It's time for my baseless predictions which I have sometimes, maybe luckily, gotten right.
Last year I had eight playoff teams correct, so I'm happy about that, but my World Series was wrong. Hell, the only LCS team I had correct was the Phillies.
But oh well, last year, I had a revenge series, Phillies over the Jays, to make up for the 1993 World Series loss.
I have the Phillies beating the Orioles in the 2024 World Series, payback for that 1983 loss.
Yes, it's a real homer pick for me. I love the Phillies, of course, and the Orioles are my AL team. This would be a fun World Series, and even though I'd be rooting for the Phillies, I wouldn't be mad if the O's won.
When it comes to divisions, I think the Braves, Cubs and Dodgers win the NL, and Orioles, Tigers and Astros win in the AL.
Braves, Dodgers, Orioles and Astros are self explanatory. As for the central divisions on both sides, I think they are crapshoots. I do have higher confidence in the Cubs than the Tigers, and I may be a year early on the Tigers here, but I just don't think there's a clear-cut champ from that AL Central. I would guess that the Twins have the best chance to win, but I'm going with Detroit.
And yes, I have the Yankees flopping. Why? I don't know. Just a feeling. I could easily be wrong because they have the pieces to dominate, I just don't trust them to do so.
The AL East was also tough to pick top to bottom because it was the one division that I could make cases for everyone winning and everyone making the playoffs. But someone has to finish fourth and fifth, and to me, it's either the Jays, Yankees or Red Sox falling down to that fourth and fifth position.
The Dodgers will win 102 games and fall to the Phillies in a five-game series that I think will come down to pitching, and unless the Dodgers pull off some deadline magic to bring in another front-line starter, I'm not sure they'll be able to match the combo of Wheeler-Nola in a five-game series where the Phils will have the chance to steal one out in LA and bring it back to the Bank for Games 3 and 4. Plus, I don't think we're talking about just Wheeler and Nola come postseason. Dombrowski is going to make a big splash to bolster this rotation. You can tell Ohtani to bet on it.
And that will send another No. 1 seed home early making the crazy baseball fans scream about layoffs and top seeds losing.
But that's what playoffs are all about. Here's the division by division and playoff round-by-round projection.
| NL East | W | L |
| Braves | 93 | 69 |
| Phillies | 90 | 72 |
| Marlins | 81 | 81 |
| Mets | 78 | 84 |
| Nationals | 76 | 86 |
| NL Central | W | L |
| Cubs | 89 | 73 |
| Brewers | 80 | 82 |
| Cardinals | 80 | 82 |
| Pirates | 75 | 87 |
| Reds | 73 | 89 |
| NL West | W | L |
| Dodgers | 102 | 60 |
| DBacks | 87 | 75 |
| Padres | 85 | 77 |
| Giants | 81 | 81 |
| Rockies | 53 | 109 |
| AL East | W | L |
| Orioles | 98 | 64 |
| Rays | 87 | 75 |
| Jays | 82 | 80 |
| Yankees | 81 | 81 |
| Red Sox | 78 | 84 |
| AL Central | W | L |
| Tigers | 87 | 75 |
| Twins | 85 | 77 |
| Royals | 82 | 80 |
| Guardians | 72 | 90 |
| White Sox | 65 | 97 |
| AL West | W | L |
| Astros | 97 | 65 |
| Mariners | 88 | 74 |
| Rangers | 86 | 76 |
| Angels | 70 | 92 |
| Athletics | 50 | 112 |
AL WILD CARD
Mariners over Tigers
Rangers over Rays
NL WILD CARD
Phillies over Padres
Cubs over D'Backs
ALDS
Astros over Mariners
Orioles over Rangers
NLDS
Phillies over Dodgers
Braves over Cubs
LCS
Phillies over Braves
Orioles over Astros
World Series
Phillies over Orioles
Comments