Despite his teams overall lack of success, LA Dodgers CF Matt Kemp made a serious push for the NL triple crown. He finished the year in third for batting average (.324), first in HR (39) and first in RBI (126). This was all good for a wRC+ of 171. Surprisingly, Kemp's awesome season wasn't even the best in the league. He finished second in the NL and fourth in baseball. The most impressive offensive season belonged to Jose Bautista who finished the year with a wRC+ of 181. His season would have been even greater had he not cooled off in the last two months and batted only .260 with 12 HR. You will notice that neither Kemp (NL HR leader) nor Bautista (AL HR leader) managed to hit 50+ HR. Their seasons helped to prove that the steroid era has officially come to an end.
On the other side of the game, pitchers continued to dominate. In the off season the Phillies set up one of the best rotation in the history of baseball by adding Cliff Lee to the existing rotation of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and a fifth starter. This dream rotation didn't disappoint. The Phillies starter's had a 2.86 ERA and 932 Ks. Even with the Phillies awesome starters they didn’t have the best individual performances. Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw led the charge, as each won their respective leagues pitching triple crown. At only 23 Kershaw had probably the best season in the bigs and added his name to a growing list of young aces.
Probably the most exciting moment of the season happened on the last day when there were four teams (Red Sox, Rays, Cardinal and Braves) that had to win on the 162nd day to make it into the playoffs. The Red Sox (a pre-season favorite) and the Braves lost on this final day showdown finishing epic collapses and letting the Rays and Cardinals into the playoff. After earning there unlikely playoff berth , the Cardinals bested all comers in the MLB playoffs and took home their 11th World Series Title. So, before the off season free agent frenzy and front office shakeups kick into full gear lets take a look at the USTN preseason predictions and see how we did.
Table 1 shows our predictions for the five best teams and who the actual five best teams were. We managed to get 3 out of the five teams correct. The Rangers, Yankees and Phillies all dominate the league as we predicted. The Yankees and Rangers with their bats and the Phillies with their arms. If it hadn't been for a final month meltdown by the Red Sox we would have gotten a fourth team correct, but as we all learn the BoSox just love fried chicken and beer too much. Really, just our prediction of the White Sox sticks out as bad. However, if you read the pre-season post you will see that they were a kind of throw in. We really only picked them because we need a fifth team. This isnt a great excuse, but I still think it is a valid one.
Table 2 shows our predictions for the five worst teams and who the actual five worst teams were. Overall we did a pretty crumby job on this one, missing on three of the five picks. We only managed to get the Mariners and the Royals right. Royals just barely squeaked in as they finished in a three way tie for fifth worst. Luckily the Mariners easily met our expectations. The biggest glaring mistake of all the preseason predictions was the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only did they finish out of the bottom five but they actually finished the season in the five best. I suppose I should have known that bullpens are very volatile and that they couldn’t be as terrible as they were in 2010. However, as far as I am concerned this one really came out of nowhere.
Oddly enough, that fifth spot for the Phillies was probably their second or third best pitcher this year too, strange how that works out. Also, it amazes me that we missed the Baltimore Orioles for worst team. Never again.
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