Rates & Barrels - 2021 Season Predictions!

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

Eno, Britt and DVR make their predictions for the 2021 season including division winners, playoff matchups, World Series Champions -- plus, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP selections -- and the teams they're most excited to watch this season.  Rundown 1:22 NL West Predictions 8:02 AL West Predictions 17:32 NL Central Predictions 27:23 AL Central Predictions 36:34 NL East Predictions 46:33 AL East Predictions 54:51 Playoff Predictions 62:04 ROY Predictions 66:55 Cy Young Predictions 74:01 MVP Predictions 80:43 Teams We're Most Excited to Watch This Season Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Please fill out our listener survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/athleticaudiosurvey Subscribe to The Athletic for just $1/month to start: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels. It is Wednesday, March 31st. It is Predictionpalooza. We are going to predict every possible thing we can on this show about the upcoming season. We're one day away. 24 hours from now, the time we're recording this, there will be baseball on all of the screens in my entire apartment. And I really couldn't be happier about that. So we have the three host pod today. We have Britt, we have Eno, we have me, and we're going to break everything down. We got playoff predictions, today. We have Britt, we have Eno, we have me. And we're going to break everything down. We got playoff predictions, division winners across the board, award winners. And we're going to talk about some teams that we're really excited to watch over the course of the season. So, we're going right at it.

Know how you're doing today. We're just going. Because there's a lot to cover. Because nobody cares. No one cares how we're doing. I kind of cared. Okay. Well, we care about each other.

The people listening don't care how we're doing in the moment. They just want to hear the content. Don't be a bicycle clown. It's that kind of stuff. Yes. Let's start in the NL West, because I like to do the exact opposite of what any other baseball show would do.

Every other baseball show would say, let's start in the AL East with the Yankees and Red Sox. No, no, no, we're not doing that. We're going to the West coast first and we're going to the national league. Let's start with you.

You know, who is your NL West winner in 2021? West coast bias. I think the Padres make it a run, but the Dodgers just have superior depth when it comes to position and starting rotation. And they will ride

that depth in a year where everyone's searching for innings. And maybe go all the way to the World Series. Yeah. You know, I love you. I hate when you're right on this kind of stuff. I'm also going to go Dodgers.

Like, my head says Dodgers. My heart says Padres, right? It would be so cool. But on paper right now, not being able to get into that time machine and zap myself to August and see if everyone is healthy. I don't know how you can't go to Dodgers, right? I just, it just doesn't stack up. I think it's like a 10% chance the Padres win on paper right now. Barring anything crazy, this is the Dodgers division to lose again, which is boring.

The thing is, I think we, beyond baseball, get really bored with dominance. I think somehow Mike Trout for years has been like this, but even LeBron in some ways. For some people, everyone's like, LeBron's just amazing. Whatever. That's the reaction to truly great players and teams sometimes because there's nothing surprising about them continuing to be as good as they are. Now, the interesting thing about the odds, looking at the fan graphs projections, Dodgers are just under 70% to win the division, Padres at 30%. So it's reasonably close. But in any other division, the Padres would be projected to win. And I got to go Dodgers too. So it's a sweep here.

How does it go wrong? Injuries, like you said, Britt, it's a couple of key injuries. I mean, if you lose Mookie and Bellinger or Mookie and Seager or Seager and Bellinger or some combination of those guys and then maybe one of your top pitchers, maybe then that kind of pulls them down

into the spot where the Padres are clearly better. But that's a lot of key injuries. You have to wish perfect health on the Padres and imperfect health on the Dodgers, right? Because, you know, how are the Padres going to get through this season without Snell or LeMet being hurt? No, they're not. And I think that's part of the concern, too, right? I think the Dodgers pitching depth, I mean, David Price isn't in the rotation to start the season. They go

to Dustin May as their fifth starter. So they're falling back on Gonsolin and Price if they lose starters. The Padres are going to, like, interesting young guys are going to, you know, McKenzie Gore maybe at some point, but Gore, as much as I like him, like, there's still some concern about the

quality of the innings there. Yeah, Ryan Weathers made the team, so I think he's kind of interesting, but they have more injury risk in the San Diego rotation than the Dodgers have. And the Dodgers have some injury risk. We've seen some pretty major injuries for their key starters over the course of their respective careers,

but I do think that's the keys. The depth of the Dodgers across the board is even still just a notch above the Padres. And it's going to be fun. That's going to be one of the best series to watch every time the schedule spits it out throughout the season. One thing that I've seen before, and I wish I had the link ready, but you just said it. So it's like maybe it's okay that I'm just going to speak contemporaneously on this. But I have seen evidence that teams that that dominance actually

leads to better ratings and i think it might be out of basketball so maybe it's just totally different but you know you have seen in basketball dynasties right and there has been debate about like whether dynasties are good for the sport. And I think that we've seen better ratings as like Jordan went for his third and fourth rings and stuff like that than when a new team comes up. And I don't know, maybe that is because you start gaining fans from other parts of the country. So if the Dodgers are in the World Series every year and you have some sort of fans that only watch the World Series or only watch the playoffs, you know, then they're like,

oh, you know, the Dodgers, I remember these guys. I like Cody Bellinger. I like this guy. I like that guy. I like Mookie Betts. You know, so I'll tune in because the Dodgers are in the World Series again. I think there might be an aspect of that that we, as like every game watchers, may be like, oh, yeah yeah these guys again yeah yeah i mean you know what's crazy

guys is how many teams would david price not only be in the rotation but maybe the opening day starter there's a big parody in terms of like some of these opening day starters and to complete our like preview ask obviously everyone's going to talk about the padres dodgers who's in third place here is it just the diamondbacks even with the gallon injury um it's kind of an interesting right we know the Rockies are probably ticketed for last place uh yeah I think that's what we're mostly yeah there's just this like weird but like is there a battle for third is the Giants I think the Giants I think the Giants could surprise. Right now, just by projections, they're third, and it's with a 76-86 record, which is super boring.

But they're improving their processes, I think. And I could see some of their pitchers being better than projected, and their hitting just seems to be rolling along. So I could see that team being like an 83, 84 win team that's in and playing meaningful games until the last couple weeks of the season. And then they drop out of the wild card. I think both of those teams are a little bit underrated. Doesn't mean they're going to be in contention in this division because there's a couple miles between the Dodgers and Padres and then the D-backs and Giants. But those teams are both solid.

I think the D-backs, when they did it a couple years ago, it was pitching and defense. And the gallon injury doesn't seem as bad as it previously appeared to be. That's certainly some good news. Their pitching depth is competent. I think they could be a good sort of 500 team that if they catch things the right way and have a few bounces go their way, they could just as easily as the Giants be that team that's hanging around and playing some meaningful games,

at least in the early part of September. Maybe as four or five back from a wild card. That kind of team. And those are at least watchable teams if you're at least a fan of them. Let's talk about the AL West, a clean sweep in the NL West, all three of us taking the Dodgers. Britt, who do you like in the AL West this year? Yeah, that's another kind of, in my opinion, boring division because, unfortunately, I think when you look at the AL West, Houston's been kind of the team, and they are the team,

West, Houston's been kind of the team and they are the team. Because I don't think LA's done enough like the Anaheim to surround Trout to get him to the playoffs where he belongs. What is going on with Seattle? Oakland, I don't really think has gotten better. Certainly, I think, you know, you might be taking a step back. So to me, it's got to be the Astros, right? And I know people, people i think on twitter you know commented us like hey their their core is younger than you realize and they were correct yeah their core is younger yeah they were right they actually maybe are not taking it for a rebuild quite as soon as you would think and that's a testament to what they've been able to do to what they've been able to build there um i think it has to be Astros.

I think I was thinking too hard about Altuve's age. I mean, he's right. Even if you use 26 as a peak, you're talking about Bregman, Jordan Alvarez, and Correa being either right there or on the right side of it. So, yeah, but they're also, you know, when you think of age, sometimes there's a bit of an aspect. If you're talking about dynasties and going into thinking about into the future, there

is an aspect of team control you have to consider, right? So Korea is going away soon. Um, and, uh, that seems to be significant, but they, they might survive some Springer leaving. And so if they keep, uh, they keep adding, you know, maybe if Pedro Leon is amazing, then they just let Correa walk and all of a sudden Leon is their shortstop or whatever and they figure it out center field in the meantime. So, yeah, I think that Astros is chalk.

One thing I want to point out, though, is by the projections of fan graphs, 89 wins for the Astros, 85 for the Angels, and 84 for the Athletics. This one might be really close. See, I think I'm down on the Angels. I don't see. The pitching to me just still doesn't hold up. I like Dylan Bundy. He's a three or a four on a good team.

He's not your opening day starter. Who's the guy there? Yeah. Right? Haney has really interesting pitches where he has a high spin pitch, but it's a sinker because he has that weird arm slot. And I think he's been struggling to find the right approach with that. And I don't think that necessarily the pitching coaching

and the pitching development in Anaheim is top shelf. Well, they've had some issues there, I've heard, with their pitching coaching and the pitching development in in anaheim is is uh top shelf well they've had some issues there i've heard with their pitching coaching yeah right is it are they missing a they're missing a coach uh i think so you know not for nothing other than his uh texting habits um and uh way with the with the other sex. I don't hear good things about Mickey Calloway as a pitching coach. Agreed. One thing that's so weird that he's duped so many places. You hear some of the pitchback or at least some of the historical stuff where they're like, oh, you came into the room and he was the guy

and we had to hire him right away. And I'm like, oh, you came into the room and he was the guy. And like, you know, we had to hire him right away. And I'm like, really? Like what aspect? The part where he hates technology? Was that good? Was that what you want out of your new pitching coach? That really sold you, huh? Yeah.

