Those Rays faux-backs are hot fire.

the n.l. east standngs look like theyre flipped upside down from what you'd expect

Let's analyze Monga's predictions (my comments in parentheticals)



My own

2012 preseason power rankings:

~95-100 wins
Texas Rangers (D) (dead on)
New York Yankees (D) (going to win the division)

~90-94 wins
Los Angeles Angels (WC 1) (well maybe not wild card 1 but they'll be close)
Philadelphia Phillies (D) (whoops)
Tampa Bay Rays (WC 2) (feeling pretty comfortable here)
Wahsington Nationals (WC 1) (hey I wasn't too far off)

~85-89 wins
Detroit Tigers (D - bad division helps tremendously) (well it would if they weren't playing so shitty)
Atlanta Braves (WC 2) (feeling pretty good about this too)
St. Louis Cardinals (D) (I feel like they can still end up here)
Boston Red Sox (man they've been killed by injuries)
Arizona Diamondbacks (D) (whoops - in retrospect should have paid attention to the flukiness of last year)

~80-84 wins
Toronto Blue Jays (about right)
San Fran Giants (can't trust the offense a lick) (well the offense is a little better but still about right)
Miami Marlins (I may have been a little too optimistic but compared to most others pretty on the money)
Milwaukee Brewers (too optimistic)
Cleveland Indians (about right)

~75-79 wins
Kansas City Royals (about right)
Cincinnati Reds (too pessimistic)
Pittsburgh Pirates (About right)
Colorado Rockies (thanks Troy)

~70-74 wins
LA Dodgers (well who saw this?)
Minnesota Twins (whoops)
New York Mets (double whoops)

~65-69 wins (This whole section other than the Mariners and the Pads is a big miss)
Chicago Cubs
Seattle Mariners
Baltimore Orioles
Chicago White Sox
San Diego Padres

~60-64 wins
Oakland A's (whoops)

~50-59 wins
Houston Astros (whoops)

Monga gets the ballsiest call award with the Nationals (I'll get my half share). I correctly called the Marlins being middling (so far anyway). Other than Philly and Arizona my playoff projections are looking pretty solid.

Don't completely count out the Phillies yet. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but there's a shot.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... p&c_id=mlb

Bad evaluation of Washington but basically correct on the rest of the division. But what isn't really explained is how they're going to significantly improve their play.

The hope would be a boost from players coming back from injury. Also, the top of the Phillies lineup has been hot lately. Combine that with the team traditionally being stronger in the second half of the season. I'm not saying it's going to happen and they would need some help from the rest of the division, but I think they can do it.

I don't think you're going to get much of anything from Howard. I question whether Utley can even play for a full year. And of course Halladay would be crucial. It also doesn't help that you've got about the dumbest tactical manager in baseball on your team.

I'm not convinced Utley and Howard will make a huge impact on this season either, mostly just cuz of the health concerns. They're 8.5 back now, but their pythag record is just 3.5 games worse than Atlanta and Washington. I personally don't expect Washington's insane pitching to hold up for the rest of the year, and their offense is terrible- significantly worse than Philly's. Atlanta's lineup is pretty impressive but they just lost their best pitcher for the rest of the year, and I'm not very confident in the rest of the rotation; Hanson as a number 1? Nah son nah. The Mets and especially the Marlins are a level below Philly imo, and I expect they'll both fall back to the cellar gradually. I think if Halladay comes back and pitches well, and perhaps if the team picks up another bullpen arm to go with Bastardo and Papsmear, then they've got as good a chance as anyone else to win the division. 8.5 is a long, long way to go, but three months is an eternity.

All that said, motherFUCK the Phillies, man.

ya the sox are 5.5 out of the division now but theyre playing really well heading into the break. also getting their best hitter and a legitimate closer should give them a push. crawford has the ability to do some good things too. i think they'll be at least in the discussion for the wild card with about 90 wins. trading youk and maybe someone else like sweeney to maybe the cubs for garza will help them a lot.

also, think its kind of ridiculous that david ortiz has all this criticism on the sox when a few years ago he was stuggling to get his average up to .200. took him a couple years to revover from the juice but its certainly payed off. by far the best player of the team right now

Yeah they are and given the injury trouble they've had this year that's a minor miracle. Don't think they can catch the Yankees or Rays (who also have their own injury troubles) but I expect them to make it interesting. I don't think you can afford to trade Sweeney though.

i think they can. once they get ellsbury and crawford back they'll have ross, kalish, nava, and podsednik to platoon in right field. sweeney has been really great this year though, hes a double machine. i think hes worth giving up to get something good in return. he is on the dl right now so it might be hard to trade him anyways.

what's been cool about watching the Giants this season is remembering last year how they didn't really have a specific part of their lineup that pitchers wouldn't want to face. Maybe I'm exaggerating this in hindsight (any interesting stats, monga?), but I recall it being basically 8 .250 hitters in a row and then the pitcher. But this year, Cabrera, Posey, Pagan, Sandoval, that's a legitimately dangerous stretch in the lineup, especially if Belt keeps hitting.

Well I don't really know if Garza is worth that (but you're right they do have a crowd). Cubs won't take Youk for Garza though. Youk isn't the type of player they want or need in their rebuilding. If I were the Sox I'd target Dempster over Garza because he'll be cheaper.