What does the 2019 season have in store? Will the Red Sox be able to repeat as World Series champions? Or will other American League powerhouses overtake Boston? Will the Dodgers again reign in the National League, or will one of a number of improved Senior Circuit teams capture the pennant?MLB Network Radio
We polled more than 50 experts from the MLB.com and MLB Network universe for predictions ...
AL East: Yankees 35, Red Sox 17 (Estimated based on "the Yanks garnered twice as many votes as the Red Sox")
AL Central: Cleveland 40, Twins 12
AL West: Astros 52
AL Wild Cards: Red Sox, Rays
NL East: Nationals 27, Phillies 25
NL Central: Cubs 19, Cardinals 17, Brewers 16
NL West: Dodgers 42, Rockies 11 (One extra vote in here?)
NL Wild Cards: Brewers, Phillies
AL Champions: Astros 27, Yankees 20, Red Sox 5
NL Champions: Dodgers 14, Nationals 12 (What about the other 26 votes?)
World Series champions: Astros 28, Yankees 15 (What about the other 9 votes?)
Also: "Should Los Angeles reach the World Series, it would mark only the fourth time in MLB history a club has gotten to the Fall Classic after losing the previous two years (also the 1909 Tigers, the 1913 Giants, and the 1923 Yankees, with the Yankees the only club to win on the third try)."
AL East: Yankees 11, Red Sox 7USA Today
AL Central: Cleveland 13, Twins 5
AL West: Astros 18
AL Wild Cards: Red Sox 11, Yankees 6, Twins 5, Rays 4, Angels 4, Cleveland 3, Athletics 1, Mariners 1
NL East: Nationals 14, Phillies 3, Mets 1
NL Central: Cubs 11, Cardinals 5, Brewers 2
NL West: Dodgers 10, Rockies 8
NL Wild Cards: Phillies 8, Dodgers 6, Cardinals 6, Nationals 4, Rockies 4, Brewers 3, Cubs 2, Mets 2
AL Champions: Yankees 11, Astros 7
NL Champions: Nationals 6, Cubs 5, Rockies 3, Phillies 2, Dodgers 1, Cardinals 1
World Series champions: Yankees 10, Astros 6, Rockies 1, Phillies 1
AL East: Yankees 5, Red Sox 2FiveThirtyEight
AL Central: Cleveland 6, Twins 1
AL West: Astros 7
AL Wild Cards: Red Sox 5, Rays 4, Yankees 2, Angels 1, Twins 1, Cleveland 1
NL East: Phillies 4, Nationals 3
NL Central: Cubs 3, Cardinals 3, Brewers 1
NL West: Dodgers 7
NL Wild Cards: Cardinals 3, Nationals 2, Phillies 2, Atlanta 2, Brewers 2, Rockies 2, Cubs 1
AL Champions: Yankees 3, Astros 2, Red Sox 1, Cleveland 1
NL Champions: Nationals 3, Dodgers 2, Phillies 1, Cardinals 1
World Series Champions: Nationals 2, Dodgers 1, Astros 1, Cleveland 1, Cardinals 1, Yankees 1
AL MVP: Bregman 3, Trout 2, Stanton 2
NL MVP: Goldschmidt 3, Acuna 3, Bryant 1
AL Cy Young: Cole 3, Sale 2, Verlander 1, Kluber 1
NL Cy Young: Scherzer 3, deGrom 2, Nola 2
AL ROY: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 4, Eloy Jiminez 2, Jesus Luzardo 1
NL ROY: Victor Robles 5, Pete Alonso 1, Touki Toussaint 1
Here are the six teams that are given more than a 5% chance of winning the World Series:
W-L RunDiff Win Div Make PS Win WS
Yankees 97-65 +147 47% 82% 13%
Red Sox 95-67 +131 39% 76% 9%
The Rays have a 12% chance of winning the AL East (which seems high).The Sporting News
AL East: Yankees 9, Red Sox 4Baseball America
AL Central: Cleveland 10, Twins 3
AL West: Astros 13
AL Wild Cards: Red Sox 6, Rays 3, Angels 3, Athletics 2, Yankees 2
NL East: Nationals 8, Phillies 4
NL Central: Cardinals 7, Brewers 3, Cubs 2
NL West: Dodgers 12
NL Wild Cards: Phillies 5, Cubs 4, Brewers 2, Atlanta 2, Rockies 1, Cardinals 1, Nationals 1
AL Champions: Yankees 6, Astros 4, Red Sox 2, Cleveland 1
NL Champions: Nationals 4, Cardinals 3, Cubs 2, Brewers 2, Phillies 1, Dodgers 1
World Series Champions: Yankees 4, Astros 2, Nationals 2, Red Sox 1, Phillies 1, Brewers 1, Dodgers 1
AL MVP: Trout 7, Judge 4, Bregman 1, Ramirez 1
