2003 Baseball Predictions

[Drzy]

A small contest will go with this. Enter in your predictions for the final standings of the 2003 baseball season. You will be penalized one point for each place that separates your prediction and the actual outcome.... for example, if you pick the Cubs to finish 4th but they finish 2nd, you get 2 unwanted points.

You get 2 points taken away from your score for each team you correctly pick to be in the playoffs. It doesn't matter if they get in via division winner or a wild-card champ.

You can also enter in your postseason predictions and other surprises, but they won't have any affect on the competition. It's just all in good fun. 8)

The winner of the competition gets to make out with the Rebel Forum chick of their choice. Should the winner be female, there will be an investigation, because we all know women know nothing about sports.

Enter in your projections in the same format as shown below:

AL East: Yankees, Red Sox*, Blue Jays, Orioles, Devil Rays
AL Central: White Sox, Twins, Indians, Tigers, Royals
AL West: A's, Mariners, Rangers, Angels

NL East: Braves, Phillies, Mets, Explos, Marlins
NL Central: Cardinals, Cubs*, Astros, Pirates, Reds, Brewers
NL West: Giants, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Padres

ALDS: Red Sox over A's, Yankees over White Sox
ALCS: Red Sox over Yankees
NLDS: Cubs over Braves, Cardinals over Giants
NLCS: Cubs over Cardinals
World Series: Red Sox over Cubs, 4-2

AL MVP (1-2-3): Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez
AL Cy Young (1-2-3): Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, Roy Halladay
AL Surprise: The Angels finish below .500

NL MVP (1-2-3): Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Scott Rolen
NL Cy Young (1-2-3): Randy Johnson, Mark Prior, Roy Oswalt
NL Surprise: [[ editted to remove blasphemous comment ]]. Pirates are surprise team, winning 85+ games.

[MountainHawk]

NL East: PHI, ATL*, MTL, FLA, NYM
NL Cent: HOU, STL, CHI, CIN, PIT, MIL
NL West: SFO, ARI, LAD, SDO, COL

AL East: NYY, BOS, BAL, TOR, TBY
AL Cent: MIN, CWS*, CLE, DET, KCY
AL West: OAK, ANA, SEA, TEX

NL Championship: Giants over Phillies
AL Championship: A's over Yankees
World Series: Giants over A's

[servo]

Hey! How come you guys are picking the Royals last in the AL Central? Don't you realize that they have the best record in spring ball this year?

[egg]

Why is everyone rating Detroit so high?

AL East: Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Devil Rays, Orioles
AL Central: White Sox, Twins*, Indians, Royals, Tigers
AL West: A’s, Mariners, Rangers, Angels

NL East: Phillies, Braves*, Mets, Marlins, Expos
NL Central: Astros, Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, Pirates, Brewers
NL West: Diamondbacks, Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres

ALDS: A’s over White Sox, Yankees over Twins
ALCS: A’s over Yankees
NLDS: Astros over Braves, Diamondbacks over Phillies
NLCS: Astros over Diamondbacks
World Series: Astros over A’s, 4-3

AL MVP (1-2-3): Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar
AL Cy Young (1-2-3): Pedro Martinez, Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson
AL Surprise: The Angels finish above .500 but still last in the division.

NL MVP (1-2-3): Jeff Bagwell, Jim Thome, Randy Johnson
NL Cy Young (1-2-3): Randy Johnson, Billy Wagner, Kevin Brown
NL Surprise: The Cardinals trade Matt Morris away.

[Brad Spirrison]

AL East: Yankees, Red Sox*, Orioles, Blue Jays, Devil Rays
AL Central: Twins, White Sox, Indians, Royals, Tigers
AL West: Angels , A’s, Mariners, Rangers

NL East: Braves, Phillies*, Mets, Marlins, Expos
NL Central: Cardinals, Astros, Cubs, Reds, Pirates, Brewers
NL West: Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks, Padres, Rockies

ALDS: Angels over Red Sox, Twins over Yankees
ALCS: Angels over Twins
NLDS: Dodgers over Braves, Cardinals over Phillies
NLCS: Dodgers over Cardinals
World Series: Dodgers over Angels, 4-3

AL MVP (1-2-3): Magglio Ordonez, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra
AL Cy Young (1-2-3): Pedro Martinez, Mark Mulder, Mark Buhrle
AL Surprise: A's don't make playoffs with 90 wins in Tough AL West

NL MVP (1-2-3): Jim Thome, Albert Pujols, Sammy Sosa
NL Cy Young (1-2-3): Darren Dreifort, Matt Morris, Greg Maddux
NL Surprise: D-Backs finish below .500 as Johnson & Schilling both get hurt for long stretches of the season.

