With rosters pretty much settled for the remainder of the season, here is my prediction for the remainder of the MLB season and the playoffs:
American League
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: Los Angeles Angels
AL Wild Card: New York Yankees
ALDS
Red Sox d. Tigers
Yankees d. Angels
ALCS
Red Sox d. Yankees
National League
NL East: Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Card: San Francisco Giants
NLDS
Giants d. Phillies
Dodgers d. Cardinals
NLCS
Giants d. Dodgers
World Series
Red Sox d. Giants
I agree with you on all the NL teams you picked and I think whoever wins the WS will come out of that league. I can see every one of those teams winning it all. Phillies are, in my opinion, the most well-rounded. Dodgers are right behind them. Cards’ offense is coming around and the Giants have the best pitching.
I think the Yanks are making it to the WS though. They’ll lose of course. They’re in a slide right now but I believe they’ll turn it around. BoSox aren’t all around solid enough to make it there. When the hitting is good, the pitching is bad and vice versa. I don’t think the Tigers have enough. Angels aren’t the Angels of old.
In my opinion, the Red Sox and Yankees were neck and neck until the trade deadline, and the Sox did a lot more to strenthen their team. They now have four solid corner infielders and one of them catches too. That kind of roster flexibility cannot be underestimated.
If Youkilis goes down, the Sox can replace him with Martinez AND Kotchman. If Teixeira goes down, the yanks can replace him with… 2002 rookie of the year winner Eric Hinske!!!
However, those two teams are still the class of the AL.
In the NL, I had a tough time picking the playoff winners. I love the Giants but the Phillies are the worst possible match-up for them. And if the phillies have to go through dodgerland they will get smoked because the dodgers rake left-handed pitching. Even the Cardinals seem to have some sort of intagible and you can never rule them out.