I find it interesting every year to look at the pre-season predictions of the top baseball writers. I’m trying something different this year. ESPN just published their predictions of fifty of their experts. Granted, these folks are not all baseball writers (some are TV personalities, or radio broadcasters), but ESPN did give them the label of baseball “experts.” I created a quick spreadsheet of these predictions and hope to rank how they did after the season.

I also plugged my own predictions into the spreadsheet. The following are interesting notes on their overall predictions, and comments on mine compared to theirs. Starting with the easiest, here goes:

AL East
Exactly 38 of 50 picked the Yankees to win the division. While that’s still a high number, I’m a little surprised that more didn’t pick them. Eleven picked the Rays and one lone expert picked the Red Sox (Matthew Berry of ESPN Fantasy). I’m also surprised that exactly zero picked the Blue Jays to win the division. I do think the Jays are going to be solid, and Romero could be a legitimate contender for the AL Cy Young, but I don’t think they’ll win the division. Again, my prediction is in line with most of the experts: the Yankees win the AL East. Continue reading »