The Red Sox weren’t a very good team in 2012, but I was lucky enough to be able to attend a game at Fenway Park last season. I went to Fenway in early September for a game against the Blue Jays, shortly after the huge Red Sox-Dodgers trade happened.

It was a rainy night in Boston yet the stadium was packed eager to watch their beloved Red Sox. When I left Fenway that night, never did I think in a million years would the Red Sox be crowned champions of the baseball world the next season, especially after a trade that saw Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett pack their bags and head west. But it happened. What an incredible story for the city of Boston, for its fans and for baseball fans all over the world, except for maybe Cardinal and Yankee fans of course.

David Ortiz led the Red Sox to their third World Series title in the last 10 years. By Googie man at the English language Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons

The Boston Marathon bombing and the city’s reaction to it has, in many ways, redefined the “Boston Strong” mindset of Beantown.

Earlier in the year, the Celtics couldn’t bring a title back, the Bruins lost in the Stanley Cup Finals and finally the Red Sox broke through. After clinching the American League-East title with slight ease, they took on the Tampa Bay Rays and beat them in four games before taking out the Tigers in six games in the American League Championship Series.

Finally, the Red Sox would meet up with the St. Louis Cardinals after the red birds beat the Dodgers in the NLCS in six games as well. Last night, the Sox clinched and Boston partied.

They started the season off strong and never looked back, which is rare to do in the grueling 162-game season. This team was destined for greatness all season long and they earned the right to call themselves champions. For the first time in awhile, the absolute best team in baseball all season won the title — they weren’t just some “hot” team who climbed into the playoffs and went on some magical run. The 2013 baseball season is over but won’t be forgotten and we all are looking forward to opening day 2014. For now, Boston is partying like its 1918.

One thing that has remained consistent this season is the dominance of Miguel Cabrera. By Cbl62, via Wikimedia Commons

Back in January, about three months prior to the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, I wrote an article claiming my predictions for the upcoming season. Now that the All Star Game is upon us, that means the season is a little over halfway finished and my perception of the teams and players has changed over the course of the year from what it was before the season even started. So here are my updated predictions on what will transpire over the next few months of the season:

But first, here are my pre-season predictions:

Teams I picked to win their divisions:

AL East: New York Yankees

AL Central: Detroit Tigers

AL West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

NL East: Philadelphia Phillies

NL Central: Cincinnati Reds

NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers

Wild Card Teams:

American League: Baltimore Orioles and Oakland A’s

National League: San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals

CY Young winners:

American League: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners

National League: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers

MVP:

American League: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

National League: Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers

Best record in each League:

American League: Detroit Tigers

National League: Cincinnati Reds

Manager of the Year:

American League: Jim Leyland, Detroit Tigers

National League: Don Mattingly, Los Angeles Dodgers

Moneyball will finally find a World Series ring in 2013. By Leaders Event from London, United Kingdom, via Wikimedia Commons

Updated Predictions (Stats are up to the All Star break):

Teams I picked to win their divisions:

AL East: Boston Red Sox

AL Central: Detroit Tigers

AL West: Oakland A’s

NL East: Atlanta Braves

NL Central: Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks

Wild Card Teams:

American League: Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers

National League: St Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds

CY Young winners:

American League: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners (10-4, 2.53 ERA, 140 Strikeouts, 1.10 WHIP)

National League: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers (8-6, 1.98 ERA, 139 Strikeouts, 0.91 WHIP)

MVP:

American League: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers (.365, 30 HR, 95 RBI, .458 OBP)

National League: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks (.313, 21 HR, 77 RBI, .395 OBP)

Best record in each League:

American League: Oakland A’s

National League: Pittsburgh Pirates

Manager of the Year:

American League: John Farrell, Boston Red Sox

National League: Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh Pirates

I’m usually pretty stubborn about my predictions, but I will admit that I have changed some of mine from the preseason. I was totally off about both the Dodgers and Angels, even though both can still make some sort of run at the playoffs — especially the Dodgers.

Staying in the National League West, Paul Goldschmidt is my new pick for National League MVP. Many people view Yadier Molina as the favorite but I think otherwise. Goldschmidt has better numbers than Molina in every category other than batting average and he isn’t that far behind him in that.

Before the season started, I said that the Angels would meet up with the Dodgers in the World Series creating a “Freeway” World Series, but the Angels have woefully underperformed and I have changed my World Series prediction on its head. I predict that the Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland A’s will be the final two teams standing.