Like as you guys know, it's that whole baseball, you know, I'm going to hire my friends. So my friend was a horrific Mets manager, but you know what? Let's scoop him up right away and make him a pitching coach. And what other job can you fail so spectacularly and still land on your feet? Baseball still has that who you know, rather than what you know, which I hope we're kind of getting past. And some of it, do you speak the right language? You know, so he's being hired by places where he says, you know, oh, pitching coaching by places where he says you know oh pitching coaching is not about the data not about the tech it's about you know connecting with the players and

somebody you know somebody hears that and it's like oh yeah i've always thought that you know yeah you're speaking to me arty you mean he's speaking to angels angels owner uh hardy moreno is that my arty voice i guess no that wasn't a very good Artie voice. Um, but, uh, but, but I have a bold prediction that like Joe Adele is starting in right field at some point. Chris Rodriguez made the team. Um, so there is actually some youth,

uh, Jose Rojas made the team. There is actually some youth in some interesting spots where if the youth comes through, then I almost think that this could be a team that gets far despite having just sort of middling rotation. Yeah. Like Chris Rodriguez, you know, it's not a big deal,

but, you know, along with Iglesias and along with some of the other bullpen guys they picked up, I kind of see that bullpen as being okay now. And if Adele steps in, then they take their worst position. If he can even be league average that adds two wins because they're right now projected for zero wins in right field

so you know and then Rojas and Max Stassi these are guys who have limited track records that I like so I am going to pick the Angels I was supposed to be Mr. Chalk I was supposed to pick the Astros but I'm gonna go out on a limb here to pick the Angels. I was supposed to be Mr. Chalk. I was supposed to pick the Astros, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and pick the Angels.

Oh, my God. You betrayed the Astros. I can't believe you betrayed the Astros like that. I mean, unforgivable. They're not my Astros. They're your Astros. They are. Apparently.

I'm picking the Astros to win the division. The Angels were the team I thought were the best suited to contend and possibly overtake them. I think it will be close. Would I be stunned if the Angels won the team I thought were the best suited to contend and possibly overtake them. I think it will be close. So would I be stunned if the Angels won the division? Absolutely not. I do have them as a wildcard team, which we'll get to at the end of the division predictions. But the bullpen's a lot better.

You're right about Iglesias. That's a big addition. Mike Mayers is underrated. Tony Watson gives them a decent lefty. Chris Rodriguez. But he is still there. Yeah, he got options somehow. But if he gets right,

if he gets right, he'll come back. Felix Pano and healthy is good. Steve Seasheck could be useful. Chris Rodriguez, I think, could give them one more really good late inning arm. Like that's kind of an interesting development. I'm curious to see what happens if they lose starters, if they're going to push him back into the rotation, use them in the bullpen for now, and then stretch him out. But Matt said something publicly which I've never really seen before where he was like, he seems like a reliever to me, which is I'm like, yo!

Yo! You just tanked his trade value. He was a starter in the minors throughout his time there, so I don't think that this is written in stone. Yeah, it's not his decision. Yeah, anyway's not his decision. Yeah, anyway.

Who does he think he is? The overall thing that I... The one thing, though, is when proper Valdez went down and Forrest Whitley went down, I think it exposed the one thing the Astros don't have, which I like their rotation, but I don't know about their rotation depth.

Luis Garcia is now in the rotation? Yeah, him and Bielek are sharing a spot with Odorizzi not quite ready. But when Odorizzi's ready, they both become depth guys. That's their depth then. That's their depth. And I kind of like Garcia. Bielek's okay. But I think there is a little bit of like, ooh, one more injury in that rotation could be a big deal.

They went and signed Odorizzi for a reason. So injury in the rotation, and Correa's been oft injured, and Jordan Alvarez on those two knees. So, I think that's where the flaws for the Astros come. The flaws for the Angels, we discussed. The Athletics have some strengths

in some young pitching. Lizardo could step forward. Puck could be a real asset out of the bullpen. They always find undervalued guys like Rosenthal, I think, was a good signing. So if the A's play up a little bit and the Astros play down a little bit, we could be watching someone try to win this division with 88 wins. Yeah.

And the Rangers are in the AL West. That's about as much as we need to cover them here in this preview. The Rangers exist. The Rangers exist. The Mariners are on the way. Yeah, agreed. I mean, if they showed up a year early, then it could be a four-team race. They're also exciting.

Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Yeah, if all of a sudden Kalanich and Yulia Rodriguez are both in the outfield and they're both, like, socking balls out, and and Logan Gilbert's in the rotation it could happen this year and then I would say that they're probably an above average team now you're talking about a guy they're hanging in there with 83 84 85 wins that wouldn't be crazy here's a bold prediction that actually won't matter either way the Mariners will have the best record in the in the AL West the Mariners will have the best record in the AL West the Mariners are going to have the best record in the second half

that's my bold prediction it's not really that bold no one will remember if I'm wrong but I do think they're the kind of team that that's going to be the story in August the Mariners will go 22-10 yeah

they're going to go 22-10 Corey Brock's going to write some cool stories about it that's what's going to go 22-10. Yeah. They're going to go 22-10. Corey Brock's going to write some cool stories about it. That's what's going to happen. Corey writing a cool story, that's not a bold prediction. That happens all the time. But the 22-10, that's the bold prediction. Yeah, especially since they can't play 32 games in a month. Double headers.

What are you talking about? That's why it's bold. There's COVID implications there, too. That's why it's bold. Weather and pandemic, it's all in there. It's all included. Sorry, I'm on the Astros. Britt's on it's bull. There's COVID implications in there, too. That's why it's bull. Weather and pandemic, it's all in there. It's all included. Sorry, I'm on the Astros. Britt's on the Astros.

Eno bails on the Astros and goes with the Angels. Let's get to America's division, the NL Central. Yes, that is America's division. No division has more heart than the NL Central. Oh, I thought because it was mediocre. Zing, zing, zing! I was going to say America's Division because it's about parody.

Mediocrity. I dare both of you. I don't even care who goes first. One of you just go. I'll drink my coffee. Derek, all excited there in the heartland. Okay, okay.

How about this? This is my bringing you back in. I picked the Brewers. Is it okay now? Are we friends now? Don't try to curry favor with me by just picking the Brewers. You can see the love, guys. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. It's mending.

We're all coming together here. How is it going to happen? Explain to me how the Brewers are going to win this division. You guys both think the division's garbage, and it's pretty bad. Look at the projections. These teams are all, I think, bottom half, if I'm eyeballing it correctly in terms of win predictions and win totals. One team is projected to be above 500.

The Brewers are projecting to be above 500 so therefore, no the projections have been wrong about the Brewers in like 3 out of the last 4 years I think that there's something about having dominant back end bullpen that throws the projections off, I've even talked to Derek

Cardy about the idea that projection systems should project every single game in like a simulation right, because you will use Josh Hader and Devin Williams idea that projection systems should project every single game in like a simulation right because you will use josh hater and devin williams in games you're about to win and you will win 95 of those games they will they have in the past you'll win 95 of the games in which hater and williams appear right that's correct and and you'll lose 65% of the others, 70% of the others. But I think that screws the projection systems because they see, okay, they've got two good relievers, but they

also have three or four bad relievers. So they're not going to be that good. The bullpen's only okay, right? But no, it almost only matters how good your good bullpen. You have bullpen A and bullpen B, right? You have the bullpen you throw in losses that you're losing and the bullpen you throw when you're winning. And they can be very different. So I think that underrates the Brewers. And then on top of that, I like Woodruff as near Cy Ascendant. I'm not going to necessarily pick him for Cy, but Cy votes.

No, hey, why not? Let me just preview that one. Brandon Woodruff for Cy. Freddie Peralta is in the rotation and comes through on it. Keston Hura covers the hole a little bit. I don't know. There's a lot of stuff that's good in their worst situation, third base. They've got a couple options there that could step forward.

Wow. I mean, listen, I want to pick the Brewers for Derek because he still seems upset at us, I think. But I'm going to have to go with the Cardinals. Nolan Arenado is a big deal. It's a big acquisition. I know they really didn't do much else, but they're a good run prevention team already. Their pitching is already going to be good. We're not really sure what's going to happen with McCullis, right?

They still got Flaherty. I obviously love the addition of Arenado because happen with Mikolas, right? They still got Flaherty. I obviously love the addition of Arenado because they gave up nothing, right? The Rockies just basically are paying a good chunk of Arenado to play for another team, which can probably be another podcast another day.

But I think it's going to end up... This is a division that someone's going to back into. Let's call a spade a spade. He said America's division. I was like, AL East? Then I saw NL form off his lips, and I was like, oh, NL East, obviously. And then Derek totally went off the reservation and decided that NL Central was America's division.

So I'm going to have to go with the Cardinals, which to me is as boring as saying the Dodgers are going to win again. I wouldn't be surprised if the Brewers sneak in there. I think it's going to be a dogfight. And I think the other divisions are going to look around and be like, man, how do we get in America's division? Because they got 10 less wins than us and they're fighting it out over here. The Diamondbacks might end up having more wins than the NL Central winner, I think.

That's my bold prediction. Oh, I like how you got that one in there. That's definitely possible. They could. They could do it. And it's because I think there are four teams in this division that are all kind of equally okay. I'd also pick the Brewers for the reasons

mostly that Eno mentioned. I think they're also in a part of their competitive cycle where they're going to make additions if they have to. If third base is a problem come June, they're going to get on the phone and they're going to get Kyle Seeger. They're going to get somebody via trade to upgrade that weakness. I think the pitching development over the last few years has exceeded expectations, but it's a sustainable sort of growth for them i think the key for the brewers like a lot of teams is health i think it does fall apart pretty quickly because they don't have a lot of big league caliber prospects ready to contribute so probably

positional health because i think that they actually like drew rasmussen there are some arms there that i think are really intriguing ale Alec Bettinger, those are two good, interesting arms that could step in, I think. It's like the White Sox, where it's like the roster is fine, the guys they're going to rely on is fine, but if they start losing key players from their core position players, there's not really anyone that

you could look at and go, well, this guy can replace that player and actually exceed expectations. It's going to be a pretty big downgrade to the backups at a lot of positions, even though the core is good. If Urias and Shaw are hurt, yeah.

Vogue at third, baby. I mean, we can dream, but I don't, I guess they would try. I think that's the answer. Hira's little,

Hira's, I guess, limp arm is a bad arm. It must be. They're putting it it first instead of third i think it's erratic i don't know if it's like a weak arm as much as it's just an erratic arm do you guys have a the cubs pennsylvania's third because i do i i think cardinals brewers we can we can haggle over those top two but i have the cubs in third place uh i think they have promise

but honestly you trade away you, Darvish, and you made some of the moves that they made, and I have a hard time picking them to finish higher. I think I like the Reds more. Really? Okay, here's my beef with the Reds. They absolutely did nothing to get better. Their biggest issue was shortstop,

and they didn't get a shortstop. I think what they'll do is they'll bring up Jose Garcia because they've got enough offense everywhere else. Garcia will be at least a good defender. They have no offense. The offense should be good. No, the offense will be good. It revolves around Joey Votto, who's 37 years old.

No, he's a rule guy now. It's just an OVP guy now. What it comes down to is it comes down to some of the hype moves they made last offseason. It's getting Moustakis and Cast now. What it comes down to is it comes down to some of the hype moves they made last offseason, right? It's getting Moustakis and Castellanos to do normal things for them. A healthy Eohanio Suarez playing shortstops a little weird, but the power's going to be there. Yeah, like Jonathan India is a nice option at second base. So at least offensively, while they messed up their defense on the infield, they're at least getting one better by having India in the mix.

Winker's power outbreak last year is legit. messed up their defense on the infield. They're at least getting one better by having India in the mix. Winker's power outbreak last year is legit. And then Nick Senzel is one of my favorite breakout players in the entire league this year. Their pitching depth is being tested right now. Yeah, I'm down on that. Antone is hurt. Sonny Gray is not going to start the season on time. Lorenzen is hurt.

Sonny Gray is hurt. That's three guys that were being considered for the rotation. I don't even know who the back end of their rotation is right now. And Amir Garrett got a late jump. He's been good. But also, you lose your closer, you get rid of Archie Bradley, right? They released him or DFA'd him or whatever. And they managed to obviously lose Bauer.

So I don't see how they're an over 500 team. I'm clearly down on that. I don't know if they're over 500. Jeff Hoffman is going to start a game. Better than the Cubs. Wait a second. So if they're over 500. Jeff Hoffman is going to start a game for them. Wait a second. So if they're over 500, that's going to be third? The third place team in the NL Central is going to be over 500?

I don't think they're over 500, but I think they're better than the Cubs. God, that America's division is sad. America is sad. Hey, I don't name the divisions. I just pass along information to everybody else. That's my job. Okay, so how about this as a question? They are projected for – there's only one team projected for –

to be above 500. That's the Brewers. How are they wrong and who else is projected to be – who else would you think might finish above 500? In that division? Yeah. I think the Cardinals could finish over 500. Okay, and that's it?

Yeah, the Brewers and Cardinals are going to be over 500. I think the Reds and Cubs, no. I think maybe the Cubs. So you think the Cubs are better than the Reds? I made a bold prediction that the bet that they're making in the rotation in Chicago will be better than people think. Right now, the Chicago rotation is projected to be third or fourth worst in the big leagues. And I understand it. But the Kyle Hendricks projection is wrong.

Because they project Kyle Hendricks for like a 4-2 ERA because of FIP and all that nonsense. But he's like a 3-3-3-4 guy every year. And I think the Davies is going to be similar. I think they've got some high command guys with good movement. And then they have Azule as kind of a wild card as a stuff guy. So I think the Cubs will be above 500. And I think they'll actually give them a push. I think it'll be a three way race.

I think it'll be, I think it'll be a really tough race. I think this will go down to the wire. Also the pirates are in the America's division and that's about the only mentioned like the Rangers. That's it. You blinked, you missed the preview on this show.

Yep. Let's go to the AL Central. We'll start with you on this one, Britt. Who's winning the AL Central? Again, me? Okay, so like a week ago, I was going White Sox and I was going to be real excited about it.

I think DeGimena's injury is too much. I think the Twins are going to end up edging the White Sox. Cleveland is a third, a firm third place there in the AL Central, and I think the Twins are going to end up edging the White Sox. I like Cleveland as a third, a firm third place there in the AL Central. And I think that's probably what you're going to get. We talked about this a lot on the show. The White Sox were a great team in terms of starters. But their depth, to me, Jimenez was an NL, not an NL, an AL MVP candidate.

You lose that and you have a real hard time absorbing that. Unless you're maybe the Dodgers, right? What other team can really afford to lose that caliber of a player and still win the division? I think the Twins are going to end up edging them just because of that. Again, we can't predict future injuries, but I think

both of those teams are good. Certainly with the Twins, bringing back Nelson Cruz was a big deal. I think you're going to see Minnesota win that division as much as I wanted to be rooting for the White Sox. As much as I wanted to be predicting the White Sox, I think things are going to get maybe potentially ugly for them if they don't come out of the gate well. The Tony La Russa factor is another deal that we haven't really addressed here. What if they have a bad April or May? I just don't really like the vibes I'm getting out of White Sox camp play devil's advocate here for just a second because I think I agree generally that the twins are um

gonna win but uh there's something weird happened to me I thought thought that the Twins had this really exciting young core group of players. What players on the Twins do you think are pre-peak? What players on the Twins do you think have better years in front of them than they have had? Certainly not Nelson Cruz. Dominic?

Dominic? Maybe Buxton, Kirilov. Buxton, you always want to believe, has better years in front of him. If he could stay healthy. Luis Arias. He had a really good year last year. Yeah, but Arias seems to me almost like a depth piece at this point. If he unlocks more power, he could be a little more.

But you're right. He's probably just super UT, kind of glue guy. What about Miguel Sano? Have we seen his best season already? Was it 2019? super UT kind of glue guy. What about Miguel Sano? Have we seen his best season already?

Was it 2019? And that was a 247, 346, 576 with 34 homers. That was only 439 plate appearances. I guess a healthy Miguel Sano could hit like 45 homers and do a Jorge Soler 2019 kind of thing. So maybe he's got one more level to unlock. The catchers are good. I think my issue with the Twins, initially they were the team I thought was going to win this division,

and I started looking at them a little more closely and thought Maeda and Barrios won two at the top. Love that. Pineda is fine as a three, but a lot of injuries there. Definitely more variants than you'd like. Happ and Shoemaker as your four and five. Happ is really old.

Very inconsistent a year ago. He might be done. And then you are relying on someone like Dobnik pretty quickly. So they've got pretty good depth. They're obviously contenders. They're a well-built team. I think they're going to miss Royce Lewis a little bit, to Eno's point. He's one of those young guys that could have come up this year,

filled a void and exceeded expectations. Not having him all year with that torn ACL is a big deal. Fortunately for them, I mean, they do have Trevor Larnock, too, so they've got one more bat they can bring up after Kirilov is up in a couple of weeks. I get it, but

I think their window might be closing fast, which is kind of sad because they're a fun team. And I have super respect for their pitching development, and Josh Kalk in particular I've talked about a lot on this podcast is someone I think who does really great work. But at the same time, I'm looking at their pitching, and like, you know, Smeltzer, not great velocity,

but we thought maybe he'd put together a big wide mix and and be good but i don't know hasn't seemed to work that works out lewis thorpe was throwing harder and then he threw real soft and now he's throwing harder again so maybe there's something there um you know people really like duran and balazovic the uh the guys that are behind him but are they ready yet are they going to step in soon um And why hasn't this bonded? The Twins' approach to pitching seems to work almost better with Major League pitching. You know, this actually makes me think of a pitching coach that once told me he'd rather acquire a pitcher that was close because he thought, close to the big leagues, because he thought that he could make one tweak and their talent was already so close to big leagues that maybe one tweak would take them and make them a real big leaguer.

You know what I mean? Whereas if you get an A-ball pitcher, there's all this growth and development that has to happen to get you to even get to the major league. You're like a whole development process away, and you have to kind of see all that projection and be good at the scouting plus the development everything has to be good whereas if you acquire michael pinata and say hey just throw more fastballs high in the zone you know you might unlock that last little bit that makes michael pinata better so maybe they have that for happen shoemaker maybe that's that's the the key

to the twin success is that they unlock something there and they're healthy but um yeah i wanted to be more excited about the twins i'm going to pick the twins but i want to be more excited is that is that a pick i can make i think that's fair i mean my main concern with the white socks is they're one injury away from really being out of mind because they're already down Jimenez. We talked about their depth as an issue. I mean, is Jake Lamb starting DH right now? Yeah, like nobody's staying 100% healthy over 162, especially not coming off of last year. Oh, the Russo factor.