NL MVP: Harper 3, Goldschmidt 2, Acuna 2, Aguilar 1, Arenado 1, Hoskins 1, Soto 1
AL Cy Young: Sale 6, Cole 3, Verlander 2, Kluber 1, Bauer 1
NL Cy Young: Scherzer 7, deGrom 2, Syndergaard 1, Flaherty 1
AL ROY: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 6, Eloy Jiminez 2, Yusei Kukuchi 1
NL ROY: Victor Robles 3, Pete Alonso 1, Nick Senzel 1, Chris Paddack 1
AL East: Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles
Other Divisions: Cleveland, Astros, Nationals, Cubs, Dodgers
Wild Cards: Red Sox, Angels, Atlanta, Brewers
World Series Champions
Teddy Cahill - Red Sox over Dodgers in 4 games Justin Coleman - Astros over Brewers in 6 games J.J. Cooper - Astros over Dodgers in 7 games Carlos Collazo - Dodgers over Yankees in 7 games Matt Eddy - Dodgers over Astros in 6 games Josh Norris - Dodgers over Astros in 6 games Kyle Glaser - Yankees over Cardinals in 6 games Kegan Lowe - Yankees over Nationals in 5 gamesAL MVP Top 3: Trout, Betts, Bregman
NL MVP Top 3: Arenado, Acuna Jr., Rendon
AL Cy Young Top 3: Verlander, Sale, Cole
NL Cy Young Top 3: Scherzer, Nola, deGrom
AL ROY Top 3: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Yusei Kikuchi
NL ROY Top 3: Fernando Tatis Jr., Nick Senzel, Victor Robles
Red Sox
Team Strengths: The homegrown outfield of Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. remains arguably baseball's best, while mashing designated hitter J.D. Martinez and every member of October's starting rotation return as well.
Team Weaknesses: The Red Sox's bullpen needed help from the starters to get through the postseason, and now setup man Joe Kelly and closer Craig Kimbrel departed as free agents. ...
What They Did About It: The Red Sox relied exclusively on minor signings to try improve their relief corps. Ryan Weber, Erasmo Ramirez and Carson Smith signed minor league deals, and Colten Brewer was acquired in a trade with the Padres. Jenrry Mejia, who was reinstated from his lifetime ban last summer and hasn't pitched in the majors since 2015, was to signed a minor league deal as well.
Final Outlook: The Red Sox's bullpen has a lot of questions marks, but with mostly every major contributor to the lineup and starting rotation back, the defending champions should return to the postseason.
Yankees
Team Strengths: Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner all return in an elite outfield group, with Jacoby Ellsbury and onetime top prospect Clint Frazier also available if they can prove they're past their injuries. The rotation received a boost with the trade for James Paxton and re-signing of J.A. Happ, and an elite bullpen became even better after Zack Britton re-signed and Adam Ottavino came aboard.
Team Weaknesses: At first base, Greg Bird continues to struggle to stay healthy and Luke Voit needs to prove last season wasn't a fluke. At third base, Miguel Andujar needs to improve his defense. Even so, the Yankees' weaknesses are stronger than nearly any other team's.
What They Did About It: The Yankees improved their overall infield depth with the signings of Troy Tulowitzki and DJ LeMahieu. In addition to helping the middle infield until Didi Gregorius returns, Tulowitzki and LeMahieu are capable of playing third base as well, allowing Andujar to shift to first base if Voit and Bird struggle.
Final Outlook: The Yankees took a 100-win team and made it stronger and deeper. The franchise's first World Series appearance since 2009 is in play.
It is amazing how disrepecful these "experts" are to the Red Sox. They dont give a hoot to how badly they got rolled over last year. Never learn.
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