rather than the five I predicted (Andruw Jones, Frank Thomas, and Julio Franco passed him). Not passing him were Steve Finley (teams finally realized he's not good enough to play regularly anymore; he also struck out surprisingly little during his time with the Rockies, making his horrible average somewhat surprising), and injured Mets Jose Valentin and Shawn Green, though in Green's case, he also reduced his strikeout rate.

Bonds broke Aaron's homer mark in August, not July. He also failed to reach 2,000 RBI's, as the offense around him was even worse than last year. His 600th double also came in August instead of before the All-Star break. His failure to reach any of the three marks by the time I predicted can probably be attributed to the anemic offense around him, which resulted in fewer plate appearances per game, fewer RBI opportunities, and made it easier to walk him, as other teams were virtually assured of not being punished for it. He led the National League in on-base percentage (he lacked the number of plate appearances to qualify, so you won't see him on most leader lists, but he managed to win under the rule allowing a player who is x plate appearances short of qualifying to win the title if giving him an 0-for-x would still give him a higher average than anyone with enough plate appearances to qualify; Ryan Braun won the NL slugging title by the same rule, I believe).

Biggio somehow managed to stay out of the way of enough pitches, and will retire without the all-time beanball record. He does have the modern record, though, if that is any consolation. He attained his 3,000th hit, and fell short of 300 homers, but no surprises there.

I think that covers all my preseason predictions. As for later predictions, yeah, the Diamondbacks did manage to hang on and win the division, and Alex Rodriguez had a hot streak at the end of August and early September to give him 54 homers no the year, beating my prediction, but still not reaching Steve Phillip's what-was-he-thinking 57, and certainly not the 60 or more some were thinking.