MLB Predictions 2011: Ranking All 30 Teams’ Chances To Win the World Series
April 7, 2011 by Greg Pinto
Filed under Fan News
The time for questions is over. Throughout the offseason, that’s all we did. Can this team do this? Will that team be able to do that? With each team having completed its opening series, we can get a pretty good idea of what the season will hold for each major league team. Of course, there will always be questions. Can the Philadelphia Phillies continue putting runs on the board, sans Chase Utley and Jayson Werth? Will the Boston Red Sox pitching staff rebound?
In time, those questions will be answered. However, we’re an impatient people. We can’t wait that long. For that reason alone, let’s look forward. In this slideshow, I’ll be ranking every team in baseball’s chances of capturing a World Series title this season. Will an obvious favorite, like the Phillies or Red Sox, come out on top, or will a dark horse surprise the baseball community?
Let’s set some parameters here.
These rankings aren’t going to be the same as the Power Rankings that I released a few weeks ago. In those rankings, I took a look at every team on paper and determined its positioning among its peers. These rankings will be a bit different.
Winning a World Series isn’t a simple task. There are a lot of roadblocks and challenges throughout the regular season. For example, the road to October is stacked heavily against the Red Sox, who’ll need to take care of the New York Yankees, resurgent Baltimore Orioles and pesky teams like the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays if they even want to make it to the postseason. On the other hand, the Phillies play in a considerably weaker division. Their road may be a bit more simplistic.
In short, a team’s chances of winning a World Series have no direct relationship with how good it is. There are a lot of factors teams must deal with before even making it to the postseason, and that in the long run, could determine their October fates.
So without further ado, let’s begin. Each slide will feature a percentage of the team’s chances of making the playoffs, followed by a brief description of its spot in the ranking.