FanGraphs Staff Predicts 2012

It’s Opening Night (last week was Opening Oh God It’s Early, I think), so with the season the brink of starting, we polled our staff and asked them to put down their selections for the playoff teams and the postseason award winners. Unlike last year, there was very little agreement among the group, and the consensus picks are often a plurality but not a majority. While there’s a pretty clear divide between the top six or seven teams and the rest of baseball, there doesn’t appear to be one dominant team that stands out from the group of contenders.

So, without futher ado, let’s get to the predictions:

AL West: Anaheim
AL Central: Detroit
AL East: New York
AL Wild Cards: Tampa Bay, Texas
AL Champ: Anaheim

Author	AL West	AL Central	AL East	AL WC #1	AL WC #2	AL Champ
Ben Duronio	LAA	DET	NYY	TEX	TOR	LAA
Bill Petti	LAA	DET	TB	NYY	TEX	LAA
Bradley Woodrum	LAA	DET	TB	NYY	TEX	TB
Brandon Warne	TEX	DET	NYY	LAA	BOS	TEX
Chad Young	LAA	DET	TB	NYY	TEX	TB
Chris Benson	TEX	DET	TB	NYY	LAA	TEX
Chris Cwik	TEX	DET	NYY	TB	LAA	TEX
Dan Wade	LAA	DET	TB	TEX	BOS	LAA
Dave Cameron	TEX	DET	NYY	BOS	LAA	TEX
David Laurila	LAA	DET	BOS	TB	TEX	LAA
Eno Sarris	TEX	DET	TB	BOS	LAA	TEX
Jeff Zimmerman	LAA	DET	BOS	TEX	NYY	LAA
Jesse Wolfersberger	LAA	DET	TB	TEX	NYY	TB
Marc Hulet	TEX	KC	NYY	TB	DET	NYY
Mike Axisa	TEX	DET	NYY	LAA	TB	NYY
Mike Petriello	LAA	DET	NYY	TEX	BOS	NYY
Paul Swydan	TEX	DET	NYY	TB	LAA	TEX
Ryan Campbell	LAA	DET	NYY	TEX	BOS	LAA
Wendy Thurm	LAA	DET	NYY	TB	TEX	LAA
Zach Sanders	LAA	DET	NYY	TB	TEX	LAA

Only six of our authors have the eventual AL champ coming from the AL East. Texas and Anaheim have changed the power balance of the American League, and along with Detroit’s easiest-path-to-the-playoffs expectation, you can fairly say that neither New York or Boston should be considered any kind of strong favorite to get to the World Series. That’s a nice change for most of the country.

NL West: Arizona
NL Central: Cincinnati
NL East: Philadelphia
NL Wild Cards: Atlanta, St. Louis
NL Champ: Arizona

Author	NL West	NL Central	NL East	NL WC #1	NL WC #2	NL Champ
Ben Duronio	ARZ	CIN	PHI	ATL	STL	ARZ
Bill Petti	ARZ	CIN	PHI	MIL	STL	CIN
Bradley Woodrum	ARZ	STL	PHI	MIL	MIA	PHI
Brandon Warne	ARZ	CIN	PHI	STL	WAS	ARZ
Chad Young	SF	STL	PHI	CIN	WAS	CIN
Chris Benson	ARZ	STL	MIA	PHI	CIN	ARZ
Chris Cwik	ARZ	CIN	PHI	MIL	WAS	ARZ
Dan Wade	ARZ	CIN	PHI	MIL	MIA	ARZ
Dave Cameron	ARZ	CIN	PHI	MIA	STL	MIA
David Laurila	SF	CIN	PHI	ATL	MIL	CIN
Eno Sarris	SF	CIN	PHI	ATL	ARZ	ATL
Jeff Zimmerman	COL	MIL	PHI	ATL	WAS	PHI
Jesse Wolfersberger	ARZ	STL	PHI	ATL	CIN	PHI
Marc Hulet	SD	CIN	PHI	ATL	ARZ	PHI
Mike Axisa	ARZ	MIL	PHI	STL	LAD	MIL
Mike Petriello	ARZ	CIN	PHI	MIA	MIL	CIN
Paul Swydan	ARZ	STL	WAS	ATL	CIN	ARZ
Ryan Campbell	ARZ	MIL	PHI	ATL	CIN	PHI
Wendy Thurm	ARZ	MIL	PHI	MIA	SF	ARZ
Zach Sanders	ARZ	STL	WAS	MIL	MIA	MIL

I have to say I’m pretty surprised by the Arizona support here. The NL West is something of a coin toss, and while the Diamondbacks have some nice pieces, I have them comfortably behind Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Miami in the NL pecking order. And yes, that’s me picking the Marlins to go to the World Series. Commence tomato throwing now.

