shutime

Disclaimer: My predictions for this year’s MLB season have been very far off so far. In my defense, the picks that are turning out the worst for me were the most popular “no-brainer” picks three months ago.

Division Winners

National League West: San Diego Padres

The only thing more unbelievable than the unforeseen implosion of the San Diego Padres this year, is the fact that they’re not even the worst team I picked to win a division. (More to that point in a second) There’s been a lot of interesting pieces to the Padres’ first half collapse. But as the first half of the season comes to a close, it’s becoming clear that the Padres can’t maintain this level of suck for long. If you would have told me that Fernando Tatis Jr. would be leading this team in home runs at the all star break, I would have thought you were nuts. The guy missed the first TWENTY GAMES OF THE SEASON and is out-slugging them. I’m expecting his return to put a huge dent in the NL West in the second half.

To be honest though, the entire NL West story has been wild. Nobody expected the Diamondbacks to be in first place. Nobody. We all expected Corbin Carroll to put together a good-to-pretty good rookie campaign. He’s the NL MVP frontrunner. To quote myself three months ago, “don’t expect the Rockies or Giants to do a whole lot of damage this year”. At least I got one thing right, the Rockies are terrible. Which as a Rockies fan who makes sure to watch at least a portion of every televised game, it so badly sucks to be right sometimes. More on them in their own post soon (the future is bright in Denver, just trust me). As for the Dodgers, here’s hoping they don’t put together some miracle stretch to come from behind and win the division. I’d much rather see the Padres do that, and I hate them both. Last but not least, the San Francisco Giants. This may be the hardest thing ever to predict. I don’t think anyone has a clue what’s going to happen to them these next 80 games. Not many people have been paying attention to the Giants this year until now. I feel like I’m set up to fail no matter what I say here, but I think the safest prediction is to say the Giants slow down and start to drop off a little bit. I don’t think they can win the division but then again, what do I know? I’d give myself an F at predicting the west so far.

NL West Second Half Prediction:

Diamondbacks win the division. Dodgers follow. Giants in the middle of the pack. Padres fourth. Rockies last.

National League Central: St. Louis Cardinals

I cringe at my word choice. “The easiest pick in all of baseball” he said. To be fair, it really should have been. Another safe pick has gone awry. The reigning NL MVP. The greatest third basemen to maybe ever play baseball (defensively anyway). The hottest prospect in all of baseball (aside from carroll). The addition of Willson Contreras to round it all out. Ah yes, the 2023 St. Louis Cardinals. Wait.. they’re in… last place?? Yes, they’re in last place. I don’t know what’s crazier, Adam Wainwright singing the national anthem on opening day or Willson Contreras being paid $87 million to be “the next great Cardinals catcher” just to hit .207 and…..wait for it…….not catch?? Hey St. Louis, I’ll gladly take $87 million to do nothing. Matter of fact, give me 100 grand a year and hit at least .050 for you. It’s about the same right? Anyways, enough about the Cardinals.

Let’s hear it for the Cincinnati Reds everybody, America’s team! This is one of the greatest rags to riches stories in baseball history if you ask me. A 60 win team with an ever empty ballpark is suddenly in first place, selling out, and not throwing away their most beloved crown jewel’s career? (Joey Votto) I never expected this of them, and you didn’t either. Elly de la Cruz could win NLROY too. We’re all rooting for you Cinci. Make us proud. To be honest I don’t have a ton to say for the Cubs or Brewers. I technically did say that Chicago would be middle of the pack, check. And that the Brewers would be competitive for the division, check. I’m just riding this Reds high so hard that I’m praying on both of their downfalls. Lastly Pittsburgh, you came out of the gate so damn hot. America was rooting for you. Then in true Pittsburgh fashion, you fell apart and then released the worst “City Connect” uniform ever imaginable. I’d give myself a D at predicting this division. The only thing keeping it from a total failure is the Cubs and Brewers callouts.

NL Central Second Half Prediction:

Cubs win the division, Brewers follow them, Cincinnati in the middle, then St Louis, finally the Pirates finish last. (I sincerely hope I’m wrong and the Reds really do it).

National League East: New York Mets

*sigh* I don’t even know anymore man. 0-3 to start this whole thing out. But also, I did say anything could happen when referring to Philly and the Marlins. I also said that this division is extremely hard to predict, which I was very right about. Show me someone who knew Miami was going to be this good and I’ll show you a liar. Atlanta is and has been so good. In my defense once again, I did say, “Atlanta should have as good a chance at winning this division as anyone”. Clearly I was right. Acuña is an absolute monster. I should’ve seen this coming, but I bought into the hype. Scherzer and Verlander together is such an exciting concept. Not working out extremely well in practice though. Edwin Díaz is out for the season which anyone who watches baseball knows is not ideal. But who cares about the Mets. The real story of the NL East is the Miami Arraez’s. Wait no, I meant the Miami Marlins. Seriously, what is up with this guy? He’s the Michael Jackson of baseball (all hits). I don’t know what else to say about the east. We knew Washington would be bad, and the Phillies just kind of operate in their own dimension and find a way to be right around .500 at the end of the year. I’d give myself a B- at predicting this division, only because the Mets and Braves were relatively interchangeable for me.

NL East Second Half Predictions:

Atlanta wins the division and right around 100 games, Marlins in second, the Mets scratch back for a third place finish, Philly phinishes phourth, and the Nats are the NL’s worst team when it’s all said and done.

