Category Archives: Chicago White Sox

A new low for Cubs?

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New doormat of MLB?

One thing has been consistent up until this year in the White Sox/Cubs series is each team played with emotion and heart in a playoff like atmosphere no matter their records. You could always count on something to steal headlines in each game of the series, but those days seem to be over with the new Cubs’ regime.

The Cubs obviously used up what little emotion they had on Friday all on one controversially call involving David DeJesus and Gordon Beckham. DeJesus was called safe at second as Beckham dove towards him to make the tag. Beckham landed on DeJesus and knocked him off the bag and was called out. Sveum came out of the dug out to argue and was ejected. DeJesus and Beckham exchanged a few words and Beckham sealed the Cubs’ fate with a solo shot in the eighth for a 3-2 White Sox winner. That was the last time the Cubs looked like they were prepared to compete against the Sox; they lost the next two games, 7-4 and 6-0, giving the Sox a sweep over the Cubs. More importantly, the Sox moved back to .500 and trail the Indians by 2-1/2 games.

The beaning of Paul Konerko probably fueled the Sox more than hurt them for the remainder of the series, but let’s be honest and say it was intentional. Jeff Samardzija did the same thing to Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves after Heyward took him deep in a game. If you want to drill a guy in the body that’s fine with me, but head hunting is inexcusable and I hope that MLB reviews Samardzija’s behavior.

Cubs traveled to Houston and were pounded by the Astros, 8-4, falling for the seventh straight game. Cubs’ fans might want to start questioning the decision making of Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein at this point; I mean how could Sveum not get this team up for the Sox series. It seems like the perfect series for the Cubs to gain some momentum, but instead the Sox gained it all. The next decision is getting Volstad for Zambrano, not that I’m suggesting Zambrano stay, but Hoyer’s judge of talent a may be a bit off. You would think that the Cubs would have held more power, since they were willing to absorb so much of Zambrano’s salary. They chose Volstad because according to Hoyer and Epstein, who would have the greatest impact on helping the team; whoops!

While Zambrano has fixed his wicked ways in Miami, Volstad looks nothing like a Major League pitcher and has been shipped off to Iowa to figure things out. However you look at it the Cubs are paying $15 million for a Triple-A pitcher or even more gut wrenching, to watch Zambrano pitch effectively for another team.

Meanwhile, they’ve held on to Alfonso Soriano probably because no one wanted him, but I find it hard to believe that if the Cubs chose to pay for most of his contract that he could not have been dealt. That begs the question, what would have been the better move? Dealing Zambrano or Soriano?

At this point, I would say Soriano would have been the better move, since who has been pretty ineffective in all aspects of the game despite his improved defense. I look at the Cubs starting pitching with Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, and Carlos Zambrano and think that team has a chance to be competitive; unfortunately that’s not the case.

And Cubs’ fans don’t expect to see Anthony Rizzo or Brett Jackson anytime soon, mainly because Hoyer and Epstein are playing the numbers game. Word around the Cubs organization is the Cubs senior brass has no interest in rushing either player to the majors for financial reasons. Those being, they do not want to be negotiating contracts when these players are truly in their prime, which makes sense from that aspect not for winning. Unless the Cubs can move Soriano for legitimate prospects the earliest you’ll see either of those two will be September.

Still, I’m not sure Hoyer is the right man for the job with his assessment of talent up to this point. Look at the San Diego Padres; they can barely compete in a fairly matched division. All anyone can judge Hoyer on at the moment is the Padres and his moves of the 2012 Cubs, not overly impressive other than getting Rizzo back under his wing. The Red Sox already had a solid nucleus when the brain trust of Theo and Jed arrived, but they did help rebuild a badly damaged farm system for the Red Sox.

Theo wasn’t hired to perform a 2012 miracle at Chewing Gum Field, but he promised the team would be competitive while the bigger plan unfolded. Based on what I’ve seen thus far he lied.

Rivalry Week a split decision so far

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Major League Assholes’ Rivalry Week got off to an unsatisfying start with series splits between the Tigers/White Sox and Cubs/Cardinals.

