2016 Baseball Season Preview

BASEBALL SEASON IS UPON US!!!!

As you can tell, I am very excited about tomorrow being the best day of the year: Opening Day! (never mind the games played today)  So, I wanted to present my predictions for the year. 

AL East

Toronto - building on last year

Baltimore - I liked their additions

Boston - Price was a good pickup, but too high a price (HA!)

New York - old men get older

Tampa Bay - still a year or two away

AL Central

Kansas City - love this team makeup

Cleveland (Wild Card) - a solid young team

Detroit - do they have enough?

Chicago - good pieces don't add up

Minnesota - not enough

AL West

Houston - too much talent not to

Texas (Wild Card) - a healthy year for a strong team

Los Angeles - somewhat of a mess

Oakland - always in the chase

Seattle - King Felix no more

NL East

Washington - only Matt Williams could fail with this much talent

New York (Wild Card) - fantastic starting rotation and just enough offense

Miami - if Giancarlo can stay healthy

Philadelphia - rebuilding mode

Atlanta - blowup mode preparing for new stadium

NL Central

Chicago - drinking the Cool-Aid

Pittsburgh - a tough division means they just miss Wild Card for first time in four years

St. Louis - because they can't keep winning

Milwaukee - trying to copy the Astros

Cincinnati - Votto is gone by the All Star Break

NL West

Los Angeles - they eventually have to live up to the hype

San Francisco (Wild Card) - because it's an even year

Arizona - Pollock injury crushes them

San Diego - not much to see here

Colorado - even less here once CarGo leaves

ALCS - Houston over Toronto

NLCS - Washington over Chicago

World Series - Houston over Washington (complete homer pick, I hope it is not a jinx)

And now a few points on the Astros:

They already have the best double play combo in the game, by the end of the season they will have the best young infield in the game as Tyler White secures 3B and A.J. Reed secures 1B.

They best outfield defense in the game is a little too crowded.  I would say Marisnick gets traded, but that would leave two lefties in left field (Rasmus and Tucker).  This means either Tucker or Gattis may be used to upgrade catcher (Lucroy from Milwaukee?)  I would prefer Rasmus was gone, but they spent too much to keep him.

Lance McCullers will return from injury and become an ace, even with Dallas Keuchel having a solid year following his Cy Young.  Mike Fiers will hold down the fourth spot in the rotation and Doug Fister the fifth.  They will try to trade Scott Feldman, but no one wants his contract.

Ken Giles will be good, but perhaps not as dominant as last year.  Nevertheless he will anchor the best bullpen not in Royal blue.

The Astros will miss 100 wins largely because of the strength of the division.  My prediction is 95, good for second or third best in all of baseball.  Carlos Correa wins MVP, Tyler White wins Rookie of the Year.