I originally had intentions to do this exact post yesterday afternoon which was when the divisions were supposed to be locked up and the postseason field was supposed to be set.
However, my years of watching baseball have taught me to expect the unexpected at all times. Still, I don't think anybody foresaw 2 tiebreaker games taking place yesterday to determine the winners of the NL Central and the NL West, but that's exactly what happened.
The Brewers locked up the NL Central with a 3-1 win over the Cubs in Chicago, much to my chagrin. The Cubbies get to stay right where they are as they're set to play the Rockies, who lost to the Dodgers 5-2, tonight in the NL Wild Card game.
With the postseason officially underway tonight, I thought I'd look back at what my original 2018 MLB predictions were from all the way back in early March. Going into today, I hadn't looked at these since I created them, and there a bound to be some predictions that'll make me scratch my head at what exactly I was thinking when I made these predictions 7 months ago.
I have 6 divisions to cover today along with Award Winners predictions that are almost certainly not going to pan out come November when they're announced, so I'll likely just stick to the division predictions. Starting with the AL East, let's see how I did.
AL East
Original Predictions;
1st Place; New York Yankees
2nd Place; Boston Red Sox
3rd Place; Tampa Bay Rays
4th Place; Baltimore Orioles
5th Place; Toronto Blue Jays
2018 Final Standings
1st Place; Boston Red Sox
2nd Place; New York Yankees
3rd Place; Tampa Bay Rays
4th Place; Toronto Blue Jays
5th Place; Baltimore Orioles
I can't say I was all that close with the AL East, but I also had very good reasoning for picking the Yankees back in March with the significance of the Giancarlo Stanton trade fresh in many people's minds. It was hard to pick them over Boston, but it was thrilling to see the season the Red Sox had and watch them prove me wrong. I got the Rays right, but I had more faith in the Orioles than I should've given their dismal 47-115 record to end the season.
AL Central
Original Predictions;
1st Place; Cleveland Indians
2nd Place; Minnesota Twins
3rd Place; Kansas City Royals
4th Place; Chicago White Sox
5th Place; Detroit Tigers
2018 Final Standings
1st Place; Cleveland Indians
2nd Place; Minnesota Twins
3rd Place; Detroit Tigers
4th Place; Chicago White Sox
5th Place; Kansas City Royals
When you have 3 teams finishing the year with a win percentage under .400, you have a recipe for the easiest division in baseball today and one of the easiest divisions we've seen in many years. This meant that it was pretty easy to get 1st and 2nd place correct, but it was the final 3 teams that I struggled on. A simple switch of the Tigers and Royals back in March would've made this division perfect, but I really did come awfully close on this one.
AL West
Original Predictions;
1st Place; Houston Astros
2nd Place; Seattle Mariners
3rd Place; Los Angeles Angels
4th Place; Texas Rangers
5th Place; Oakland Athletics
2018 Final Standings
1st Place; Houston Astros
2nd Place; Oakland Athletics
3rd Place; Seattle Mariners
4th Place; Los Angeles Angels
5th Place; Texas Rangers
I realize it was easy to over-hype the Angels and disregard the A's, but it kind of makes you feel stupid when a team finished the year with a .599 win percentage that you predicted to finish last in the division. I'm happy that I saw the Angels less than spectacular season coming and the improvement of the Mariners as well, but I can't get over that I actually thought that "the A's are an absolute mess praying for that one young player to save their franchise.
Don't believe me? Check out my AL West predictions.
NL East
Original Predictions;
1st Place; Washington Nationals
2nd Place; Philadelphia Phillies
3rd Place; New York Mets
4th Place; Atlanta Braves
5th Place; Miami Marlins
2018 Final Standings;
1st Place; Atlanta Braves
2nd Place; Washington Nationals
3rd Place; Philadelphia Phillies
4th Place; New York Mets
5th Place; Miami Marlins
Among the many statements that were later proven false in my NL East division predictions, some of the highlights included that the Nationals would have no trouble winning the division and that the Braves would experience another year of rebuilding. Granted, it was hard to see this level of success coming for Atlanta, but it seems ridiculous to have them as far off as 4th. The Nationals only reached 2nd place in the last couple weeks. Before then, the Phillies seemed to have secured the 2nd spot in the NL East. And the Marlins did what they were expected to do. Nothing more nothing less.
NL Central
Original Predictions;
1st Place; Milwaukee Brewers
2nd Place; Chicago Cubs
3rd Place; St. Louis Cardinals
4th Place; Cincinnati Reds
5th Place; Pittsburgh Pirates
2018 Final Standings;
1st Place; Milwaukee Brewers
2nd Place; Chicago Cubs
3rd Place; St. Louis Cardinals
4th Place; Pittsburgh Pirates
5th Place; Cincinnati Reds
It didn't feel good to be right about the winner of the NL Central, but I had a feeling the Cubs' reign couldn't last forever, especially when they lost Jake Arrieta to free agency and Kris Bryant missed almost half of the season. Despite that, the NL Central has been my most accurate division so far, having only the 4th and 5th place teams wrong. If I had just flipped the Pirates and Reds back in March, who ended up being many games apart, I could've had a perfect NL Central division prediction.
NL West
Original Predictions;
1st Place; Los Angeles Dodgers
2nd Place; Arizona Diamondbacks
3rd Place; Colorado Rockies
4th Place; San Francisco Giants
5th Place; San Diego Padres
2018 Final Standings;
1st Place; Los Angeles Dodgers
2nd Place; Colorado Rockies
3rd Place; Arizona Diamondbacks
4th Place; San Francisco Giants
5th Place; San Diego Padres
Just like the AL Central and NL Central, it was the incorrect placement of 2 teams that, if swapped, would've made my predictions 100% accurate. This time, the Rockies and Diamondbacks who were neck-and-neck for most of the last 2 seasons, were the 2 teams that I predicted incorrectly. After yesterday's tiebreaker, the Rockies officially finished 2nd and the Diamondbacks secured 3rd place days before. As for the rest of the division, I didn't have to think too much about those teams.
Even though I was pretty far off in some divisions, I was 1 swap away from perfection in 3 of the divisions which would've made my predictions 50% correct. It definitely benefited me to look back at what I did wrong as well as to see what teams already seem primed for a successful 2019 season.
I think you did pretty well
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