Here is my break down how I see the 2016 National League playing out in terms of standings, win totals, and playoff teams (in italics). Part 1 with the American League is already posted.

After being hyped and favored for years, the Nationals are in prime position to fly under the radar and remain in the shadow of the breakout and media darling Mets. Washington's rotation is no slouch compared to the much ballyhooed rotation residing in the Queens. MVP Bryce Harper is poised for another monster season along with a walk-year Stephen Strasburg. There is more balance to the Nats than Mets and over the course of 162, they will be the better team. 

I'm not writing the Mets off completely. They certainly can't be ignored, as they will bring their powerhouse rotation into a second straight October via the Wild Card. Their reliance on another monster season from Cespedes worries me offensively, as I don't see him coming near his career year in 2015. No team is going to want to face this team with their rotation of #1's. They are built for October. 

Miami will reap the rewards of beating up on Philly and Atlanta, but will have a tough time competing with Washington and New York. Miami needs a healthly Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Fernandez, a continued breakout of Dee Gordon and much more to all go right for them to rise above the middle of the pack.

Freddie Freeman and Ender Inciarte is a great place to start for a franchise trying to collect enough young talent for the future. Freeman may not be around to see any more playoffs with Atlanta, and Inciarte certainly could be spun for more value as Atlanta is clearly in re-build mode for the foreseeable future. Any veterans or non-core young players who put together a good year will be shopped at the deadline. 

Philadelphia has finally bottomed out after trying to drag out their veteran core for 3 years longer than they should have. At least they are now in a position to fully tank and start collecting picks and prospects. They should easily be a bottom 3 team in all of baseball. 

The Cubs are easily the most talented team in the MLB, but I still think they will face adversity with ultra-competitive rivals in a tough division. Some sophomore slumps could be in store as the league adjusts. They have the guns to put the pedal to the medal all season and stomp toward 100 wins, but I think they will be in a position to keep guys fresh and limit innings down the stretch. The Pirates and Cardinals will not go away easily and will keep the Cubs shy of 100 wins many have predicted. 

The Pirates are probably sick of the Wild Card after being bounced in the last 2 Octobers due to the wild card format. This year will be no different as they ride their pitching staff and perennial MVP Candidate Andrew McCutchen. The Cubs have more depth and talent to let Pittsburgh overcome them for the division, and St. Louis will be in it until the end. 

St. Louis lost too much talent to the Cubs in Jason Heyward and John Lackey for them to earn their seemingly ritualistic postseason ticket. 86 Wins seems right for this veteran and proven Cards team, but it won't be enough this year. They will play a big role in September in the alignment of the National League playoff picture, but will barely miss out on the 2nd wild card.

Hopefully the Reds let Billy Hamilton steal every time he gets on base and mic up Brandon Phillips each game, because that's the extent of Reds excitement this year. I guess a Joey Votto trade would be fun to see how much young talent they could inject into their system, but who knows if they will pull the trigger on saying goodbye to their franchise player. They should. 

The Brew Crew boasts one of the best catchers and most underrated players in the game in Jonathan Lucroy, and then a roster full of nobodies. I'm sure the beer selection is great, though Miller Park is not on the list of 17 stadiums I've been to, so I don't know for a fact. The beers better be flowing after Lucroy is sold off for prospects, because this team is weak and I'm sure fans would rather attend Packers mini-camp in the summer. 

I swear I don't believe in the even-year Giants magic. I do believe that Buster Posey is still underrated, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik are the best up the middle combo in baseball, and that Cueto and Samardzija don't have to be worth their contracts for them to provide real help to this team in the pitching friendly division and AT&T park. They just need to be reliable and log solid innings behind Bumgarner and a newly healthy Matt Cain. They are playoff tested and have all-around depth and balance. 

The Dodgers front office has diversified their talent levels across the team's depth, but I think they will sorely miss Zach Greinke behind Kershaw. Their rotation is already missing pieces and could be in real trouble if Kershaw misses any time. Carl Crawford and Joc Pederson are question marks who may be yanked around between starting jobs and bench time all year under new manager Dave Roberts. This is a good, not great team. Los Angeles already has too many injury concerns to surpass the Giants in 2016

Arizona is a lot of hype that I'm not buying into. Goldschmidt and Grienke are two of the best players in Baseball but they gave up a lot of talent and resources in making their offseason moves. Any strides they've made in bolstering the rotation will be lost with the removal of Ender Inciarte from CF and  lead-off after being dealt to Atlanta (among other players) for Shelby Miller. 