There's just a lot. That's how I feel about the White Sox. I want to pick them. I want to be more on board. I'm a little. One thing is that if things. Ow. Go ahead. The gentleman with the microphone issues the floor

is yours i was just saying the one thing is that you know if on the if the next injury is on the pitching side at least they have some excitement with michael kopeck stepping in next and the bullpen looks good i'm white socks over twins even with the illoy injury, I'm concerned. But I think for the type of player he is, that's still an easier-to-replace sort of skill set than losing someone up the middle who you're expecting four or five wins from. I think whether it's... It's not the Lamb move,

but whether it's something internal or an early-season trade or something, you can find a decent bat to hold it together and play a passable left field. And they have a lot of players. Like the Twins thing where I'm asking, who could have a better season in front of them? The White Sox have a lot of players

that could have a better season in front of them. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, I've been wrong about Nick Madrigal so far. I don't know how good he can be, but I do think a Moncada bounce back is real. Luis Robert could take a huge step forward if he cuts the Ks down even a little. He could be a star right away. Obviously, we love him in fantasy already. Andrew Vaughn's going to hit. Maybe playing left field slows him down a little bit. Maybe it doesn't matter because they get a left fielder in a few weeks and he's back to the first base DH mix. Jose Abreu, I think because of the shortened season he just had, is finally no longer

underrated among top hitters. I think people appropriately understand how good he is now. He is post-peak, but he's a good anchor in that lineup. Tim Anderson, what he's done over the last two seasons is real. I mean, there are positives all over this group of position players. The bullpen's nasty in the back, like adding Hendricks, having a healthy Garrett Crochet.

I've always liked Aaron Bummer as kind of an underrated guy. Short term, you got Kopech giving you a little bit of length, inning or two at a time. I think Cody Heyer is a little bit underrated too. So I like that pen a lot. And then you start looking at the starters, so I like that pen a lot and then you start looking at the starters you know Giolito, Keichel and Lin as bulk guys so you've got your ace two pretty good bulk guys at the top part and then you know between Cease and Rodan eventually Kopech I also see them as a team that would go out and get more help like they're clearly pushing chips in right now so after they find their solution for replacing Eloy they're going to probably add pitching at some point this season if they need it. So I think that gets me kind of excited. Whereas the Twins, I almost wonder if the Twins are exactly the kind of team that's built to possibly get to the playoffs, but then be the worst team in the playoffs in the AL based on the strengths of every other team they'd match up against. The run prevention should be a strength for them, especially up the middle, right? You've got Simmons now at short, you got Polanco moving over to second, and you got Buxton in center, and you got two good catchers behind the plate.

Your up the middle defense is outstanding. That helps your entire pitching staff. So, you know, run prevention is a strength for the Twins, and they can do damage with the long ball. So maybe the offense is a little bit feast and famine for stretches, but the defense should be consistently good all the time. And I think that does keep them right there with the White Sox until maybe the last day of the season. Can we get to the real America's division here? Oh,

you're not, you're naming divisions. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. We can, we can do that.

Let's go to the NL East. It's a good division. It's the best division in baseball, I think. No right. Yeah. Yeah. We can do that. Let's go to the NL East. This is a good division. We're excited about the NL East. It's the best division in baseball, I think. No? It is. It's a really good division. So who wins it? Guys, I don't want to do this, but I'm going to do it. The Mets are going to win it. The Mets are going to win it. They are the best team on paper. Look at the two of you. Everybody is saying the Mets are going to Mets it up. A legitimate concern. There's no data on the Mets being

the Mets, but I'm sure if there were, you know, could find it. Listen, there's a lot of buzz. They've made some really good acquisitions. Obviously, Lindor is going to make them better, but I think the addition of what they've done in the bullpen, you know, adding Trevor May. I think Miguel Castro

from the Orioles is kind of a little bit of a sleeper pick. If he ends up being that bridge guy, that seventh inning guy, then they actually, and their closer situation ends up being okay. I think that they're going to be a good team. They're going to surprise a lot of people. I want to say the Braves

because the Braves have won the division the last couple of years. The Braves are a team that really never gets their due. I feel like because they always choke when it comes to the playoffs. But I'm going to go Mets here. I'm going to say Atlanta finishes second. DC is going to be third. They're going to be out of the wild card.

There's just too many injuries right now. What's going on at second base, third base. They got a very old team. And to me, the Phillies just ran the clock back on a team that wasn't very good a year ago. So I'm not certain why they think it's going to be a better scenario here at all. They've got a great two starters and then it drops off.

The Marlins should get more credit. Like if they were in any other division, they probably would get more credit. But I have trouble seeing them hitting the 80 win mark because they're going to play around the division so much. So I've been dying for this, guys, if you can't tell. I'm very excited about this. I think that the NL East is going to be terrific to watch. I am going to DeGrom Scherzer tomorrow night and baseball will officially have begun because that's going to be just a ridiculous matchup.

What am I seeing? I'm seeing like Montas, Granke. I'll take it. It's been a while. I haven't seen much baseball. I'll take it. I don't even know if it's Montas. I don't know who's starting.

That's a good matchup. No, I agree with you. The Mets have the best pitcher in baseball, I think. In DeGrom, they have the best shortstop in the division. I think in, in the ground, they have the best shortstop in the division. They've,

they have the most pitching depth in baseball, 21 starters projected to be better than average, not starters, sorry, 21 pitchers. That would be amazing. They had 21 starters. And I think they've, I think that the offensive depth,

this is, this is, I think where the, the weakest, but I think they've spent depth, this is, I think, where the weak is, but I think they've spent some time on it. I actually think that Kevin, let me get this right, Kevin Pillar, Jonathan Villar. That's messed up, man. Yes.

Anyway. That's messed up. That's almost as messed up as the Rays when they had Nate Lowe, Brandon Lau, and then Josh Lowe as a prospect. That's right. But I think that's actually pretty good depth. With Almora and Guillerme, I actually think that's decent depth. That's better depth than they've had in a long time. Yeah.

So I agree with you. I think it's the Mets. And the other thing I wanted to say about the Braves is I love them. But I think you've seen some of what we were talking about with projected regression for the pitchers this spring, even Ian Anderson had a pretty bad outing the other day. And I don't actually don't have Max Freed's numbers in front of me, but Max Freed is the other one where you're projecting

his walk rate to rise because he's had bad walk rates in the past. Maybe the slider has figured everything out, but I think that there is some iffiness to that Braves rotation. Whereas the Mets, how bad is Stroman going to be? And then you got Thor coming back. I don't know. I think that the floor is higher on the Braves rotation, and then they have the best pitcher in baseball at the top of it. So it's like, you know, I'll take the Mets rotation. I'll take,

you know, what am I taking over the Braves over the Mets? The Braves infield? Braves defense. The Mets defense is a little suspect. Braves defense is better, for sure. Braves outfield. Yeah.

Okay. But it's a little bit up and down, right? It's close. Yeah, that's close. I mean. It's pretty interesting looking at the runs allowed per game projections difference. Because I agree that the Braves defense is better. But because the Mets pitching projects so much more favorably,

the Mets come in at 4.2 runs allowed per game, 0.4 runs less than the Braves. It's a big difference. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, you don't mention the rotation. You're right. And Tywon Walker, we talked about him.

I think he's a little bit of a sleeper pick. I think they're a really good deep team. I do. And sure, there is that Mets X factor of how are they going to mess this up, but maybe they don't. Who's the surprise team? Who's surprise third place, surprise second place, surprise third place? Who's the surprise team?

The Phillies? I like the Nationals a lot more than Britt does, I think. That's been pretty clear for a few months now. I mean, I think the Nats are still dangerous. They've done it before. They've got the stable of pitching up top. I think it comes down, of course, to health like it does for many teams because their depth is not good.

But if you say Scherzer, Strasburg, and Corbin are healthy, Ross and Lester just have to be competent. If they're not, they go to Voth. If Voth's not competent, maybe they can find a depth starter. Maybe there's some questions in that bullpen that I'm overlooking a little bit, but I do like the Bell and Schwarber additions.

I think Victor Robles is going to do Victor Robles things. Yeah. Worst defense in the division. Open it up. Terrible. Who's playing second? Who's playing third? That bullpen has serious questions.

And Starlin Castro. It's got to be Luis Garcia. It's got to be Luis Garcia in a few weeks. I know, but it's got to be him. Luis Garcia might be Felipe Lopez. And also Carter Keebom's been a huge disappointment. So they've actually... I agree their starters are great, but you're

banking a lot on health when Scherzer's getting old and Strasburg is coming off a season where he didn't pitch at all and had surgery. That's a little bit of a gamble. Also, Will Harris had some blood clot and then didn't have at all and had surgery. So that's like a little bit of a gamble. Also, Will Harris had like some blood clot and then didn't have a blood clot. And he's kind of obviously not going to be full throttle here to start the season.

So who's their closer? Hudson, who had a bad year last year. Nationals pitching development is not good. So they haven't, you know, Voth hasn't come out at the top end of his outcomes, and they haven't developed a good reliever internally ever. Like, when was the last good Nationals developed reliever? They had guys who threw hard, and then they disappeared.

Yes. Kota Glover, where's he at? He's out of the game. Like, you know, when I went into a few weeks ago, it's about their arm strength as a whole. It's like the worst in the majors in terms of development. So my issue over the Nationals could turn the tables if we were talking about a 60 game season. But a 162, I think you get exposed. I think depth gets exposed. Have the Phillies done enough in the bullpen?

No. And I don't hate the Nationals. I covered them for two years. I think I'm just more in tune to their holes because I have such an up close view of it. I think I'm just more in tune to their holes because I have such an up-close view of it. I think Carter Keboom becomes that player. Yeah, I think Derek's boy, Victor Robles, is going to have a good year, but Juan Soto can't carry that team alone. My pick for a surprise team in the division

is Phillies because bullpens are really erratic year-to-year. They changed half the personnel, maybe more. I mean, it's who's the holdover. It's like Naris.

Yeah. Closing too, by the way. So a little bit of an upset there. I think we were all saying it's Bradley. It's Alvarado. They've seen the Naris movie before and they're running it back with Naris as the closer.