After the Tigers shit the bed on Monday, blowing two separate multiple-run leads and eventually losing 7-5, the Sox returned the favor in a MAJOR way on Tuesday.  A resurgent Jake Peavy looked like his usual dominant self until the 6th when the wheels completely fell off.  After trailing 6-0, the previously hibernating Tigers’ offense roared to life with an eight-run mauling including bombs from Miguel Cabrera (who’s obviously happy with the way Roger Bossard draws the batter’s box now), Ryan Raburn and Austin Jackson.  Detroit needed all the runs they could get as Jose Valverde and Octavio Dotel did everything they could to give me a heart attack in the 9th as Dayan Viciedo‘s (a.k.a. Lady Di, but a.k.a. Tiger Killer) would-be game-winning drive to right died on the warning track for the final out.

Meanwhile, the surprising Cubs took their third of the last four against the World Champion Cardinals on Monday by a score of 6-4 powered by Bryan “Trade Bait” LaHair‘s ninth blast of the season and a rare productive appearance by Alfonso Soriano. Between suffering the extremes of the Tigers/Sox game and actually trying to get some work done, I missed Tuesday’s walk-off loss to the hated Cards. But I was more than happy to avoid watching those toothless, jort-wearing yokels in St. Louis celebrating.

In a strange scheduling week full of two-game series, the Tigers should get a breather facing the pathetic Twins followed by the equally pathetic Pirates at Comerica Park over their next five.  The Cubs return home tonight to face the offensively-challenged Phillies, but the schedulers at MLB really kicked the Sox in the seeds by sending them out to the West Coast to face the fallen Angels. The Halos aren’t exactly setting the world on fire, but they have won eight of 14 in the month of May.

But the real issue is the travel schedule for the Sox as they won’t land back in Chicago until late Thursday night/Friday monring for Friday’s 1:20 start at Wrigley.  I’m confident enough in the well-rested Cubs’ chances over the drowsy Sox that I picked up Jeff Samardzija (4-1, 2.89 ERA) for a spot-start in our fantasy league.  The Sox send out a suddenly not-so-perfect Phil Humber (1-2, 5.77 ERA) who has struggled badly in his last four starts, giving up 21 runs over 20 just innings.

Saturday’s pitching matchup clearly favors the Cubs again with Ryan “Canadian Trade Bait” Dempster (0-1, 1.74 ERA) facing John Danks (2-4, 6.46 ERA), but as you can see from Demp’s record, the Cubs have found many creative ways to spoil every single one of his outings. Sunday marks the return of the shaken Peavy (4-1, 2.65 ERA) to the mound to battle a chronically mediocre Paul Maholm (4-2, 4.35 ERA), so that one should be interesting.

PV and I will be at Wrigley Friday to witness the carnage while trading insults, slamming Bud Heavies, and maybe even blogging live from the bleachers (if we can still work our iPhones).

Sox are in a funk

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Maybe blowing up some disco records can get the team back on track.

A good April has been replaced by a terrible start to May for the White Sox. The Sox are 2-6, and have become the great tease of 2012. In all of their losses in May except for one they have had they tying or go ahead run at the plate in the ninth giving Sox fans a reason to keep watching. The thing that’s most annoying about this start to May is Cubs’ fans have begun chirping, which is the most annoying sound in the world.

Before we get to far ahead of ourselves I never said the Sox were going to win anything in my preseason predictions, and when I used the 16-game prediction formula I pointed out its only correct 50% of the time. That being said can the Sox still surprise everyone this season? Sure the number of what-ifs that have answered on the positive side seem to point in the right direction. And let’s be honest, this Cleveland team will get on a bad run and be done by June.

If it should come down to the Sox and Tigers you could not ask for two teams more evenly matched at this point in the season. When you look at team numbers it’s kind of crazy:

Homeruns: Sox -31, Tigers – 29
Runs: Tigers – 117, Sox – 116
RBI: Sox – 112, Tigers – 106

Those are a few key categories where the teams are close to even, but overall in the pitching department the Sox are dominate, even though you’d never know by their record:

WHIP: Sox – 1.16, Tigers – 1.33
K’s: Sox – 233, Tigers – 219
ERA: Sox – 3.72, Tigers – 3.96
Opponent’s BA: Sox – .226, Tigers – .262
Hits allowed: Sox – 228, Tigers – 253

It’s kind of hard to believe that the Sox are four games under .500 right now, but that’s the case, as they are having a hard time getting everything to click at the same time. The Sox score six runs and their pitching lets up eight, pitching lets up a run and the Sox strand eight runners. It’s just a bad funk that teams go through from time to time, and the Sox are in one now.