San Diego admirably went all-in for 2015 and fell short. They gave up a lot of future resources for the one year run, but do have Wil Myers and some prospects from the Kimbrel trade remaining. Unfortunately their pitching isn't as good as 2015 and their offense doesn't show any more upside than 2015. I'm all aboard the Jabari Blash bandwagon and think Yangervis Solarte will emerge as one of the most underrated players in the game, but it won't be enough to keep them in contention with the surrounding roster. Myers living up to the hype, Tyson Ross & Andrew Cashner returning a haul of prospects in trades are some developments which could accelerate any future success for the Pads. 

Colorado has a lot of good positional players, but lack pitching (per usual). Nolan Arenado is a superstar hidden in Colorado. Pay more attention to that guy, fans. I'm having doubts about picking the Padres over them after looking into their rosters a bit further, but I'm going to stick with my spreadsheet standings and deal with the consequences later. 

I thought it would be fun to publish some predictions for the 2016 season to look back on at various points in the future to see how wrong and out of touch I am, or to feed my already over-inflated ego.

I'm a few days late in posting this, but I did complete this prediction sheet before the first game on Sunday night. If anyone feels the  need to question my integrity by digging through e-mails, Hillary Clinton style, we can do that! I have no problem with providing proof that I sent over my predictions to my brother before 2016's first official pitch!

Here's how I see the 2016 American League playing out in terms of standings, win totals, and playoff teams (in italics):

This was undoubtedly the most electrifying moment I have ever experienced. I was still standing on my seat celebrating while barely aware that Torii Hunter was being attended to for injuries, or that pitch hitter Mike Napoli had come into the game to pinch hit and was in the middle of an at bat (I finally looked back to see the final swing of this at bat, not even realizing the game had continued). Fenway Park was on its feet and buzzing well into the next half inning. We had 17 innings of pent up frustration of watching the Sox bats be silenced with nothing to cheer for and no hope. Within one half inning, and one gigantic swing of the bat, David Ortiz awakened the team and its fans from the dead. Fenway went from funeral to absolute bedlam.
Without this moment, the Red Sox undoubtedly lose this series and don't even sniff seeing St. Louis in the World Series. So while 10/30/13 will always be in my head as the date I stood and watched the Red Sox win their first World Series at Fenway Park since 1918, 10/13/13 will always be the other date from the magical 2013 season that stands out in my mind. One never happens without the other. 

by Joe Bandini

by Joe Bandini


If you’re a pure baseball fan, you should care about, and root for parity.

Inevitably, each fan is going to gravitate and root for his or her “team”- that is completely natural. Rooting for your “team” inevitably is a package deal including natural rivalries built from divisional alignments and prior history. There are teams you do not want to see do well no matter the circumstances- e.g., Red Sox & Yankees, Dodgers & Giants, and most recently the Reds & Cardinals.

Aside from those heated rivalries, true fans of the game should appreciate and maybe even root for those teams whose recent history has not treated them so kindly and have had to deal with 15+ years of playoff droughts and irrelevance.

Every season, my brother and I informally discuss and pick teams that we think “would be cool if they were good.” Usually these teams are ones who have not been relevant in 6+ years, and especially teams who have had no real history of contending in 10-15 years.

Our informal tradition (#oxymoron) has seen some success over the years. Even as die-hard Red Sox fans, we grew tired of seeing the AL East brethren Devil Rays be a complete non-factor in any American League discussion or consideration. We saw that they were picking at the top of the draft class year after year and kept predicting that eventually those top picks would pan out and they would put something together. Well 2008 finally saw the Rays put it together and unfortunately the aforementioned top picks “put it together” against the Red Sox and saw the likes of B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, and David Price swat and shut down the defending champions to finally make their presence known. The Tampa franchise has not looked back and have constantly been a thorn in the sides of the AL East Alphas ever since..

