Burning River Baseball Predicts The Future: 2017 MLB Predictions

The other day, our first set of predictions went out. The BurningRiver Baseball staff took our sweet time deciding who the best of the best, for the Indians would be for the season. There was a lot of Edwin Encarnacion, Corey Kluber and Francisco Lindor across the board, with a few other names curiously sprinkled in. Now all that fun has come and gone and it’s time for part two, getting knee-high deep into the predictions for the rest of baseball. It’ll be a fun time, seeing predictions for the AL Cy Young, the NL Wild Card spots and how Mike Melaragno came to his answers at all, among other things. So, let’s get started, shall we? Voting are myself, Caitlin Boron, Joe Coblitz, Mike Melaragno, Gavin Potter, John Hutchison, Justin Lada as well as Brad Wojdyla from the Cleveland Baseball & Brews Podcast.

First up for our league predictions, the American League awards! At the end of the season, fans look forward to this little sliver of baseball light in the second week of November. The playoffs are still fresh in the brains of many, while others cling to the chance that one of these awards might redeem their team for not making it all the way.

For the MVP, the Burning River staff and Brad, swayed in favor of Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who basically IS the Angels, taking three of the seven votes. The other three were a mix of Twins CF Byron Buxton, Boston Red Sox OF Mookie Betts and our own Francisco Lindor.

For the AL Cy Young, the predictions were a bit more scattered. Surprisingly, no one picked Kluber, who finished in 3^rd place last season in his second nomination after winning the Cy Young in 2014. Joe and myself did choose two from the Tribe, Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, whereas the rest picked between Texas Rangers starter Yu Darvish , newly red-socked Chris Sale (2), Seattle’s Felix Hernandez and Baltimore Orioles’ righty Kevin Gauseman.

Finally, the last of the three for this first set, we have the educated guesses for the American League Rookie of the Year. Three of the votes went in differing directions, from Astro’s rookie 3B Yulieski Gurriel, White Sox IF Yoan Moncada who probably won’t see The Show again until mid-season 2017, and Dodgers pitcher Jose De Leon. Four of the other votes went directly to Boston OF Andrew Benintendi, who was drafted in the first round in 2015 and still got the chance to contribute to the Bosox’ playoff race. He is a well-rounded player, equipped with hitting, power and speed that definitely can play into his favor of the 2017 ROY.

On to the next part of this fun little segment, the division rankings for the American League Central! This might be my favorite of all, seeing where everyone assumes the end of the line will look like after 162 games. Across the board, all six writers and Brad choose the Cleveland Indians to win the division, which is no surprise after how they finished their 2016 season in extras of game seven. Moving down to second, everyone picked the Detroit Tigers, aside from Mike who choose the Minnesota Twins? Okay. Moving on! Daily, there have been updates regarding the Tigers losing, releasing or reporting injuries on the core group of guys. I’m not saying they will be out of it, but the up hill battle for them seems to be getting steeper and steeper the closer we get to the season. Just like second place, third is similar, where everyone but Mike picked the Royals, leaving the White Sox as the lone wolf in that column. As unlikely as I believe it is, Mike might have a point with this one…might. In sounding like a broken record, I’ll skip to the chase, that we all picked a combination of Twins and Chisox for the tail end of the division, leaving Mike on an island of his own predictions with KC finishing 4^th and the Motor City Kitties ending up dead last.

Now let’s head to the division and wild card predictions across both the American and National leagues. Between the seven of us, it was a split down the middle (sort of?) between the Texas Rangers (3) and the Houston Astros (4) to clinch the AL West, which was the only outright division winner we could not agree upon. When talking about the AL Central, and AL East, the votes were unanimous, putting Cleveland at the top for the Central and Boston across the board for the East. Boston might be a safe bet, seeing as they beefed up their pitching to potentially compensate for the lack of Big Papi in 2017.

In the first Wild Card slot, Justin and Gavin chose the Rangers, while Brad and John picked the Astros. Joe decided to go with the Seattle Mariners (who just signed pitcher Mark Lowe as I’m typing this), Mike went with the Tampa Bay Rays, and I ventured north of the boarder with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Votes for slot number two, as you can imagine, the same few teams showed up, Texas, Toronto, and Seattle, but this time, John, Gavin and I tossed Baltimore and the New York Yankees into the mix. Who knows, maybe the acquisition of top prospect Clint Frazier will put the Yankees just over the top enough to see October baseball again.

For the National League division titles, votes were even more agreed upon. Aside from Brad, who picked the San Francisco Giants, all of BRB picked the Los Angeles Dodgers to top the National League West. It’s no surprise at all that every single one of us chose the Chicago Cubs to clinch the NLC, being that they are the defending World Series Champions and are as nasty as ever in all aspects of the game. The East was a toss up between the Washington Nationals, and the New York Mets.

The NL Wild Card is probably more exciting than the actual division winners, seeing as these will be the teams who have that one last chance to try and defeat the Cubbies. Joe and John were the only two who picked the Mets to get the first WC slot, which they clinched in 2016, while Mike and Gavin assume the Giants will steal that first spot. Brad picked the Dodgers, who went toe to toe with Chicago until the end of the line in the NLCS, and who probably have the best chance again at taking them down. The final two for the first wild card, my vote for the St Louis Cardinals, who always seem to find a way to force themselves into the playoff picture (aside from last year) and Justin went with The Nationals who will do the same thing (and actually did it last year).

For the last picks regarding the NL Wild Card, assume the same teams were brought to the table, Cardinals (2), Nationals, Giants (2) and Mets, with one interesting addition from Gavin, the Colorado Rockies.

Finally, we get to the most important part of this article, the Playoff winner predictions. The end all, be all for the entire season. What every single MLB club plays to achieve, the league champs and World Series winner. Last season, there were whispers from the very beginning that the Cubs and Indians would meet to end one of the two longest droughts in baseball. This year, many sites, writers and baseball-centered shows are choosing the Indians and Cubs to possibly end up right back where they left off, but only a few from BRB feel the same. We generally chose Cleveland to win the American League, with Mike and Gavin playing the odd men out picking Houston and Boston. Even more surprising, only two of us picked the Cubs to reclaim the National league (Joe and Justin). The rest of us seem to hope that a less-favored team will get to the World Series. The Dodgers are a solid favorite, seeing as they were very close to getting there just a few months back, and the Mets and Giants finish out the rest.

Now for the kings of the MLB, according to BRB…drum roll please? Joe, John, Brad and I leaned towards our Cleveland boys to win it all and finally end our baseball dry spell. Justin assumed that the Cubs will repeat what they did last season and take it all for a second year (because one win in 108 years doesn’t seem to be enough). Lastly, Gavin and Mike believe the Dodgers are going to take it all.

As I figured, Mike would separate himself from everyone else with his out-there predictions for the season, thankfully, because those are the best kind. His picks show the idea that in baseball, even the most unlikely team/player, can surprise you. We’re setting up for an amazing year, with teams who aren’t just fighting to get back to the playoffs, but to end yet another drought and/or take out the team who ended theirs a season ago. So get ready and hold on tight, it’s going to be one hell of a ride on the road to October.