One of their biggest issues takes the mound tonight against the Indians, John Danks their number one starter with a 6.51 ERA. I don’t need to state that Danks has been underwhelming so far this season and tonight would be a good time for him to get back on track. I have not been lucky enough to run into Danks to give him a pep talk like I did Gavin Floyd. Floyd, who has allowed three runs over two starts since we had our friendly exchange at Target.

All of these numbers mean nothing if you can’t find a way to win games, and that’s what the Sox need to figure out this week. Statistically they can be better than the Tigers, but if they have more losses it doesn’t really matter. Just ask the Tigers about the 2006 Cardinals and they’ll tell you numbers don’t mean a thing if you can’t win. The Sox can’t seem to win right now.

Maybe AL pitching really is better

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Those AL pitchers can pitch!

Is there better pitching in the AL? I think there might be some truth to what Albert Pujols said in regards to his recent struggles since switching leagues. Cubs’ fans seem to be loving the fact that Pujols is failing, not sure why they take so much joy in such an insignificant result in regards to their team? Hey, to each their own, when you dislike a player you want him to fail, and a lot of people want Pujols to fail just because of his enormous contract that makes the stomachs turn of most Americans. I’ve moved on from players getting over paid for what they do, that’s just how it is and its not going to change unless people stopped showing up completely to events.

Personally, I don’t mind if Pujols does well, he seems like a stand-up guy and does a lot for the communities he plays in.

I started looking at numbers for the other big signings in the offseason, and after looking at Prince Fielder’s numbers this year in the AL compared to last year in the NL I think Pujols might have a point. While Fielder’s numbers are nowhere as horrendous as Pujols’ numbers, they are still down.

Fielder’s batting average is 30 points lower, he has 12 less RBIs, 7 less extra base hits, 2 less homers, and five more strike outs through 27 games. His average is currently at .300, but has dipped as low as .284, which he never saw anything-below .330 last season during his first 27.

I’m not saying Fielder is having a bad season, but his numbers are down since moving to the AL, which adds merit to Pujols’ comments.

What adds greater merit is Adam Dunn last season. Dunn was mister consistent like Pujols in the NL, you would write in 38 homers and 100 RBIs without even thinking about it, and then he signed for big money with the White Sox and poof!

His first year was a disaster with 11 homers, 42 RBIs, and a .159 batting average, could this be right? For six straight years the man’s lows were 38 homers, 92 RBIs, and a .234 batting average. How could this happen?

Some stories were Dunn came in out of shape, but most players and scouts scoffed at this notion. Another story that came out during Waddle and Silvy’s Lunch with a Legend featuring Ozzie Guillen was that Dunn had lost his swing from the moment he stepped foot into Sox camp. Guillen shared a story that Greg Walker allegedly walked into his office the first day Dunn took swings and told Ozzie, “Have you seen Dunn, we have a problem.” Ozzie claimed to have brushed it off saying something like, “he’s a veteran he’ll be fine.” We know that was not the case, and I wondered how much truth there was to that story, I think Ozzie may have been trying to save face for the unemployed Walker.

Could it have been that Dunn was not use to AL pitching? Did it take him a year to adjust? He’s well on his way to crushing last year’s numbers; he has 9 homers and 23 RBIs already this season and seems to be heating up. His current projections are 52 homers and 133 RBIs, which we all know are bloated. I’m thinking 38/100 would be safe again this season.

Meanwhile, Fielder’s on pace for 24 homers and 78 RBIs, and what about Prince Albert? Are you sitting down? Pujols is on pace for six homers and 39 RBIs with a .196 batting average.

What do any of these projections mean? Absolutely nothing, they are just mathematical calculations for the sake of conversation and they are accurate about 25% of the time. Most veteran players up to around 34-35 years of age continue to make their numbers no matter how slow or how fast of a start they have.

In fact, Fielder had a start similar to his start in Detroit this season two years ago with Milwaukee before he went on to hit 32 homers, drive in 83 runs and walk a career high 114 times.

Pujols last season only had eight homers 58 games into the year before he went on a tear and ended the season with 37 homers and 99 RBIs, so beware impatient fantasy owners he could be starting his march to his average numbers.

When the season ends we’ll take a look back and see if Pujols and Fielder made their numbers, or if we will be penning another baseball expression aptly named, “The Donkey Effect.”

