Davidoff Versus Baseball Musings

Ken Davidoff owns up to his poor prediction for the NL East:

“It might require all 162 games to determine the [National League East] champion. Give Washington a slight edge headed into the season. The easiest forecast of all: This [Mets-Nationals] rivalry will be even more intense by season’s end.”

— Ken Davidoff, New York Post, March 24, 2017

All at once now: Yeesh.

(I guess it could’ve gone even worse. At least I didn’t give the “slight edge” to the Mets.)

Davidoff was not alone. My take on the NL East was one of my better predictions:

The Marlins, Mets, and Phillies are fairly evenly matched in my opinion. I rank the Marlins slightly ahead of the Mets due to the upside potential of Miami against the downside potential of New York. The Phillies could be the surprise team of the division.

That said, the Nationals have a very good chance of running away with this division.

I overrated the Phillies and underrated the Braves, but had the Marlins ahead of the Mets. I also liked this bit:

Giancarlo Stanton enters his age 27 season, the peak age for an athlete. It’s the perfect time for him to stay healthy and produce a monster MVP season. If he jumps from 1.7 WAR to 8.0, one could see the Marlins competing for a wild card.

His WAR jumped to 6.6, but the Marlins pitching was not good enough to support their offense.

I’ll be issuing my own mea culpas when the season ends.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2wRHONm