Baseball Beat/WTNYApril 02, 2006
One on One: 2006 Predictions
By Rich Lederer & Bryan Smith

The wait is over. In a matter of hours, the newest season of baseball will begin the way it ended -- with the White Sox attempting to pitch their way to victory.

Over the course of the last six weeks, we have attempted to preview each division in a detailed fashion. Here's a quick link to each of those Two on Twos:

AL Central: Aaron and Cheat
NL Central: Larry and John
AL West: Blez and Rob
NL West: Jon and Geoff
AL East: Cliff and Sully
NL East: Mac and Jeremy


Thanks again to all the participants. As a final cherry-on-top to finish our 2006 Season Preview package, we wanted to go over all the categories not yet covered. Before we get to that, however, here's a review of our 8 picks to make the playoffs:

AL East AL Central AL West AL Wild Card NL East NL Central NL West NL Wild Card
Rich Red Sox Indians A's Yankees Braves Cardinals Giants Brewers
Bryan Red Sox White Sox A's Twins Braves Brewers Dodgers Mets

Next is a look at our picks for the major awards:

AL MVP NL MVP AL CY NL CY AL ROY NL ROY AL COME NL COME
Rich Ortiz Pujols Santana Zambrano Johjima Jackson Thome Bonds
Bryan Ramirez Pujols Harden Hudson Anderson Fielder Thome Gagne

Now onto the fun stuff. Below we have created another three categories which might be of interest. The first is the OOPs MVP (OOPs = Overrated Offensive Player), given annually to the player with the highest batting average while posting below average on-base and slugging percentages. Next, as we did last year, are the guesses for the first manager to be fired. The last category is a guess at who will win the minor league player of the year award. Our picks:

OOPs MVP 1st Fired MiL POY
Rich Lo Duca Narron Stewart
Bryan Pierre Hurdle Salty

While Barry Bonds might be garnering most of the veteran press this spring, we believe Roger Clemens will be the major subplot of the 2006 season. In honor of that belief, here is a series of categories dedicated to the Rocket. We asked each other whether or not Clemens will play this year, and if so, for what team and on which date he will begin.

Play? Who? When?
Rich Yes Red Sox May 22
Bryan Yes Rangers June 11

And as is only appropriate, we close today with our picks for the World Series. Sure, sure, neither of us had even considered the White Sox last year, but we're both sure we nailed it this year.

World Series
Rich Red Sox over Giants
Bryan A's over Braves

Let us know your own predictions in the comments and have a wonderful day away from work and glued to the television!

Comments

No guesses, just glad to see the month of Predictuary come to an end.

We are, too, Rev. But they were all made in the spirit of fun.

Play ball!

Predictions....lets see....i think i made them on most of the posts...but let me try to recap.....AL Boston Cleveland Texas with NY getting wildcard NL Philly St. Louis LA with Atl getting wildcard. W/S Boston over Atlanta

I like the Red Sox quite well, you might even call me something of a fan, but they're a mess.

- Pena may be more like Jose Valentin circa 2002 than the budding stars some Bostonians are making him out to be.

- All indications show Crisp historically to be a poor center fielder. Between him, Manny, and the defensively inconsisten Pena things may get ugly out there.

- Mike Lowell is done. I heard rumors at the time the Twins were interested in Lowell and cash for Baker. If I were the team I would've ponied up as much as $14 million over the next 2 years to make that happen.

- Alex Gonzalez is simply not the premiere defender everyone imagines him to be.

- The bullpen is still pretty bad. I have little confidence that Foulke can return to form, that Riske can not give up 18 home runs, that Delcarmen isn't a base-on-balls machine, that Timlin or Seanez can be as good as they were last year, or that Tavarez can keep himself out of the nuthouse. It wouldn't surprise me to see Papelbon and Hansen as the 8th/9th innings guys by June.

- The pitching rotation is highly questionable. Wakefield is like a ball of chocolates, you never know what you're - yeah, yeah. No confidence that Schilling can return to form, it's questionable if Beckett can stay healthy or succeed outside of Florida, and Matt Clement is still Matt Clement. He'll look good at times but spend a lot of time looking bad.

As for the Giants... ugh. I don't see how anyone can pick the Giants over the Dodgers. The Giants' bullpen is hopeless. Who knows how much Bonds will actually play. I don't think any team that has Mark Sweeney and Pedro Feliz as their corner infielders is going to win any divisions.

