Rise of the Rays

Opening Day is upon us and it is time for the long awaited predictions. I will give mine for all of baseball later in this post, but I would like to do something else first. I was given the opportunity to run a prediction for the Rays using the Out of the Park Baseball software. OOTP is a great baseball simulation game featuring all teams and players. It will officially release on April 14 but I was able to run a prediction today. Here is more info on the game.

I ran 5 simulation seasons using the software. The Rays had an average record of 92 and 70 with a 1.75 average finish. In comparison, the Yankees and Red Sox averaged a win-loss of 95-67. I think the simulation is pretty fair to the Rays, looking past the win-loss. The Rays finished first twice and second twice  with one of the seconds not reaching the playoffs. In the playoffs the Rays lost in the ALDS once and lost in the ALCS twice. I thank OOTP for giving Rise of the Rays the opportunity to use their software for simulation.

Now, on to my predictions. I will predict each division outcome as well as the Rays win-loss and a few other Rays related items after the jump.

Here are the predictions, starting with the NL.

NL West:

1. Rockies
2. Giants
3. Dodgers
4. D-backs
5. Padres

NL Central:

1. Cardinals
2. Cubs
3. Brewers
4. Reds
5. Astros
6. Pirates

NL East:

1. Phillies
2. Braves
3. Marlins
4. Mets
5. Nationals

NL Wild Card: Giants

NLCS: Cardinals vs. Rockies

NL Champ: Cardinals

AL West:

1. Mariners
2. Angels
3. Rangers
4. Athletics

AL Central:

1. Twins
2. White Sox
3. Royals
4. Tigers
5. Indians

AL East:

1. Yankees
2. Rays
3. Red Sox
4. Orioles
5. Toronto

I like the Rays a lot, if its not obvious, but I think we will fly under the radar most of the year and win the wild card. I do see the Rays performing well all year, but I think the Yankees are going to be tough to beat. It would be good if I’m wrong, but I would be happy with second.

AL Wild Card: Rays

ALCS: Rays vs. Yankees

AL Champs: Rays

World Series: Cardinals vs. Rays

WS champs: Rays

I see the Rays prevailing. This is the year and I think everybody in the organization feels the sense of urgency to win this year. I think the Cardinals and Rays are similar teams but the Rays will have guys that will step up and take the series. Now for more Rays related predictions.

Win-Loss: 93-69

Team MVP: Longoria

Best pitcher: Garza

Wins leader: Garza (17)

Home runs leader: Pena(42)

RBI leader: Longoria (113)

Stolen Bases: Crawford(58)

Saves: Rafael Soriano (34)

I see Evan Longoria in the top 3 in MVP voting and Matt Garza in the top 5 in Cy Young voting.

I also see BJ Upton with a huge year and Pat Burrell will bounce back.

That is it. Those are my predictions. We will revisit these to see how I did. I would like to hear your predictions for the year, both for the entire MLB and Rays related. What do you have to say? Who will win the World Series? Where will the Rays finish?