2002 Predictions

March 31:

In the past month I have made NCAA basketball predictions (horribly wrong) and Oscar predictions (surprisingly good). With those out of the way, I'll try my hand at the 2002 baseball standings, with won-loss records. I'll also try to do something not all of your finer baseball publications bother to do: make the wins and losses balance. I remember one year a set of predictions would have resulted in an overall winning percentage of about .570...

NL East                                                           AL East

Atlanta           90-72    ---                                  New York      90-72   ---

Philadelphia   86-76    4                                    Boston           88-74    2

Florida           84-78    6                                    Toronto          84-78    6

New York      77-85    13                                  Tampa Bay     67-95    23

Montreal        74-88    16                                  Baltimore       66-96    24

NL Central                                                      AL Central

Houston         89-73   ---                                   Chicago           86-76    ---

St. Louis         85-77   4                                     Minnesota       84-78    2

Chicago          80-82   9                                     Cleveland        78-84    8

Cincinnati       79-83   10                                   Detroit            71-91    15

Milwaukee      74-88   15                                   Kansas City     69-93    17

Pittsburgh       73-89   16

NL West                                                            AL West

Arizona            87-75   ---                                   Oakland          95-67    ---

San Diego        86-76    1                                    Seattle             92-70    3

San Francisco   85-77   2                                     Texas              82-80    13

Los Angeles      81-81   6                                     Anaheim         73-89    22

Colorado           73-89   14

According to this, that would make the playoffs Padres vs. Braves (Braves), Astros vs. Diamondbacks (Diamondbacks), Braves vs. Diamondbacks (Braves), Mariners vs. Yankees (Mariners), White Sox vs. Athletics (Athletics), Mariners vs Athletics (Athletics), and...

Braves vs. Athletics in the World's Series (Athletics). But, who can really tell in March what will happen in October?

MVP and Cy Young winners? How should I know? The best players in each league are Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, and the best pitchers are Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. But even if they all play up to their potential levels, they may not be voted the awards they deserve, and then there are year-to-year fluctuations and injuries... Come on, who can really predict these things?

(That's code for "I'm afraid to pick because it could really make me look silly.")

I will leave these predictions posted for all to see for the season, so there's nowhere to hide...