Today, just like the day after the Super Bowl, should be a National Holiday. You and your loved ones should be sitting around your TV, windows open in the house with a cool spring breeze blowing through… watching your favorite team let you down for another season.

Today, is MLB Opening Day.

My projections for the season awards and various other topics are as follows:

Division Winners:

NL East – Philadelphia Phillies (+215)
NL Central – Cincinnati Reds (+550)
NL West – Los Angeles Dodgers (-500, yes -500)
AL East – Baltimore Orioles (+265)
AL Central – Kansas City Royals (+270)
AL West – Texas Rangers (+225)

World Series:

Los Angeles Dodgers (+275)
Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Texas Rangers (+3000)

Rookie of the Year

NL – Roki Sasaki (+250)
AL – Kristian Campbell (+550)

It’s hard to bet against an established professional with a high level of success over seas. Roki Sasaki is just that. Yet another Japanese player signing with the Dodgers, he is the newest shiny tool in the shed for the boys in blue and will cruise to Rookie of the Year award.
Kristian Campbell is a top-10 prospect in baseball, who struggled in spring, and still made the Red Sox opening day roster. The lineup around Campbell will produce, but the question is…will he? He has the ability to put the ball in play, steal some bags, and plays a solid 2nd base. I think of the top prospects expected to make their debut in the bigs this year, he has the best chance at being the all-around player and fill up the stat line.

Cy Young

NL – Paul Skenes (+300)
AL – Hunter Brown (+2500)

It’s hard to bet against Skenes – even though I want to. Countless times we see top prospects come up through the ranks, take the league by storm in their first season…and fall off. Skenes has all the makings of going either way: Fall back to Earth or Hall of Fame caliber. It’s still so early in his career to say he’s the best pitcher in the NL… but I’m coming around to the idea.
Hunter Brown is a former top 100 prospect who is now the #2 starter in Houston. While Framber Valdez is getting the nod for opening day, Brown is a 9 K/9 range guy but his downside is he only averages 5 innings a start, however in todays analytics and made up stats world he fits right in. A majority of his strike outs in 2024 were from his fastball, while 2023 it was even between the heater and knuckle curve, he’s got some nasty stuff that could easily carry him to a CY.

MVP

NL – Shohei Ohtani (+170)
AL – Bobby Witt Jr. (+400)

Shohei is unstoppable. He is projected to be on the mound and at the plate again this year, and until someone is doing what he does – there is no competition logically for someone to beat him. He is the Most Valuable Player strictly based off (cough cough money cough cough) talent alone.
Witt is a 5-tool player, and that is what gives him in my opinion the upper hand against Aaron Judge. Judge is brawn, power driven, World Series fly ball dropping big man… where Witt is the new flashy up and coming player who has proven himself and has the ability to be the top dog.

I think as a whole, 29 fan bases are just looking for the Big Bad Boys in Blue to fall, but deep down – we all know we are playing for second place.

Happy Opening Day
And just remember – don’t let your teams performance dictate your happiness. They don’t care about your feelings.

Till Next Time,
Trevor