Yeah. I, you know, I did the bold prediction. Alvarado would lead them and saves. And I think that still could be true. But I guess there's not another lefty. No.

We'll see. He could still get some lefty on lefty saves. I guess my bold prediction would be the Phillies would finish in last place and the Marlins would finish in fourth, which I could see happening. That's pretty bold because the Marlins, pardon my French, do not look good. No. They don't. That's why it's gold.

Ça c'est pas bon. I was about to get ready to bleep something there. No type element. Dino's going to say something to bleep at 4620. You showed some restraint there. I appreciate that. Faking out the producer. One of my skills. All right, so you're both on the Mets. I appreciate that. Faking out the producer. One of my skills.

All right. So you're both on the Mets. I'm actually on the Braves. I think part of it is they're the Mets. They're still the Mets. They will always be the Mets no matter what. The Mets are always going to be the Mets. Damn it.

No, I'm not. I think the Braves are right there with them. We're talking about teams that are, I think, three wins apart right now based on the projections. The Mets are a team that I really want to watch even more than usual. I like watching them ordinarily because I think their broadcasts are usually pretty good. So if there's not a matchup I want to watch, I'll sort of default to them as sort of my early evening baseball watching. But now there's a reason. There are more reasons than ever to watch this team. And it could be the most spectacular disaster of a season for the Mets yet because expectations are

so high. And I'm here for that. That's like the ugly Entertainment Weekly side of me coming out a little bit. I kind of want the Mets to be a beautiful disaster this year because it will be amazing. The content generated from that will be as good as it's ever been because expectations are through the roof. But I actually think they're a fun team to watch at the very least. We'll get to a few more of those here in just a little bit. Let's go to the AL East. We'll go to Edo first on this one. This feels chalky to me.

It seems like it's really hard to pick against the Yankees looking at the projections. You could talk yourself into, I think any one of the Red Sox, Jays or Rays for second place. I think any one of those three teams are absolutely capable of being the second place team in this division, which is upsetting Britt in a big way.

Maybe we should just go right to that. I'm sorry. The Red Sox are a second place team. I want to hear more about this world and what we're living in. Is COVID a thing in this world? No, apparently he has the non-transmissible

form. Eduardo Rodriguez, is he still pitching on opening day or no? No, right? Nope. He's got an arm injury. Tell me how they get second place with who is in that rotation. Derek? It's going to be E-Rod in a few weeks.

Evaldi Richards, Martin Perez, Innings Eater, TM, Nick Pavetta, Tanner Houck. It's ugly, right? It's really ugly.

Here's the thing. The Red Sox are going to win a bunch of 6-5 games. They're going to score runs. Sure. They're going to be a slugfest sort of team, and then hopefully, for their sake, Sale is eventually healthy, and maybe from July on,

they've got Sale back as their ace. That goes a long way. They need some surprises in the bullpen. I think this speaks more to how good I think their offense is and the flaws of the other teams in the AL East. It's part of the reason why I think the Yankees are just sort of in a tier of their own in the division right now. And I don't think there's that much separating these other three AL East teams. The Orioles obviously still deep in their rebuild, so they're not really part of the conversation at all.

But I don't think the Red Sox will take second. I think we're all going to be surprised by how close those middle three teams end up being in the AL East this year. So why not pick one of them to beat the Yankees? Yeah. Why not pick the Red Sox to beat them? Can't do it.

The Yankees are just better than all three of those teams. Just flat out better. But are they better without Stanton and Judge? Because no one knows what is going to happen with those guys and if they're going to stay healthy. Do the Yankees have the depth to do what they normally do? Which is basically soldier on with a double

digit IL list. I think Toronto could sneak in and beat them if that happens, right? If there's a bunch of injuries. I like Toronto to sneak in. Unfortunately, though, Toronto's been hit with the injuries already. I know. That also sucks. You know, Yates, Springer being banged up.

I do think the Rays, they're always there. They always are kind of pesky and hanging around. I have brought Boston ticketed for a solid fourth. A solid fourth. I think they're closer to the Orioles than any other team in that division because they can't pitch. I don't know if I go that far. I'd say there's a top

four. Why haven't the Blue Jays signed Shane Green yet? Yeah, that's a good question. Why is Rick Porcello still a free agent? Everyone's worried about innings. I said this like six weeks ago. Shouldn't someone just sign him? He'll be an April sign, I bet.

Someone goes down. Yeah. Someone gets Rick. I want to pick the Blue Jays. I just feel like it's a year early. I want to pick the Rays, but they took a pretty big step back in that rotation. And I think that they're smart, and they'll probably find a way to coax just enough out of Hill But they took a pretty big step back in that rotation, you know?

And I think that they're smart, and they'll probably find a way to coax just enough out of Hill and Waka and all those guys and Archer until the young guys come in. But I'm also unsure of, like, which young guys are going to be starters. Like, they have Patino, Honey and um mcclanahan right and any of one of them if you saw one inning from them you'd be like holy crap right then you see the second and you're like hmm and then by the third inning honeywell's hurt sorry sorry that was that was mean i love him i just knocked on wood for you. It's true, though. I love him as a pitcher, but it's been really, really tough sledding. So, you know, McClanahan, you know, McKay looks really good in one inning and throws 100 in front of the left side, and he had some trouble starting.

So, let's say one of those guys becomes upper, like, upper echelon of their outcome starter, right? I think that's possible, that only one of those guys becomes a really great starter. So then you have Glasnow and one of those guys, maybe Patino. My bet is probably Patino. So Glasnow, Patino, and then you still have to walk in Yarborough, and then you still have to walk two veterans out there at the back end of the rotation, right? I just don't see them, the young guys,

stepping forward so much that Rich, Hill, Waka, and Archer are not in the rotation by the end of the year. Yeah. Whose rotation do you like better at this point between the Rays and the Jays? The Jays. I think the Jays. Even though there's questions on both, I think Toronto.

Who's second after Ryu? Over Tampa Bay. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm getting at, right? Yeah, there's not a whole lot there. They're a little bit of a mess after Ryu, and I think their mess behind Ryu is not as interesting as the Rays' mess behind Glasnow. Yeah, but the Blue Jays have younger arms, though,

in terms of you know Pearson's going to have a good year or you feel like he's going to have a good year. You've got these young core position players that you know are going to continue to get better. So can't they kind of cover for that a little bit better? Tampa Bay doesn't have a Black Guerrero Jr. They don't have a Boba Shett. I'll take Blue Jays' offense for sure.

Can't Toronto kind of cover for that a little bit? I think a lot of this for the Rays, and this is probably why the Rays' projections aren't very good relative to what they just did last year, it's going to come down to Wander and Brujan and some of the position player prospects and whether or not they call them up early or middle of the season or late in the year.

Because the sooner they bring those guys up and the sooner the Rays start to say, hey, you know what? Joey Wendell's a nice big league player, but he's not an everyday player. He shouldn't be a starter at third base. The sooner they start fixing those spots on their roster, the better off they are. The sooner they can start to close the gap on the Yankees. But if they wait and they try to play it really close and play service time games and do things along those lines, I don't think they can afford that because of how clustered these three other teams are right now. So they have those reinforcements, and then it becomes a question of are those players, when they come up, are they good? Are they great? Are they even making adjustments and struggling? Anything's possible. great? Are they even making adjustments and struggling? Anything's possible. I think the prospect depth they have could make them a lot better because they're very high-end position player prospects. I really hope for their sake that they're calling those guys up sooner rather

than later. Wander, I'm pretty confident it's coming up early. I'm not sure how aggressive they're going to be with everybody else. Well, we still have to do awards in postseason, so we have to move on. But I would say that for the Rays, I agree with you on your analysis. And the only thing I want to push back on, Britt, is I think this is the most interesting division in baseball because I see the Yankees, Rays, and Blue Jays, and even, I'm feeling you a little bit,

the Red Sox, as being super interesting, have a lot of different outcomes. Health will be a huge factor for the three non-Yankees, even the Yankees. Health will be a huge factor in this division. And who gets hurt and how long they get hurt for and who steps in for them will be a big deal. And that's why the Yankees are clearly better because they still have that depth that they've put together.

They have good rotation depth. They hit Mike Tauchman's like their fifth outfielder. It's going to be all right. But they can even survive the void injury. But I think this is going to be a super fascinating division. I can't wait to watch it, actually. And we're not supposed to root or whatever, but the Blue Jays, it's just fun. It's a little bit like the Padres story.

That's my pick for most exciting team. I don't know where we're supposed to go. Eno, stop skipping ahead here. I know, but I'm trying to push this. We're almost at an hour, man. I'm trying to push along. We're going to go awards with no explanation whatsoever. We're going to go straight through those names.

Just a name. Just a name. That'll make everybody happy. Well, I'll pay some bills here real quick, and then we can get on to our playoff predictions and awards. All right, we made our predictions for each division, so let's run through how we think the playoffs are going to play out, which will be subject to future fighting and debating, I'm sure.

But for all the love we were throwing on the Angels and Jays, those were my picks on the AL wildcard side. I've got the Mets and Padres in on the NL side. So yeah, I took the Braves to win the division, but I think the Mets are a playoff team this year. And with the Padres, that win total is just too much to pass on. But I do think when I look at the matchups in the postseason, I think we're going to get to a Dodgers-Brewers NLCS.

Dodgers are going to destroy the Brewers in that series. They're just way, way better. I got the Yankees over the White Sox on the AL side, and then the Yankees over the Dodgers in seven in the World Series. So chalk city for me in the World Series. But a few fun twists to get there, right? Yankees over White Sox, Dodgers over Brewers. At least that's a little bit different. Yeah.

I thought we were going around in a circle on these, so now I'm really going to have to put my thinking cap on. Build the whole bracket. I'll jump in. Go for it. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. I got the Mets, Dodgers, Padres.

