Cardinals, Pirates and Red Sox: 3 preseason predictions we wish we made

MLB prediction do-over: Pittsburgh Pirates win over 67.5 games

Who saw this start coming for the Pittsburgh Pirates? Outside of the steel city, not many, if any, but despite their recent seven-game losing streak, these Pirates are well on their way to eclipsing their preseason win projection and we’re still three weeks from Memorial Day.

Pittsburgh can beat you in different ways, something that could have been said in previous seasons. They can hit for power, and play small ball, their pitching has been good and their offense, which has struggled during their losing streak, has produced in clutch situations for the most part. They are neck-and-neck with the Milwaukee Brewers atop the National League Central standings as both teams have hit the skids. Their bullpen ERA is the third-best in the majors and if they can sustain that all season long, that’s a recipe for a lot of wins.

Their recent losing streak, which all teams are bound to go through during a long season, has been losses to two of the top two American League East powers, the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. Let’s not overlook their three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in the first week of April. At the time it looked like a sweep of the bottom feeder in the AL East, but not now with them climbing out of past place.

Are the Pirates a postseason team? Who knows, but it looks like it’s going to be a fun summer in Pittsburgh for their fans. Barring an unforeseen breakdown, they will easily go flying by their projected win total from the start of the season.

MLB prediction do-over: Boston Red Sox over 77.5 wins

With the offseason the Red Sox had with losing Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, and Nathan Eovaldi in free agency, expectations were low coming into the season. Adam Duvall and Corey Kluber along with Masataka Yoshida were not names that were going to get the fanbase excited.

Under 77.5 wins seemed like a good bet with a roster that was considered the worst on paper in a loaded AL East, but Alex Cora has got the best out of the team and they are rewarding him and GM Chaim Bloom with their start to 2023. A recent eight-game winning streak can change the narrative of a season but in the Red Sox case, it was no fluke.

After dropping the first game of a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians on April 28, they won the final two games, then swept the Blue Jays at home in four games and took two out of three against the Philadelphia Phillies. They did it all during the streak, pitching, hitting, and defense.

After a bad start to the season, Yoshida has settled into the middle of the lineup and is currently on a 16-game hitting streak, while Chris Sale has seemed to turn things around recently with back-to-back good outings. They have reverted back to the Red Sox of old, wearing out pitching staffs, making teams pay for their mistakes and being aggressive, and making things happen on the bases. I’m not saying they’re going to win the World Series, but they do look like a team that will be battling for a postseason berth all summer and passing their projected win total.

All preseason predictions are bound to be a toss-up, but these three teams have been on different paths to begin the season and are on pace to make some betters happy with their bets, or they are going to crush some betters. Regardless, these are three preseason predictions I wish I made for the Pirates, Cardinals, and Red Sox.