[The Cat in the Hat]

AL East: Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, D Rays
AL Central: Twins, White Sox, Indians, Royals, Tigers
AL West: A's, Mariners*, Angels, Rangers

NL East: Braves, Phillies*, Mets, Expos, Marlins
NL Central: Card's, Astros, Reds, Cubs, Pirates, Brewers
NL West: D-Backs, Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres

ALDS: Yankees over Mariners, A's over Twins
NLDS: Cards over Phillies, D-Backs over Braves

ALCS: A's over the Yankees
NLCS: Card's over D-Backs

World Series: A's over the Card's

NL Surprise:
The NL Central will beat each other too much to have a wildcard team, which Philly will easily earn with gimme wins over the Mets, Marlins, and Expos. All despite Philly having a losing record against the Cards, Reds, Astros, and maybe even the Cubs.

AL Unsurprise:
The Red Sox will start strong, again, lead the division into June or maybe even July, again, stay in the wildcard race until early September, again, and absolutely fall apart and miss the playoffs, again. By mid-September they will be out of the wildcard hunt, which the M's will win over the Angels in a very tight race.

[The Cat in the Hat]

Wow Drzy, that's a pretty bold World Series prediction. I believe that forevermore it would be considered, "The October that the Earth Stood Still."

Here in writing is my prediction for that World Series, if it were to happen. The first six games of the series would be absolutely phenomenal, and would be considered the six greatest games ever played. Pedro will pitch a perfect game, striking out each and every batter he faces, in game 1. Sosa will hit three home runs in game 5. All 1 run victories, all won on the last at bat. The seventh game would then be the most anticipated event in all of sports history. So anticipated in fact, that both Cubs and Red Sox fans would suffer from undue astronomical amounts of stress. At the start of the ninth inning, of a 0-0 game, there would be mass heart attacks in the stands by fans from the stress combined with large amounts of alcohol and assorted ballpark foods in their systems. Bud Selig, the shrewd public opinion manager that he is, would then cancel the remainder of the game due to viable public health concerns, both teams would be technically considered World Champions, but neither team would be considered World Champions in the public's eye, and neither would ever get back to the World Series ever again.

[jhg858]

AL E: NYY, BOS*, TOR, BAL, TB
AL C: MIN, CWS, CLE, KC, DET
AL W: OAK, CAL, SEA, TEX

NL E: ATL, PHI*, MON, NYM, FLO
NL C: STL, HOU, CHC, PIT, CIN, MIL
NL W: AZ, SF, LA, SD, COL

ALDS: BOS over OAK in 5; NYY over MIN in 4
ALCS: BOS over NYY in 6
NLDS: ATL over STL in 4; PHI over AZ in 5
NLCS: ATL over PHI in 7
World Series: ATL over BOS in 5

AL MVP (1-2-3): Soriano, Pedro, Zito
AL Cy Young (1-2-3): Pedro, Zito, Roy Halladay
AL Surprise: Clemens or Wells bumped from starting rotation.
NL MVP (1-2-3): Vlad, Thome, A.Jones
NL Cy Young (1-2-3): Maddux, Johnson, Prior
NL Surprise: Glavine 12-12

[Patience]

AL East: Red Sox, Yankees*, Blue Jays, Orioles, Devil Rays
AL Central: Twins, White Sox, Indians, Tigers, Royals
AL West: A's, Mariners, Angels, Rangers

NL East: Mets, Phillies, Braves, Expos, Marlins
NL Central: Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, Astros, Pirates, Brewers
NL West: Diamondbacks, Dodgers*, Giants, Padres, Rockies

ALDS: Red Sox over A's, Twins over Yankees
ALCS: Red Sox over Twins
NLDS: Mets over DBacks, Cardinals over Dodgers
NLCS: Mets over Cardinals
World Series: Mets over Red Sox 4-3