Twins/MLB 2019 Predictions

Twins: 86-76

I kind of like how this team seems so hard to really predict. New manager, lot of new coaches, new players, no Mauer or Dozier. It's a new era for sure.

I thought this was a wild card team last year, but everything went wrong basically from the start. Nearly everything they were counting on flopped. BUT...they still won a respectable 78 games.

This team should score a lot of runs. Add Cruz, Gonzalez, Cron and Schoop, all of whom should be offensive upgrades over what we had in 2018 at the same positions. Rosario and Polanco are the 2 most established returning guys. Then you have Kepler and Buxton, of whom hopefully at least 1 has a breakout season. I'm not sure how much Sano will even be missed.

I'm not totally convinced the pitching will hold up. Berrios and Gibson both seemed to run out of gas late in the season last year, but both are pitching to get paid this year. Hopefully Odorizzi gives them a lot more than last year. Then you have Pineda and Perez as the x-factors. Both had really good springs fwiw. The Twins likely NEED 4 quality starters to win the division. The bullpen kind of just has a bunch of okay arms, and no firm closer, although closer by committee could work.

The guess here is that Rocco Baldelli provides a spark that Molitor didn't have. The lineup hits a lot of homeruns. Buxton doesn't have quite the amazing breakout fans want, but he establishes himself finally as a solid player. The other young core guys all have solid to excellent seasons. They get at least solid work from the back end of the rotation. The bullpen struggles without having really been notably improved. The weak division helps, as Cleveland is the only other good team in it. The Twins should be in the mix in both playoff races.

MLB PREDICTIONS:

AL EAST:
1. YANKEES
2. RED SOX
3. RAYS
4. BLUE JAYS
5. ORIOLES

Kind of the same old thing here. Boston was a machine last year but my pessimism tells me the Yankees take the division this time. Tampa will be their scrappy selves. Toronto is not a contender, and Baltimore could be the worst team in baseball.

AL CENTRAL:
1. INDIANS
2. TWINS
3. WHITE SOX
4. TIGERS
5. ROYALS

Indians eek out the division over the Twins, but it'll be a race. The other 3 teams will again be pretty far off.

AL WEST:
1. ASTROS
2. ANGELS
3. ATHLETICS
4. MARINERS
5. RANGERS

Houston is still far and away the best team here. The Angels get a boost from getting Ohtani back. I don't trust the A's smoke and mirrors. Seattle will be bad. And the Rangers #1 starter is Lance Lynn. So yeah.

NL EAST:
1. PHILLIES
2. BRAVES
3. NATIONALS
4. METS
5. MARLINS

The Braves won pretty much unchallenged last year. But now the Phillies have Bryce Harper hitting in that Philly bandbox. Nationals still should be in the mix. Mets and Marlins are irrelevant.

NL CENTRAL:
1. CUBS
2. BREWERS
3. CARDINALS
4. REDS
5. PIRATES

Any of the top 3 could win this division. Flip a coin basically. I give the slight edge to the Cubs. Milwaukee looked like a sure NL champ late last year but fell short. The Cardinals haven't had consecutive down years since, I think, the dead ball era. The Reds can mash a little and the Pirates are scrappy but neither have a chance.

NL WEST:
1. ROCKIES
2. DODGERS
3. PADRES
4. DIAMONDBACKS
5. GIANTS

Do the Dodgers have it in them for another run after losing 2 straight World Series? I'm going with the Rockies to dethrone them. The other 3 teams are kind of interchangeable, but maybe adding Manny Machado gives the Padres the edge.

PLAYOFFS:
AL WILD CARD: Red Sox over Twins
ALDS: Astros over Red Sox, Yankees over Indians
ALCS: Yankees over Astros

NL WILD CARD: Brewers over Cardinals
NLDS: Cubs over Phillies, Rockies over Brewers
NLCS: Cubs over Rockies

WORLD SERIES:
Yankees over Cubs. Yeah, I picked the same thing last year. Frankly we have been too lucky to not have the Yankees win one. If they don't win this year it'll be their 1st decade since the 1980's without a title(and they haven't failed to win a pennant in a whole decade since the 1910's).