How 11 bold predictions going into the season panned out

Before the 2025 season, 11 bold predictions were made and now it's revisit and see how close each one was to what actually happened. Which ones were hits and which were complete misses? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I want to revisit all of the predictions that I
made going into this season. It was way back on
March twenty fourth, we did ten bold predictions for things
that we thought myself would unfold through the year. We
also did like the cy Young and gold gloves I believe,

(00:31):
Rookie of the Year, Reliever of the Year, and we're
still going to touch on those in a further show,
but obviously the voting on those things has not come out,
so we are going to instead hit the predictions that
we can identify whether or not they happen correctly or
not correctly, And I'm going to give myself a littleeway
and see what give our little selves a little bit

(00:52):
of score at the end. But just as pretty much
every journalist that covers baseball constantly, every time they're asked
to do predictions, and I'm talking to you Passing and Rosenthal,
they just they don't like to make them because they're
impossible to make. And let's just say, my score here
is going to double down and prove that point. Okay,

(01:13):
So let's get right into whether or not I got
my big bold predictions for the twenty twenty five season
correct or more likely not Okay, so ten bold didictions.
Number one, no AL team wins more than ninety two games. Now,

(01:37):
we went in thinking that, hey, you know, this is
definitely an NL heavy season or an NL heavy I
think we think the power is there with the Phillies
and the Dodgers and San Diego and Arizona and the Giants,
and like we had all of these teams and for
the most part that that.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
All kind of coalesced a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I felt like the Phillies and the Cubs, we were
just because we thought the Brewers ended up having the
best record in the league and we didn't see them
doing it, but it was the better league and did
end up winning the World Series. But we thought the
AL was going to be a lot weaker, and for
the most part it was. Though turns out there were

(02:17):
ninety two plus win teams. They both happened to be
in the AL East, and they were the Blue Jays
and the Yankees. But everyone else won less than ninety
two games, which I feel like that was a.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Pretty bold prediction, and technically it's wrong.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
It was pretty close, and I feel like I have
a little bit of I should get a little love
for that, even though it is a technical swing and
a miss. So yes, there were two teams that inevitably
ended up winning more than ninety two games. Bold prediction
number two over performer of the year a guy I
thought that was going to create a lot more value

(02:53):
for his team, more so, more value in theory than
his con tract called for. And that man was Tommy
fam We checked in on all of these halfway through
the season, by the way, I believe, on July fourteenth,
so you can check out that show too to see
where we amended some of this stuff. Though since then
he did get a lot better. He was really struggling

(03:17):
when we checked in last time, and he did end
the season a little bit stronger, but I would say
he did not overperform. He ended up hitting two forty
five with a seven hundred ops ninety five ops plus
with ten home runs of fifty two every eyes and
exactly one b war for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Didn't get traded,
so I think we were. Everyone was surprised by pretty
much every part of that. So I'm gonna have to

(03:39):
give myself a good old fashioned wrong.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Again. That's over two and that does not feel good.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
But guess what you gotta stand up, and you gotta
be honest with yourself, and you don't know anything about anything,
all right, number three underperformer of the Year. I thought
that though Willie Adamis was one of the best middle
infielders on the market last year, that he he wasn't.
I didn't think he was gonna immediately co and be

(04:03):
an impact back for the Giants, And when we checked
in in July, that was definitely the case. At that point,
he was hitting two twenty one with a six eighty
two ops and only a zero point nine b war,
which is b war usually is what has actually happened
on the field. F four is predictive, so that's why
he's b war for this. But he actually ended up

(04:24):
a lot stronger, so I would say I was mostly wrong.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I'm going to give him the benefit of out.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Even though I don't think that the aggregate season really
kind of lined up with what he was paid. He
definitely made a big push at the end there to
get there. So he ended the season hitting two twenty
five with a seven forty ops and a one to
eleven ops plus pretty solid, and three a point seven
b war, so he had a three and a half war.
Now I think he's paid like a five war player,

(04:51):
but like going from point nine to three point seven
in a couple months is really impressive and he deserves it,
So I would say, right.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Again, Trevor Nice over three, you look stupid.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Moving on number four, my guest for Stolen Base Leader
was Elie de la Cruz. In a big bold prediction
on that one picked the guy that won.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
It last year. Fortunately he did not win it.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
That would be Jose Cabrierra, who played for the Yankees
there at the end of the year, and he and
Ellida Cruz actually ended up taking seventh. He had thirty
seven where Cabairo had forty nine, so it wasn't necessarily close.
So that is a good old fashioned oh for four wrong, great, awesome,
sick sweet, This is going so well. Though he was

