Friday, April 14, 2006

Going on Record

There were plans to do a full preview column over at WIS, but since that has been delayed, I thought I would get my picks down "on paper" somewhere. Here we go.

AL West - Anaheim (I'm not a believer in Oakland; I like the Angels' pitching)
AL Central - Cleveland (will win the most games in the AL)
AL East - Boston (Papelbon answers the big question)
AL Wild Card - Chicago (Sox top Yanks in a race that goes down to the wire)

NL West - San Francisco (pitching will carry the Giants past an underrated LA team)
NL Central - Chicago (that's right, the Cubs)
NL East - New York (love the middle of that order; bullpen is vastly improved)
NL Wild Card - St. Louis (Cards edge Astros and Braves)

World Series - Boston over New York (Sox have Schilling and Beckett and plenty of pop; they beat Pedro in terrific WS)

AL MVP - Vlad Guerrero (stays healthy and goes .340/35/120 while carrying Anaheim to the playoffs)
NL MVP - Derrek Lee (another moster year, this time Cubs win enough games to get him the hardware)

AL Cy Young - Curt Schilling (hard to believe he has yet to win this award)
NL Cy Young - Roy Oswalt (it is his time to reign in the NL)

AL Rookie of the Year - Jonathan Papelbon (40 saves for a division winner should do it)
NL Rookie of the Year - Josh Willingham (this guy can rake)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are on crack, dude. No Yankees? Yes Cubs? Smoke another bowl.

Adam Hoff said...

I think you have your drugs mixed up, but beyond that, I am just taking my best guess like everyone else. I happen to think that the Cubs will be much better this year and other teams in the Central will be worse, allowing them to compete. They have a vastly improved bullpen, an infusion of speed that is changing the way they can play offensively, and they have Derrek Lee at his apex in the middle of the order. I am banking on Prior getting healthy, but even if it is Wood or Wade Miller, all this team needs is one more arm in the rotation to hang in there.

As for the Yankees, I hate them, so I left them out.