American League West: Houston Astros

The Astros are not currently in first place but this is probably the safest prediction moving forward. They’re arguably the most complete team in the AL West. Texas is having a hell of a run and I think I speak for everyone when I say I hope it never ends. DeGrom’s injury was a huge blow. It’s been really exciting to see the Rangers play baseball all year and even more exciting to not see the Astros in first. Seattle has been a little bit of a disappointment and they haven’t lived up to what I thought they would be. When your 1-4 hitters are all in the top 5 of league leaders in strikeouts you know something rough is going on. I did call it that Shohei and Trout would play phenomenally well and the team would still struggle. Certainly not a wild take though, we could all see this coming. Although I don’t exactly have the order of teams perfect, I do think my predictions were pretty spot on.

The biggest news of the AL West this year hasn’t been any of these teams however. In fact, the other four teams have almost been overshadowed by the complete failure and terrible circumstance of the Oakland Athletics. Who, I should add, are packing out the Oakland Coliseum with thousands of angry fans almost nightly (at the time I’m writing this). Baseball being taken away from Oakland is truly a sad, selfish story. But I live an afternoon’s drive away from Las Vegas so maybe I’ll get to check out another new ballpark soon! (Sorry A’s fans). I’d give myself an A at predicting this division. I may not have the teams in a perfect order, but it’s relatively close all around.

AL West Second Half Predicitons

I think this division ends up exactly how it is right now. Rangers, then Astros, then Angels, then Mariners, then A’s. There are two scenarios I can see changing this: the Astros get hot and take the division, or the Astros go cold and the Angels slide past them. It’s very hard to tell what will happen, here’s hoping the latter comes true.

American League Central: Cleveland Guardians

This was probably my best division prediction yet. If it wasn’t for the Tigers squeaking some wins out to sneak past the White Sox, I would’ve been nearly perfect. There were a few things I didn’t account for when making my AL Central predictions. First, the Tigers are very young. This doesn’t mean they’re insanely good or that they’ll win this division handedly. It does mean that they can mess up your bets on who will place where in the central. AND that they do have a hopeful future ahead of them. I’ll try to remember this for next year. As of the time I’m writing this, the Twins are winning the division at 38-38. Not one team in this division has a winning record. The Guardians are right there with them, but based on what I’ve seen from the Twins so far, I’d be shocked if they didn’t win the division. The rotation is filthy. I clearly wasn’t familiar with Joe Ryan’s game in March but I am now. My apologies to Sonny Gray for thinking his better days were behind him. As for Kansas City, I don’t know what’s going on and I really don’t care. Hopefully they get that new stadium, pack it out, and Bobby Witt turns into the franchise’s next George Brett level player. He’s hitting .243 right now so I’m not exactly anticipating it. I’d give myself an A- at predicting this one, the White Sox haven’t really shown up like I thought they would.

AL Central Second Half Predictions

Like I said before, Twins win the division. Guardians will be right behind them. I think the White Sox and Tigers could easily switch places so I’ll take the White Sox at 3 and the Royals at 5.

American League East: Toronto Blue Jays

Boy oh boy was I wrong about the Blue Jays and the Rays for that matter. I did predict Baltimore would have a good year, they’re having a really good year. I also predicted the Yankees wouldn’t win the East, that’s slowly seeming to be the case (although there is still a ton of time left). I also predicted the Red Sox to finish last. So all in all, 3/5 in the predictions department. I anticipated Toronto’s rotation to be vastly better than its been so far. Not that it hasn’t been good! Alek Manoah is not the same pitcher he once was, and with the absurd play the Rays have been giving it doesn’t even matter. The Rays have played so well that I doubt anyone catches them aside from maybe Baltimore. I think it’s possible the Red Sox slide in the fourth spot and Toronto falls. It’s also very possible that Toronto gets hot and the Yankees fall into fourth. I think that scenario really only happens if the Yankees start to fall apart due to injuries. What’s most likely is the Yankees turn it on and finish second place behind Tampa Bay. I’d give myself a D for this one. Not the best pick for division winner but a very hard division to pick.

AL East Second Half Predictions

Rays win the division, Yankees right behind, O’s in third, Blue Jays fourth, Red Sox in last.

Postseason

NLCS

This is where it starts to really get bad. Met Padres will almost certainly not be our NLCS matchup, which means the World Series Matchup will be wrong as well. The Padres will NOT be world champions in October. I’ll leave it at that.

New Prediction: Atlanta Braves vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

I truly believe the Braves are the best team in baseball even though Tampa has the better record and arguably plays in a tougher division. I really think they’ll be playing in late October. The Diamondbacks are a different story. I’m not sure how far this team can go. The honest truth is, almost any pick other than the Braves out of the NL feels wacky because we can’t know which of these teams are having crazy fluke runs and which are really good title contenders. I sincerely hope the Reds are the NL Champions, but it makes very little sense at this time that they can be. I think the Dbacks are the second safest pick in the NL, but even they’re a shaky pick for me.

ALCS

Guardians vs Astros was my original pick for this matchup. Surprisingly, neither. ofthese teams are in first place. I want the ALCS matchup to be Twins and Rangers. It’s just such a toss up. I think either the Guardians or Astros will face off against either the Rays or Rangers. But that’s not really a prediction is it?

New Prediction: Astros vs. Rays

I don’t know if this is a cop out pick or me being lame maybe? I’m rooting to see an Astros-less playoffs let alone an ALCS. Truth is I have no clue who’ll be playing in this game, I’m fairly certain it won’t be anyone other than the four teams listed above.

World Series Champion: Atlanta Braves

I picked the Padres over the Astros initially. Cringe. I’m going to stick with my Astros pick, but I still think they succumb to the strength of the NL. Give me the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series. Top to bottom, this is the best team in baseball as of late June.

These are my predictions and reflections for the 2023 MLB Season/Second half of action. If you’ve made it this far, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Also let me know what your predictions are. Thanks for checking out my site!

-Walker