Opening Day is here. Here is a recap of everything you need to know about the weird rules of the 60-game season. Here is everything you may have missed or forgotten if you haven’t paid much attention to baseball since last October. And here are capsule previews of all 30 teams. Now let’s be dumb and do some MLB 2020 predictions.
It’s silly enough to predict the outcome of a baseball season in which over 2,400 baseball games are played by over a thousand players, all of whom are subject to injury and/or wild variation from past performance or reasonable expectations. This year, with only 900 total games being played you might think it’s easier, but I think the opposite is true. The fewer the games the more chance for random fluctuation and, frankly, weirdness.
All of which to say is that Bill and I totally shooting in the dark here. I wouldn’t be surprised if literally anything happened. Well, maybe not a Tigers-Marlins World Series, but there are fewer possibilities I will rule out for this odd spring of a partial year than I’ll consider at least superficially plausible.
With those disclaimers out of the way, here are our MLB 2020 predictions:
BILL’S PREDICTIONS
AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Chicago White Sox
AL West: Houston Astros
AL Wild Cards: Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics
NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Cards: St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds
POSTSEASON (assuming no expanded playoffs)
AL WC: Twins defeat Athletics
NL WC: Cardinals defeat Reds
ALDS: Yankees defeat Twins in 3 games
ALDS: White Sox defeat Astros in 5 games
NLDS: Dodgers defeat Cardinals in 3 games
NLDS: Nationals defeat Cubs in 4 games
ALCS: Yankees defeat White Sox in 5 games
NLCS: Dodgers defeat Nationals in 6 games
World Series: Yankees defeat Dodgers in 6 games
AWARDS
AL MVP: Alex Bregman (Astros)
NL MVP: Juan Soto (Nationals)
AL Cy Young: Gerrit Cole (Yankees)
NL Cy Young: Walker Buehler (Dodgers)
AL Rookie of the Year: Luis Robert (White Sox)
NL Rookie of the Year: Nico Hoerner (Cubs)
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS
AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Minnesota Twins
AL West: Houston Astros
AL Wild Cards: Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics
NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Cards: Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs
POSTSEASON (assuming no expanded playoffs)
AL WC: Rays defeat Athletics
NL WC: Braves defeat Cubs
ALDS: Yankees defeat Twins in 4 games
ALDS: Rays defeat Astros in 5 games
NLDS: Dodgers defeat Braves in 4 games
NLDS: Reds defeat Nationals in 5 games
ALCS: Yankees defeat Rays in 7 games
NLCS: Dodgers defeat Reds in 5 games
World Series: Dodgers defeat Yankees in 6 games
AWARDS
AL MVP: Mike Trout (Angels)
NL MVP: Ronald Acuña Jr. (Braves)
AL Cy Young: Gerrit Cole (Yankees)
NL Cy Young: Max Scherzer (Nationals)
AL Rookie of the Year: Jesús Luzardo (Athletics)
NL Rookie of the Year: Gavin Lux (Dodgers)
There they are: MLB 2020 predictions. Guaranteed to be 100% accurate or your money back.