(05:43):
in the top ten, I give myself a little bit
of it, like, yeah, he's a great bass dealer, but
like base dealing, especially in the major leagues, like the
top ten of the top ten, like they're about eight
of those guys are going to be there every single year.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
They are healthy.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
So not super bold, but I did think that he
would run more. I think I thought he would have
most opportunities as well, So I also thought he would
lead the league in cott stealing.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
We would be wrong about that.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
It was actually Chandler Simpson who led the league in
cot stealing with twelve. Ellie was tied in ninth with eight,
So he also did not lead the league in coot stealing.
But if you do the mat there, he was thirty
nine for forty seven on stolen base appearances or attempts.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
That's pretty dang good. That's pretty dang good Ellie.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
I think that's a step forward for Elie de la
Cruz in terms of his aggressiveness and maybe his his
risk taking when it gets down to kind of accumulating
a lot of these stats. So I mean, if I'm
the Reds, I'm pumped, but I would say he needs
to get his forty bags a year, like he needs
to go for forty every year no matter what. I
don't want to see I don't want to see him
like suddenly turn into a fifteen bad guy because he's

(06:48):
out here trying to hit homers. Let that guy run,
Keep him running, don't slow him down. Keep him running,
even if he doesn't win, win the championship or have
the most stolen bases on the air.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
But very very good.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
I I enjoyed it a lot watching him play. All right,
here we go, next up, number six. This one's very interesting.
I got that wrong. The longest win streak going to
the Cleveland Guardians. Now we scoffed back in July when
we revisited this. This was before the Brewers went on

(07:21):
their fourteen win streak, which ended up being the actual winner,
so that's not quite right. But and also at this point,
the Guardians had lost ten straight games at that point,
so they were not playing well.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
They were bad.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
It was like, oh, this team is underperforming. The Twins
have a better record. I don't know if they had
a better record at the time, but they were closer,
and they had one thirteen straight at some point. But
then September came and as we all know, they came
back and they won the Central Division. And you know
how they did that. They won ten straight games on
that streak. So I'm giving myself a w because even

(08:00):
though they didn't have the highest win streak, they had
an exactly ten game win streak, So I think that
is worth giving me a little bit of credit. I
did guess their win streak perfectly. So that's one for six,
one for six if I were a hitter, still not.

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Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay, moving on, Number seven. Number seven boldest prediction of
the year, the non closer of the year, the guy
I thought would be the best non closer, Jeremiah Strata.
Now we also revisited this back in July, and I
think I amended it to say though Jeremiah has been
strong and I believe he had a sub three again,
has struck out a lot of guys, but he had

(09:45):
some chon key innings in there from time to time.
We said at that point that Adrian more Jane would
be his would be probably the choice for this because
of how valuable he's been as a reliever, and I
think that's true. I think Adrian Mayer Martyjan for me,
is still the best non closer in the league because

(10:05):
he went thirteen and six as a reliever, which just
shows you if you are putting this guy into a
tie game and you were winning thirteen of those, you.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Got to tip your cap. He is a guy that
goes in the game and then you guys end up winning.
The value to that is a big deal.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
But technically I am incorrect, So that is now one
for seven. Okay, moving on, now, we remember we set
a rule last time that things would be on pace,
and we would give ourselves a thumbs up if they
were in the top five of whatever it was, so
like if they were around top five. So I'm gonna

(10:42):
amend like I think taking that rule to the next level.
If we predict someone to win and they're in like
the top three and it's really close, we can give
ourselves a tip of the cap because things like this
are really hard.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Like RBI letter for example, the next one.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
So if your guy didn't quite win, but he's really
close to winning, then I'm gonna give my self a
w I know I'm setting this up. I predicted Pete
Alonzo to be the RBI leader for the entire major
leagues in this past year, and he ended up taking
second with one and twenty six, behind another man in
his division, Kyle Schwarber, who had quite the year and

(11:22):
is gonna end up probably being second for the MVP.
But Pete Alonzo with one hundred and twenty six RBIs
and taking second, getting that close on a year that
a guy led the league with one hundred and thirty two,
it's pretty impressive. And so I am going to glom
on to that, to that prediction and that happening, and
give myself a point as well because I deserve it. Okay,