Mets, Brewers, Dodgers as the winners. Padres, Braves as wild cards. So that's pretty chalkish. I'll take the Mets to beat the Dodgers in the NLCS. So the Mets are going to beat the Dodgers in the NLCS. That's depth against depth, stars against stars. Love to see a DeGrom-Kershaw matchup. I think that would be really fun television.

And it'll come down to just the players executing. Kershaw matchup. I think that would be really fun television. And it'll come down to just the players executing. There'll be some extreme great moments. I think that would be a 6-7 game series that'll just be beautiful. I would love that. And by that time Thor in the rotation, now you've

got DeGrom, Thor, Strowman as your playoff rotation. I think that can hang and i can bang um so in the american league i got the yankees twins um and well i had astros but i guess i put angels there now um with the astros then making the wild card and then one of the rays and jays oh cool gotta pick one unless they're not advancing. Okay, we're going to take a down year for the Rays, and we're going to put the Jays in as a surprise entry.

Who's going to knock the Yankees off of their pedestal? I'm going to come back around the Astros, beat the Yankees as a wild card team. I knew he'd do it. I guess that makes Astros, Mets, and my bold prediction was Mets go all the way. So I'm sticking with it. Mets go all the way. Wow. Cohen said in five years and he's doing this first.

Whoa. Okay. All right. So I got Mets, Dodgers, Cardinals as my division winners. I've got Padres, Brewers as my wildcard people in the NL. I've got Yankees, Twins, Astros, as we discussed in the AL. And then I have Blue Jays, White Sox as my wildcard. I do think the White Sox win that wildcard out of the AL.

They end up advancing. I do also think that the Padres beat the Brewers. I'm sorry, Derek. It seems like the Brewers are always the bridesmaid, never the bride when we get into these playoff scenarios, those early exits. I don't think the Mets are going to win the World Series, but I do think the Mets are going to advance. They're going to win. They're going to beat the Cardinals. The Dodgers are going to steamroll the Padres again, going to be sitting at home. I unfortunately think the Dodgers are going to be the NL champion. We're going to see them in the World Series again, but honestly, I don't think they're going to win.

I think winning back-to-back World Series, too many things have to go right. Too many things can go wrong. Out of the AL, what I like is the Astros, unfortunately, end up beating the Twins. The Yankees, I think, are going to lose to the White Sox. I know I was down on them early. I think Aloy comes back. He invigorates this team. We're in September, and they are just absolutely cruising. I think the Yankees get upset there.

I like the White Sox as my AL, not trendy at all, pick to win the World Series. I think as much as I don't think they're going to be that great early on, I think if they catch fire, they're young. They're going to kind of play with that abandon. They're going to get, they're going to kind of play with that abandoned. They're going to not know they're supposed to be there. And they're going to kind of be reminiscent of the 08 Rays. They're going to turn the tables on everyone, get back their best player down the stretch.

And then they're a really tough team. So how about that? How about that? We've got the Mets. We've got the White Sox. We've got some really unusual picks here, which means we're probably going to be wrong. I'm trying to see what's the way that makes us

all wrong. The Yankees winning? The Padres. None of us have the Padres in the World Series. The Padres twins World Series make us all wrong. I mean, that would probably be...

MLB would be upset about that. That'd be a fun World Series, though. Wait, we're not that high on the Yankees, either. Well, would you have... You had Yankees-Dodgers, right? I got the Yankees winning it over the Dodgers. That's right. Yeah, never mind. Really, though? Yep. They're just really good.

This is a year that Judge and Stanton stay healthier than usual. That's assuming a playoff rotation of Cole-Kluber-Tayon, I guess. That's assuming a playoff rotation of Cole, Kluber, Tyone, I guess. That's your playoff three? I don't know about Kluber, man. I'm legitimately worried about him, but I also don't think that that's totally – I don't think that's the key of their whole season by any stretch of the imagination.

No, I like to think about playoff rotations because depth kind of goes out the window to some extent, right? I mean, you can still use your depth and the Dodgers made good use of their depth by improving their bullpen, basically, and improving their middle innings. But it still matters more what your top three are than your top five or six or seven, right? Yeah, I think it's Cole, Tyon,

and either Montgomery or Hermann. But I do like that they could have Severino back by then, so he could easily be part of their top three. Cole, Severino, Garcia. It could be someone like Davey Garcia by then. There's a lot of different combinations they could have. There's a lot of high-powered trios they could end up with, even with injuries, with some attrition, with some surprises,

and I think that's a big part of their appeal to me. I do think when you get to the playoffs, it's not about depth anymore, it's about stars. That's why the Mets could go far. That's why I have the White Sox going. I do think when you get to the playoffs it's not about depth anymore, it's about stars. That's why the Mets could go far. That's why I have the White Sox going. I think it becomes less about depth and more about, like you were saying, who cares if you have six starters? You want those three horses

that you can fit around with on the off days and keep running them out there. It's a totally different game when you get to the playoffs. And then you have the friggin' Dodgers who have depth and stars, man. That's why I bet on the Mets. I feel like they follow that idea a little bit. Depth and stars.

Yeah, they do. That's what you want. I mean, the Rays went all the way to the World Series on more depth than stars. But I guess I wasn't too surprised they didn't win. It's an unusual build. It's tough to make it happen that way. Let's give out some more fake hardware while we're at it. Let's go to the NL Rookie of the Year award.

I'll start with you, Britt. Who is the NL Rookie of the Year this year? Well, now that I'm looking at the rundown, I don't want to steal yours. Can we agree? Can we agree on Carlson? Okay. I like that pick. I think that's going to be a good one. I know we're up against time here, so I'm not going to elaborate. I'm just going to say I'm going to go with Dylan Carlson for my NL Rookie of the Year. There are no rules here, but the thing I like about Dylan Carlson is that I think to win Rookie of the Year, you've got to accumulate a little bit. I think he could be in the lineup from day one, have a prominent spot very early in the year, and be a 150-game sort of player who does really well with that playing time

so those final numbers are going to look a lot better than some of the other rookies that might come up in may or june i think we've seen him go through some of the adjustments already in the shortened season so things are going to start to click for him sooner rather than later and even though i'm slightly lower than the field i guess on the cardinals i think dylan carlson's going to be one of the things that definitely goes right for St. Louis this year. Yeah, I think that opening day lineup is a big, big, big plus in the Rookie of the Year. You have to really shine brightly in a short sample

to take that away from someone who accrues all those big numbers, hits 25 homers to your 12 in the second half kind of deal, you know? And so I agree that I think opening day lineups matter, but there's two other really interesting young players in opening day lineups for the NL that are rookies in Christian Pache and Cabrian Hayes. And I'm going to pick Cabrian Hayes because I looked through some of the underlying power numbers and I kind of believe them. And power, if he has power, he has everything else. He has shortstop

like defense at third base. He can steal you 15 to 20 bags. He's going to probably hit 300 or maybe 280 or something with good on-base percentage. So here's a guy who has all the tools. We said, well, what about the power? What about the power? He came up and had a max exit velocity in the top third of the league. He had a hard hit rate in the top 25% of the league. So, like, you know, I think this guy can hit for power and will hit for power. And so as much as I like Christian Pacheque, Brian Hayes is my pick. Sicto Sanchez is still considered a rookie of the year, I think, too. And he's a little bit of a dark horse.

Yeah, there's some surprising pitchers. Ian Anderson is still a rookie. So there are some pitchers that are going to be in the run. What's interesting to me is that Dylan Carlson is plus 900 on BetMGM, though. Brian Hayes is the favorite at plus 350. So you're actually getting decent odds on Carlson as the second most likely position player, but only the fourth most likely player overall.

Let's go to the AL Rookie of the Year award. Chalk, in this case, is Randy Rosarena. He is still eligible for this award. Yeah, I was really surprised about that. Yeah, I mean, you know, is there any reason to even pick against him? I know there are other great candidates, but do you think it's just a Rosarena's award barring an injury or unforeseen collapse?

Well, I'm going to go with my bold prediction of Andrew Vaughn. He's going to be in from the opening day. I think he has elite plate discipline, whereas Randy's is good. And so the way to beat Randy I think would be batting average basically. Batting average

and OBP and maybe so like if Vaugh von can hit 280 290 with 20 bombs uh and play every day um and a rosarena hits 260 and has some regression in there um i think there's a window there yeah i mean a rosarena similar carlson he's got a full-time job he's got to play. And he's probably not the – I don't think he can sustain what he did, right, what we saw over the course of a full season, but he does hit the ball hard. There are things to suggest that it wasn't quite as fluky as maybe some people would have thought, right,

that weren't familiar with him. I think – I mean, if Pearson was healthy and I guess more in play in Toronto, would he be a guy, do you feel like, Nate Pearson, that could be a dark horse candidate in the AL? I feel like maybe. He'd have to get healthy quick. I mean, I think he's almost in the sort of Jared Kelnich grouping where he'll have to get healthy quick, get into the big leagues quick,

and then kind of take off running from there. Yeah. Yeah, he's at plus at plus 1200 just for reference, a Rosarena plus three 50 at bed MGM, Ryan Mountcastle's in there at plus 1200. I mean, he's going to play a lot too. So it kind of just comes down to how much he can accumulate.

I think he could end up being kind of an interesting nice home part to inflate his, his Homer totals and his batting average. I'm going to pick Jared Kellnick just because I want that to be the story. Like I just think it'd be fun if he comesick just because I want that to be the story. I just think it'd be fun if he comes up, just absolutely rakes, and then gets the award.

