Crunch Time

Back in March I made my bold predictions for the pennant races, and primary post season player awards, and for the seventieth consecutive year, I'm not even going to be close. I'm ok with that because I might get a couple right and that will give me a better record than ninety percent of the professional guessers covering baseball. Yes I suck, but not as much as the other guys.

I'll get the player stuff out of the way first.

I had Paul Skenes winning the Cy Young in the NL and Tarik Skubal in the AL. Skenes has had a terrible year and he will not win it while Tarik is not even in the AL anymore and he won't win it either.

My MVP guesses had Alex Bregman in the NL and Bobbie Witt in the AL. Bregman is making a comeback but his teammate will be the winner instead, while Witt was unlucky enough to be on a team that stunk up the joint this year, so he's toast.

And finally my Rookie of the Year picks will be half right. Kevin McGonigle likely will be the AL winner but Konner Giffin is on milk cartons in the NL.

It is a mixed bag on my pennant races. (I'll highlight my choices in bold)

Tampa, Chicago, and who knows will be the division champs in the American League. The wild card looks like New York, Boston, and any one of four teams will get the final spot. I had Texas advancing to the World Series and they still might but it looks dim for that dream.

I was slightly better here. Atlanta, Milwaukee, and the Dodgers look like locks for divisions titles. Chicago, Philadelphia, and either San Diego or Arizona will be the wild card winners. I had Chicago and Philadelphia winning their divisions so I was close, they will be in the playoffs. A Texas/Cubs world series looks unlikely.

My point in all this is that September starts the official crunch time for baseball teams to make their playoff runs. And just like the season has unfolded, it appears that nobody wants to make them. Winning teams are being swept by lesser teams. Teams that made big moves at the trade deadline to improve their teams are looking for a life raft, and teams that have been piddling along all year continue to do so.

In the AL we might even have a sub .500 record team make the playoffs, as a division champ. I mean, come on. The NL has all but the final wild card spot mostly wrapped up while the AL is down to their last six team still having a chance to advance. Crazy.

The preseason pick to run away with the title, the Dodgers, have struggled all year and look very beatable, so I'm going to say we will not have a threepeat this year. In many ways this has been one of the more exciting season for baseball in a while but at the same time it has been excruciatingly boring for most of the year.

I will continue to follow the season until the bitter end and will be very ready for the post season when it gets exciting again. I hope.