Predictions

Ugh. This was almost ready to go and then Brady’s knee got Gillooly’d by Bernard Pollack and I couldn’t think about football until now. By the way, love the consistency of the NFL – Vince Wilfork gets pushed into J.P. Losman in last season's opener and got flagged and fined; Pollack hits the reigning MVP below the knee and gets nothing. Anyway, I’m amazed by the amount of glee all the Patriots’ ‘Haters’ have shown to Brady’s injury and look forward to an exciting season.

Thank heavens we're done with the boring, pointless and mostly unnecessary preseason (like 1 or 2 games wouldn't suffice?) and we can finally move on to the real games. This is going to be a quick preview of the season and predictions of each team's final standings.

AFC East

NBA Playoffs’ Conference Semifinals Preview

Sports Hubris' John Mugatu previews the 2008 NBA playoffs ... and swears he'll do better on these predictions than he did on his NCAA predictions - or you get a full refund.

Here are the links to all of the 2008 MLB Predictions... Enjoy!

American League 2008

2008 - AL East Predictions

2008 - AL Central Predictions

2008 - AL West Predictions

National League 2008

The NL West is loaded with good pitching this year. And as it has been the past few years, expect a battle all the way down to the last week in September between as many as 4 of these teams - I'll give you a hint which team doesn't make a run at the division title, and it rhymes with Cleveland Indians OF Ben Francisco.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

Prediction: 90-72
Key Additions: Andruw Jones, Hiroki Kuroda, Joe Torre (manager)

Here we go with my first entry of the day, it's the terrible NL Central! It's really a crime that one of these six teams automatically makes the playoffs every year, especially since the playoffs are such a crapshoot, this crappy division winner could even win the whole thing (like St. Louis is 2006 - they finished just 83-78 and actually had a 2-9 slide in late September before winning 2 of their last 3 to win the division - horrible). Anyway, this division is so depressing to write about I have to come back later with my NL West predicitions.

I'm feeling saucy today, so I'm posting my 2nd helping of predictions today. Time to move on to the Senior Circuit, also known as the National League, where the pitchers hit and the teams are generally not as good as their American counterparts. Here's my look at the NL East:

1. New York Mets

Prediction: 92-70
Key Additions: Johan Santana, Brian Schneider, Ryan Church
Key Losses: Tom Glavine, Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green, Jeff Conine

Here is part 3 of my 1st annual MLB Predictions. Today we'll touch on the tiny AL West.

1. Seattle Mariners

Prediction: 91-71
Key Additions: Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva, Brad Wilkerson
Key Losses: Ben Broussard, Jose Guillen, Adam Jones, George Sherrill
Projected Lineup: CF Ichiro, DH Vidro, 3B Beltre, LF Ibanez, 1B Sexson, C Johjima, RF Wilkerson, 2B Lopez, SS Betancourt

Here's part two of my seven part preview. I continue onward with the AL Central. Parts 3 thru 7 will be out next week, and go to my blog entries to see part 1.

1. Detroit Tigers

Prediction: 99-63
Key Additions: Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Renteria, Dontrelle Willis, Jacque Jones
Key Losses: Joel Zumaya (injury), Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller