100 Second-Half MLB Predictions – Sports On Earth

In exactly 89 days, the 2016 Major League Baseball regular season will (probably) end. Every question you still have will be answered. But why wait that long? Here are 100 predictions for the second half of the baseball season:

1. A whole bunch of All-Stars are going to get made fun of by their teammates when they get back to the clubhouse for this story.
    
2. To be fair, the people ribbing them will be wearing jock straps and muscle tees, so, you know, what do they know?
    
3. No one will bring up that the American League has home-field advantage in the World Series, not once.
    
4. Every Orioles fan is going to be nervous the other shoe is going to drop, and they will fall out of first place for good.
    
5. It won’t happen in July.
    
6. It won’t happen in August.
    
7. It will in September.
    
8. The Red Sox will trade for Rich Hill, something we’ve all known would happen since, what, May?
    
9. David Ortiz will end up reaching his 40 homers.
    
10. In his last game at Fenway Park, Ortiz will make a speech in which he jokes about returning in 2017, but then admits he won’t.
     
11. He’ll probably curse in the speech, and we’ll all love it, because it’s Ortiz.
     
12. The Blue Jays — who are still the Baseball Prospectus Playoff Odds Report favorites to win this division  — will keep hoping their hitters will stay hot enough to make up for the pitching.
     
13. It will turn out to be an unfortunate year for a contending team needing to trade for pitching at the break, because it’s pretty much just Hill. And he’s going to Boston.
     
14. Thus, the Blue Jays will fall short, and the sendoff for Jose Bautista — who will sign elsewhere in the offseason — will sadly pale in comparison to Ortiz’s.
     
15. The only playoff team in the AL East will be Boston.
     
16. The Yankees will go 8-6 for a couple of weeks and convince themselves they’re still contenders.
     
17. Thus, they’ll stand pat and not trade either Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman. Or, for that matter, Carlos Beltran.
     
18. After the Trade Deadline passes, a couple of Yankees veterans will get hurt, and it will all fall apart. The Yankees will have hung on to their assets and still end up out of the playoffs.
     
19. Way out of the playoffs, actually: This will be the first season since 1992 that the Yankees will finish under .500.
     
20. It’s gonna get worse next year.
     
21. The Rays will finish in last place, but it will still be so much better than the pre-2009 world.
     
22. Plus, hey, Evan Longoria’s great again! And maybe you can trade Matt Moore?

23. It will be just the Indians’ luck that the year they have their best chance to win a championship for their town, the Cavaliers went and won one before them.
     
24. The Indians will still win the division, holding off a late charge by the Tigers.
     
25. Oh, yes, the Tigers: Detroit will be boosted dramatically by a second-half explosion from Justin Upton, who is way too talented to play like he did in the first half.
     
26. Buoyed by Upton’s resurgence, the Tigers will be one of the best stories of the second half, having the best record in the American League, even if it’s not enough to catch the Indians.
     
27. Ultimately, the Tigers will win one of the two AL Wild Cards.
     
28. Tigers fans will wonder if this is their 2006 Cardinals year, the end of a run of successful teams that’s not as good as the ones in the past but still gets hot at exactly the right time.
     
29. And it’ll be close.
     
30. Twins prospect Jose Berrios comes up in August and dominates like he has been in Triple-A the past few weeks.
     
31. It’s the only real reason to go to Target Field, other than the fact that Target Field is awesome.
     
32. Oh, and the Royals. Those Royals.
     
33. The Royals have been pummeled by injuries this year, which statheads say they were due for all along but still is a bummer of a way to have a run of consecutive World Series end.
     
34. Seriously, let’s skip a prediction for a second and pause to reflect on the fact that the Royals made two straight World Series. And won one of them!
     
35. So pour one out for the Royals. Nice run, gentlemen.
     
36. Alex Bregman will become your new favorite Astro, though Carlos Correa and George Springer will also still be your favorite Astros.

37. Houston, which has been the hottest team in baseball for a month or so, will stay hot.
     
38. That’s because of all the bats, but also because the rotation will stabilize. And that’s all the rotation needs to do.
     
39. Thus, the Astros will catch the Rangers and win the division, coming from behind just like the Rangers did last year.
     
40. Yu Darvish, sadly, just won’t quite be what you want him to be all year.
     
41. The Rangers will have a disappointing second half, but it won’t be enough to cost them a Wild Card spot.
     
42. Rougned Odor will get in another fight, but he won’t land anything clean, so no one will be as upset.
     
43. The Mariners, the poor Mariners, will end up a .500 team, which isn’t all that terrible but will feel terrible, considering their hopes coming into this season.
     
44. It’ll get even more worrisome when everybody realizes that Seattle’s right in the middle of a rough contention window, with older players who are still good but aging quickly, and not enough younger stars to help out.
     
45. That’s to say, if the Mariners don’t do it now, this could get ugly.
     
46. And they’re not gonna do it now.
     
47. The A’s will try to trade Sonny Gray, but it sort of feels like that ship has already sailed.
     
48. What has happened to the A’s the last couple of years will keep depressing you.
     
49. Not nearly as much as what’s happening to Mike Trout, though, who will have the best WAR at the end of the year, again, and will end up miles out of the playoffs, again.
     
