MLB World Series predictions

The baseball season starts tonight when Texas welcomes Houston to the American League, in an 8 PM ET game on ESPN. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage throughout March has at least touched on every team in baseball, and made a pick on their Over/Under win props in Las Vegas. Now, it’s time for the closing arguments, with complete predictions by record and how the playoffs will play out.

One important note about these picks (well, other than the note that reminds you they’ll all blow up in my face and become fodder for late-night comedians). The predicted record here will not always jibe with my Over/Under prediction. The reasons for this are twofold.

The first and most important is that I view the Over/Under prediction about range—putting  a team in a certain window of wins and just picking the side with the most margin for error. The vast majority of the time that precludes picking any team to exceed 95 wins and invites caution. But when doing these picks, we know full well that somebody is going to win 95-plus—perhaps two or three somebodies—so I’ll take my chances and try to identify them.  The second factor is similar and it’s the reminder that I make Over/Under picks in a vacuum, looking only at that team’s competitive value. For these picks, I make sure everyone averages out to .500.

Now, on with the show…

AL EAST
NY Yanks 89-73
Tampa Bay 88-74
Baltimore 86-76
Toronto 84-78
Boston 82-80

AL CENTRAL
Detroit 101-61
Kansas City 85-77
Chicago White Sox 78-84
Minnesota 72-90
Cleveland 65-97

AL WEST
LA Angels 90-72
Oakland 83-79
Texas 79-83
Seattle 74-88
Houston 57-105

NL EAST
Washington 94-68
Philadelphia 89-73
Atlanta 87-75
NY Mets 76-86
Miami 71-91

NL CENTRAL
St. Louis 94-68
Cincinnati 90-72
Milwaukee 84-78
Pittsburgh 70-92
Chicago Cubs 64-98

NL WEST
Arizona 90-72
LA Dodgers 88-74
San Francisco 87-75
San Diego 71-91
Colorado 62-100

Wild-Card Games
Tampa Bay over Baltimore
Cincinnati over Philadelphia

Division Series
Detroit over Tampa Bay
LA Angels over NY Yanks
St. Louis over Cincinnati
Washington over Arizona

League Championship Series
Detroit over LA Angels
St. Louis over Washington

WORLD SERIES PICK
Detroit over St. Louis