Preseason predictions, revisited

I made these predictions before the season started. Actual records listed in parentheses:

American League East
Boston Red Sox 92 - 70 (86-76)
New York Yankees 88 - 74 (97-65)
Toronto Blue Jays 82 - 80 (87-75)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 75 - 87 (61-101)
Baltimore Orioles 71 - 91 (70-92)

American League Central
Cleveland Indians 93 - 69 (78-84)
Chicago White Sox 89 - 73 (90-72)
Minnesota Twins 88 - 74 (96-66)
Detroit Tigers 75 - 87 (95-67*)
Kansas City Royals 59 - 103 (62-100)

American League West
Oakland Athletics 96 - 66 (93-69)
Anaheim Angels 90 - 72 *WC (89-73)
Texas Rangers 82 - 80 (80-82)
Seattle Mariners 71 - 91 (78-84)

National League East
New York Mets 93 - 69 (97-65)
Atlanta Braves 89 - 73 *WC (79-83)
Philadelphia Phillies 85 - 77 (85-77)
Florida Marlins 71 - 91 (78-84)
Washington Nationals 65 - 97 (71-91)

National League Central
St. Louis Cardinals 96 - 66 (83-78)
Cincinnati Reds 86 - 76 (80-82)
Houston Astros 83 - 79 (82-80)
Milwaukee Brewers 79 - 83 (75-87)
Chicago Cubs 74 - 88 (66-96)
Pittsburgh Pirates 69 - 93 (67-95)

National League West
San Francisco Giants 88 - 74 (76-85)
Los Angeles Dodgers 86 - 76 (88-74)
San Diego Padres 75 - 87 (88-74)
Arizona Diamondbacks 71 - 91 (76-86)
Colorado Rockies 69 - 93 (76-86)

YOUR PLAYOFFS:

American League Division Series:
Cleveland Indians over Anaheim Angels in 5 games
Oakland Athletics over Boston Red Sox in 4 games

National League Division Series:
New York Mets over San Francisco Giants in 4 games
St. Louis Cardinals over Atlanta Braves in 4 games

American League Championship Series:
Oakland Athletics over Cleveland Indians in 6 games

National League Championship Series:
St. Louis Cardinals over New York Mets in 6 games

World Series:
Oakland Athletics over St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games

So how did I do? Well, let’s start with the positives:
-AL West picked in perfect order.
-Predicted Baltimore, Chicago Sox, Kansas City, Oakland, LA Angels, Texas, Philadelphia, Houston, Pittsburgh and LA Dodgers’ regular season records within 3 games of actual finish.
-Predicted 3 of 4 Championship Series participants.
-Placed Cincinnatti and Florida higher than most prognosticators, correctly predicted Cubs', White Sox’ and Nationals’ disappointing years. Though the Cubs were worse than even I thought.

And the negatives:
-Underrated NY Yankees, overrated Red Sox (how typical!), though Sox’ injuries, Wang’s year and the Abreu trade were hard to foresee.
-Didn’t see Detroit coming, but I doubt anyone did.
-Overrated Cleveland though they underperformed their expected record greatly.
-Overrated Tampa, though they were doing better until they shut Kazmir down and played only rookies down the stretch.
-Overrated San Francisco greatly. Expected more from their young pitching (Cain and Lowry) and a return to 2004 form for Bonds.

All in all I’m pretty happy with my predictions.