A while back, toward the beginning of the baseball season when every team except the Pirates, Rockies, and Orioles thought they might have a chance to make it to the playoffs, I wrote two articles.
Article Uno was the before the season really got underway and I explained how this year might – note the word might – be one of the easiest on record to predict regarding who will make it to the World Series. I said the Yankees and the Dodgers. The Dodgers, were 5 games back as of last week and are now one-and-a-half games back, and are still the NL favorite as well as the only team sitting at a whopping 23% chance to win the whole she-bang. Oh, gross.
Let’s take a long look at that – in spite of the surprising Giants, the Dodgers are catching up quickly. Mostly it’s a strength-of-schedule issue. The Giants simply have a harder schedule down the stretch. The Giants have the desperate Padres 7x in the next month. The Padres have completely drained their ‘sure bet’ playoff appearance by completely sucking in July and August. July they went 11-14 and for August they are sitting at 8-10 with three games against the Dodgers coming up this week. I hope they pound the Dodgers but odds aren’t good. Plus, they have 3 more versus the Dodgers in September and a whopping 7 against the Giants.
They are so bad they picked up Jake Arrieta. That’s a sign things won’t be going well for them for the next 5 weeks. Naturally, Arrieta’s first game may be his only one. We all knew he’d suck, he did, and suddenly got a hamstring issue. I fixed the headline for MLB.
The Yankees? Well, LOL. Currently, the Yankees have an 88% chance of just making the playoffs and at 4 games out, have a 30% chance to win the AL East. However, they are hot. The Damn Yankees have steamrolled right over the Red Sox to take possession of the first wild card slot and have jumped up to a 11% chance of winning the World Series. I cannot describe how much I hate that my pre-season prediction may end up being right after all. The Red Sox are, as they say in the old country, reeling like Chuck Wepner against Ali. But the odds are still with them to make the wild card game which would be against – the Yankees. They’ll lose.
Let’s take a look at my other predictions from the article dated March 7. In spite of me being a huge Giants fan I had them not doing anything. I predicted a long season for some older baseball players and I cannot be happier to say I was wrong. Plus, they picked up Kris Bryant. He’s swinging the bat pretty well and the phrase “Bryant is a Giant” just sings.
I said the Blue Jays had a chance – emphasize the word ‘had’ as they are toast.
The White Sox? I figured they’d battle for the division with the Twins. I was 50% correct. I did write “perhaps the Twins really aren’t that great” and whoo boy I was correct. And BTW, the White Sox have a 100% chance of making the playoffs and a 12.6% chance to win the World Series, which is second behind the AL leader, the Astros. Yeah, I know BOO ASTROS YOU CHEATERS.
Division Winners? For the NL I took the Braves, the Dodgers, and no one in the NL Central as I still think that whole division blows. The Braves still look like the team that will come out of the NL East, a division where only one team is going to make it into the playoffs. The Dodgers have been discussed. The leader and odds-on winner in the NL Central? The Brewers. Fine, they look pretty good, but that division has some real doormats in there with the Pirates and yes, the Cubs, and as such I discount the entire division. The Reds will make some noise and may vanquish the Padres into the darkness known as the off-season earlier than expected. However, I don’t see them doing much in the playoffs. But who knows right? They may get hot and get into the NLDS after winning the wild card game. A digression? I still hate that format. At least let the two wild card teams play a three-game set. After 162 games they earned it.
In the AL I took the White Sox, Yankees, and the As. Not great, but the As still have a shot, albeit only a 7% shot. The White Sox have been discussed, and yes Go Sox. The Yankees have also been discussed but let’s discuss them a bit further. Their ace Garret Cole, a former Astro, is a cheat and pretty much said so.
But you wrote about the greatness of the Padres vs Dodgers in Article Due, right?
Welllll, I most certainly did. I went on and on about how special it will be to watch the Padres and Dodgers play against each other the whole season. HOWEVER, I added with one small caveat “who knows? Maybe it will be the Giants and this series won’t matter.” At a whopping 12 games out and with only a 36% chance to make the playoffs, it looks like the Padres are going down. Ergo, my ‘who knows’ is going to pan out to be correct. BUT – the Giants and Dodgers only have 3 games remaining with one another. Right now they are 8-8. As such, the final series should be epic. Mark your calendars down baseball fans – they play September 3-5 in San Francisco.
Let’s. Go. Baseball.
BTW, as much as I love to drag the Rockies (well-earned by the fleecing they took from the Cardinals for that Arenado trade) they are doing way better than I thought, even better than the Cubs. LOL. Still – #GoGiants.
Fancy Boys Club 