Of the two surprise playoff entrants in 2012, the A’s returned to October baseball a year later while the Orioles fell off the pace. If the pattern holds for the 2013 longshots, look for the Pirates to be the ones that make a repeat postseason appearance while the Indians sink back in the AL Central. Pittsburgh’s groundball-heavy pitching staff will still play to its favor, and the likely midseason arrivals of its next two top prospects, outfielder Gregory Polanco and righthanded starter Jameson Taillon , will keep the Pirates churning along behind reigning NL MVP Andrew McCutchen . Cleveland, however, won’t get the starting pitching it needs and will especially miss Scott Kazmir and Ubaldo Jimenez (unless he makes a surprise decision to re-sign with the Indians). 8. The Reds will finish fourth in the NL Central. Their offense was already top-heavy in 2013 — with Joey Votto , Jay Bruce and Shin-Soo Choo levying a disproportionate amount of damage — and now it http://jefferyzydn.sosblogs.com/Blog-b1/Month9-b1-m201309.htm will be without Choo, who signed with the Rangers. ( Brandon Phillips ‘ 103 RBIs last year Farrah were deceiving in light of his poor .706 OPS.) While the first five in the team’s rotation is strong with Johnny Cueto , Mat Latos , Homer Bailey , Tony Cingrani and http://omarxbjb.sosblogs.com/Blog-b1/Year2012-b1-m2012009.htm Mike Leake , there’s no depth should anyone get injured (unless Bronson Arroyo , another free-agent, returns).
Full story: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20140103/baseball-predictions-2014/
The Anchoress 