Worthless 2010 Baseball Predictions: Standings

Despite that fact that 30 teams in 30 days was giant failure last year, I'm going to essentially the same thing- because hot damn do I love making predictions and do people love reading predictions. So here is my own worthless opinion (because I'm sure to be wrong) on how I think the MLB standings will look in 2010.

Note, that no one will ever be able to tell you where a team will finish because there will always be players that surprise you to help a team win and there will always be key drastic injuries. And despite what PECOTA will predict, there's a reason teams still play the game.

So I'm not going to comment on justifying my picks. Picks aren't based on rationality and even if you think they are, they are guaranteed to be wrong. All this is is my opinion and feel free to disagree with my subjective views.

AL EAST
1) New York Yankees
2) Boston Red Sox*
3) Tampa Bay Rays
4) Baltimore Orioles
5) Toronto Blue Jays

Yankees won 100+ games last year and added Granderson and Vazquez and will get more PA from A-Rod this year. Red Sox adding Cameron and Beltre makes them one of the best defensive teams in the league and adding Lackey just adds even more depth to the deepest rotation in baseball. Rays have probably a top six team in the league but play in the hardest division in baseball- so say goodbye to Pena and Crawford. Orioles will compete for this division (a la Rays in '08), but that won't happen for another few years. Blue Jays clearly are rebuilding so will be awful for a years as well.

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

I love the Sox pitching but I'm so pessimistic that I can't put them winning the division like ESPN does. So if it's between the Twins and Tigers I say the addition of Damon and Scherzer

AL WEST
1) Seattle Mariners
2) Los Angeles Angels
3) Texas Rangers
4) Oakland A's

Seattle will probably be the best defensive team in the AL and add a damn fine rotation of top of that with SAFECO's caverns and you have a recipe for success. Even though I think the Rangers have more talent, it's the still Angels and they will still be competitive and still win a crap ton of games. I like the Rangers line up but they are too injury prone and even though that rotation will over-perform, they have too big of a hurdle to overcome. They A's have no chance- not this year.

NL EAST
1) Philadelphia Phillies
2) Atlanta Braves*
3) New York Mets
4) Florida Marlins
5) Washington Nationals

I was going to pick the Nationals to win the wild card because every team Jason Marquis has been on has gone to the playoffs, but then I thought about it for more than two seconds. I also believe in my heart of hearts that the Marlins are better than the Mets, but the Mets are still the Mets and they still have money and they can't have that many injuries as they did last year, can they?

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

I ranked the bottom four teams based upon how I think their rotations will be and I think Dave Duncan will beat the injury prone Cubs. Plus, I'm a White Sox so I OBVIOUSLY need to crap on the Cubs.

NL WEST
1) San Fransisco Giants
2) Colorado Rockies
3) Los Angeles Dodgers
4) Arizona Diamondbacks
5) San Diego Padres

This is the division I feel the least strongly about but I'll choose the Giants because Tim-freaking-Lincecum and Matt Cain along with guys like Madison Bumgardner and Jonathan Sanchez will make the Giants have a top five rotation and propel them to win the division.

*indicates wild card birth