Expert Picks: Uncle Frank

In the week leading up to up to the season, Diamond Hoggers will provide some forecasting of ‘How They’ll Finish’ in Major League Baseball. Today we provide you with the Editor’s Uncle’s picks. Why? Because he’s basically a professional gambler/prognosticator. As much as we wish he was wrong sometimes, it doesn’t happen often (we’ve lost many bets to this guy). So without further ado, here’s Uncle Frank’s picks for the 2007 Season:

AL EAST:

New York Yankees

Toronto Blue Jays *Wild Card

Boston Red Sox

Baltimore Orioles

Tampa Bay Devil Rays

AL CENTRAL:

Cleveland Indians

Detroit Tigers

Minnesota Twins

Chicago White Sox

Kansas City Royals

AL WEST:

Anaheim Angels

Texas Rangers

Oakland Athletics

Seattle Mariners

In his words: I feel like the Red Sox are really going to regret letting Trot Nixon go. In the same breath, I feel like the Indians are going to really look smart for picking him up. Speaking of the Indians they are going to murder right handed pitching. David Delucci was a huge pickup for them. The biggest dissapointment in this league is going to be the Chicago White Sox. They gave away way too much starting pitching, and Bobby Jenks is going to kill them by continually blowing games that will result in demoralizing losses. If they get off to a slow start, Ozzie Guillen could easily be on the hot seat when he once looked to be untouchable. The Red Sox will surprisingly be on the outside looking in of the playoffs in the American League. The reason for this is there is no guaruntee that Beckett comes back strong for them, and there is no guaruntee that Schilling will be what they need him to be. Having to move Papelbon to the closer role again hurts because he would have been a good starter for them.

NL EAST:

Atlanta Braves

Philadelphia Phillies *Wild Card

New York Mets

Florida Marlins

Washington Nationals

NL CENTRAL:

Houston Astros

St. Louis Cardinals

Milwaukee Brewers

Chicago Cubs

Cincinnati Reds

Pittsburgh Pirates

NL WEST:

Arizona Diamondbacks

Los Angeles Dodgers

San Francisco Giants

San Diego Padres

In his words: The NL West is the worst division in baseball. Tough to pick a winner out of that group of stiffs. I’ll go with the D’backs because they’re the least worst of a bad bunch. The Padres will regret letting Bruce Bochy go, he was a good manager and now that he’s in the same division (San Francisco) he’ll really have his team motivated to beat up on San Diego. Carlos Lee will be huge for the Astros, and they’ll win the Central. The Reds will not be dead last in the Central but they have Larry, Curly, and Mo as their 3, 4, and 5 starters. If Kyle Lohse was any good, why would Minnesota have let him go for peanuts? The Braves rebound and win the NL East, the Phillies not far behind, and the Mets will fall out early on because they have no pitching at all.

AL MVP: Travis Hafner, Cleveland
NL MVP: Andruw Jones, Atlanta
AL CY YOUNG: Johann Santana, Minnesota
NL CY YOUNG: Chris Young, San Diego
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Sammy Sosa, Texas (just edges out Jon Lester, Boston)
NL Comeback Player of the Year: ?
AL Manager of the Year: Eric Wedge, Cleveland
NL Manager of the Year: Bobby Cox, Atlanta
Team that will most resemble the 2006 Detroit Tigers: Cleveland Indians
AL Manager first fired/hot-seat: Buddy Bell, Ozzie Guillen
NL Manager first fired/hot-seat: Charlie Manuel

AL Playoffs:
ALDS
Indians over Blue Jays
Yankees over Angels

ALCS
Indians over Yankees

NLDS
Braves over Diamondbacks
Astros over Phillies

NLCS
Braves over Astros

World Series
Cleveland Indians over Atlanta Braves in 6 games
“Getting revenge for the 1995 World Series”