World Champ: Anaheim

Author	World Champ
Ben Duronio	ARZ
Bill Petti	LAA
Bradley Woodrum	TB
Brandon Warne	TEX
Chad Young	TB
Chris Benson	TEX
Chris Cwik	TEX
Dan Wade	LAA
Dave Cameron	TEX
David Laurila	LAA
Eno Sarris	TEX
Jeff Zimmerman	LAA
Jesse Wolfersberger	TB
Marc Hulet	PHI
Mike Axisa	NYY
Mike Petriello	NYY
Paul Swydan	TEX
Ryan Campbell	LAA
Wendy Thurm	LAA
Zach Sanders	LAA

18 of the 20 authors went with an AL team as the World Champ, with the Angels just edging out the Rangers as the most selected winner. It appears that everyone expects the AL West to be an absolute dogfight this year.

And finally, the awards. There was some agreement on the pool of players likely to win, but within those pools, no real favorites emerged. You could make a good case for a lot of people for most of the awards, and if you’re David Laurila, you can make a case for Jay Bruce and Ricky Romero as NL MVP and AL Cy Young winner respectively. Dude is going to look like a genius if those happen.

AL MVP: Albert Pujols
AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez
AL Rookie of the Year: Yu Darvish
NL MVP: Joey Votto
NL Cy Young: Zack Greinke
NL Rookie of the Year: Devin Mesoraco

Author	AL MVP	NL MVP	AL Cy Young	NL Cy Young	AL ROY	NL ROY
Ben Duronio	Miguel Cabrera	Justin Upton	Dan Haren	Madison Bumgarner	Matt Moore	Trevor Bauer
Bill Petti	Evan Longoria	Joey Votto	Justin Verlander	Zack Greinke	Matt Moore	Yonder Alonso
Bradley Woodrum	Evan Longoria	Justin Upton	CC Sabathia	Cliff Lee	Yu Darvish	Devin Mesoraco
Brandon Warne	Evan Longoria	Joey Votto	Justin Verlander	Roy Halladay	Yu Darvish	Devin Mesoraco
Chad Young	Albert Pujols	Joey Votto	Jered Weaver	Roy Halladay	Matt Moore	Bryce Harper
Chris Benson	Evan Longoria	Justin Upton	CJ Wilson	Madison Bumgarner	Yu Darvish	Trevor Bauer
Chris Cwik	Miguel Cabrera	Justin Upton	Felix Hernandez	Madison Bumgarner	Yu Darvish	Shelby Miller
Dan Wade	Miguel Cabrera	Joey Votto	Felix Hernandez	Zack Greinke	Yu Darvish	Trevor Bauer
Dave Cameron	Miguel Cabrera	Troy Tulowitzki	Felix Hernandez	Cliff Lee	Matt Moore	Bryce Harper
David Laurila	Adrian Gonzalez	Jay Bruce	Ricky Romero	Stephen Strasburg	Jesus Montero	Anthony Rizzo
Eno Sarris	Jose Bautista	Ryan Zimmerman	David Price	Dan Hudson	Yu Darvish	Trevor Bauer
Erik Hahmann	Evan Longoria	Joey Votto	CC Sabathia	Cliff Lee	Matt Moore	Devin Mesoraco
Jeff Zimmerman	Albert Pujols	Joey Votto	Jon Lester	Zack Greinke	Jesus Montero	Devin Mesoraco
Jesse Wolfersberger	Evan Longoria	Joey Votto	Justin Verlander	Roy Halladay	Yu Darvish	Trevor Bauer
Marc Hulet	Albert Pujols	Matt Kemp	Felix Hernandez	Cliff Lee	Jesus Montero	Tyler Pastornicky
Matt Klaassen	Albert Pujols	Joey Votto	Dan Haren	Zack Greinke	Matt Moore	Devin Mesoraco
Michael Barr	Albert Pujols	Joey Votto	Dan Haren	Clayton Kershaw	Jesus Montero	Yonder Alonso
Mike Axisa	Miguel Cabrera	Justin Upton	David Price	Yovani Gallardo	Jesus Montero	Devin Mesoraco
Mike Petriello	Albert Pujols	Joey Votto	Felix Hernandez	Clayton Kershaw	Matt Moore	Devin Mesoraco
Paul Swydan	Miguel Cabrera	Justin Upton	Felix Hernandez	Clayton Kershaw	Matt Moore	Yonder Alonso
Ryan Campbell	Albert Pujols	Justin Upton	Felix Hernandez	Zack Greinke	Yu Darvish	Devin Mesoraco
Summer Anne Burton	Albert Pujols	Justin Upton	Justin Verlander	Clayton Kershaw	Yu Darvish	Trevor Bauer
Wendy Thurm	Miguel Cabrera	Joey Votto	CC Sabathia	Madison Bumgarner	Matt Moore	Bryce Harper
Zach Sanders	Adrian Gonzalez	Justin Upton	Jered Weaver	Zack Greinke	Yu Darvish	Yonder Alonso