(From time to time, we’ll post a short blog entry regarding a current topic or something else that catches our fancy. It might be something trivial or something that really makes us wonder what the hell is going on.)

Last time around, we patted ourselves on the back for getting all four of the division series correct.

Well payback is a b-i-t-c-h: we completely erred in stating that the Diamondbacks would win in seven games and the Indians would take the Red Sox to seven games and capture the ALCS against the Red Sox.

You’d think we learned our lesson and not dip our toe into the waters of predicting the World Series, right?

Wrong. We’ve chosen to embarrass ourselves again and break down the 2007 Fall Classic.

More after the jump »

On May 9, we posted how we thought both Conference Finals would shake out. And surprisingly enough, we nailed a .500 winning percentage, which is pretty damn good if we might say so ourselves.

What’s that you say, there were only two series played?

That little fact aside asswipes, we happened to scope the Western Conference with some deft precision — with the exception of two games (one Detroit blowout, one Anaheim blowout) — the series was uniquely balanced with defensive-based play that featured pockets of offense.

The Eastern Conference predictions? They were as precise as a rusty butter knife trying to cut through congealed macaroni and cheese. Therefore, we won’t talk about that out of sheer embarrassment, okay?

Without further ado, your meaningless Stanley Cup Finals preview…

More after the jump »

Back in late April, we made the bold, intrepid move to make some NHL conference semi-finals predictions. As with all our predictions, they were absolutely meaningless and should be used for gambling purposes hold no water. Much to our surprise, we happened to do pretty well — went 100% on series winners and had a 75% success rate at predicting the duration of each series (we missed the San Jose-Detroit outcome).

Now that we’ve collectively broken our shoulders patting ourselves on the back…without further ado, your meaningless NHL conference finals preview…

More after the jump »

The spotlight of the National League West for much of the season won’t be on the teams in the division as one might expect. It will be on one player: Barry Bonds.

Unless you live in the caves of Afghanistan running away from justice, you’ll know that Bonds is on a plodding chase to break Hank Aaron’s 755 home run record set just over 30 years ago this season. He sits at 734, 22 shy of surpassing the Atlanta Braves legend on the all-time list.

While he’ll be the focus for most of the season’s first-half, there’s some interesting things to keep an eye as we head into the 2007 campaign:

• The youthful Arizona DiamondBacks, bolstered by new acquisitions Doug Davis and Randy Johnson and the arrivals of youngsters Chris B. Young and Carlos Quentin, will be early challengers to the division crown and might come away with it.
• The new, tweaked version of the “Blake Street Bombers” that consists of Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins and Todd Helton will be a more competitive version than their 2006 brethren.
• A pitching-heavy Los Angeles Dodgers, in spacious Chavez Ravine, should mow down hitters with a solid quintet of starters (Derek Lowe, Jason Schmidt, Brad Penny, Randy Wolf and the interchangeable Brett Tomko).
• The San Diego Padres’ acquisitions of Marcus Giles and Kevin Kouzmanoff hope to pay off in an offense that lost slugger Mike Piazza.
• The $126 million Barry Zito is set to debut in the National League and hopes to steal the spotlight from the “other” Barry.

Without further ado, a peek at the National League West…

More after the jump »

Only once since 1991 had the Atlanta Braves not finished in the top perch in the National League East standings (the strike-cut 1995 season had the Braves finishing in second place). Since 1969, no major-league team has shown that sort of dominance within their own division as Atlanta did.

That was until 2006.

Last season, the New York Mets put up 97 wins in their romp to the division title. In doing so, they bested the Philadelphia Phillies who unusually surged after selling off star slugger Bobby Abreu to the New York Yankees at the trade deadline.

Items of note in the NL East this offseason -

• The Braves let go of 2B Marcus Giles after six seasons of service and traded 1B Adam LaRoche to the Pittsburgh Pirates for reliever Mike Gonzalez.
• The Florida Marlins fired manager Joe Girardi after the team fell off in the season’s second half, yet still won the manager of the year award.
• The New York Mets, in need of a left fielder after letting Cliff Floyd walk, hired journeyman outfielder Moises Alou.
• The Philadelphia Phillies dealt for top-of-the-rotation starter Freddy Garcia, but had to part ways with bullpen arm Gavin Floyd and pitching prospect Gio Gonzalez to land “The Chief”.
• The Washington Nationals parted ways with legendary Hall of Famer and manager Frank Robinson, who guided the club through their tumultuous final years in Montreal.

Without further ado, a peek at the NL East…

More after the jump »

83 wins.

That’s all it took for the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Central in 2006. In fact, the division came down to that last day of the season: the Houston Astros failed in their bid to unseat the Cardinals on the final Sunday against the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis lost their final game against Milwaukee, thus ‘backing’ into the post-season (as all the media said back then).

So let’s see what has changed since 2006 to possibly (hopefully) make this division a bit better in 2007:

More after the jump »

Over the better part of the last five years, the American League West has largely been ‘half-n-half’ - two teams that are perennially at/near the top (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Oakland Athletics) and two teams that are at/near the bottom (Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers).

The Angels and the A’s have battled it out for division supremacy since 2002, with the A’s winning in three of those seasons (’02, ‘03 and ‘06) and the Angels two (’04 and ‘05). The other two clubs, the Mariners and the Rangers, haven’t seen much more than a sniff of the division titles since 2001’s Seattle Mariners put up 116 wins (the Rangers last division title occurred in ‘99).

This season has seen some changes, though.

The A’s lost pitching ace Barry Zito and slugger Frank Thomas; the Angels failed to add a big hitter that they really needed (Gary Matthews, Jr. doesn’t count); the Seattle Mariners arguably overpaid for two starting pitchers (Miguel Batista and Jeff Weaver) and added a middle for the line-up bat (Jose Guillen); and the Texas Rangers lost slugger Carlos Lee, but added two much needed arms in Vicente Padilla and Brandon McCarthy.

Without further ado, a peek at the AL West…

More after the jump »

The American League Eastern division is a study in baseball’s economic insanity.

To wit:

• The New York Yankees still lead the majors in total team salary ($170 million), just ahead division rival Boston Red Sox.
• The Boston Red Sox still have a hefty payroll ($160 million+) and shelled out a staggering $155 million on three players (import Daisuke Matsuzaka, infielder Julio Lugo and outfielder J.D. Drew).
• The Toronto Blue Jays coughed up $18.2 million for an aging, injury prone designated hitter (DH) in Frank Thomas for two years.
• The Baltimore Orioles threw $42.4 million at four middle relievers (Danys Baez, Chad Bradford, Jamie Walker and Scott Williamson, who’s the bargain of the four at $900,000.
• And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a payroll that barely exceeds what Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez gets in annual salary.

Sadly, that bulleted listing is likely how the American League East standings could end up after the 2007 season - by payroll numbers.

Without further ado, a peek at the AL East…

More after the jump »

Last season didn’t go as planned for most baseball prognosticators as the Chicago White Sox stumbled their way through a rather uneventful campaign, finishing six games back. The White Sox and the Cleveland Indians were both considered run-away favorites in the division, leaving the rest of the bunch — Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and the Minnesota Twins — looking up at those dynamos.

As usual, those predictions don’t always come to fruition. The ‘dark horse’ Detroit Tigers, who horribly faltered the last week of the season, relinquished first place to the Twins after dropping their last five games, including a three game sweep by the Royals.

We, of course, don’t mind making asses of ourselves when it comes to predictions, so the following is The Buried Lead’s (TBL) preview of the American League Central in alphabetical order, not predicted finish (that’ll come later).

Without further ado, a peek at the AL Central…

More after the jump »