Grading my baseball picks

In my April 5 post, I predicted the complete Major League Baseball standings. Of the eight teams that will actually make the playoffs, I picked only four, and my Indians over Diamondbacks World Series isn't looking so good, but there were some highlights:

In the American League East, I predicted four of the five teams' records within one game of their actual results. I had the Red Sox winning the division at 95-67, their exact actual record, and the Y*****s missing the playoffs at 89-73, just as they did. If only I'd given the Rays an extra 19 wins, I would've nailed this division.

On the flip side, I couldn't have been much more wrong about the AL Central. I had the Indians (who finished third) and the Tigers (who finished last) each winning 90+ games and making the playoffs, with the contending Twins and Indians winning 77 and 72 games, respectively.

The AL West was a little easier: Angels good, everyone else bad. I did, however, peg the Mariners to win 22 more wins than they actually won.

In the NL East, the optimist in me almost directly switched the Phillies and the Mets. I "knew" one of them would win 89 games and miss the playoffs by one, but I hoped it would be the Phillies.

In the NL Central, I underestimated three teams: The Cubs (who won 97 games, to my pick of 83), Cardinals (86-74), and Astros (86-73), but I saw the Brewers making the playoffs for the first time in 26 years, and somehow knew the Pirates would finish last.

I gave all the wins I took from the Central to the West division, where I saw four teams winning 88+ games and contending for the playoffs. I was right about the order in which the four finished: LA, Arizona, Colorado, and San Diego, but I gave them a collective 55 extra wins, 25 of which went to the surprisingly hapless Padres.

If the voters get the postseason awards right, I won't have correctly predicted any of them, but there's a good chance Brandon Webb will steal the NL Cy Young Award from Tim Lincecum, fulfilling my prophecy. While my MVP picks, the New York third basemen, had excellent seasons, their teams' failures will keep the awards out of their hands.