Is it too late now that the season is underway? Oh well.
NL east: Phillies: solid lineup, decent defense and potentially solid rotation 1-5. Fewer questions than rest of division. Braves' #3-5 pitchers very questionable and bullpen even more shaky than Phillies'. Mets very thin in pitching and despite stars in lineup, some holes there as well.
NL central: Cardinals: But I think they will regress. It's just that the Brewers need another year to percolate, Houston's rotation #3-5 is very suspect and the Cubs cannot rely on their star pitchers to pitch.
NL west: Dodgers: Depth to offset inevitable injuries both in pitching and lineup. Everyone else in division either too young or too old. How many balls will drop between and beyond Bonds, Winn and Alou?
NL wild card: Brewers: Starting 5 range from outstanding to capable and every position is manned by a solid player or one who is on the verge of excellence.

AL west: A's: Exceptionally deep and talented everywhere. Can sustain injury to a starter and not be devastated. Rangers are trying, but pitching is not there yet and Angels have serious lineup problems that may need to rely on rookies to fix.
AL central: Twins: Their offense is better than last year's if only because more players are healthy and their pitching staff does not walk people. I expect the White Sox pitching to be good but not as consistently good as last year and the Indians starters and relievers are weaker than last year.
AL east: Red Sox: This is a team with 2 and even 3 layers of depth nearly everywhere. I am not sure why so many predict Lowell's demise. He is not old, had one bad year at the plate and hit this spring. Loretta is a major upgrade at second. Symbolic of the difference between the Yankees and Red Sox: Boston has Pena backing up in the outfield; the Yankees have Bubba Crosby.
AL wild card: White Sox: Even if their pitchers regress some, they are still good enough, and not only are they above average 1-5, but they have a potential outstanding starter on the roster in McCarthy just in case. The defense is still good and a healthy Thome is a huge lift.
World Series: A's over Phillies

Red Sox fans, are we?

These are my predictions: AL East-NYY, AL Central-CWS, AL West-OAK, WC-BOS. The Division Series: NYY over OAK 5 games, BOS over CWS 5 games. The AL Championship Series: NYY over BOS 6 games.

NL East-NYM, NL Central-ST.L, NL West-SF, WC-ATL. The Division Series: ST.L over ATL 4 games, NYM over SF 4 games. The NL Championship Series: ST.L over NYM 5 games.

World Series: NYY over ST.L 6 games.

AL MVP: Ortiz, BOS NL MVP: Pujols, ST.L
AL Cy Young: Halladay, TOR NL Cy: Hudson, ATL
AL Manager: Macha, OAK NL Man: Tracy, PITT

I am emphatically NOT a Red Sox fan.

I have made 2006 predictions and they are at my blog page:

http://theralphpage.blogspot.com/

I hope it is okay to have that link instead of putting my predictions on the page here. Thanks.

AL EAST: YANKS CENTRAL: SOX WEST: A's WILD: TRIBE
NL EAST: METS CENTRAL: CARDS WEST: LA WILD: BREWERS
AL MVP: A ROD NL MVP: PUJOLS AL CY: FELIX! NL CY: PEAVY AL ROY: B ANDERSON NL ROY: JACKSON AL COME: THOME NL COME: ROLEN
CLEMENS: YES, ASTROS or RANGERS June 6- D DAY
WORLD SERIES: WHITE SOX vs CUBS
just kidding, that was 1906, not 2006
WHITE SOX over DODGERS in 5- 1959 redemption

DODGERS RULE ANGELS SUCK THATS ALL I HAVE 2 SAY
GO DODGERS!!!

AL - White Sox, Yankees, A's....Red Sox(WC)

NL - Cardinals, Dodgers, Mets...Braves (WC)

White Sox > Red Sox, A's over Yankees

White Sox > A's in 7

Cardinals > Braves, Mets > Dodgers

Cardinals > Mets in 6

White Sox > Cardinals in 6

AL

EAST: Crap shoot between Yanks and Bo-sox with the Jays having an outside shot, Yanks line-up is slightly better, but it will really boil down to health, as both team carry a lot of REALLY old Gezers...

Yanks rotation depth is pretty good this year, but player line-up is one big DL away from serious problems.... while the Bo-sox have better backups on the field but pitching depth becomes a question.... if either or both team really get into DL trouble the Jays will sneak up second or even first place.


NL
East: a 3 way, I think overall chances are Braves>Phils>Mets, mostly considering depth and injury likelyhood, but don't be too surprised if it goes any way or if the Mets collaspe (again).. or if the 3 teams finish all within 3 games of each other second place finisher have at least a 50% shot at the wild card.... but then again there's always the chance that the Marlins open this year's Pandora's box and pops out a world series again LOL!!!!