The Tailgate Society

What happens out in the lots, stays out in the lots.

David Graf@mrdavidgraf

Division winners and Wild Cards: The Astros, White Sox, and Yankees will make the playoffs as division winners, and the Athletics and Blue Jays make the postseason as wild cards from the American League. Why are Mike Trout and the Angels allergic to the postseason?

The Dodgers, Cardinals, and Braves all make the playoffs as division winners, and the Reds and Diamondbacks make the postseason as wild cards from the National League. The San Diego Padres will surprise you, win over your heart, and fail to make the postseason.

ALCS and NLCS: The ALCS will feature the Athletics and the Yankees. God, I hate the Yankees. Why’d Gerrit Cole go from the villainized Astros, to representative of himself, to mega Yankee free agent? Ugh. Meanwhile, the NLCS will feature the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks. Madison Bumgarner will do his best Randy Johnson impression, and Clayton Kershaw will try his best not to be postseason Clayton Kershaw.

World Series: The Yankees will beat the Diamondbacks this time in 6 games. The world will finally meet Ketel Marte and David Peralta, only to hate them for losing to the Yankees.

MVPs: Cody Bellinger (LAD) adds to his hardware collection and wins the NL MVP back-to-back. Tim Anderson (CWS) captures baseball fans’ hearts and finally receives his due for his bat flips and general awesomeness on the baseball field. He also crushes in a shortened season and takes home the AL MVP award.

Cy Youngs: In the AL, Blake Snell (TB) will be getting his — his second Cy Young award in three years, that is. In the NL, Chris Paddack (SD) will control a 60-game season. Simply put, he’s electric.

DH in the NL thoughts: Other than Madison Bumgarner, when have you seen a pitcher wait back on a changeup, let alone a slider and go yard like Nelson Cruz does regularly? More of this, less of this.

Most wins in this 60-game season: The Dodgers never fail to meet expectations to win in the regular season. Vegas has them pegged at 37.5. I’d bet they win 45 games with the addition of Mookie Betts to their lineup.

Three Bold Predictions:

Your next new stadium: I have never been to Canada, so I’d love to catch a game at the Rogers Centre. I also have a soft spot for any team in the AL East not named the Yankees or Red Sox.

Spencer Hughes@spencerhughes

Division winners and Wild Cards: I’ll try to mix it up just a bit. The Astros, White Sox, and Yankees in the AL, and the Dodgers, Cubs, and Braves in the NL. Twins vs. Rays and Cardinals vs. Nationals in the Wild Card games. (I will hope for a different outcome than last fall’s STL-WAS NLCS.)

ALCS and NLCS: There doesn’t appear to be a lot of parity in baseball this year. How could I pick against the Yankees vs. Astros or the Dodgers making it (I’ll say against the Braves)? The rich are as rich as ever in MLB.

World Series: The most 2020 outcome I can think of is Astros over Dodgers, and I’ll pick that in 6. The cheaters just continue to prosper.

MVPs: I’ll go off the board a little bit with Yoan Moncada (CWS) who will finally get lots of notice when the Sox make the playoffs. If I’m wrong, I think it’ll be that the addition of the perpetually underrated Anthony Rendon to the Angels will give Mike Trout the chance to totally blow up. In the NL, I think Mookie Betts (LAD) will get the hardware after leading L.A. to the World Series.

Cy Youngs: I’m bringing back a pick I made before to try to claim that I was on it before it was cool: Jose Berrios (MIN) wins this in the AL. In the NL, my one homer pick of the season is that Jack Flaherty (STL) breaks out as the best pitcher in the league.

DH in the NL thoughts: It’s a real shame (that I’ll get over as soon as the Cardinals win a big game with their DH). There’s been an aura around baseball for decades that it’s different and special from the other major sports. Two leagues with different rules was an interesting quirk that supported that idea – even if the DH itself was a pretty recent development. Baseball is continuing to become just like any other sport, and adding the DH to the NL and increasing interleague play only hastens that. The strategy of NL baseball was always more fun, too. But let’s see how this goes.

Most wins in this 60-game season: Somebody gets really hot and doesn’t have time to revert to the team. I think it’ll be the Dodgers, who end up with 44 wins, or the equivalent of 119 in a normal season.

Three Bold Predictions:

  • At least one team will totally collapse after a slow start due to COVID, indifference, or both. I’m talking a 13-win season or so.
  • The NL Central margin will be razor thin, with at least 3 and perhaps 4 teams all within a few games in the last week of the season.
  • The Orioles won’t actually be that bad. They aren’t making the playoffs, but they’ll be a respectable 4th place team.

Your next new stadium: Too many to choose from. I’d love to catch games in San Francisco or Baltimore. But Camden Yards is way closer to me, so it’ll probably be next.

Lindsey Schoon@gehriggirl

Division winners and Wild Cards: Outside of complete chaos, I’m really not sure what to expect out of a 60-game season. Who benefits, who suffers? So I’m going to cop out and stick with what my picks would have been in a full season: the Astros, Twins and Yankees in the AL, and the Dodgers, Cubs, and Braves in the NL win the divisions. White Sox vs. Rays and Reds vs. Nationals are the wild cards.

ALCS and NLCS: Yankees vs. Astros (begrudgingly) and Dodgers vs. Braves.

World Series: Everyone outside of New York and L.A. cries — Yankees over the Dodgers in 5.

MVPs: I think this is where the shortened season might have one of the biggest impacts. I think a great player that wasn’t really on our radar as a favorite gets hot and crushes some batting categories. In the AL, Gleyber Torres (NYY). In the NL, Cody Bellinger (LAD).

Cy Youngs: Will a shortened season put more or less of an emphasis on win totals?  My heart says less but my gut says more. The AL Cy Young will be Gerrit Cole. It’s been 19 years since the Yankees had a Cy Young winner. Verlander feels like his only competition. In the NL, it’ll be Max Scherzer (WAS). Max adds #4 to his mantle, which he probably would have gotten last year if he had remained injury free.

DH in the NL thoughts: Overdue. I cannot be persuaded on this. Chicks dig the long ball.

Most wins in this 60-game season: 40, and it will probably be the Yankees as long as they can avoid yet another slow start. The AL East is bad; like really bad.

Three Bold Predictions:

  • The Astros take the “most booed at team” title away from the Yankees.
  • The Diamondbacks make it all the way to the World Series.
  • Someone will hit 30 home runs in 60 games.

Your next new stadium: I hate to admit it, but I really want to get to Fenway sooner rather than later. 

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