« And now.. the National League »

NL EAST
1. Marlins Can't count 'em out again, even if they lost Urbina, Derrek Lee and Pudge
2. Phillies This will be the Big Ten of baseball divisions... competitive but the records won't look great. Philly has enough offense to finish 2nd
3. Braves Where'd everyone go?
4. Expos Always competitive, never good enough to pick better than fourth.
5. Mets If the 2003 Tigers couldn't break the 62 Mets record, maybe the 04 Mets can try.

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NL CENTRAL
1. Astros More built for the regular season than the Cubbies
2. Cubs Rotation and bullpen are strong enough to make the World Series
3. Cardinals Pujols and...
4. Pirates It gets bad after St. Louis, but I think the Pirates have enough talent.
5. Brewers Counsell, Overbay, Moeller, Spivey... Wait, these aren't the Diamondbacks?
6. Reds Great outfield, but not a single pitcher

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NL WEST
1. Diamondbacks I have to. Randy Johnson's back, and the young players are more experienced.
2. Padres Bochy's been there long enough, and Brian Giles and Phil Nevin are due
3. Dodgers Their biggest moves were Juan Encarnacion and Jeff Weaver... ex-Tigers
4. Giants Barry Bonds and...
5. Rockies Todd Helton will never make the playoffs in Colorado.

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I said the Astros would win the NL Central, so let's give the Wild Card to Chicago.

NLDS: Cubs d. Marlins (They don't let Bartman in the same area code as this series
Astros d. D-Backs (Will this be the year to break the curse of Kenneth Lay?)
NLCS: Cubs d. Astros (Both teams have wonderful rotations, Cubs have better bullpen)

World Series: Cubs d. Angels in 5 games (The Rally Monkey was a coincidence. Rally Mule this time?)

HARDWARE
AL Manager: Alan Trammell, for making the Tigers win at least 75 games, which is a great turnaround for them.
NL Manager: Jimy Williams (Astros), for winning that division over the Cubs.
AL Cy Young: Pedro Martinez, because he's really good
NL Cy Young: Kerry Wood, because he's good too.
AL Best Player: Vladmir Guererro, who finally gets some West coast exposure after playing baseball in fron of French Canada's invisible fans.
NL Best Player: Albert Pujols, who finally surpasses Bonds for an MVP award. He's built to win more in his career than Bonds as well.
- posted by Suss @ 12:37 AM | Permanent Link To This Post