2013 FanGraphs Staff Predictions

After last year’s rousing success that included tabbing Albert Pujols for AL MVP, Devin Mesoraco for Rookie of the Year, and Arizona as the National League champions, we’ve decided to make fools of ourselves again. Yes, predictions are basically worthless, even ours. Yes, they’re still kind of fun, and provide a useful reminder of what we all thought was true before the season started. So, here’s the FanGraphs Staff predicting 2013.

AL West: Texas
AL Central: Detroit
AL East: Rays
AL Wild Card: Angels
AL Wild Card: Blue Jays

The Rays and Blue Jays actually tied with 15 votes apiece as the AL East winners, but Tampa Bay got more votes as a WC team, so they got stronger playoff support overall, so I used that as the tiebreaker, which pushed Toronto into the second wild card spot.

AL MVP: Evan Longoria
AL CY Young: Justin Verlander
AL ROY: Aaron Hicks

10 different players got AL MVP votes, as there are a number of fine candidates who could plausibly win. Longoria edged out Mike Trout with two extra votes. On the pitching side, only six different hurlers were picked, with Verlander getting one more vote than Yu Darvish. Hicks edges out Jurickson Profar for AL ROY, likely because Hicks has a job and Profar does not. That six people still think Profar will win the award without a clear path to the Majors speaks to how impressive a prospect he really is.

The full grids, in order for you to point and mock later.

And the award winners.

And now, for the Senior Circuit.

NL West: Giants
NL Central: Reds
NL East: Nationals
NL Wild Card: Braves
NL Wild Card: Cardinals

The division winners were all pretty clear, but the Wild Card was tougher, as the Braves, Cardinals, and Dodgers all got a decent amount of support from our authors. In the end, 25 of the 31 voters had Atlanta making the playoffs, so they secured the first wild card spot, and then the Cardinals edged out the Dodgers for the final playoff spot with a few extra votes.

NL MVP: Joey Votto
NL Cy Young: Stephen Strasburg
NL ROY: Shelby Miller

Votto got 14 of the 31 votes for MVP, while the next highest vote getter was Buster Posey with four. I’d call that a runaway. Strasburg dominated the pitching side of the equation as well, getting 16 votes, while six different pitchers showed up on just one ballot. Shelby Miller rounded out the blowouts, getting 14 of the ROY votes, with Jedd Gyorko finishing a distant second.

And the awards.