Early Season MLB Predictions and Season Breakdown

Zechariah Lichter (’24) and Benny Frieden (’26)

Last Week’s Solution

The 2023 MLB season is underway and it is off to a pretty crazy start. There are multiple non-playoff teams from last year that have started off the season hot. The Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks have all been off to a great start after being pretty bad for the past few seasons. The Orioles, the best of the bunch, have started the season 26-15 behind their star catcher Adley Rutschman, a young and up-in-coming lineup, and a very solid rotation. The Texas Rangers (25-16) hired Bruce Bochy, a 3 time World Series Champion, to be their manager while also signing Jacob deGrom to a massive contract to be their superstar pitcher. The Pirates, who shockingly started the season 20-8, have cooled down a bit, but are still one of the more exciting teams to watch this season. The Diamondbacks (24-18) called up all of their big name prospects last year and it is really paying off, and they are one of the better teams to start the season. Along with the good teams, however, there have been many disappointing teams as well. The New York Mets, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies all who were World Series contenders before the season have started the season very slow. They are all way too talented and experienced to not pick it up eventually.

Although it may be too early to make accurate predictions, we are still going to take a shot. First prediction is that good teams right now like the Pittsburgh Pirates, also come from the AL East: The Tampa Bay Rays, who will finish 98 wins and led by Wander Franco and Randy Arozarena. They will be the fourth team from the AL East in the playoffs. The Houston Astros who are the defending champions have started off the season slower than expected. I say that they turn it around led by Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez finishing with a 101-61 record making them the 1 seed in the AL.

Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Texas Rangers will fall apart in the summer and miss the playoffs. The Baltimore Orioles who are hot right now sneak into the playoffs for the first time since 2016 but get eliminated early on in the wild card.

National League:

Full Playoff Predictions: American League: Coming in at the 6 seed and sneaking into the playoffs will be the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles will finish with a record of 88-74 led by young stars Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullens. The 5 seed will be the Toronto Blue Jays. Another very good team led by stars Vlad Gurerro and George Springer will finish with a 90 win season. The 4 seed, and the last non-division winner team to make the playoffs, will be another team from the AL East: The New York Yankees, who are led by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. They will finish with a record of 93-69. Now for the division winners: From the AL Central which is probably the worst division in baseball will be the Minnesota Twins, led by Carlos Correa, with a record of 85-77. The 2 seed will

The team that sneaks into the playoffs will be the Milwaukee Brewers with a record of 85-77. Their pitching is one of the best in the league with starter Corbin Burnes and closer Devin Williams. The 5 seed will be the Philadelphia Phillies with a record of 89-73. After making the world series last year they started this season off slow but I believe they will bounce back led by Bryce Harper. The 4 seed will be the San Diego Padres. They will finish with 90 wins this season. They are another team that started off the season slow but led by Fernando Tatis they will turn it around. The St Louis Cardinals will take the 3 seed and win the central. They will win 92 games. They also started the season off 10-24 but are turning it around and are now only 8 games below 500. The 2 seed will be the Atlanta Braves finishing with 97 wins. The Braves have been really good for a few years now led by Ronald Acuna. And last but not least, the LA Dodgers will be the 1 seed in the national league finishing with 103 wins led by Freddie Freeman.