Just so you know, it's not happening this year Rays' fans. The Chicago Cubs are beating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in six games next October to break the World Series curse.
After a few days of studying pitching staffs, projected opening day lineups and last season's top performers, I'm ready to publish my 2009 Major League Baseball Fearless Forecast. Let's get right to it . . .
NATIONAL LEAGUE PREDICTIONS
West – Arizona Diamondbacks. (Brandon Webb 22-7 and Dan Haren 16-8) Pair of potential 20-game winners. Scoring runs might be a problem for Arizona, but not much run support is needed when Webb and Haren step on the mound.
East – Philadelphia Phillies. (obviously the bats and Hamels, great bullpen)
Central – Chicago Cubs will have MLB’s best record (best 3-4-5 in NL, Derek Lee, M. Bradley, A. Ramirez) 3 guys capable of 30 HRs each. Fukudome and Soto, pair of allstars in Chicago. The NL Central is the lowest/ugliest/worst division in baseball.
Wild Card – Florida Marlins (the youth movement, young pitchers, young stars Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez) Marlins rotation = Rickey Nolasco 15-8 last season 26 yrs old, Josh Johnson 7-1, 23 yrs old, Chris Volstad 6-4, 2.88 ERA, 22 yrs, Anibel Sanchez 2-5, 25 yrs old 50 Ks in 50 innings. Solid young arms. Look for the Marlins to be this year's Tampa Bay Rays.
Phillies over DBacks in the Divisional Round, Cubs over Marlins in the other Divisional Round, Cubs over Phillies in the NLCS.
NL CY YOUNG = Carlos Zambrano P Chicago Cubs
NL MVP = Hanley Ramirez SS Florida Marlins
AMERICAN LEAGUE PREDICTIONS
East – New York Yankees. The Yankees have a chance to theoretically do what the Marlins did a decade ago, buy a World Series. After spending half a billion, that’s right half a billion in the offseason, their staff could be the best in MLB. Wang, Sabathia, Burnett, Chamberlain, it’s ridiculous. And you know they’re good on offense with Rodriguez and Mark Teixiera.
West – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Defending AL West Champs. Bobby Abreu in left field is an upgrade from Garret Anderson in my opinion and already makes an explosive liveup that much stronger. Rangers definitely have the offense to win the West, but the pitching isn’t there after Kevin Millwood and Vincente Padilla. Too many questions marks in the bullpen for Texas.
Central – Chicago White Sox. Power hitters in the outfield and and a solid bullpen. Bobby Jenks as the closer and Octavio Dotel as the setup man? That’s good. Buerhle, Colon, Gavin Floyd in the rotation. The hardest division in baseball to project in my opinion.
AL Wild Card – Boston Red Sox.
Angels over Red Sox in the Divisional Round, Yankees over White Sox in the other Divisional Round, Angels over Yankees in the ALCS.
AL Cy Young = Chien Ming Wang P Yankees
AL MVP = Vladimir Guerrero RF Anaheim Angels
Just for giggles, AL Comeback POY = Dontrelle Willis P Detroit Tigers
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