50. What’s happening to Albert Pujols won’t make you any happier either, for a different reason.
     
51. Your American League MVP will be Jose Altuve.

52. We’ll all be happy for Altuve, and he’ll totally deserve it, but we’ll all secretly know that it should have been Trout, as always.
     
53. Your AL Cy Young winner will be Chris Sale, bravely withstanding the loss of Drake LaRoche.
     
54. Your AL Wild Card Game: Detroit beats Texas, 12-11.
     
55. Your first ALDS: Boston over Detroit in five.
     
56. Your second ALDS: Cleveland over Houston in four.
     
57. Your ALCS: Boston over Cleveland in seven.
     
58. So, the National League! The Nationals will win the NL East by a larger margin than any other team in the NL.
     
59. Max Scherzer — who was fantastic in the ASG, wasn’t he? — will figure out his consistency issues and dominate in the second half.
     
60. Bryce Harper will settle down and kick into 2015 Harper, too.
     
61. Look out, is what I’m saying.
     
62. Thus, the main intrigue in the NL East will come down to who finishes in second: Miami or the Mets?
     
63. This will end up being a bit academic, because neither team is going to end up in the NL Wild Card Game.
     
64. That’s right, sorry Mets fans: All these injuries are going to catch up. Remember, it’s not just the Marlins they’re battling with.
     
65. And there’s just too many balls in the air with that pitching staff, even with Zack Wheeler returning.
     
66. It won’t be over for the Mets, not with that rotation and that front office. But it won’t be 2016 either.
     
67. And the Mets will finish behind the Marlins, who will ride a monster Giancarlo Stanton second half to second place.
     
68. But the Marlins still have too many holes, and the roster is too thin, to hold off other NL Wild Card contenders. And if something happens to either of their two stars, look out below.
     
69. It’ll still be a gas when Ichiro gets his 3,000^th hit.
     
70. The Phillies will play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
71. The Braves will also play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
72. Despite their struggles over the last month, the Cubs will still win the NL Central by at least three games.
     
73. The star of the second half will be Kris Bryant, who might just be the best non-Trout hitter in baseball the next few months.

74. The Cubs’ rotation might get worse, though, because even if Jake Arrieta figures it out and becomes an ace again, the bottom half of the rotation is likely to take a step back.
     
75. They will trade for Will Smith from Milwaukee, who might be their best reliever.
     
76. And they’ll be just fine, and even finish with the best record in the NL.
     
77. The Pirates are in a transitional year, so they won’t make any crazy moves, no matter what happens. Next year is the scariest year for the Pirates.
     
78. So they’ll end up falling a little bit short of the Wild Card. But it might be the last time they miss the playoffs for a while.
     
79. Also, Andrew McCutchen will remain Pittsburgh’s worst outfielder, even though he’ll rebound in the second half.
     
80. The entire Cardinals’ second half will come down to how soon Matt Carpenter comes back. If it’s by Aug. 6, the Cards will win a spot in the Wild Card Game. If not, they’re out.
     
81. The guess here is that he’s back in time, and the offense, which might by then be led by a for-real Aledmys Diaz, will combine with a stable rotation and an improved bullpen (the Cardinals’ one move will be for a reliever) to grab the second Wild Card spot.
     
82. They’ll do this in spite of Mike Matheny, but he’ll still get credit for a fifth-consecutive postseason berth as manager.
     
83. The Brewers will play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
84. The Reds will also play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
85. The Giants might actually have their best team of the last seven years, pretty impressive considering they’ve won three World Series in that time.
     
86. They still might make a trade for an infielder, or an outfielder if Hunter Pence doesn’t come back right, but otherwise, this team is in excellent shape.
     
87. And they’ll need to be in that kind of shape to hold off the Dodgers, who could chase them down if Kershaw comes back immediately and Kenta Maeda and Brandon McCarthy can be a solid No. 2 and 3.
     
88. The offense should improve, too: Don’t be surprised if Yasiel Puig rebounds.
     
89. The Rockies will play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
90. The Padres will also play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
91. The D-backs will also play all the games left on their schedule, unless there is rain.
     
92. Your NL MVP Award winner will be Kris Bryant.
     
93. Your NL Cy Young Award winner will be Clayton Kershaw, shoot, even if he doesn’t come back.
     
94. Your NL Wild Card Game: Dodgers beat Cardinals, 4-1.
     
95. Your first NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers, 3-1.
     
96. Your second NLDS: Giants over Nationals, 3-2.
     
97. We end up with the two World Series dynasties of the last 12 years: the Giants and the Red Sox, who have won six championships between them.
     
98. Madison Bumgarner wins every one of his three starts.

99. But the Red Sox win every other game until Game 7. Fenway Park. Bases loaded. Giants up, 3-1, in the bottom of the ninth. David Ortiz comes to the plate.
     
100. You can choose your own adventure as to what happens next.

* * *
Email me at [email protected]; follow me @williamfleitch; or just shout out your window real loud, I’ll hear you. Point is, let’s talk.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
Recommended article from FiveFilters.org: Most Labour MPs in the UK Are Revolting.