MLB Predictions: Scattered views precede 2019 opener
By Rick Soisson
The Division Winners
National League East: A newly loaded division with a great deal of young talent will produce a division championship for the Phillies, according to our staff writers. Philadelphia put together an all-time Hot Stove season, torturous as it was. The pick count went as follows:
Philadelphia – 8 (chosen by Kristen Bentley, Jough Brasch, Josh Ejnes, Benjamin Fadden, Michael Francis, Trevor Hooth, Sarah Maninger, and Rick Soisson)
Washington – 3 (Bill Ferber, David Hill, Ryan Sanders)
Atlanta – 2 (Kyle Cardoza, Keith Corblis)
New York – 1 (Dylan Smith)
NL Central: Many here see the Cubs returning to glory or at least a chance at it, with perhaps one fewer real challenger than in the East. The score:
Chicago – 7 (Bentley, Cardoza, Corbliss, Fadden, Francis, Sanders, Smith)
St. Louis – 4 (Brasch, Ejnes, Ferber, Hill)
Milwaukee – 3 (Hooth, Maninger, Soisson)
NL West: There seems a clearer top and bottom in the West, with the Dodgers and Rockies at the top, then everybody else below. There were only two teams considered potential division champs:
Los Angeles – 10 (Cardoza, Corbliss, Ejnes, Fadden, Francis, Hill, Hooth, Maninger, Sanders, Smith)
Colorado – 4 (Bentley, Brasch, Ferber, Soisson)
If you’re counting, that’s nine of the NL’s 15 teams somebody on staff thinks can be a divisional champion. Are these MLB predictions or darts thrown at a board? Is there this much parity?
American League East: What you just read about the NL West applies here – two teams are considered far ahead of the rest. What may be very slightly surprising is the World Champion Red Sox were not closer in the vote to the Yankees or ahead of them:
New York – 9 (Brash, Corbliss, Ferber, Francis, Hill, Hooth, Sander, Smith, Soisson)
Boston – 5 (Bentley, Cardoza, Ejnes, Fadden, Maninger)
AL Central: With the second of three AL consensuses, the Indians are here a nearly unanimous pick, sweeping in every staff writer but Kristen Bentley, who is hereby designated Kristen the Outlier.
Cleveland – 13.
Minnesota – 1.
AL West: The only unanimous division champion choice appears here, the Astros, chosen by all 14 writers. This outcome could say something profound about the weak competition in the division, the strength of the defending champion, or that everybody is missing the boat in considering the Athletics, winners of 97 games in ’18.
Simply put, all three divisions in the AL look like cut and dried matters, but are they?