The first rule in making baseball predictions is to expect the unexpected.<\/p>\n
Don’t go with last year’s winners, popular favorites, or big-money ballclubs. Unless they deserve it, of course.<\/p>\n
Now that we’ve gotten past the obvious rules, there are the string of unknowns that can pop up anywhere during the course of a 162-game schedule, not to mention the six-week spring training period that precedes it.<\/p>\n
Just look at the Philadelphia Phillies, licking their chops after landing Cliff Lee for the second time but licking their wounds after Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, Domonic Brown, and Brad Lidge dropped onto the disabled list before the season started.<\/p>\n
Nobody knows what rookies will thrive, what veterans will flop, or what key players will suffer serious injuries — or how long they will be out.<\/p>\n
Depth matters, in both the majors and minors, and that’s why the 2011 standings will look like this:<\/p>\n
NL East: Braves, Phils, Marlins, Mets, Nationals<\/p>\n
NL Central: Brewers, Reds, Cards, Cubs, Astros, Pirates<\/p>\n
NL West: Rockies, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks<\/p>\n
AL East: Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Blue Jays, Rays<\/p>\n
AL Central: Twins, Tigers, White Sox, Royals, Indians<\/p>\n
AL West: Angels, Rangers, Athletics, Mariners<\/p>\n
NLCS: Braves over Rockies<\/p>\n
ALCS: Twins over Red Sox<\/p>\n
World Series: Braves over Twins<\/p>\n
That’s right: exactly 20 years after Atlanta and Minnesota met in a seven-game Fall Classic that paired the first worst-to-first teams in baseball history, they will meet again — with different results. The Braves will have the home-field advantage, thanks to another victory in All-Star play, and that will be the difference.<\/p>\n
Other things to watch for this summer:<\/p>\n
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for Yahoo! Sports, LatinoSports.com, Seamheads.com, and Braves Banter, a weekly podcast on BlogTalkRadio. He is the author of 35 baseball books.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first rule in making baseball predictions is to expect the unexpected. Don’t go with last year’s winners, popular favorites, or big-money ballclubs. Unless they deserve it, of course. Now that we’ve gotten past the obvious rules, there are the string of unknowns that can pop up anywhere during the course of a 162-game schedule, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4235],"tags":[1301,1481,21225,5108,14072,12408,480,459,11610,3641,9198,3709,13659,3946,2088,461,6826,14074,4634,1100,1485,12144,3910,2379,457,2200,2507,466,458,784,588,7009,8535,7016,3492,14073,1051],"class_list":["post-13207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-adrian-beltre","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-baseball-history","tag-baseball-predictions","tag-belly-flop","tag-bernie-madoff","tag-brad-lidge","tag-braves","tag-carlos-gonzalez","tag-chase-utley","tag-cliff-lee","tag-dan-uggla","tag-domonic","tag-game-schedule","tag-home-field-advantage","tag-jason-heyward","tag-javier-vazquez","tag-jeter","tag-joe-torre","tag-johnny-damon","tag-manny-ramirez","tag-martin-prado","tag-mets","tag-nl-central","tag-nl-east","tag-nl-west","tag-nlcs","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-phillies","tag-placido-polanco","tag-red-sox","tag-red-sox-world-series","tag-red-sox-yankees","tag-sox-world","tag-twins","tag-worst-to-first","tag-yankees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t