2013 Predictions

AL EAST

1. Toronto Blue Jays (90-72)
2. Tampa Bay Rays* (87-75)
3. New York Yankees (83-79)
4. Boston Red Sox (80-82)
5. Baltimore Orioles (77-85)

AL CENTRAL

1. Detroit Tigers (93-69)
2. Cleveland Indians (82-80)
3. Kansas City Royals (79-83)
4. Chicago White Sox (77-85)
5. Minnesota Twins (66-96)

 AL WEST

1. Los Angeles Angels (93-69) 
2. Texas Rangers* (91-71) 
3. Oakland Athletics (83-79)
4. Seattle Mariners (76-86)
5. Houston Astros (56-106)

    NL EAST

1. Washington Nationals (95-67)
2. Atlanta Braves* (91-71)
3. Philadelphia Phillies (79-83)
4. New York Mets (72-90)
5. Miami Marlins (65-97)

  NL CENTRAL

1. Cincinnati Reds (92-70)
2. St. Louis Cardinals* (89-73)
3. Milwaukee Brewers (80-82)
4. Pittsburgh Pirates (76-86)
5. Chicago Cubs (68-94)

  NL WEST

1. San Francisco Giants (90-72)
2. Los Angeles Dodgers (88-74)
3. Arizona Diamondbacks (86-76)
4. San Diego Padres (79-83)
5. Colorado Rockies (68-94)

POSTSEASON

1995 World Baseball Classic

While watching the World Baseball Classic, I couldn’t help but consider what this would have looked like in the past. Two hours later, I had come up with a provisional roster for the WBC if it had taken place in 1995.

I chose the year basically at random. The first WBC was in 2006, so I started out just going back a decade. But then I thought that it would make sense to have the first WBC in ‘95 (in the summer, say) as a way for the industry to apologize for the player’s strike.

I did the best I could to determine nationality for each roster, but it was difficult, as I was just going through Baseball Reference and clicking on players to find out their nationality. After I was nearly done, I found this tremendously helpful page at Baseball Almanac which shows a list of players’ nationality by year. It almost saved me a lot of trouble.