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January 9, 2013

Out of Left Field

Jumping the Gun on 2013 Predictions

by Matthew Kory

Great thing about the internet: lowered barriers to entry for writers everywhere. This is good for people like me and at least debatable for people like you. But there’s a far less important side effect to all of this. It makes being the first to an idea next to impossible.

An example: some time ago I thought up a piece about the Worst Baseball Game of the Year. Proud of myself, I emailed my editor, who kindly informed me that 1) it was a wonderful idea, and 2) he had written it himself. Last year. Whoops.

So in the interest of not getting scooped again, we’re going to do some gun-jumping here at Out Of Left Field. It’s time to make some predictions for the 2013 season! Of course they’ll all be wrong, but if I wait until the end of Spring Training they’ll all be wrong anyway. So why wait? Why get scooped? Let’s get right to the (wrong) predictions!

1. Four of the six division winners will not repeat.
Going back to 2009, which is far enough back to make the point, each successive season has featured at least four new division winners. In 2009, the division winners were the Yankees, Twins, Angels, Phillies, Cardinals, and Dodgers. In 2010 only the Twins and Phillies repeated. The Rangers, Rays, Reds, and Giants joined them. In 2011, only the Rangers and Phillies held on to their divisions while the Yankees, Tigers, Brewers, and Diamondbacks won as well. 

This past season, thanks to the Rangers folding on the last day of the season, only the Yankees repeated. In 2013 maybe the Royals will step forward. Or the Pirates. Or the Padres. Sure it sounds ridiculous right now, but last year, heck, six months ago, saying the Orioles would be a game out of first as of late-September would have got you laughed out of a room full of Orioles fans. Point is, with six divisions and now 10 playoff teams, parity, or at least some form of it, has arrived. Maybe we should cease being so surprised by it.

2. Daisuke Matsuzaka will sign with the Cardinals and become the best groundball/control pitcher in baseball.
If Joel Pineiro and Kyle Lohse can do it…