Half-assed predictions

If you missed our 90 minute-plus preview podcast with Dave Brown, Oleg, Praz and Mike D. well guess what? Here's another chance to watch/listen to it.

Podcast: Baseball Preview - March 24, 2026

My picks skewed much more Mets-heavy than I'm frankly all that comfortable with, mostly because I detested the Mets as a kid, but I do think if their smorgasbord of moves from this offseason work out that they will be best positioned to beat the Dodgers in the National League, and frankly, somebody has to do it.

Did I purposely try to reverse jinx the Brewers by picking them to win the Central? Would it even work if you did it on purpose? Well, I guess we're going to find out.

Anyway, here are my season predictions. You know what to do with them. Laugh, sigh, log into your Circa Sports app and bet against it all, and maybe you will win enough to get invited to Stadium Swim in Vegas and sit in the pool with Derek Stevens, who will certainly be wearing that blazer in the pool.

Playoff Teams

NL East - Mets - They have the second best player in the National League in Juan Soto and they added a bunch of new hitters (Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette, and Luis Robert Jr.--uh, oh, they might all be bad this year), and have a plethora of good young arms.

NL Central - Brewers - Is this the year the Brewers magic horseshoe up their hiney wears off? Will Pat Murphy's team be out of it in September with him just morosely sitting in the dugout during games eating the biscuits and gravy he stores in his jock? God, I hope so. There's a very real chance that Jacob Misioroski blows out his arm, Christian Yelich blows out his back and that Andrew Vaughn goes back to just blowing. There's also a chance that this bunch of Johnny Try Hard dwarves somehow win 90+ games again before being completely overmatched in the playoffs like usual.

NL West - Dodgers - I, like you, am tired of them. But...

Kyle Tucker didn't leave enough of an impression in his six months as a Cub, so I don't wish him ill. But if he gets run over by a Waymo, I can't say I'll mind all that much.

Wild Card #1 - Cubs - The Cubs are pretty good, and they certainly are good enough to make the playoffs in the National League which is handy because that's the league they play in. But even with the much-needed additions of Mr. Ed Cabrera and Alex Bregman, they still feel incomplete. It's nothing that a big, ballsy trade deadline move by Jed Hoyer can't fix. Let's see if he's finally got it in him.

Wild Card #2 - Phillies - If they get a decent facsimile of Zack Wheeler back then they can take the Mets' place as the team most likely to take down the Dodgers.

Wild Card #3 - Giants - This spot likely comes down to a glob of teams made up of the Barves, Padres, Pirates, Reds, Giants and D'bags. The Barves daily starting pitching injury announcement has scared me off, the Padres are already starting the season at a starting pitching deficit, the Reds offense still underwhelms and they're without Hunter Greene for months to start the season, the D'bags just feel incomplete. So that leaves the Pirates and Giants. If the Pirates get in they'll scare the shit out of the team they draw in the first round because...Paul Skenes. I think the Giants are underrated, and that the additions of solid starters like Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser to the back of their rotation give that the uncertainly that they lacked when they collapsed last year. A full season of Rafael Devers can't hurt. If they don't make it, you'll almost certainly be able to blame it on the bullpen.

AL East - Yankees - The Yankees lost the tiebreaker to the Blue Jays last year as both finished with 94 wins. So there really wasn't that much difference between the two last year until they squared off in the divisional round and Vlad Junior smacked the Yankees around. The Jays are going to need a while to sort out their pitching this year, which I think opens the door for the Yankees to win the East.

AL Central - Tigers - I like the Royals, but they feel a year away for me, especially given that this is certainly the one and only season when Detroit will have both Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez together.

AL West - Mariners - The Mariners are soooo much better than any other team in this division.

Wild Card #1 - Blue Jays - I do think the Jays will eventually figure out their pitching and finish with a very good record. It's a talented team that would have won the World Series if just one of about 14 different things had gone differently, including Ralph Kiner-Alfalfa getting the worst secondary lead in the history of the sport.

Wild Card #2 - Orioles - Is anybody calling them The Birdmen of (Craig) Albernaz yet? They have finally put together at least 60% of a starting rotation. Now, like I say all the time, if they would just let the Cubs take Adley Rutschman off their hands so they can play Sammy Basallo every day, I'd be cool with it.

