The Philadelphia Phillies open the 2016 MLB season on Monday, April 4th while six other clubs open up today and we present our TBOH predictions for the season.
Our annual process of polling the staff here at TBOH as to their predictions for the coming season has been completed, and so we’re rolling out those picks in a series of pieces.
The TBOH staff will reveal our cumulative staff choice, as well as our individual picks, for the order of finish in each of Major League Baseball’s six divisions, the two Wildcard teams from each league, and our World Series favorites.
To determine the staff cumulative pick for each division, I took the predicted order of finish from each of our writers and assigned a numerical value. Teams picked for first place received one point, teams picked to finish in fifth received five points. Thus, the lower your overall total points, the higher your predicted finish. The total points are listed next to each team name.
We’ll also be revealing our staffers picks for the Most Valuable Player Award in both the National and American Leagues, as well as the Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year Award winners in both leagues.
Finally, our staffers have chosen their MLB manager who is most likely to become the first casualty of the season, the first to be fired this year.
Enjoy our picks, and we would love to hear your own. Please feel free to leave your choices in a comment. We’ll be sure to read them.
AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST DIVISION – Staff cumulative pick
- Toronto Blue Jays (8) – our nearly unanimous choice, only questions about their pitching from one voter kept them from that designation
- Boston Red Sox (16) – if they had one more starting pitcher beyond David Price, the Bosox might be division favorites in David Ortiz‘ finale
- New York Yankees (18) – if they stay healthy in the rotation and with their veteran hitters such as Alex Rodriguez, they could win the division
- Baltimore Orioles (31) – Buck Showalter‘s club has plenty of hitting in Chris Davis, Manny Machado, Adam Jones, not enough arms to contend
- Tampa Bay Rays (32) – the opposite of the O’s, plenty of pitching as usual, but just not enough hitting after Evan Longoria to contend
Matt Veasey – Boston, Toronto, New York, Baltimore, Tampa Bay
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Ethan Witte – Toronto, Boston, New York, Tampa Bay, Baltimore
Mike Azzalina – Toronto, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Tampa Bay
Alexis Girardo – Toronto, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Tampa Bay
Tyler DiSalle – Toronto, New York, Boston, Tampa Bay, Baltimore
Ryan Gerstel – Toronto, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Tampa Bay
David Mosemann – Toronto, Boston, New York, Tampa Bay, Baltimore