April Recap: Giants/White Sox

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The first month of baseball has come to close and the White Sox and Giants are sitting in pretty good positions. While the Giants have underachieved at times, the White Sox have either played as predicted or have exceed expectations.

When I look back on the Giants’ first month they really have played some good baseball, it’s just that Tim Lincecum has had some early season struggles and the Dodgers had such a hot start.

Giants Recap                        Grade: B

The Giants have played through adversity to come away with a 12-10 record to close out the month of April. They’ve lost Brian Wilson for the season, Aubrey Huff for an undisclosed amount of time from a nervous breakdown, and of course Lincecum’s control and velocity issues.

Despite all this Bruce Bochy has the boys playing with confidence, and the Giants are getting some early season swagger and confidence at the plate.

Positives include an offense that can produce runs; Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, and Barry Zito have all pitched spectacularly; Santiago Casilla has emerged as the closer with four saves; and Buster Posey seems to be fully recovered, as he’s batting .353 with four homers, nine RBIs, and an OPS of 1.016. I’d call that recovered.

I’m fairly confident that they will catch the Dodgers by the end of May, but it should be a battle the entire the year.

White Sox Recap      Grade: C

The Sox already have 11 wins that took 30 games last year and only 22 this year, already an improvement. They finished the month of April even instead of a losing record that had been the case for Ozzie Guillen every season except 2005, and the bigger “what-ifs” are producing.

ESPN the Magazine picked the Sox to finish last in the AL Central with the caveat, “best case scenario: all their veterans have bounce back years and they compete for the division and playoff spot.” I’m paraphrasing what they wrote, but I found it amazingly true and funny. How could you pick a team to finish last in their division and in the next breath say they could compete for the playoffs and division title. It seems almost ludicrous, to use Smitty’s favorite new word, but it really wasn’t at all.

The Sox needed three big things to happen, Jake Peavy, Adam Dunn, and Alex Rios to show-up and play their game, and it’s happened.

The reason the Sox are only .500 is because they have other issues, like finding a legitimate number two hitter and what to do with Gordon Beckham if can’t hit. The easier of the two is leave Beckham in the nine spot and enjoy his play in the field, but the number two spot remains an issue. Brent Morel has started so poorly that Robin Ventura has been forced to go with Alexei Ramirez in the two spot, but he’s also a notoriously slow starter so that really hasn’t solved the problem. At the moment your three candidates for the number two spot in the line-up are Morel, Beckham, and Ramirez; they are batting .178, .153, and .207 respectively, which is not good. At least Ramirez has respect for the Mendoza-line.

Also, Hector Santiago as the White Sox closer has looked great and horrible, but no one is a lights out closer these days. With two lefties coming up in the Red Sox line-up on Sunday Ventura left Thornton in and it worked. Ventura said Santiago is still the closer, but he felt better about the match-up against two lefties with Thornton; so did I.

Looks like the AL Central is going to be a dogfight this season.

Pep talk pays off for Floyd

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Sometimes all a player needs is a little vote of confidence from a fan, and that may have been the case for Gavin Floyd, who pitched brilliantly on Sunday afternoon after I had brief conversation with him on Saturday. I’m not taking full credit for his performance because he has great stuff; he just loses his concentration at times and it leads to big innings.

So, I’m shopping at Target on Saturday with my family and I make eye contact with this rather large gentleman who looks very familiar to me. I’m wearing a Sox cap, so he probably realizes what’s about to happen. I say to my wife excited like a giddy schoolgirl, “holy shit, that’s Gavin Floyd,” I did qualify it with White Sox pitcher, so I didn’t get that blank look.

“Go say something to him,” she replied. At first, I wasn’t going to because I didn’t want to bother him, but I said “to hell with it.”

“Sorry to bother you, I just want to shake your hand I’m a big fan.” Floyd smiled and wiped his hand off on his pants after grabbing some frozen food out of the freezer to shake my hand.

“Oh wow, thanks, I appreciate it,” he said still smiling while shaking my hand. My hand looked like my sons hand in mine while shaking his. Big hands I know you’re the one.

“Good luck on Sunday. I have you on my fantasy team, so do a good job for me,” I said with a smile while giving him a manly pat on the back. He laughed and nodded.

Floyd took that conversation with him to the mound and pitched a no-hitter into the 7th inning before giving way to the bullpen after getting into a little trouble and allowing one run.

