Predictions

Over the past week, I went to the RoughRiders’ first two playoff games and saw both Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz pitch. Derek Holland pitched incredibly well and went 6 2/3 innings. He’s looked very good both times I’ve seen him and seems to have a really good breaking ball. Neftali Feliz threw 99 MPH at his highest on Thursday night and struck out 11 in just 7 innings. He was also very impressive. Nolan Ryan, Jon Daniels, Jim Sundberg, Thad Levine, and Scott Servais all attended the first game. They sat in the first row and had security all around them so that no one would bother them. But I got to talk to Jon for a while one time when he got up. I saw Frank Francisco sitting in the stands of the second game. We got to sit with Eleanor Czajka at both games and talk baseball with her. They were both great nights, with great games and great weather. We’ll be going to all of the championship games next weekend too.

Friday night I went to the Rangers game, and Millwood did not look impressive at all. It was not a very good game. The Rangers lost 8-1.

Saturday night I went to my first concert with my dad and my uncle. It was Squeeze, an old 80’s band and my 3rd favorite band (after the Beatles and the Beach Boys). The concert was a lot of fun. It was at the House of Blues. By the time we got tickets, all of the seats were gone so we had to get general admission tickets standing in front of the stage. It was tiring but it was neat to be just a few feet away from the band. The show started at 8:30 with an opening act called Fastball, who I had never heard of. Squeeze started at 9:45 so it was a late night. It was a great show. They played all of their best songs. They waited until the last song of their encore to play my favorite Squeeze song – ‘Pulling Mussels From the Shell’.

This week I analyzed all of the AL divisions and made predictions for how the season and playoffs will end up.

AL West:
Angels 100-62
Rangers 80-82
Athletics 75-86
Mariners 60-102

The Angels already have a huge lead and they will be facing the A's and Mariners plenty so they should get lots of wins out of those games. The Rangers face the A's a lot so that should be pretty even.

AL Central:
Twins 92-70
White Sox 86-76
Indians 79-83
Tigers 75-87
Royals 67-96

The White Sox have a very tough schedule and lost Carlos Quentin for the year. I think the Twins are better suited for the end of the season because they are a younger team and might not be as tired as the White Sox players and because they will be at home more often, not to mention the White Sox losing their best player.

AL East:
Rays 99-63
Red Sox 98-64
Yankees 86-76
Blue Jays 85-77
Orioles 72-89

The Rays have a little tougher schedule than the Red Sox, but I think they'll hold them off and win the division. They play each other 6 times and I think they'll end up going 3-3 in those games. The Yankees have a very tough schedule and will struggle.

AL Divisional Series:

Twins vs. Rays: Rays win 3-1

Red Sox vs. Angels: Angels win 3-0

AL Championship Series:

Rays vs. Angels: Angels win 4-2:
The Rays are a young team and won't be able to stand up to a veteran team like the Angels, who will probably have a playoff rotation of John Lackey, Joe Saunders, and Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana, or Jon Garland.

Results of last week’s poll:
Do you think the Guardado trade was a win or a loss?
Loss – 55%
Win – 45%

Come back next week for the NL predictions along with the World Series.