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Royals Review 2014 Predictions

The view from the basement is quasi-rosy, my friends.

By Clark Fosler
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Prior to the 2013 season, the esteemed and much heralded staff here at Royals Review looked into the future and did their best (or maybe worst or possibly spent 33 seconds of their lives) to predict the outcome of the season. You can review the predictions here, but let me assure you that we were, well, not exactly great.

We were all under the Royals' 86 wins, with me and my gut coming closest with a predictive guess of 85. With Minnesota finishing ahead of the White Sox in the A.L. Central, that eliminated all of us from getting the standings of the division correct. Craig and I'm Not That Bright (who is still touring with the remnants of Great White) did manage to get the Detroit-Cleveland-Kansas City portion of the division correct.

None of us had Eric Hosmer as Royals' Player of the Year or Greg Holland as Pitcher of the Year. Nor did any of us manage to peg Miguel Cabrera as MVP or Max Scherzer as Cy Young winner. Brown, Not Bright and Zimmerman did, however, tab Wil Myers to win Rookie of the Year.

We all had Tampa winning the East, which they did not (although at least they made the playoffs) and we also all missed in the West as well. Wild Card? Nope, not so good.

In the National League, I was the only one to predict Atlanta winning the East, while Zimmerman and Not Bright correctly pegged the Cardinals in the Central. Everyone but Brown and Zimmerman nailed the Dodgers in the West. For the NL Wild Card, none of us (did anyone anywhere?) had the Pirates, with Not Bright hitting on the Reds. All of us how did not have St. Louis winning the Central had the Reds doing so and, if we grade on a curve, at least did have them in the playoffs.

Craig had Andrew McCutchen winning the MVP, while Duggan and myself had Clayton Kershaw winning the Cy Young. None of us had Jose Fernandez winning Rookie of the Year.

I'm Not That Bright correctly had St. Louis losing in the World Series, but not a single one of our great baseball minds had Boston winning it.

So, with that impressive track record as our resume, here are the predictions of 2014:

Clark Fosler Connor Moylan Craig Brown Jeff Zimmerman Josh Duggan NHZ Royals Retro Tyler Drennon
KC Wins 89 85 83 82 84 84 83 91
KC Player of the Year Eric Hosmer Salvador Perez Alex Gordon Aoki (Highest BA) Eric Hosmer Alex Gordon Eric Hosmer Alex Gordon
KC Pitcher of the Year James Shields James Shields James Shields Vargas (Most Wins) James Shields James Shields Yordano Ventura Greg Holland
AL Central Finish Det-KC-Chi-Cle-Min Det-KC-Cle-Chi-Min Det-KC-Cle-Chi-Min Det-KC-Chi-Cle-Min Det-KC-Cle-Chi-Min Det-KC-Cle-Chi-Min Det-KC-Chi-Cle-Min KC-Det-Chi-Cle-Min
AL East Winner Tampa Tampa Tampa Boston Tampa 4 way tie, Toronto last Boston Tampa
AL West Winner LAA Angels Texas Oakland LAA Angels Oakland Oakland LAA Angels Oakland
AL Wild Card Kansas City & Boston Boston & Oakland Boston & Baltimore Tampa & Oakland Boston & Texas Everyone in the East Toronto & Texas LAA Angels & Boston
AL Cy Young Felix Hernandez Felix Hernandez Justin Verlander Chris Sale Yu Darvish Max Scherzer Justin Verlander Yu Darvish
AL MVP Mike Trout Mike Trout Mike Trout Mike Trout (finally!) Mike Trout Mike Trout Mike Trout Mike Trout
AL Rookie Xander Bogaerts Xander Bogaerts Yordano Ventura Jeff Zimmerman Yordano Ventura Yordano Ventura Jose Abreu Jose Abreu
NL East Winner Washington Washington Washington Washington Washington Washington Washington Washington
NL Central Winner Cincinnati St. Louis St. Louis St. Louis St. Louis Pittsburgh St. Louis St. Louis
NL West Winner Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles San Francisco Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles
NL Wild Card St. Louis & San Fran San Fran & Cincinnati San Fran & San Diego Los Angeles & Atlanta San Fran & Pittsburgh Cincinnati & Atlanta Arizona & Pittsburgh Atlanta & Milwaukee
NL Cy Young Zack Greinke Clayton Kershaw Zack Greinke Jordan Zimmermann Clatyon Kershaw Zack Greinke Stephen Strasburg Clayton Kershaw
NL MVP Bryce Harper Joey Votto Hanley Ramirez Ryan Zimmerman Buster Posey Bryce Harper Bryce Harper Clayton Kershaw
NL Rookie Archie Bradley Archie Bradley Noah Syndergaard Archie Bradley Noah Syndergaard Noah Syndergaard Kolten Wong Clayton Kershaw (Christian Yelich)
World Series Los Angeles over Boston St. Louis over Tampa Washington over Detroit Angels over Dodgers Los Angeles over Detroit Detroit over Pittsburgh Washington over Boston Clayton Kershaw over Tampa

A few notes on these:

Both NHZ and Duggan had Kansas City and Cleveland tying for second in the Central and specifically mentioned that they would trail Detroit by either a 'large' or 'huge' amount.

If Jeff is correct, this is bad year to not have any 'Zimmermans' on your team.

NHZ seems to be predicting that the A.L. East will be so hotly contested and the teams so skilled that Major League baseball will, in fact, change it's post-season rules just to accommodate said teams.

Tyler Drennon may or may not have some sort of infatuation/man-love for Clayton Kershaw.

How did you do last year and what does your 'gut' tell you this year?

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