Gleeman And The Geek: What Team Should We Have Predicted?

[John Bonnes]

Three teams surprised Aaron and John (and all of MLB, really): Baltimore, Oakland and Boston. Each outpaced Vegas by 20 games. Which should we have seen coming?

[beckmt]

Boston might have been the easist when Valentine started getting on players in spring training. The club sort of quit, which has lead to the purge and now the probable firing at the end of the year. Baltimore and Oakland would have been hard to figure out, but both are built on pitching(note to the Twins)

[glanzer]

I don't think that any one of these three could have been predicted to the extent that they have played, but Boston's poor season I suppose is the least surprising of the three. I didn't figure they'd have 90+ losses, but Bobby V as manager never felt right, and to start the season with a couple of key injuries left them a little short of a playoff team in my opinion. I never imagined we'd see a largely unrecognizable lineup this time of year, though... I mean Danny Valencia batting fifth for them yesterday?

[John Bonnes]

I suppose it always seems like we should have predicted a collapse more than a surge. To be honest, to this day I'm not totally sure how the Orioles and A's are doing it. And I'm not sure I trust them to do it again next year.