Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
Here is the way I see the teams shaking out.
AL EAST
Red Sox
Yankees (4 games back)
Devil Rays 10
Blue Jays 10
Orioles 17
AL CENTRAL
White Sox
Twins 6
Tigers 8
Royals 15
Indians 17
AL WEST
Angels
A's 5
Rangers 14
Mariners 30
NL EAST
Phillies
Mets 2
Braves 3
Marlins 4
Nationals 23
NL CENTRAL
Cubs
Brewers 4
Cards 10
Reds 10
Astros 10
Pirates 12
NL WEST
D-backs
Dodgers 1
Giants 3
Padres 4
Rockies 7
I think the home team advantage trend continues. The Twins and D-Rays have played 50 games at home to lead the majors. Of contending teams, the White Sox (45) have played the least home games. (The Orioles have played just 41, so their first schedule was brutal.)
I will take the Yankees and Brewers as wild card teams. I will stick to my pre-season champ of the Angels. I didn't make NL pre-season picks because I thought all the teams were pretty flawed. I believe the Cubs are the one quality team in the NL, but they are the Cubs, so I will take the Phillies to lose in the World Series.
Now what does the Toaster do with the mandatory fine Scott has to pay for reverting to the banned old name of the Tampa team?
The team is fundamentally more talented than an all-star squad of the two clubs combined.
Teams that are playing well defensively and have deep starting pitching rarely fall off a cliff.
I just can't see them falling more than a couple games short of .500 in the season's last ten.
By the way, I suspect the A's fall more than 5 games behind, considering they have traded Blanton and Harden. Should have factored that in.
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