2008 MLB Season Preview

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Filed on March 24th, 2008 in Baseball, Picks ⋅ ⋅

The 2008 MLB season kicks off tonight the way it should — at three in the morning. As I’ve said many times, nothing beats live sports in the middle of the night. That makes tonight the Australian Open of baseball, and I for one, am happy about it.

The easy thing to do is for everyone to say that the season opener in Japan features the favorite to win the World Series again in the Red Sox. The hard thing to do is to make me buy into that. The Sox are a strong team, but I believe they will take a step back this year.

Curt Schilling won’t see the field until the middle of the season, Josh Beckett is already hurt, Papi and Manny limped home last year and are an injury waiting to happen this year. I see where the talent is on this team, but I think this is the year that it all falls apart — at least enough to knock them off of the top of the AL East.

I’m picking the Yankees to bounce back and take that division. There is no way they can have as many injuries as they did last year, and they are otherwise the same team that they were. They still have Pettitte, Wang, A-Rod, Jeter and the rest of the band. They should get a full season out of Philip Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. Their young guys like Melky and Cano are just going to get better, and they should have learned their lesson last year with Mussina and Damon. I like the Yanks to bounce back in 2008.

In the rest of the AL, the Tigers just look too strong for their division. They were quite good last year, and added Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. I expect them to cruise in the Central, and the Angels to take the AL West in a tightly grouped division.

In the National League, I think the Mets are the best team on paper. They should be able to not choke away the NL East, but I strongly believe that they will fail in the playoffs. I do not buy into Willie Randolph as a good manager, and I think this team will underachieve once again.

I am very interested in the NL Central. I think both the Cubs and the Brewers have playoff teams, and I can’t wait to see how that division plays out. In the NL West, I think last year’s young D’Backs team will age into a solid perennial playoff team. The addition of Dan Haren is huge. If the D’Backs can get 15 decent starts out of Randy Johnson, they win the West.

As for individuals, I think A-Rod goes back to .300/38/115, which is still pretty damn good, but I don’t think he whiffs 50 homers this year. I think Magglio Ordonez drops about 30 points off of last years average, but his doubles and RBIs will score him the MVP. Johan Santana should dominate the National League. The hitting is weaker to begin with, and now he gets to face a pitcher every nine batters. While I think that David Wright will take the MVP due to his team winning the division, I expect Hanley Ramirez to have the best statistical year in the league. If the Marlins can win 80-85 games somehow, than he has a shot at the MVP, otherwise he’ll lose it to a guy that is on a playoff team.

So, on to my official predictions for the 2008 Major League Baseball season…