Well its time to make the bold predictions for the upcoming MLB season and I must say, Ivan has an interesting take to the year, and in places I agree, although I really dont know about some of the choices he has made.

AL East: Boston Red Sox….It really is a toss up this year and could just as easily be the Yankees or Rays, but I dont think so. The Red Sox managed to make the right moves, making themselves easily the deepest team in the league, especially in the pitching department, which is by far the most crucial. And dont forget, this is the team that made it to Game 7 of the ALCS with an injury-ridden team. The Rays will still be a good team and will contend, maybe even grabbing up the Wild Card, but really I just dont see the magic from last year folding over. They didnt do much to improve themselves and may have fallen behind. The Yankees did plenty to improve themselves, but the pieces they picked up are not accustomed to the consistent high level of play that is expected in the East. They have a team of chronic underachievers with shit loads of talent, with a few choke artists mixed in (see CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Texieria). Admittedly, this may be unfair Texieria as he has at least had some production in the post-season, but his production has been continuously limited to random singles with goose eggs in many other categories. CC just tends to burn out, but even when he hasnt pitched one billion innings a season, he tends to become shotty at best in October. And as for A Rod, well….its fuckin A-Rod and once late September and October come, the plain fact of the matter is the man couldnt hit water if he fell out of a boat. Red Sox take the division.

AL Central: Chicago White Sox…With no serious improvement or decline in any team, I dont see any particular reason that the Central will unfold much different than it did last year, so I dont really see any reason why the White Sox cant win the division again. Keep an eye on the Cleveland Indians though, because if Victor Martinez back healthy and playing similar to he did two seasons ago, watch for the Indians to surge and have an offense comparable to the one that took the Red Sox to a Game 7 in 2007. As for the Twins, without the pitching staff stepping up in a big way, the ability of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau will mean nothing. Again.

AL West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim…Yeah I think the name is stupid too. Besides that, the best team in regular season baseball last year is in prime position to keep themselves atop a really weak division. The loss of a record breaking closer will hurt, but it wont send them down the tubes. Even without Texieria they still have a potent offense and a good pitching staff. Dont let the Athletics fool you with the Matt Holliday pickup, they still dont have deep pitching and the health of their old third basemen is severely in question.

AL Wildcard: Yankees or Rays (whichever has less injuries over the course of the season)…Even with the reasons mentioned above, both the Yankees and Rays are in a position to cause serious damage this year and the AL East has the potential to see two or three 90 game winners. *NOTE* Watch for the aforementioned Indians to surge and possibly knock one of these teams out of the playoffs.

NL East: New York Mets…The team has too much talent to not win the division, even though they regularly collapse late. The Defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies are in this division as well, but they will finish two or three games behind and take the Wild Card and then proceed to beat the Mets in the playoffs, ruining lives in New York for a third consecutive year.

NL Central: Chicago Cubs…Same as the Mets, too much talent to not do it, but they have something else working for them. The rest of the teams in the NL Central are garbage, and their path to success is much easier. Watch for them to win 98-100 games this year and storm into the playoffs and have a magical season, winning the pennant and making the World Series, where the Billy Goat will crap on the hearts of Chicago yet again as the team burns out and gets swept away from their chance to finally get that monkey off their backs and win their first World Series in 100 years.

NL West: LA Dodgers…Finally hitting stride, the team will advance into the playoffs but they will cut it close, having to play a 163rd game against the Diamondbacks to see who gets the division. They will win on a Manny Ramirez home run in the late innings because he is that good. Manny Being Manny will not ruin their season THIS year because he hasnt done enough to the city and team yet for them to be sick of him. This will be it though, as the team will completely implode around Manny’s antics sometime around August 5th of the 2010 season, when the team will fail to trade him by the deadline and will be stuck with him unless they ship him to Japan.

NL Wild Card: Philadelphia Phillies…Defending World Series Champs wont miss the playoffs this year, they just are not going to win as many games as the Mets this year, even though they are a better team. They will make it in and lose in the NLCS to the Cubs.

Post Season: The Cubs will have that story book season they have been looking for for years, and they will get most of it. They will play out of their heads and will make the World Series where they will be crushed by the winner of the American League….The Red Sox. Having a 7 man pitching rotation will be too much for every other team in the league and they will work their way to the Series, playing a 5 and 7 game series in October but winning both and wiping the floor with the Cubs, hopefully at home this time.

wooo baseball!

Ivan’s mah Boyeeee!

Okay, clearly you folks don’t know how to pick a winning team. It is based on who has the better looking players. Since the Yankees still have Jeter and Pettitte they are the winning team in the American League East. Hey, it’s science..