The 2013 MLB season is well underway, and it looks to be a good one. Houston is in the American League. Josh Hamilton is with the Angels. Victor Martinez is back. Toronto and the Dodgers look to impress after their blockbuster trades. At least one interleague series all season long will definitely make things interesting as well.

Our writers are celebrating the beginning of the season by bringing you our picks as to how everything will turn out. Scoring for the picks is as follows:

• Correctly guessing a team to make the playoffs is worth one point, or two points instead for correctly guessing a division winner.
• Correctly guessing the #1 seed in each league is worth five points, then four points for correctly guessing the #2 seed, and so on.
• Correctly guessing which #1 seed will finish with the best record in the majors is worth two points.
• In the event any of us finish tied, the first tiebreaker will be picking the team that finishes with MLB’s worst record. The next tiebreaker is MLB’s second-worst record, then third worst, then the most teams in the worst three in any order, and finally lowest combined record of all three picks.

So with the scoring out of the way, the picks are below. Be sure to check them all out, and come back when the season is over to see how everyone did. Continue reading 2013 MLB Expert Picks »

On Tuesday, the Red Sox offered Shane Victorino a three year, $39 million deal, identical to Mike Napoli’s, which he quickly accepted.

Victorino, dubbed ‘the Flyin’ Hawaiian,’ is 32 years old, and has played for the Padres, Phillies, and Dodgers over the course of his eight-year career. Victorino was obtained by the Dodgers in late July 2012 in a deal involving Josh Lindblom and Ethan Martin.

Last season the 5’9” center fielder played 154 games and managed to steal 39 bases (ranking him 3^rd in the National League). In 2012 Victorino had a batting average of .255, hitting 11 home runs, and bringing in 55 RBI’s.  Also on Victorino’s resume are three Gold Glove awards (2008, 2009, 2010), one of which came after his World Series victory with the Phillies. He has a total of just 18 errors in eight seasons. Continue reading Red Sox Sign Shane Victorino »

The World Series is over, and San Francisco took their momentum from taking care of the Cardinals and carried it over into sweeping Detroit, who themselves swept the Yankees to get to the World Series. That means San Francisco won seven straight games to get their title, no easy achievement. Congratulations to the Giants in their title run, and congratulations to Pablo Sandoval, who won the series MVP behind a three-homer performance in Game 1.

That messed with our predictions, with four out of five sets failing to net any points. Only Nick guessed the Giants to win the series, and for that matter, for there to be three home runs hit in the final game. But was that enough to surge ahead and take the Pick ‘Em crown? Without further ado, the winner of the 2012 MLB Playoffs Pick ‘Em is… Continue reading 2012 MLB Playoffs Expert Picks: World Series Results »

The League Championship Series are over. And whereas the Tigers were highly anticlimactic in sweeping the Yankees, the Giants pulled out the drama yet again, winning three straight elimination games in their second series of the playoffs. Will all that extra work cause too much fatigue? Will Detroit’s extra rest create rust? That’s for later. For now, let’s see what the last round did to our Pick ‘Em standings.

Two of the five panelists correctly guessed a Tigers/Giants World Series, but the series winner picks were still pretty divided. Picking the series length was significantly more difficult, with only one pick being correct. And with the surprise MVPs Delmon Young and Marco Scutaro leading the charges, everyone was caught off guard in the MVP category.

All this helped those who were behind climb back into contention for a high finish, but for now, the gap between first and second is greater than the gap between second and last. Still, with the World Series to come, anyone can still win.

So check below for the complete results, and be sure to check back Wednesday evening to see everyone’s choices for the World Series. Continue reading 2012 MLB Playoffs Expert Picks: League Championship Series Results »

Baseball is down to its final four, and all four had to march through five-game divisional series to get there. That is sure to leave all teams exhausted with little time to rest up and prepare, which will make things pretty interesting.

Trying to pick that thrilling divisional round was interesting as well, with no more than two out of five participants guessing any particular series winner correctly. The American league was great for some of us, helping create a widening gap between those with abundant points and those towards the bottom. The NL picks exacerbated the gap a little too, but there’s still plenty of time and points left in the following two rounds to catch up.

Be sure to check below for the complete results this round, and check back later in the afternoon for the LCS choices. Continue reading 2012 MLB Playoffs Expert Picks: Divisional Round Results »

The Divisional Round is underway, with a full slate of four best-of-five series to look forward to. And thanks to the elimination of the rule prohibiting teams from the same division from facing off in this round, we get to see the Yankees and Orioles slug it out. We also get to see how Washington and Oakland, two teams not used to playing in October, fare against two good teams (St. Louis and Detroit).

None of the series featured unanimous picks for winners, so there’s plenty of opportunity to make up room. Speaking of which, for this round, successfully picking the winner of each series is worth two points, while picking how many games a series will last is worth one point.

So relax and watch the series with us, and be sure to follow the complete pick sets below. Continue reading 2012 MLB Playoffs Expert Picks: Divisional Round »