The dawn of a full 162 game season is upon us. Fans will be back in stadiums, broadcasters will be traveling on the road in some capacity and only 5 teams per league will be in the playoffs as it should be come October. For now everything seems back to normal and we should embrace it as there is a new labor challenge looming in the off-season.
My final predictions for each division are as follows with the teams with an asterisk * as the wild card teams in each league.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East: Yankees, Blue Jays*, Rays, Red Sox, Orioles
Central: White Sox, Twins*, Royals, Indians, Tigers
West: Angels, Athletics, Astros, Mariners, Rangers
MVP: Shohei Ohtani
Cy Young: Gerrit Cole narrowly over Ohtani
Rookie of the Year: Taylor Trammell (Mariners)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East: Braves, Phillies*, Mets, Nationals, Marlins
Central: Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, Cubs, Pirates
West: Dodgers, Padres*, Giants, Rockies, Diamondbacks
MVP: Nolan Arenado
Cy Young: Yu Darvish
Rookie of the Year: Cristian Pasche (Braves)
American League Winner: Anaheim Angels
National League Winner: Atlanta Braves
World Series Winner: Anaheim Angels over Atlanta Braves in 6
Five worst teams: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Texas, Arizona, Seattle
Five teams who play well, just dont win enough: Baltimore, Boston, San Francisco, Miami, Kansas City
Five teams who are playing with fire and could collapse: Minnesota, Oakland, Philadelphia, Houston, Tampa Bay
Breakout Pitcher — Dylan Cease
Breakout Hitter — Austin Riley