Baseball 2019 Predictions

by | Mar 29, 2019 | Social Media

Baseball is back!

I’ve written plenty about my love of the sports ball here, and I’m one of the gazillions of people that make predictions about the upcoming season. Being a long-suffering Cleveland Indians fan, I dream of the day when MY team gets to win the World Series. The last time they did was in 1948, when my father was 4 years old. The only other teams that have not won it since then are the LA Angels (created 1962), the San Diego Padres (created 1969), Washington Nationals (created as the Montreal Expos, 1969), the Milwaukee Brewers (created as the Seattle Pilots, 1969), the Seattle Mariners (created 1977), the Colorado Rockies (created 1993) and the Tampa Bay Rays (created 1998). So it’s our turn, dang it!

Before I go any further, let’s see how close my bloviating came to reality in 2018.

PREDICTIONS RESULTS
NL East W L GB AL East W L GB NL East W L GB AL East W L GB
Washington 93 69 – New York 96 66 – Atlanta 90 72 – Boston 108 54 –
New York 83 79 10 Boston 90 72 6 Washington 82 80 8 New York 100 62 8
Atlanta 79 83 14 Toronto 80 82 16 Philadelphia 80 82 10 Tampa Bay 90 72 18
Philadelphia 78 84 15 Tampa Bay 75 87 21 New York 77 85 13 Toronto 73 89 35
Miami 58 104 35 Baltimore 71 91 25 Miami 63 99 27 Baltimore 47 115 61
NL Central AL Central   NL Central AL Central  
Chicago 95 67 – Cleveland 99 63 – Milwaukee* 96 67 – Cleveland 91 71 –
St. Louis 86 76 9 Minesota 86 76 13 Chicago 95 68 1 Minesota 78 84 13
Milwaukee 85 77 10 Chicago 77 85 22 St. Louis 88 74 8 Detroit 64 98 27
Cincinnati 73 89 22 Kansas City 72 90 27 Pittsburgh 82 80 14 Chicago 62 100 29
Pittsburgh 66 96 29 Detroit 60 102 39 Cincinnati 67 95 29 Kansas City 58 104 33
NL West AL West   NL West AL West  
Los Angeles 96 66 – Houston 97 65 – Los Angeles 92 70 – Houston 103 59 –
Arizona 88 74 8 Los Angeles 85 77 12 Colorado 91 71 1 Oakland 97 65 6
Colorado 84 78 12 Seattle 83 79 14 Arizona 82 80 10 Seattle 89 73 14
San Francisco 82 80 14 Texas 76 86 21 San Francisco 73 89 19 Los Angeles 80 82 23
San Diego 74 88 22 Oakland 68 94 29 San Diego 66 96 26 Texas 67 95 36
    *-Milwaukee def Chicago, gm 163 tiebreaker  
Wild Card Arizona over St. Lous Wild Card Minnesota over Boston Wild Card Colorado over Chicago Wild Card New York over Oakland
NLDS Los Angeles over Arizona ALDS Cleveland over Minnesota NLDS Los Angeles over Atlanta ALDS Houston over Cleveland
            Chicago over Washington             Houston over New York             Milwaukee over Colorado            Boston over New York
NLCS Chicago over Los Angeles ALCS Cleveland over Houston NLCS Los Angeles over Milwaukee ALCS Boston over Houston
       
Cleveland over Chicago (7) Boston over Los Angeles (5)

If you want to accuse me of seeing the world through Chief Wahoo-covered glasses, I won’t argue with you. I thought the 102-win season of 2017 would lead to the next step. Unfortunately, the rest of the AL Central stunk and the Tribe was on cruise control and then tried to flip the switch in September, and couldn’t. The result was a colossal beatdown by my brother’s Astros in the division series. Still riding high off their 2017 World Series win, he gave me little grief. How merciful.

Looking ahead to 2019, things don’t seem to be much different for us, other than the Twins massively upgraded their lineup and will NOT finish 10-plus games behind us as most talking heads predict. The Phillies and Yankees made big upgrades, the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox and Astros are good as usual, and my guys will have to have 3 of their starting pitchers win 20 games and all 5 of them need to be in the top 10 in ERA+ if we’re going to go anywhere.

So here are my fearless predictions for MLB in 2019:

NL East W L GB AL East W L GB
Philadelphia 93 69 – New York 103 59 –
Washington 91 71 2 Boston 98 64 5
Atlanta 88 74 5 Tampa Bay 88 74 15
New York 80 82 13 Toronto 78 84 25
Miami 60 102 33 Baltimore 55 107 48
NL Central AL Central
Chicago 90 72 – Cleveland 90 72 –
St. Louis 88 74 2 Minnesota 88 74 2
Milwaukee 86 76 4 Chicago 72 90 18
Cincinnati 79 83 11 Detroit 64 98 26
Pittsburgh 73 89 17 Kansas City 60 102 30
NL West AL West
Los Angeles 94 68 – Houston 99 63 –
Colorado 84 78 10 Los Angeles 89 73 10
San Francisco 75 87 19 Oakland 83 79 16
San Diego 74 88 20 Texas 74 88 25
Arizona 68 94 26 Seattle 66 96 33
Wild Card Washington over Atlanta Wild Card Boston over Los Angeles
NLDS Los Angeles over Chicago ALDS Houston over Cleveland
Philadelphia over Washington New York over Boston
NLCS Philadelphia over Los Angeles ALCS New York over Houston
New York over Philadelphia

I’m particularly interested in how San Diego is going to do now that they’ve added Manny Machado and have so many rookies and guys in the minors with such big potential.

Let’s play ball!