Wild Card #3 - Red Sox - They have a lot of good young players, they completely botched the Devers-Bregman thing, and I think Craig Breslow is a weirdo, but somehow it will all work to get them back in the playoffs for a second straight year. And then they will go right home.

Wild Card Round
Brewers-Giants
Cubs-Phillies

Yankees-Red Sox
Blue Jays-Orioles

Divisonal Round
Dodgers - Giants
Cubs - Mets

Mariners-Yankees
Tigers-Blue Jays

NLCS
Dodgers - Mets
Mariners - Tigers

World Series
Mets - Mariners

World Series Champions
Seattke Mariners

Individual Awards

MVP
NL - Juan Soto - I really thought about picking Shohei to win the MVP and Cy Young in the same season, but I don't think there's any way he pitches enough to win that award, so what's the fun in picking him to win MVP, then? Soto got off to a slow start with the Mets and ended up hitting 43 homers and just for the hell of it he led the league with 38. stolen bases. He also led in walks and on base average. What does he do with a full good season? We'll find out.

AL - Bobby Witt Jr. - It's a tall task to keep Aaron Judge from winning this award as Cal Raleigh and his 60 homers can tell you. But what fun it is to keep picking Judge? The second best player in the AL going into the season is either Bobby Witt or Jose Ramirez. I think the Royals will be frisky all season, and Bobby will have an all-around season good enough to peel away some voters who are bored of voting for Judge.

Cy Young
NL - Logan Webb - The easy answer is Paul Skenes, who is the only pitcher in modern baseball history to finish his first two seasons as a starter with a career ERA under 2.00 (I, like you, was shocked that Jeff Pico never did that). He had a 1.97 ERA last year and it was higher than his rookie ERA (1.96). He's the obvious choice because he's just so fucking good, but what fun is picking the obvious. So I'm going with smush face Logan Webb, who is consistently good, and he decided to strike more guys out last season and led the National League. And then he gave up a shitload of runs on Opening Night against the Yankees in front of a lot of screaming Netflix "personalities" and this might already be over.

AL - Bryan Woo! - Skubal should cruise to another Cy Young before he packs up his bags and heads to pitch for the Cubs starting in 2027. Huh? I just think if somebody else is going to win it, it's Ronnie Woo Woo Wickers' son, Bryan Woo. Cy! Woo! Young! Woo!

Rookie of the Year
NL - Nolan McLean - He was really impressive in his eight starts last year, and that wasn't enough for him to lose his rookie status. If he struggles against lefties like he did last season and in his pretty awful start for Team USA against Team Italy, he'll open the door for someone like Konnor Griffin or, bless our souls, Moises Ballesteros.

AL - Kevin McGonigle - It didn't look like the Tigers were going to start the season with McGonigle at short, which would have been somewhat understandable given that he's only 21 and has played just 46 games at double-A. But AJ Hinch knows a hitter when he sees one and he really banged the old trashcan to convince his bosses to give him the kid. Why make McGonigle hang out with Gage Workman in Toledo?

Manager of the Year
NL - Carlos Mendoza - He's either going to get fired or win Manager of the Year.

AL - Craig Albernaz - The Orioles are going to be good, and Albernaz the guy with the strange name has been high on teams' potential manager lists for a while, going all the way back to winning Midwest League Manager of the Year in 2018 for the Bowling Green Hot Rods. That's a real thing that happened.

And, I gave the guys one special kudo to select. It's clearly the most important award you can win.

National League Left Field Gold Glove
It's an award that should not exist because in almost every case if a guy was an actual good fielder he would not be stuck in left field. Will Ian Happ's four-year reign of terror end?

I think it very well might. Because Ronald Acuna is in right field, when Mike Yastzremski signed with the Barves he had to move to left field. Lil' Yaz is a good defensive outfielder. Something Happ isn't.

As for our Cubs, it's going to be a fun season. The team is good, we know Petecrow's going to be around for a long time, and it looks like Happ won't.

What's not to like?

Shortly after today's opener we'll have our first Recrap of the season, with none other than Sam Fels joining me.