Thursday March 29 marks Opening Day for Major League Baseball with all 30 teams scheduled to begin their seasons. Unfortunately, one game is already postponed, but baseball is upon us and Spring Training has wrapped up. A sign of the impending summer and hot dogs and the smell of freshly cut grass, ah America’s past time is here!
Full disclosure, I haven’t followed baseball as closely in recent years with the Reds’ futility and being the opposite of interesting come each August, so most of my predictions will be based off the Fangraphs’ Effectively Wild podcast and my random searching of baseball-reference dot com.
Without further adieu, my 2018 MLB Season Predictions:
World Series Champion: Cleveland Indians
World Series Matchup: Indians vs. Cubs (6 games)
ALCS: Indians beat Astros in 6
NLCS: Cubs beat Nationals in 7
ALDS: Indians beat Red Sox in 4
Yankees beat Astros in 5
NLDS: Cubs beat Dodgers in 5
Nationals beat Cardinals in 4
AL Wild Card: Red Sox beat Angels
NL Wild Card: Cardinals beat Diamondbacks
I had a hard time with both NL Wild Card spots, but I don’t imagine that it will matter that much. Who will get past the Dodgers or Cubs? Their lineups and pitching depth are just absurd. The Nationals might, as they have lost in the Divisional round each time in they have made the playoffs since 2012. It would not surprise me at all to see LAD win the pennant, but I like the narrative of the Cubs/Indians World Series rematch (I also would love to see Cubs fans get their hopes up and then crushed in gut-punch fashion with an ‘Edwin Failed Bunt Turned Walk Off Championship Dinger’).
As for the AL, it seems pretty straight forward with Cleveland, New York, and Houston. I don’t really trust Boston right now with starting rotation concerns, but their offense should lift them to one wild card spot. The other is up for grabs and I don’t believe in Minnesota. I just want to see Trout in the playoffs because he is on my fantasy team, even if it is only one game.
Now that Cleveland has shed Jay Bruce and his ‘Up 2-0 in the Divisional Series Curse’, they will return to the World Series and there will be a Bauer Outage in Wrigley come October. Congratulations to the 2018 World Series Champions, Cleveland Indians!
Haltime with Hambone 