The 2012 Season Is Almost Here: Any Predictions?

The start of the 2012 season is less than two weeks away. Does anyone want to stick his or her neck out and make a prediction on how the season will turn out?

My predictions:

AL East: New York
AL Central: Detroit
AL West: Los Angeles
Wild Cards: Texas and Kansas City
MVP: Miguel Cabrera
Cy Young: CC Sabathia
Penant: New York

NL East: Miami
NL Central: St. Louis
NL West: San Francisco
Wild Cards: Philadelphia and Milwaukee
MVP: Giancarlo "Mike" Stanton
Cy Young: Josh Johnson
Penant: Miami

World Series: New York 4, Miami 2

I will make my predicitions.

AL East: It would be hard to pick against NY this year. I am hoping for Tampa, but my pick is the Yankees.
AL Central: I would love to pick the Twins, but when you have no starting pitching, no bullpen, anemic offense, and mediocre defense, it is hard to win. This is especially true when the Tigers are in the division. I will pick the Tigers.
AL West: This is tough. Ultimately, it does not matter. In this era of "let everyone make the post-season," one team will win, and the other will get the wild card. I will go with the Angels as the winners.
AL Wild Cards: The Rangers and the Rays (I could not agree with you on everything, and you made it easy to pick against KC.)

NL East: I am going with Atlanta. Philly is injured, and Atlanta is better than Florida.
NL Central: I will pick the Cubs (Not sure why).
NL West: The Giants. Who else could beat them?
NL Wild Cards: The Marlins and (Can we have two teams from the same division?) the Phillies (or the Cardinals f they must be from different divisions).

Can we have two teams from the same division?

There's nothing in the rules regarding the additional wild card team that I've seen that indicates both teams can't come from the same division. Although, given the unbalanced schedule, it might be difficult for three teams from the same division to finish in the top five, but not impossible of course.

As messed up as they have it with one, you cannot play a team from your division in the first round, I would not be surprised to see them do something else that was stupid. It could be a long year for me. The Twins are not going to do well, but maybe that will make for cheaper tickets?

And after the Astros move to the AL next year and Selig institutes all-season interleague play, I'm hoping that one of the leagues just completely dominates the other and the fifth team into the playoffs from the dominated league has a sub-.500 record and goes on to win the World Series. I'd love to see the egg on Selig's face after a team with 79 wins takes the Series.

I'm still confused about the Los Anaheim Angels...

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I think that we share many of the same opinions. I cannot stand Selig. I hate the way the game is going. One of the great things was only playing your league. The postseason was more special then. Now I hardly watch the post season.

I am in full support of interleague play. At the end of the season. In the World Series. Otherwise, no.

Apologies for taking part in the subject change for the thread, though. I can't wrap my brain around making prediction, though I'm interested to see all y'all's (as my New Orleans friends would say). As a Yankees fan, I've a sneaking suspicion that this is the BoSox's year in the AL East. And I like the Giants to bounce back in the West.

A Washington vs. Baltimore World Series would be funny, but a CIncinnati* vs. Cleveland WS would be HILARIOUS!
--a Red Sox fan**

*Cincinnati Reds: the only one of the 4 I mention here that is not, at the moment, a division-leader.

**No, I havenʻt given up on them.