That would be just fantastic, given what we've heard over the last few weeks. Let's move on to Cy Young predictions. We'll start in the NL, and we'll go to you first, Britt. Jacob DeGraw. I know it's not sexy. It's boring. It's like, what? Again, thatrom. I know it's not sexy. It's boring. It's like, what? Again, that guy.

It's the most likely outcome. He's the best pitcher in baseball right now and I don't think it's close. So, and again, if we're going to be all on Mets, Mets, Mets train, you need Jacob deGrom to be good. Are we all or is it just me?

No, I agree, deGrom. You're on the train. You're definitely driving the train. I'm a passenger, and I don't know where Derek is on that right now. Oh, this will work out perfectly. My Mets, oh boy, this will be great. He knows Mets, yeah.

Nothing bad could ever happen being attached to the Mets. Hey, I just want to throw a dark horse out there that I already threw out. It was Brandon Woodruff. There is something that happens with Cy Young voting. looked at it and yes there are some guys who come out of nowhere and win it but the more normal progression the thing that happens to most Cy Young winners is they've gotten Cy Young votes in the past they've done something that was good

enough uh to get on there and then they have that next season that gives them the award. So I think Woodruff in this next couple of years is right there where he's in the Scion conversation and one year he's just going to win it. Yeah, I think he's kind of a fun longer odds bet too. I've talked about him in some of our BetMGM promos at plus 2,500 because he is good enough to do it. If you think the Brewers can win the division, he gets the gaudy record to go with the good ERA and the good strikeouts. So it all kind of works out.

But I think for me, if I'm trying to make the most accurate prediction, not the most fun bet or best valued bet, Walker Buehler. I mean, I'm going Walker Buehler over DeGrom. I think DeGrom is the odds-on favorite. Bueller's in there with the Woodruff, too, because in per-inning basis, he's been great. It's just a question of, can he put together 170, 180 this year? Exactly.

The funny thing is, while I'm choosing Bueller to win the award, if I were actually putting money down, the plus 2,500 on Woodruff makes that a much better bet. The odds are more fun. Right, because Bueller's plus 1,500 on Woodruff makes that a much better bet. The odds are more fun. Right, because Buehler's plus 1,000. But I do think it comes to be Buehler. And the Dodgers, they're going to win so much this year. And then what's going to happen is the Dodgers rotation is going to be so amazing that the voters are going to sit there at the end of the year, and they're going to compare all the starters.

And I think Buehler's going to end up being their best starter. And it's going to be, oh, he's the best starter on a rotation that had these guys that all were amazing. So we have to give him the trophy. We have to give him the hardware because he was the best of this really good rotation that did some things that we really don't see rotations do very often. TV time might matter a little bit, just exposure time. Like, you know, I don't think how many times is Woodruff against the Pirates

going to be, you know, in the national consciousness where if Bueller shuts down the Pad the Padres, everybody will be like, oh, man, remember that awesome, really important division game that Buehler went out and shut down one of the best lineups in baseball? Hey, you know what? The second time Brandon Woodruff no-hits the Pirates this season, it's going to get everybody's attention. So let's just keep our eyes on the prize here.

On the AL side, I'll go first because I'm taking the chalk. I think it's Garrett Cole. He's the favorite, plus 350. I think he's the guy. I think it's going to be very obvious why the Yankees gave him all that money. The shortened season was still very good. By his standards, it wasn't quite as good as 2019. But I think he's going to get back closer to the 2019 level here in 2021.

So, yeah, I'm going boring. I'm going chalk on the AL side. Garrett Cole to win the AL Cy Young. So I'm going to go Gialito because Lucas Gialito. I know Garrett Cole is going to be important. But if I pick the White Sox to get to the World Series, which I did several minutes ago, they're going to need Lucas Chialito to be 2019 Lucas Chialito. And I think he started off last year

horribly. But by the end of the year, he was kind of back to form. And it gave you a lot of hope that, okay, it was a little bit of anomaly, everything that happened last year. I think the White Sox need him badly. I think if the White Sox are going to advance, they're going to need him. And let's not forget that this guy was, he had a huge breakout year in 2019. I don't think,

I guess I'd call him a dark horse. I don't know where he lies on the candidate list. Certainly Cole is going into this being on the Yankees. But I also think the White Sox being able to put up runs and score for him is going to matter too. People can talk all they want about how the records and things don't matter, but I think it matters to the voters. And I think that still carries a little bit of weight as well. Yeah. You know, one of the things that does matter in the voting is wins.

It still matters. It's a weird, it's about, but it flows from innings and being deep into games and accruing and accruing those strikeout totals that the voters are looking at. The raw totals still matter. I did a projection for quality starts, looked at the bats projection for quality starts in the AL and Lance Lynn is tied for second. And Cole is there tied for third and with Shane Bieber. And then you've got Giolito in the next group, which includes Marco Gonzalez.

So it's definitely Marco Gonzalez for Cy. No, I... Shane Bieber is the guy that Derek hated. No, but this is my group. This is the group is tight. It's really small. Uh, in the AL,

I think for the Cy and the MVP hardware, uh, there's not a wide group. It's a small group of players and it very small, like sort of two or three. So I think for Cy, you're either picking Bieber, G Alito or Cole in the American league.

I mean, I, I, I just can't like, I, that's why I made the Marco Gonzalez joke. It's Bieber, Giolito, or Cole in the American League. I mean, I just can't. That's why I made the Marco Gonzalez joke. It's like I can't. I don't imagine Lance Lynn or Marco Gonzalez winning it. And the bulk guys behind that are like Granke, Savali. American League pitching is a bit of a mess. Barrios at plus 2,000 is like the only longer odds guy I'd even think about.

I don't feel nearly as good about that as I do about Woodruff by comparison on the NL side. And you got Glass now at plus 800. He's the fourth most likely to win it. But he's not going to accrue the innings. I mean, they take him out early. He's got an injury history. I just can't see him putting up 180 innings. My projection for him is accrue the innings. I mean, they take him out early. He's got an injury history. I just can't see him putting up 180 innings. My projection for him is more like 150 innings.

And I think he'll go up against somebody who has 180 innings. That's fair. Yeah, I don't know. When he's healthy, they let him work like a normal starter. It's just a matter of keeping him healthy. But then there's also the bad walk totals sometimes. So sometimes he gets himself out of the game by walking two guys in the sixth or fifth or whatever. Yeah, but your point with the AL pitching, you look at that board and you're like,

yeah, you kind of got to go chalk because the long shots, it's really hard to tell yourself a story. The long shots are actually going to come through on the AL side this year. So for me, it's Cole. And then to switch over to MVP for the AL, it's Mike Trout. If you look at the projections, Mike Trout gets 7.5 win projection and second place is like a 5.6.

It's like two win differential to Alex Bregman. And as much as I like Alex Bregman, I'm not rushing out to like, even if you give me odds, I'm not rushing out to take Alex Bregman. Especially if the Angels make the postseason or make a run at it, they'll be

finally, even the people who are like, well, Mike Trott doesn't make the postseason. They're like, oh, finally, the team was good enough around him. Let's give him the MVP again. Is Aloy not in there anymore because he's hurt? Because I'm curious where healthy he would have stacked up. No. They've already updated him.

He's not going to get enough plate appearances to be my dark horse. My dark horse is on the Angels, but his name is Anthony Rendon. There you go. He's got the next projection right behind Bregman. The projection is Trout, Bregman, Rendon. What if

Anthony Rendon is AL MVP, the Angels are a legitimate threat. Yeah. Because we know what Trout's going to do. Right. Because it means Trout did what Trout always does, which he could have a better season than Rendon and then wouldn't win MVP and lose to a teammate. That would be a very Mike Trout sort of thing.

That would be an outcome. You know, Willie Mays, this happened to Willie Mays a lot. I helped with John Shea's book on this and found that Willie Mays should have won the MVP like four or five more times. And that people just at some point were like, yeah, yeah, Willie Mays, whatever. But what about this guy?

He hit.280 with 35 bombs. You're like, yeah, but Willie Mays hit 30 bombs and stole 30 bases and was in center field. Yeah, but this guy is a new guy. Maybe also white anyway um yeah i mean anthony redone isn't like fernando tatis or people are like oh he's so fun and cool and hip like right he is someone who also hates the spotlight i just think he's playing a premier position yeah and he could have a season where he hits like 330 with like 38 dongs or something, right? Yeah, I mean, he's a guy

who you don't really appreciate until you watch him every day. And obviously... Like Triple Crown. He could win a Triple Crown. And it could be like the Miguel Cabrera-Mike Trout year just on the same team.

Yeah. Oh, I don't want that to happen, Trout, but I can see it happening. I'm going Aaron Judge for AL MVP. You've got him a lot of places. Projections are a little wrong about his batting average, I think in part because of the 257 last year, and maybe the strikeout rate still throws the systems for a loop.

But he's a 270, 280 guy most years. In a good year, I could see him hitting 290 or 300. We've seen a 52 home run season before. That's still in his range of outcomes. In that park, in that lineup, the numbers could be eye-popping. It doesn't hurt to be on a good Yankees team either. So Aaron Judge is my AL MVP. Trout, obviously the favorite at plus 200.

But the universe doesn't like Mike Trout to be the MVP for some reason. And I will never fully understand why that is because he deserves it pretty much platform fatigue. Yes. Derek, you're all about the Yankees. They're winning the world series. Garrett Coles went in the Cy Young.

Aaron judge is winning the MVP. Oh, I'm doing this on the NL side. What do you got? Grom is my side and Francisco Lindor for MVP. A lot of pinstripes on this show today.

A lot of New York love over here. Does he have a deal, though? Does he sign? I think so. I actually don't think they're that far apart. If you look at it, the deal he's asking for has a lower AAV. Derek, does he suck? Yeah, I think he's going to take it.