The White Sox offense was a refreshing site on Sunday in contrast to Saturday when they stranded eight runners in route to a 1-0 loss behind a complete game from Jake Peavy. The White Sox definitely pitched well enough to win the last two games; unfortunately they did not hit well enough and only took one.

Adam Dunn crushed a ball in the first to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead over the Red Sox, which was all they would need. That was Dunn’s first homerun at US Cellular Field this year and fifth overall. Dunn’s numbers are a big improvement over last year’s at this point. In 2011, he was hitting .171 with three homers, two doubles, and 12 RBIs. Dunn is currently hitting .231 with five homers, seven doubles, and 16 RBIs. The 60 points and increased power numbers are a welcomed sign.

The Sox ended April with a win and are only a game behind the Indians in the AL Central and are tied with the Tigers. The Sox did not get their 11th win until game 30 in 2011, which puts them on a much better pace than last season.

Looks like the weather will be summer-like for the upcoming Indians series, which usually leads to an increase in homers from the White Sox, let’s hope that holds true this season.

 

The anti-perfect, Phil Humber

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It looks like the Boston Red Sox are on their way to blowing the Baseball Prospectus 16-game prediction formula out of the water again this year, as the Red Sox pounded the White Sox, 10-3 at US Cellular Field.

I feared this going into this series when I started research for my post the other day, Tigers, White Sox, Giants all playoff bound? The Red Sox are currently mirroring the 2011 season, as they went 5-11 in their first 16 and are on a four game winning streak in 2012. They won a fifth game in 2011 to pull within a game of .500 before losing and playing around .500 for the next month or so. They eventually put it into overdrive, but too much beer and fried chicken ended their playoff hopes in 2011. I’m sure with Bobby Valentine at the helm there will be a healthier alternative to fried chicken, like a wrap? Valentine claims to have invented the wrap when he was a cook per a customer’s request. This is not a joke; he actually believes he invented the wrap. Who am I to say, maybe he did, but it seems silly coming out of the mouth of a MLB manager.

Phil Humber did not look anywhere near perfect last night as he started the game in a 2-0 hole, and things just continued to spiral out of control from there. The fly ball that cleared the fence for a Kevin Youkilis grand slam was definitely wind aided, as there was a strong wind blowing out to right. That’s what makes the pitch curious to me; hammer him in so he has no chance to take the pitch to right. Humber was having control problems most of the evening, so maybe AJ called for it in and he left out over the plate.

The White Sox offense had several threats but could not bust through to make the game interesting. It was good to see them still playing hard even though the game was out of hand, something new this season with Robin Ventura at the helm. The bullpen turned in a solid performance allowing only one-run in the ninth inning over four innings pitched.

I’m not surprised by Humber’s performance since the guy has a few things on this mind, having had my first child just shy of a year ago, I can tell you its hard to stay focused knowing that any minute your wife can go into labor. Add the pressure of all the press from pitching a perfect game, and it’s a lot for a person to handle. There also is no love for a curveball pitcher on a night when its 39 degrees at game time, the ball tends not to break, which is exactly what happened to Humber. Hopefully, when Humber’s turn in the rotation comes up again early next week he will have had the birth of his child and can focus on baseball again.

The way I look at this series is if the Sox starting pitching can continue to pitch well, not including last nights performance, then the White Sox can easily take the next three games. Even if the Red Sox are mirroring 2011 we will split the series at worst-case scenario. Let’s GO WHITE SOX!!!!

Tigers, White Sox, Giants all playoff bound?

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This may go down as the nerdiest baseball article that I ever write for this blog, but probably not as this will lead to more articles like this. My father in-law sent me an article a few weeks ago about how game 16-20 of the baseball season is when you can really predict the outcome of the season with some degree of accuracy.

This theory comes from the biggest baseball nerds, The Baseball Prospectus boys, and is covered in their latest book, EXTRA INNINGS More Baseball Between the Numbers from the Team at Baseball Prospectus. I adore this type of theory, not sure why, but it must go hand-in-hand with my love for baseball. That being said, I purchased the book, and immediately read the chapter, “When Does a Hot Start Become Real?”

