Looks like we’re going to have a full, if not totally normal Major League Baseball season. You may even get to attend a game in person!
That means it’s time to dust off the slightly cracked Crystal Ball and find out what’s going to happen on the field in 2021.
Refreshing, huh?
Note: Keep in mind, this is why I do not bet on sports. Okay, please continue reading…
Let’s start out west.
The two best teams in all of baseball, the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers, will each win more than 100 games, with the Padres beating out their division rivals for the National League West Division crown by two games. They’ll later meet up in the playoffs.
The Colorado Rockies will end up third in the NL West, finishing 32 games behind the Dodgers.
The Dodgers Trevor Bauer will marry his agent on the infield in Dodger Stadium in August in front of a full house. Bauer will finish the season with a record of 13-15, having beaten the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Giants three times each and having lost four times to the Padres.
LA’s Cody Bellinger will end the season with 35 home runs, 112 RBI and just 47 strikeouts. However, he will hit just .227.
The Padres Fernando Tatis, Jr will win his first NL MVP Award. His teammate, Blake Snell, will win the NL Cy Young Award with his second consecutive 20-win (full) season, having won 20 games for Tampa in 2019. The New York Mets Jacob deGrom will win the league ERA title again but will also lead the league in the worst run support, resulting in a record of 12-10.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado will win his ninth consecutive Gold Glove Award, and at the end of the season, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt will proclaim him the greatest third baseman in baseball history. Schmidt will wonder out loud, “How come I’ve never heard much about this guy before?”
Arenado will lead the NL with 38 homers (his fourth NL HR crown) and will drive in 99 runs, leading ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser to point out how much Arenado’s numbers “dropped” and how much he had benefited from playing at Coors Field before the trade.
In the American League, the New York Yankees will finally overcome the pesky Tampa Bay Rays to win the American League East Division, also with more than 100 wins. The Rays – who traded their best player, Snell, to San Diego over the winter – will still win 89 games and earn an AL Wild Card spot. No one from Tampa’s front office will be able to explain anything about their success to the fans or media in a way that layman can understand.
The Yankees Gerrit Cole will win the AL Cy Young Award, topping 20 wins for the second time in his career. The Angels Mike Trout will win his fourth AL MVP award, while the Yankees Giancarlo Stanton will lead the AL with 48 home runs…and 111 strikeouts.
The low-budget Oakland A’s, who were able to unseat the Houston Astros as champs of the AL West during 2020’s one-third of a season, will do so for real this time, winning 95 games and relegating the Astros to a wild card play-off spot. The two teams will carry on a season-long bean-ball war that will result in a total of 23 ejections over the course of the season.
Come playoff time, the Astros will top the Rays in the wild card playoff game and advance. The Yankees will then knock out the Astros in five games, while the A’s will beat the AL Central champs, the Chicago White Sox in four games. The Yankees will reach the World Series by besting the A’s in seven games behind Cole.
In the NL, the Dodgers will smash the New York Mets in the NL Wild Card game, setting things up so LA and San Diego can meet again, while the NL East Champ Braves will face the NL Central champion Cardinals (again). St. Louis will get the best of Atlanta, and the Padres will outlast the Dodgers in seven games to advance. In the NLCS, the Padres will beat St. Louis in six games to win the NL pennant and move on to face the Yankees in the World Series.
Even though the impact of the pandemic will be minimal by October, and ballparks will be at capacity for these playoff games, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred will let it leak that he’s considering moving the World Series into a “bubble” again to minimize travel and have all the games played in warm weather. The idea is met with severe backlash in New York and is quickly dismissed. The Series begins in the Big Apple (the Yankees will win one more regular season game than the Padres to clinch home field advantage) in late October with temperatures at game time around 38 degrees.
The Yankees will clinch their 28th World Series title by besting the Padres in six games.
After the game, it will be announced that the MLB Owners are imposing a lock-out of the players until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. At least in baseball, everything will be back to normal.
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