(11:43):
that's two for eight. Moving on to ten pitchers a
World Series MVP. This is wrong forgot to tell you
about this. I predicted that the Phillies would win the
World Series. We'll talk about that in a moment. And
I had Brandon Marsh winning it. That didn't happen. That's
an l So that's two for nine, and then ten
ten pitchers will throw two hundred plus innings across the

(12:05):
entire major leagues in a year, in a atmosphere of
baseball where nobody throws close to that many innings anymore.
That was a bold prediction. That's why it goes in
the list, and it turns out big miss, even though
back in July there were eight guys on pace at
that point. That isn't usually a great I wouldn't say

(12:27):
not a great indicator. I would say that usually isn't
telling the whole story, because when teams are out of it,
some of the guys on this list were Once you
get out of it, maybe you don't make that last
start of the year, or like you skip a start
or whatever just to make you not have to throw
some innings and then you end up just missing it,
which I think happened. It turns out only three got there,
Logan Webb, but Garrett Crochet and Christopher Sanchez all got

(12:48):
over two hundred innings.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
But there were six other guys that.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Threw more than one hundred and ninety two, including Framber Valdez,
Terrek Scouble and others. I think the top ten were
one eighty six all the way up, so pretty good.
But Brandon Webb ended up Brandon Webb. It's not Brandon
Webb Logan Web. Holy moly, Why am I thinking about
Brandon Webb. That was weird. Logan Web led the league

(13:12):
in innings and he is a workhorse. He also had
more strikeouts and he is just he needs a little
bit more love I think they were giving him. He
was very good, but unfortunately I.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Did not hit this one.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
So.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
That's not a very good run. That's what two for ten.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
I'm gonna say two and a half or ten so far,
because I'll give myself half a point into a damas
he did come raging back, but he didn't quite get
to the to the full value I think, or the
thing of the expectation so I would say he's still underperformed,
even though he maybe didn't underpour him as much. So
I'm gonna give myself a little credit. So two and
a half out of ten. I don't know why I'm
giving myself half a point. It does not make it

(13:48):
look any better. All right, Let's talk really quickly about
the playoffs. I had my playoff bracket prediction.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Here.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
These are all the teams that I thought I thought
would make it. The Rangers, No Red Sox, he ass
Guardians Orioles, no Tigers, Yes, Astros no.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
So I'm three for six over here, and on this side.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Three for six, So I got half of the playoff
teams right when there's twelve. Six for twelve is not good,
not good, though.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
The Mets did.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Lose it on the last day, and the Braves are
right behind that or not the Braves dbacks right behind them.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
The Rays were bout of it the whole time.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
So l's across the board a little bit here, and
I would say that's probably six out of You got
to get the majority to do a good job. Even
though I predicted the playoffs, how they played out a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Better than that.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
That is not good though, the Tigers and the Guardians
coming in right at the end. Look, make me look
smart in the Red Sox. How do I not have
the Yankees in here?

Speaker 2 (14:39):
What am I? Oh?

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Well, I mean the Orioles are the braves of the als.
I think this is this was absolutely possible. I think
that they're getting the Tigers in over the Yankees was
kind of the bold move.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
But I didn't get the Blue Jays.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
But hey, my defense, nobody got the Blue Jays, so
don't yell at me.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
And so that's a miss.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
And the World Series champion I had the Philadelphia Phillies.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Also a miss.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
So let's just give myself a nice crisp two and
a half out of twelve of my bold predictions.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Ah, that hurts. That hurts real bad. I did not
do a good job, and I did my best. Though.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
This is gonna be something we do every single year.
I'm going to go in these predictions. We'll check in
halfway and then we'll go to the end. Just a
fun little way to get the show going today and
let me know what you guys thought and what maybe
predictions can we add for next year. It would be
cool to have a uniform kind of template that we
follow up to a certain point where we do the

(15:39):
same things every year.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
I'm looking at now that I've done.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
This show for a year and I've been on Top
Territory for a year, to have these like annual check
in type things, these special shows, and I like doing
this when I think this one works and it's a
lot of fun and it does. You guys like watching
it later on YouTube as well.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
So I enjoyed it. Just let me know if you
enjoyed it. H M.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Mem