I think they're going to have a deal. Maybe by the time people hear this show, but I think he has a deal in place before the first pitch is thrown on Thursday. I agree. But the reason I picked Lindor is because the field is wide open in terms of projections. The projections for the AL, that two-win drop between Trout and everybody else, the projection of the NL,

these guys are all between five and six wins in the NL. Tatis, Betts, Soto, Seager, Bellinger, Acuna, Lindor. Those guys are all in there. I think that's an amazing group of players, and it's a pick-em if I've ever seen it. I think that you could just pick the one that has the longest odds. That's kind of Lindor, I think. But that group is just an amazing group of players.

Yeah, I like Soto. I think my dark horse here is Manny Machado, who people forget finished ahead of Fernando Tatis in MVP voting last year. I also think Manny Machado operates in a realm where Tatis is this big deal with the Padres. And I saw him in spring training and he looks, and I had a few scouts mentioned to me as well. He's bigger. He looks bigger. He looks stronger.

He looks like, you know what? This is not Tatis' team yet. Right? Like, I think that has helped motivate him, having better than him which to be honest never really has happened that was yeah that was never really a concern in Baltimore at all especially like right next to him on the infield I mean you could have

he was on the Dodgers for a bit there's Bellinger there's some other guys but like look to your left and everyone's like ooh love this new Tatis and you're like hey man I was Tatis before Tatis. Come on. Exactly. So he is my dark horse. I think it's going to be

Juan Soto. Like you said, I think it could be five guys and it wouldn't surprise me at all. But Juan Soto, just like, man, I mean, this guy, this guy, people don't realize, had like a fake COVID test, was sidelined for the first two weeks of a 60-game season and still put up ridiculous numbers.

I just think he's going to continue to get better. We've heard the Ted Williams comparisons all the time. You know, yes, he's not quite as flashy. He's not the Tatis in the field. He doesn't have the plus speed. He doesn't have the plus arm. Yeah, because Acuna could go out there and make stolen bases a priority again and kind of do like a 40-40 season. And that's going to speak volumes.

People are going to love to vote for the guy who hit 40-40 and the Braves made the postseason, blah, blah, blah. That's me. That's yours. That's my pick. I'm on Acuna. I think he'll stand out. I think a lot of the other candidates are going to have someone awesome right next to them. And Acuna obviously has a good supporting cast,

but I think he's going to be head and shoulders above the Braves' other great players, in part because of that speed that you mentioned. I do think a 40-40 season is possible, so I'm on Acuna, in part because I have the Braves over the Mets in the division, too. I think that's going to be part of the narrative in the minds of the voters. All right, we have moved on to our final segment of today's show. This is a fun one that we threw out there on Twitter. The most exciting teams to watch

in 2021. I framed the question in a simple way. Besides your favorite team, who are you most looking forward to watching this season? And both of you don't have a favorite team anymore, right? You've completely dissociated your feelings from baseball, so you could just go at this completely with a clean slate. You don't have to betray your favorite team and cheat on

them with some other team. But this is actually, this is where the problem comes in as an analyst and a writer is that the most exciting team does become someone you, I don't know, root for you, that you watch a lot and then you end up writing about a lot and you end up thinking about a lot so there is a bias towards the most exciting team whichever team that you think it is so you know i i kind of think it's uh the jays um just by proximity i get to pick the whole ale east that way and see get to pick the rays and the yankees and see how that all works out but the jays you know because the padres and the white socks the jays are the Rays and the Yankees and see how that all works out. But the Jays, you know, because the Padres and the White Sox, the Jays are where the Padres and the White Sox used to be, I think.

Kind of got that core ascending, ready to be there, still flawed. You know, the Padres and White Sox are the second generation that where they've worked to cover all those flaws. They traded for Snell. They traded for Lynn. They did those things. You know, the Jays haven't done that yet. So it's probably a year too early,

but it is kind of fun to kind of jump on a bandwagon a year early, you know? So have the Rays make it to 500 this year and in the offseason finally sign a big pitcher or whatever it is. Yeah, it's fun to jump on the bandwagon early because then when they get good, you're like, yeah, I've been on this bandwagon.

Look at all these pieces I wrote. It's like, look at this. I was already on this team. Now you like them because they're good. That's certainly... I like Toronto. What's interesting to me, guys, is do they have to be a good team to be exciting? Because there's a few bad, interesting teams. I think the Tigers are going to be a bad, interesting team. I think the Royals are going to be a bad, interesting team. I think I think the Royals are going to be a bad, interesting team. I think if Seattle promotes Kelnick, they're all of a sudden a bad, interesting team. There's just bad, bad teams.

And those are like the Orioles and Rockies, which I don't really want to watch because they're not all that interesting. But there are some really, in my opinion, bad teams that are still worth watching. Because like you said, Eno, in a year or two, they're going to be less bad. And you can be like, I was watching them. I was on this board. I was ready to go.

I don't root for teams. I root for players. And that can be tough. You know, if I like a guy and he gets shelled, well, can't really, not really anything you can do about that.

As a national writer, though, you can just ignore it. When you cover a team, you know, you got to go up there and be like, excuse me, Scherzer, how did that go? And he stares at you and you're like, terrible. Max, you gave up four home runs tonight. What went wrong?

Tigers are projected to have the best strikeout rate decrease in baseball this year. So I actually think that there's something interesting about the Tigers where it's like that lineup is like as much as we make fun of it, it's starting to come together. They're starting to have some pieces come together and Torkelson's the big, you know, addition at some point. And all those guys that we've been slagging on in the Tigers offense will suddenly be their backups and they might be, they might be good.

Yeah. So give me the good, give me the good, bad teams to watch. You know, those are, that's what I'm on right now. I think the Padres, Mets, you're going to watch those teams because they're going to be good. Yeah. So give me the good bad teams to watch. That's what I'm on right now. I think the Padres, Mets, you're going to watch those teams because they're going to be good now and they're interesting and there's plenty of that. But there are some interesting bad teams.

Yeah. Cheesecake on Twitter, it goes by Art, but his nickname is Cheesecake, is excited to see how that KC lineup shapes up. I think the Royals could actually be a lot of fun, like you said, Britt. Like for a team that we're not used to bringing into the conversation of,

yeah, I'm tuning in to watch the Royals. Like they're legitimately more fun now than they were a year ago. Different sort of era for them. Some young pitching coming up to complement that core of young hitters as well. I saw the Marlins come up as a response for a lot of people. Because the young pitching especially is good, but some young position players. We talked about Jazz Chisholm making the opening day roster, but he's the first of maybe a few, right? They could bring up J.J. Bleday later this summer.

This group could get a lot better very quickly over the summer, kind of like what we were saying earlier about the Mariners or what I was saying earlier about them maybe being a team that does really well in the second half, the Marlins could be that kind of team and they'll have some steam going into next season. I'm not feeling it. No? Counterpoint. JJ Bleday, I like. Yeah.

We really need buzzers on this show or sound effects for me. Just randomly counterpoint. I'm going to be excited when the sound effects work and then I'm going to immediately regret the decision of giving everyone control over sound buttons. Yes, exactly.

Someone did write in Cody Mac Baltimore, I love how terrible they are. Long may it continue. They tagged Alex fast too, so I think that was mostly just trolling Alex. Oh, poor Alex. Who shamed me into following him on Twitter. I hope he's listening. That's quite the energy.

Because normally when you're following a bad team, you're like, oh, but no. They're starting, look, this guy's good. And, you know, Adley's coming. And we're going to be good someday. I'll show you. It's got to be trolling. Because I don't think I've ever heard someone say, oh, we're bad, and it's going to be for a long time.

I love it. Yeah. You know what, though? I will say, you know, Baltimore fans, after spending nine years there, they're real. You tell them the team's bad, and they're like, yeah, we are. We're terrible, this, this, and that. You know, there's some fan bases that continue to think every year that they're much better than they are.

And I think the Orioles are realists. Yeah. Sometimes the writing that comes out of those situations is better or interesting. Because you really, no one cares about what happened that day in the game, right? So, like, if something interesting is happening in their personal life or there's some sort of divergent thing that you can follow, it's almost like spring training all year. Yeah. You can write about whatever you like. Yeah, it's open season.

And sometimes you can get into the prospects, especially in those teams, depending on how good the farm systems are. And you get some good stories out of them too. My official order, Padres, like everybody, at or near the top. Jays, Angels, Mets are my priorities. If the Rays do call up the young prospects soon, they pretty much cut ahead of everybody on

that list except for maybe the Padres. If we get Wander early, we get Brujan, we get some young pitching prospects up like Patino, McClanahan, all those guys start getting jammed into the rotation. I will find myself watching the Rays a lot when first pitch starts at 6 o'clock on any given night. Be honest. The Angels are on your list because of one player.

And it's not Mike Trout. No. I mean, kind of. Yeah. I want to see what happens with Otani this year. Shohei. It hurt. It hurt watching him pitch against the Dodgers the other night.

He couldn't command anything. Yeah, he is terrible. Monday? Reliever-level command, man. It's not always fun to watch him pitch, actually. No, so I kind of do the watch through my fingers thing. When I see Otani pitching, I'm like, this could be awesome. Love watching him hit so i'll at least tune in on the days where he's hitting and the bonus is yeah you get to watch

trout you get to watch rendon and some other really great players too but definitely weigh in on that twitter question let us know who you're most excited to watch beyond your favorite teams you can also drop us an email rates and barrelsandbarrelsattheathletic.com is the email address. Inbox zero, maybe by the end of April, if I'm lucky. We'll keep trying to work at that. On Twitter, she's at Britt underscore Jiroli. He is at Eno Saris. I am at Derek Van Ryper.

Enjoy opening day, everybody. We are back with you on Friday. Thanks for listening.