I’m going to try to get to the gist of it to avoid boring many, but basically with the average wins and losses set at .500, you can accurately predict the end of season records of MLB teams within 8-games at game 16 according to the book. This formula (Current W%× 50% + .500 × 50% = W%) was derived using all seasons since 1962 when the 162-game schedule was adopted by both leagues. The strike-shortened seasons were excluded from the formula. When you get the 16th game of the season you can use the teams current winning percentage to accurately account for ½ the outcome over the league average of .500 as the mean. So if you’re playing .500 after 16 games the formula will have you finishing at 81-81. Since it’s a 50/50 formula it’s accurately predicted records ½ the time on average since 1962.

Obviously, the Red Sox rebounded last year to win 90 games, where the prediction was 66 wins, on the other hand the formula output 96 wins for Texas and that’s exactly what happened.

Something else that can be added to expand the accuracy of the formula is a three-year average win for a team, unless the team has had major roster turnover. So, when the Indians and Royals came out of the gate with a 12-4 and 10-6 starts respectively they were both playoff bound according to the formula, however if you take into account their recent histories with no significant team improvements being made it was safe to say it was a fluke; it was. The Tigers easily won the division with a dominant September.

The White Sox this season would fall under a team that has had a lot of turnover in the offseason with a lot of what-ifs that are returning positive numbers, so their average wins over the last three seasons would not be applicable for the reality of this number.

In Extra Innings they use the example of the 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks who were predicted to win 77 games based on their three year average, but with so many unanswered questions with top prospects filling starting roles that should be weighted lighter than the normal 52 percent, putting a greater emphasis on their actual season record. The Diamondbacks won 90 games that year and made the playoffs.

Are you still awake? Anyway, that explains how the predictions below were calculated, which if they stand true I will have been very wrong in my preseason predictions.

We’ll take another look at this at the end of May to see what’s changed.

AL CENTRAL
Well, its going to be a dogfight between the Tigers and White Sox with them both predicted to win 91 games, the Indians calculated to 86 wins, but I would say that’s more optimism than reality. Two things that need to be taken into consideration, the Manny Acta factor and they’re fielding close to the exact same team that faded last season. The division is rounded out with the Twins at 66 wins and the team I never believed was going to compete this season, the Royals at 56 wins.

AL EAST
This entire division is up for grabs, and if you consider what happened last season with Boston it makes it even harder to say there’s a true winner. The Blue Jays and Yankees are both predicted to finish with 91 wins and the Rays and Orioles are predicted with 86 wins. The only team that would be considered a non-contender at this point would be the Red Sox at 68 wins, but again remember last year.

AL WEST
Well, the Texas Rangers are going to win this one in a laugher with 106 wins with the A’s and Mariners 30 games behind them at 76 wins. The Angels are predicted to only have 71 wins at this point. The Red Sox theory may apply to Angels this season, and lets not forget that the Rangers have some injury prone players. Still, looking at Texas right now it’s pretty easy to believe this outcome.

NL CENTRAL
No surprises here except the Cubs are expected to have 61 wins, nine better than Smitty’s post on our Facebook site the other day. The Cardinals are netting out at 96 wins with the Brewers and Reds both netting out at 76. The Pirates are calculated at 73 wins and the Astros with 71 wins. I still believe this division is up for grabs with either the Brewers and/or Reds making a strong push at some point this season.

NL EAST
The Nationals are calculated to have 101 wins; I don’t believe that for a second with the Braves behind them with 91 wins. Again, this is accurate within 8 games either way, which can make a big difference and probably will here. The Mets are at 81, the Marlins at 78, and the Phillies at the bottom with 76. I think the Phillies will make some noise and still believe the Braves will win this division.

NL WEST
Magic Johnson is working his magic already as the Dodgers are on fire! They are also slated for 101 wins with the Giants in second at 86 and the Rockies at 84 in third. The Diamondbacks are a close fourth at 81 and the Padres anchor the division at 61 wins. The Dodgers look really good right now, but this division will get tighter than predicted here. Still, I would not be surprised by a Dodgers division win.

AL Playoffs
Rangers
Tigers
Blue Jays
White Sox
Yankees

NL Playoffs
Nationals
Dodgers
Cardinals
Braves
Giants

When you look at the playoffs, it doesn’t look so crazy, does it? I did say in my preseason predictions that if everything clicked for the Blue Jays and White Sox they would be competing for their divisions. I think the biggest surprises for me are the Nationals and Dodgers, but let’s a take a look at the end of May where the weight on season record becomes even more of a reality.