Let that sink in for a second and actually consider this scenario. Both of these teams are good enough to make it. I don’t have a winner from these two teams because in my mind, they are evenly matched. Since the American League won the All-Star Game and has home field advantage, I’ll go ahead and pick Moneyball to finally come through in the postseason.

David Price and the Rays look to have the pitching advantage in the wide-open American League East. By Wknight94 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

“Good pitching will always stop good hitting, and vice-versa.” – Casey Stengel

Much has been made of pitching in baseball over the past few seasons. The game has seen a shift from more dominant power-hitters to more shutdown pitchers since the “steroid era” “ended.”

While there are still many bona fide power hitters in the the majors (Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Robinson Cano, etc.), building a strong pitching rotation has become more of a prominent priority for successful teams. Just last season (2011), baseball had a pitcher, Justin Verlander, win both the MVP award and the CY Young award in the American League. Pitching has always been important to America’s pastime but now it’s more crucial than ever.

Especially in such a competitive division as the AL East, good starting pitching becomes even more valuable and necessary to have. Here is a breakdown of each teams potential starting rotation for the 2013 season with the average Earned Run Average (we know averaging an average isn’t scientifically sound, but we’re doing it anyway…):

New York Yankees:

1. C.C Sabathia (15-6, 3.38 ERA, 196 Strikeouts)
2. Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32 ERA, 167 Strikeouts)
3. Andy Pettitte (5-4, 2.87 ERA, 69 Strikeouts)
4. Phil Hughes (16-13, 4.23 ERA, 165 Strikeouts)
5. Ivan Nova (12-8, 5.02 ERA, 153 Strikeouts)

Average Combined 2012 ERA: 3.76

Baltimore Orioles:

1. Jason Hammel (8-6, 3.43 ERA, 113 Strikeouts)
2. Wei-Yin Chen (12-11, 4.02 ERA, 154 Strikeouts)
3. Chris Tillman (9-3, 2.93 ERA, 66 Strikeouts)
4. Miguel Gonzalez (9-4, 3.25 ERA, 77 Strikeouts)
5. Zach Britton (5-3, 5.07 ERA, 53 Strikeouts)

Average Combined 2012 ERA: 3.74

Tampa Bay Rays:

1. David Price (20-5, 2.56 ERA, 205 Strikeouts) Also was the 2012 AL CY Young Award Winner
2. Jeremy Hellickson (10-11, 3.10 ERA, 124 Strikeouts)
3. Matt Moore (11-11, 3.81 ERA, 175 Strikeouts)
4. Jeff Neimann (2-3, 3.08 ERA, 34 Strikeouts)
5. Alex Cobb (11-9, 4.03 ERA, 106 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 3.31

Toronto Blue Jays:

1. R.A. Dickey (20-6, 2.73 ERA, 230 Strikeouts) Also was the 2012 NL CY Young Award Winner
2. Josh Johnson (8-14, 3.81 ERA, 165 Strikeouts)
3. Mark Buehrle (13-13, 3.74 ERA, 125 Strikeouts)
4. Brandon Morrow (10-7, 2.96 ERA, 108 Strikeouts)
5. Ricky Romero (9-14, 5.77 ERA, 124 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 3.80

Boston Red Sox:

1. Jon Lester (9-14, 4.82 ERA, 166 Strikeouts)
2. Ryan Dempster (12-8, 3.38 ERA, 153 Strikeouts)
3. Clay Buchholz (11-8, 4.56 ERA, 129 Strikeouts)
4. John Lackey, 2011 season (12-12, 6.41 ERA, 108 Strikeouts)
5. Felix Doubront (11-10, 4.86 ERA, 167 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 4.40

The stats above are from the 2012 season and based of ERA alone, it would show that the Rays would have the best starting rotation going into the 2012 season with the Orioles a close second. For the Red Sox I only calculated four pitchers since John Lackey missed the entire 2012 season because of Tommy John Surgery and somehow they still wound up having an expediently higher ERA than any of the other teams. But just stats from don’t show or prove which team will have the best starting rotation next year.

The team that I predict will have the best starting rotation in the AL East is the Toronto Blue Jays. I think that the huge trade between Miami and Toronto will resurrect the careers of both Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle from their down 2012 seasons. Also, any time you can land the raining Cy Young winner in a trade, that’s not too bad either. The Blue Jays rotation is greatly improved and I think will do very well in the 2013 season. However, I still don’t think that the Blue Jays will be the best overall team in the division. For that, I still have to give it to the Yankees. They were the division winners and until someone knocks them out, I am predicting that the Yankees will win the AL East again.