Take a deep breath, folks. Just take it all in because later today (pending rain) the Red Sox will be playing a real baseball game. Opening Day. The greatest day of the sports calendar year.
With the new season upon us, your friendly contributors here at Over The Monster decided to put some predictions together for the upcoming 2009 Major League Baseball season. We have both Red Sox-related predictions and MLB predictions for you to chew on.
But before we go any further, I think we should dip into the history books for predictions. I decided to go back and see what I predicted for the last couple of seasons. To start, apparently I had no thoughts prior to the 2007 season, because I can't find that post. My thoughts for 2008 were pretty bad and Allen's weren't much better (everyone thought the Tigers were going to be great, but we pegged that as crap. But we both thought the Mariners would win the West ... WTF were we thinking?!)
In 2006, I was actually pretty good in my award predictions. I completely booted the NL side, but I pegged Johan Santana and Justin Verlander correctly for Cy Young and Rookie of the Year. Two out of six ain't bad.
2005? Eh. Don't even look. Please. Don't look (yet I link to it. I'm so sad).
But hey, it's 2009, folks. It's the year of Change. That means every prediction below is going to be right. Even though we all contradict each other, somehow we will all be right when the season ends. Don't ask me how that works, just have faith in it. Or, Hope.
Without any more hesitation, enjoy. Feel free to give us your thoughts in the comments.
| QUESTION | BOOTH | CHACE | 0157H7 | DEVIL | LTRAIN |
| How many games will the Red Sox win this season? | 96 | 98 | 95 | 93 | 96 |
| How will finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the AL East? | 1 - Red Sox 2 - Yankees 3 - Rays |
1 - Red Sox 2 - Rays 3 - Orioles |
1 - Rays 2 - Red Sox 3 - Yankees |
1 - Red Sox 2 - Rays 3 - Yankees |
1 - Red Sox 2 - Yankees 3 - Rays |
| Who will be the Red Sox's MVP in 2009? | Dustin Pedroia | Beckett | Jason Bay |
Kevin Youkilis | Jon Lester |
| Who will be the Red Sox's LVP in 2009? | Tim Wakefield | Jason Varitek | Varitek | Varitek | J.D. Drew |
| AL Cy Young? | Josh Beckett | Beckett | Matt Garza | Roy Halladay | Lester |
| AL MVP? | B.J. Upton | Grady Sizemore | Bay | Josh Hamilton |
Miguel Cabrera |
| NL Cy Young? | Cole Hamels | Hamels | Hamels | Tim Lincecum | Johan Santana |
| NL MVP? | David Wright | Carlos Beltran | Chase Utley | Albert Pujols | Wright |
| Which team will be the surprise of baseball? | Yankees - Just because they will not win 162 games like some think | Cardinals - the pitching will keep them involved until the deadline | Angels - they will finish third in the AL West | D-Backs - Will win the NL West | Royals - will contend for AL Central crown |