Even the successful and revered Baltimore Orioles found themselves in a rut of irrelevance and non-contention for a long span of recent history. From 1998-2011, the Orioles did not crack 80 wins in one single season. Near the end of this run even I began to feel bad. My brother and I discussed how it would be good to see them contend again and turn things somewhat around. They are a classic franchise with a beautiful and historic Camden Yards which will go down in history as ushering the era of new and modern ballpark boom. Despite all of this, they had barely scratched relevance in my conscious years as a mid-twenties baseball fan. To me they were basement dwellers who had a pretty storied history before I was close to joining this world.

The 2011 Orioles squad only scratched out 69 wins, but the 69th was quite the thorn in the Red Sox side and finished off the infamous “chicken and beer” collapse of the 2011 Red Sox. Since then, the Orioles have had the Red Sox number (to the tune of 24-13),finally made the playoffs in 2012 with 93 wins, and were in the thick of the race in 2013 with 85 wins.

First the Rays, now the Orioles...“Be careful what you ask for”, indeed.

For years and years, the two biggest teams in need of some relevance were the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates. 2013 was amazing to finally see the Pirates break through after not having a winning season since 1992. Not only did they get their winning season, they popped off 93 wins and a playoff birth. It was so awesome to see suffering fans of Pittsburgh fill the breathtaking PNC Park with excitement and jubilation baseball fans in their city had not seen since I was 3 years old.

2013 capped off a stretch of nearly every team finally getting their fun in the sun. Even the Royals remained relevant until the end with 86 games.

As 2014 has begun, I have struggled to figure out who is left. Who “would be cool if they were good again”? There are not many teams that fit the bill.. The game has seen a great amount of parity in the last decade where nearly every team has had their year where they have had legitimate hope and were playing relevant games into late September and beyond.

Is it the Astros even though they made the World Series in 2005? They have been wretched the past few years, but they are stacking up their farm system heavily and they won 86 games in 2008.

The Rangers came from the toiling in the AL West basement for a few years to win back-to-back AL Pennants. The A’s have won back to back division titles after some down years. The 2010 Reds broke through after many years in the dumps and it was “cool that they were good again.” They have topped 90 games in 3 of the last 4 seasons. The Nationals have finally burst onto the scene following the same path as the Rays and their years of stacking top draft picks. The Indians broke out of their mini-drought in 2013.

Any of the teams that may fit into this category in 2014 have been relevant at some point in recent history. It now becomes a cyclical game to answer the question, because the teams remaining who are “due” to be good again were good 4-6 years ago. We are no longer seeing 10-15 year droughts. Most of the gaps have been closed and there is a healthy parity happening in baseball.

For now we are left with the Jays (85 wins ‘10), the Mariners (85 wins ‘09), the Cubs (97 wins in ‘08), Rockies (92 wins ‘09), Padres (90 wins ‘10) maybe the Astros despite their 2005 NL Pennant and 86 win 2008, and surprisingly the Twins who have turned in 3 straight 60 win seasons despite an amazingly consistent run in the 90s (even they won 94 as recently as 2010). That's a pretty short list and nothing that compares to some of the recently ended droughts by the Rays, Orioles, Reds, Pirates, and Royals.

One could argue that the Marlins and Mets belong in the list above, but the Marlins have secured two titles in their brief history, and along with the Mets, have horrible owners who are tough to root for. The Mets are a strong candidate for this list as they have not cracked 80 wins since ‘08 and have not cracked 90 since ‘06- but even then they were only a few breaks away from going to the World Series. It is hard for me to put them on the list as a huge-market team who should have no problem cracking 85 wins for just showing up.

Alas, there are no true stand-out teams this year for the “would be cool if they were good” award. There is a short list of teams who have had a 3-6 bad years. It is nothing like the droughts the Pirates, Royals, Rays, and Orioles were in the midst of for the bulk of the past two decades.

It is a great time to be a baseball fan knowing that your team has a good shot of making noise within a 3-4 year period. The expansion era has never seen such parity. Sure not every year is going to be roses, but things can turn around quickly. And if you happen to see another team that has hit hard times, feel free to root for them and think, “it would be cool if they were finally good again”- because they make for moments like this.