10 Bold Predictions For The Upcoming MLB Season
Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports
While much of the United States still can't see the grass due to all of the snow baseball season is still coming to a city near you next week. That means it's time to make baseless sweeping statements about things that nobody will know the answers to until the weather starts to turn again in October. So without further ado, here are a bunch of baseball-related statements that I'm putting on the internet for all to see that might make me look very good or very bad in a few months time.
1. The Washington Nationals Will Win The 2015 World Series
I know they haven't won a playoff series yet but just look at their pitching staff - it's literally the stuff of nightmares for opposing managers. Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg. Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez. It's really unbelievable the starting staff that the Nats have put together and it's hard to imagine any team being able to match up with their starters in a best-of-five or a best-of-seven series. Even if a starter gets hurt at some point this year they have Tanner Roark, last season's 15-game winner who is the odd man out and has been relegated to bullpen duty.
2. Kansas City Royals Will Miss The Playoffs:
The Royals run to the World Series last season was nothing short of magical and inspirational but this year the clock will strike midnight on baseball's Cinderella story. The Royals won't be early 2000's bad by any means but they're not going to be in contention for the playoffs this season.
3. Both New York Teams Will Make The Playoffs
I told you these would be bold. While the Mets appear poised for a successful season and the Yankees appear to be teetering on the brink of implosion I think both teams will find their way into the playoffs this year as wild card teams. The Yankees may be old, but with a healthy Tanaka and Sabathia and a rebound year from McCann they can be formidable. The Mets might in fact find a way to mess the whole thing up but their rotation is solid and minus their shortstop position they have a more-than-capable hitting and fielding lineup.
4. The Padres Will Win The NL West
What's not to love about the Padres' offseason? They signed some big bats in Justin Upton, Matt Kemp and Wil Myers and some big arms in James Shields and Joaquin Benoit to plug last year's holes. Most impressively they were able to retain most of their key players outside of Seth Smith and that's hard to do.
5. The Chicago Cubs Won't Make The Playoffs
I know that the Cubs win the World Series in 2015 in Back To The Future and I know that everybody is drinking the Joe Maddon/Jon Lester/Theo Epstein kool-aid but I think this is a longer term project than most realize. The Cubs are still by and large a young and unproven team with young and unproven talent. There will be some growing pains for this team this year but seasons to come will be glorious as most are predicting.
6. Alex Rodriguez Will Hit 30 Home Runs
If there's one thing we know about Alex Rodriguez its that he's stubborn. A-Rod isn't going to go down and fade away without a fight and he's still one of the most gifted hitters of his generation. That combined with the fact that Yankee Stadium was one of the most friendly home-run parks in baseball last season means that A-Rod will be back and slugging in no time.
7. Giancarlo Stanton Wins NL MVP
Giancarlo Stanton's injury at the end of last season was horrific visually and was also tragic due to the type of season that he was having. Stanton probably wouldn't have beaten Clayton Kershaw for the MVP award as Kershaw had the most dominant season by a pitcher in years but it was a shame to see his phenomenal season end the way it did. He'll make up for it this year and improve on his gaudy numbers too.
8. Jose Altuve Wins His 2nd Straight Batting Title
Baseball might have widest range of body types of any of the professional sports in the world. Players range from being short, tall, skinny, fat, jacked, scrawny and everywhere in between but the fact remains that if you can hit a baseball you can hit a baseball. That's the case for the 5 foot 5 inch Altuve, who is the shortest active player in baseball but is probably the best contact hitter in the game.
9. Matt Harvey Wins 2015 Comeback Player of the Year
Based on early returns Harvey looks primed to have another big season for the Mets and help lead them back to the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. When Harvey was healthy in 2013 he was virtually unhittable on the mound with nearly 200 strikeouts in a 9-5 season. Even with an innings limit this year he seems primed to make a big time comeback.
10. Madison Bumgarner Will Win His First Cy Young Award
Bumgarner probably has all of the hardware that he'll ever really want but he'll add the title of Cy Young winner to his resume after this year. Bumgarner has slowly but steadily improved his regular season performance to more closely mimic what he does in the postseason and this year will be his best.
That concludes the predictions for the 2015 MLB season. Just remember, if a player can bat .300 it's considered impressive so let's try and keep that in mind when we review this piece once the season ends in October.
More from Bryan? You can email him or find him on Twitter @bcaltman.
