2010 Major League Baseball Projections: Phillies Win World Series

The 2010 Major League Baseball season begins Sunday night with the Yankees in Boston to play the Red Sox. Fast forward six months, and here you have it, the final standings…

American League East

New York Yankees 98-64
Boston Red Sox 92-70
Tampa Bay Rays 86-76
Baltimore Orioles 82-80
Toronto Blue Jays 77-85

Everyone keeps hyping up the Rays as the dark horse to win the division, but I don’t see it, they have pitching depth, but no-one’s going to win more than 15 games. I don’t think B.J. Upton’s going to have his breakout year, I don’t think he’s ever going to live out his original full potential.

Plus, they don’t have a decent third outfielder, and Bartlett and Zobrist will certainly regress. Not to mention Navarro and Burrell at C/DH don’t really intrigue me. Nobody’s catching the Yankees. The Red Sox will be pretty good, however, and the Orioles aren’t quite there yet.

American League Central
Detroit Tigers 89-73
Minnesota Twins 87-75
Chicago White Sox 86-76
Cleveland Indians 68-94
Kansas City Royals 63-99

A trendy pick this year to repeat as pennant winners, the Twins, just don’t strike me as an elite team. They have a good core of Morneau, Mauer and a few other guys like Cuddyer, Span, or Kubel, but with Hudson/Hardy/Punto (good, but not playoffs-stuff) making up the rest of their infield, they won’t be able to get over the hump.

The Tigers have both a great batting order and a great pitching staff, and they’ll win this division race, three games better than the improved White Sox. The Indians and Royals: Keep rebuilding…

American League West
Los Angeles Angels 90-72
Seattle Mariners 89-73
Texas Rangers 82-80
Oakland Athletics 67-95

The Mariners are a popular pick, but they don’t quite beat out the Angels. I think Cliff Lee is going to be fantastic, but they just won’t score enough runs to win the division.

The Rangers don’t have any pitching, so they’re limited, and the Athletics should be terrible. Some people have hope in the A’s, but I don’t, they shouldn’t score any runs and their pitching staff could be a train-wreck (other than Anderson and Bailey).

National League East
Philadelphia Phillies 95-67
Atlanta Braves 85-77
New York Mets 83-79
Florida Marlins 82-80
Washington Nationals  71-91

The Phillies run away with this one, there has been talk that the Braves or Marlins could make it a race, but in my mind it’s not even close. Barring a Mets-like health collapse, the Phillies are far and away the elite team in this division.

I don’t think the Mets are bad, and think that they win more than they lose, with everyone healthy they’re a decent team. The Nationals are terrible, but their offense could produce a fair amount of runs, it’s pitching that’s the problem.

National League Central
St. Louis Cardinals 85-77
Milwaukee Brewers 81-81
Cincinnati Reds 78-84
Chicago Cubs 76-86
Pittsburgh Pirates 57-105

This division stinks. The Cardinals should win the division with relative ease, but they’d finish fourth if placed in the AL East, they have a slightly above average offense and a decent pitching staff.

If everything falls in favour of the Reds, they could potentially win the division, but other than that the other teams don’t have a hope. I just don’t understand the Pirates, they lose because they don’t retain their stars and don’t really have many stars, an eternal losing equation.

National League West
Colorado Rockies 89-73
Los Angeles Dodgers 87-75
San Francisco Giants 84-78
Arizona Diamondbacks 82-80
San Diego Padres 68-94

The Rockies or Dodgers will win the division, people talk about the D-Backs being possible sleepers, but they won 70 games last year! Sure they improved, but don’t expect a 20 game turnaround. The Padres are terrible, with no pitching and not much batting either.

Playoffs
Yankees over Tigers 3-1
Red Sox over Angels 3-2 (Despite Angels success against Red Sox in playoffs, the new-look Sox take it anyway)

Phillies over Cardinals 3-0 (Cardinals get utterly destroyed, all three games by a margin of at least 3 runs)
Dodgers over Rockies 3-2

Red Sox over Yankees 4-3 (better pitching and defense, topped with Boston’s acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez two weeks before deadline allows Red Sox to prevail)

Phillies over Dodgers 4-2 (Dodgers are a good club, but lucky to make it this far, and it shows as Roy Halladay pitches two shutouts for Phils)

Phillies over Red Sox 4-2 to win World Series
The Phillies, led by a sparkling offense and superb pitching staff (yes, Brad Lidge has somewhat of a bounce-back year) win the World Series for the 2nd time in three years.

Awards
AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, DET (.330, 41 HR, 128 RBI)
AL Cy Young Award: Felix Hernandez, SEA (21-8, 2.35 ERA, 220 K)
AL Rookie of the Year: Scott Sizemore, DET (.285, 16 HR, 70 RBI, 20 SB)

NL MVP: Ryan Braun, MIL (.325, 40 HR, 120 RBI, 22 SB)
NL Cy Young Award: Roy Halladay, PHI (20-6, 2.25 ERA, 215 K)
NL Rookie of Year: Jason Heyward, ATL (.280, 26 HR, 80 RBI)

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