2014 Season Predictions: Corey

While Spring Training is great, we’re at that point where I want to see full lineups, pitchers going 8 innings and actual stats that I care about. Well, we’re almost there folks. I just wrapped up a great weekend of fantasy drafts, my MLB.TV subscription is re-newed and I’m ready to stay up all night this Friday to watch the Diamondbacks and Dodgers kick off the season in the land down under. I can’t wait to see what 2014 has in store for us. What teams will take the next step forward? Will Bryce Harper become the superstar he’s capable of becoming? These are the things that will be answered over the next six months. The only things we know for sure so far are that Dr. James Andrews has a nice paycheck coming his way and that Mike Trout is still good at baseball. For everything else, here is how I see things shaking out.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST
1. Boston Red Sox
2. Tampa Bay Rays*
3. New York Yankees
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. Baltimore Orioles

CENTRAL
1. Detroit Tigers
2. Cleveland Indians*
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Kansas City Royals
5. Minnesota Twins

WEST
1. Texas Rangers
2. Los Angeles Angels
3. Seattle Mariners
4. Oakland Athletics
5. Houston Astros

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST
1. Washington Nationals
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. New York Mets
5. Miami Marlins

CENTRAL
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Cincinnati Reds*
3. Milwaukee Brewers
4. Pittsburgh Pirates
5. Chicago Cubs

WEST
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. San Francisco Giants*
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
4. San Diego Padres
5. Colorado Rockies

*Denotes Wild Card teams

PLAYOFFS

Wild Card Games:
Tampa Bay over Cleveland
Cincinnati over San Francisco

Division Series:
Detroit over Tampa Bay
Texas over Boston
Los Angeles over Cincinnati
St. Louis over Washington

ALCS / NLCS:
Detroit over Texas
Los Angeles over St. Louis

World Series:
Detroit Tigers over Los Angeles Dodgers in 7 games

Is this the year my Tigers finally get over the hump? I sure hope so and I like their pitching staff in the playoffs enough to do it. Even without Prince, the lineup will still put up a lot of runs and Joe Nathan is in town to give them a more consistent 9th inning arm. It won’t be an easy road but I think I might finally see the World Series trophy come back to the Motor City.

AL MVP
1. Mike Trout (I love Miggy, but there will be no argument after Trout’s season)
2. Miguel Cabrera
3. Prince Fielder

NL MVP
1. Hanley Ramirez (If he can stay healthy, big year coming for a World Series Contender)
2. Joey Votto
3. Bryce Harper

AL CY YOUNG
1. Yu Darvish
2. Justin Verlander
3. Chris Sale

NL CY YOUNG
1. Jose Fernandez (The young horse knocks the king off his throne)
2. Clayton Kershaw
3. Stephen Strasburg

AL Rookie of the Year
1. George Springer
2. Nick Castellanos (Love the way he’s swinging the bat)
3. Masahiro Tanaka (I’ll likely regret not have Bogaerts on here)

NL Rookie of the Year
1. Oscar Taveras (Hope he’s healthy enough for a shot to win this)
2. Billy Hamilton
3. Javier Baez

AL Comeback Player of the Year
1. Albert Pujols (He hit .258 last year and battled injuries, I think we see him get back to his 2012 numbers)
2. Derek Jeter (Most likely to receive this award if he goes out on a solid note)
3. Phil Hughes (This should go under bold predictions but maybe something clicks in Target Field)

NL Comeback Player of the Year
1. Matt Kemp (Obvious choice if he stays on the field)
2. Giancarlo Stanton (I hope he stays intact for a full year because there’s nothing better than watching him hammer one out of the atmosphere)
3. Dan Haren (3.67 xFIP shows he wasn’t as bad in ‘13 as you’d think. Great command and now in a pitcher’s park, I like his chances for a real good year.)

AL Bold Predictions

1. Jose Abreu leads AL in HR with 38.

2. New Yankee Jacoby Ellsbury hits more home runs than former Yankee Robinson Cano.

3. George Springer joins the 20-20 club in just 4 months of playing time.

4. The Tigers have 5 hitters that hit .300+ leading to their World Series (Miggy, Martinez, Castellanos, Hunter and Jackson) – Hey, it’s bold predictions…

5. Derek Jeter hits .317 and decides to come back after the season. (And he doesn’t give back any gifts he was given during his final season farwell tour)

NL Bold Predictions

1. Tulo and Cargo stay healthy, play a combined 300 games and combine for 70 HR.

2. Billy Hamilton (92 SB) steals 25 more bases than Reds team total of 2013.

3. Oscar Tavares plays in over 100 games for Cardinals and bats .315.

4. Jose Fernandez strikes out 266 batters, more than anyone in the NL the last 10 years.

5. Wilson Ramos leads all NL catchers with 27 HR.