MLB Review for 2013

Well, I am back from my month long hiatus.  I possibly should have made it longer, but so long as I'm fine with being sporadic with when I post stuff and it's not too big of a time drain, then I think that I can blog occasionally.



Credit to Operation Sports for my predicted standings for the MLB season on the right and credit to ESPN for the final regular season standings on the left.  

NL East (Predicted -7) actual -14  and overall miss average +/- per team in division (7)
Atlanta
Atlanta was fairly dominant at home, finishing with the best home record at 56-25.  +9

Miami 
On the bright side they ended the season with a no-hitter, on the downside they did reach 100 losses.  -2

New York
The Mets did finish in third place, but that doesn't mean a lot in the NL East.  +4

Philadelphia
Philly was disappointing again, I might need to pass on them next year.  -13

Washington
Some regression kept the Nats out of the playoffs.  -7

NL Central (+2)   +16  (6.4)
Chicago
While it was not a 100 loss season, it was basically another lost season for the Cubs. -4

Cincinnati
Cincinnati's prediction was the only prediction to be right on.  The Red's run differential had them as a much better team than the Pirates.  0

Milwaukee
A poor team at home and on the road.  -4

Pittsburgh
Not only a winning season for the Pirates, but a playoff-caliber team.  +17

St. Louis
Somehow the Cardinals keep churning out wins.  The Cards had the most impressive point differential in the Major Leagues.  +7

NL West (+6) -6  (2.8, extremely decent)
Arizona
Roster movement resulted in .500 play, which is better than the results that some teams get.  -1

Colorado
Better year than some expected, but still a poor team overall.  -2

Los Angeles
At least this LA team decided to go on a nice run in the second half of the season.  The Dodgers were certainly helped by Yasiel Puig's emergence as a superstar type player.  -2

San Diego
Slight improvement from last season, but still a fairly bad team.  +1

San Francisco
The defending WS Champs lost a lot of ground and were 10 games below .500.  -8


AL East (+15) +27 (8.8)
Baltimore
Regression occurred to a certain extent, but not quite as much as I expected.  +5

Boston
While I had Boston at around .500, which was a better record than what some 'experts' thought, I don't know if anyone saw the Red Sox emerging as the best team in the Major Leagues, I know I did not see that coming.  +18

New York
The Mets suffered a bit from injuries, but managed to be somewhat relevant to the playoff race.  -2

Tampa Bay

Year after year the Rasy somehow get it done.  +5

Toronto
While injuries were a bit of a factor, they do not provide a very good excuse as to why Toronto remaining at the bottom of the AL East.  -14

AL Central (-9) actual -5 (10.4, very bad)
Cleveland
Cleveland overachieved and nearly ended up catching the Tigers for the division crown.  +19

Detroit
The defending AL champions struggled a little against a subpar division.  +8

Kansas City

While the Royal's predicted record was certainly within the margin of error, the division didn't end up being as weak as I hoped it would be and hence the Royals were kept out of the playoffs yet again.  But, they did make some progress this year and it was their best season in more than two decades. (1989 to be more precise.)  +1

Minnesota
The Twinkies didn't do very much either at home or on the road.  -7

White Sox
The White Sox nearly lost 100 games.  -17

AL West (-7) -18 (7.4)
Houston
Stompings were abundant and the Astros weren't all that competitive in the AL.  -1

Los Angeles

The second time wasn't the charm, the Angels disappointed again.  -17

Oakland
The A's were only two games away from leading the league in wins.  They were a very decent team with a low payroll.  The Tampa Bay Rays -- The West Coast Version, or vice versa..  +11

Seattle
The Mariners were still a poor hitting team.  -6

Texas
They might not have won the division, but the Rangers did still at least make the playoff before the playoffs.  +2

Just based off of my predictions it appears that the NL was again very static, while there was some more variance in the AL.  Average miss in the NL was 5.4, average miss in the AL was 8.9.  Overall average miss was 7.1 games.  A fairly large improvement (proportionally) from a year ago, which was 9.5, but I don't really think that this year saw as many surprise teams as last season.  This season the main surprising team was mostly just the Red Sox.  Last season there were probably at least the O's, A's, and Marlins who were surprising teams.