2024 MLB Preview

 Opening Day is about 24 hours away and the Shohei Ohtani gambling story has stole all the headlines and fleeting moments of baseball conversation over the past few days, many have now forgotten about the exciting marathon ahead of us!

Even with the ever-evolving Ohtani story clouding the beginning of the Los Angeles Dodgers season, that doesn’t change the fact that L.A. is still the team to beat in baseball. The Dodgers have put their chips at the center of the table, no pun intended, for 2024 to show they can raise another World Series trophy after sending upwards of a billion dollars in free agency. In division however, the surprise Arizona Diamondbacks are capitalizing on their newfound championship window with a fantastic offseason that will have them in the mix to get back to a second straight fall classic. The San Diego Padres are done shopping for superstars, sort of, following a massively disappointing season that saw them move on from one of the games generational talents, Juan Soto, this offseason and they find themselves in no-mans-land even with multiple All-Star position players. Could the Padres find their way into the postseason again navigating through a stacked National League West with one less aircraft carrier?

After a confusing 2023 season, the Chicago Cubs have given the most money ever to a manager, Craig Counsell, to figure out why the talent didn’t click on the north side of the Windy City and get them back to the postseason. The Milwaukee Brewers seem like they want to contend and rebuild at the same time but with their budget—it most likely won’t work. The St. Louis Cardinals want to rebound from a historically awful season by building a starting rotation with guys one step away from the old folks’ home, interesting… Cincinnati has a ton of young talent, but will it click enough to make the postseason and finally realize playoff dreams following a lengthy rebuild. Pittsburgh will be fun in certain spots but for me they are a season or two away from being a serious playoff contender, just hope they don’t trade this young core away!

In the National League East, a year after the New York Mets sported the richest payroll in baseball history, they have taken a year off from shopping in the caviar aisle and will reengage in the 2024 offseason. Hope isn’t completely lost for a fun season in Queens, but it would take a magical season to make the playoffs. The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies will continue to win a ton of games and be two of the big favorites to hoist the Commissioner's Trophy. The Miami Marlins will be a fun MLB At-Bat team but won’t have many playoff aspirations—with the Washington Nationals fielding a team with a bunch of 2016 All-Stars and former number one prospects but won’t win more than 70 games.

For the Junior Circuit, the Baltimore Orioles are here to stay and should continue to bring exciting baseball to a starved/wonderful baseball city. The Tampa Bay Rays will always be around and will jump back to being a superpower after a “down” year where they only won 99 games. In the Bronx, Juan Soto will bring hordes of fans into the seats but won’t be enough by himself with the injury bug already biting hard before the big-league club starts the season. No Gerrit Cole for at least two months, if not more, will hamstring this teams’ chances to even make the playoffs, but with the amount of talent on the roster they will be in the mix for the October dance as the season winds down. For the American League Central, it will look a little like Groundhog Day with the Twins standing head and shoulders above everyone else, the Cleveland Guardians having sneaky fun potential, and the other three teams in the middle or beginning of never ending rebuilds. Out West, the top of this division will be one of my guilty pleasures all year but won’t have enough to have more than one team getting in the postseason.

 

2024 MLB Predictions:

AL East Winner: Tampa Bay Rays (95-67)

AL Central Winner: Minnesota Twins (89-73)

AL West Winner: Houston Astros (96-66)

AL Wild Cards: Baltimore Rays (94-68), New York Yankees (93-69), & Cleveland Guardians (87-75)

NL East Winner: Philadelphia Phillies (94-68)

NL Central Winner: Chicago Cubs (88-72)

NL West Winner: L.A. Dodgers (98-64)

NL Wild Cards: Atlanta Braves (93-69), Arizona Diamondbacks (94-68), & Cincinnati Reds (86-76)

World Series Matchup: Tampa Bay Rays vs Atlanta Braves

World Series Winner: Atlanta Braves in 6 Games

Happy New Year to all those that celebrate and best of luck to your team!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 2023 Offseason is Brian Cashman's Biggest Test Yet

Image
   Now that the World Series is over five days from now the offseason begins. With that in mind, this is the biggest offseason that Brian Cashman will have in his 25-year tenure as Yankee General Manager. For the first time since 2016 the Bronx Bombers watched the postseason from their couches, and they earned that right. Amazingly, this team finished over .500, although not that far above that mark. This iteration of the Bronx Bombers finish with the same record as that 2016 team—but the feeling with this squad feels different. Following the 2016 season, there was hope of the two power bats that would usher in the “Baby Bombers,” and in that offseason, the farm system was rated in the Top 10 in all of baseball. There was almost certainty that Brian Cashman would put a championship team around Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, and Luis Severino that would be a title contender for years to come. There was hope. And that hope almost turned into reality. Almost. But, that was then
Read more

The Question going into the Trade Deadline for the New York Yankees

  There is a crossroads in the Bronx in between River and 161 st Street right now. As New York Yankee Manager Aaron Boone likes to put it “[the season] is right in front of them.” The second half of the season is for the taking. As we move into the dog days of summer the Bronx Bombers are nine games out of the division and now a game and a half out of the AL Wild Card race following a disappointing first series in Colorado. With that, the historic starting Tampa Bay Rays have cooled off, going 3-7 before the break while showing signs of being mortal. Baltimore, who has been keeping pace with Tampa, didn’t look like a Superpower when they split against the Yankees two series before the break. The AL East is still a Spartan Training Facility with every team above .500, the Orioles holding the first Wild Card spot, and the “struggling” Boston Red Sox tied the Yankees in the Wild Card race. And unlike Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, help is not on the way. Aaron Judge’s toe is still a m
Read more

The Answer for the Mets

  As Yogi Berra would say “it’s déjà vu all over again.” Buck Showalter is an all too familiar place. The 67-year-old manager has taken a time machine back to 2012. No, he is not managing in Baltimore anymore, however that’s what it feels like the end of Showalter’s Oriole tenure in Queens right now. The Mets simply can’t get out of their own way. With Pete Alonso likely headed to the Injured List, the Mets scored 10 runs last night in Atlanta. 10 runs on the heels of back-to-back gut-wrenching losses at the hands of the team that has foiled the Mets for the better part of almost three decades, the Atlanta Braves. 10 runs with their hired ace, Justin Verlander, who was looking to put together good starts consecutively for the first time all season. The Mets looked like they were about to exercise some demons in Atlanta last night, and then, the other shoe dropped. It wasn’t good enough. Again. Last night, I wrote that the Mets season was on the line with Verlander toeing the slab. Well
Read more