Final Thoughts on 2010 MLB Season: Everybody's a fool

Another Major League Baseball season concluded sooner than I had anticipated with an ending that was certainly more exciting for some, but left me pretty lukewarm about the whole postseason. Indeed, we went through October with only one of the seven series played going the maximum number of games—and even that one set that did go to a winner-take-all finale was pretty ho-hum.

Still, I'm sure my bitterness has a little something to do with the fact that my pick before this season began was, of course, my favorite team in the league. And seeing as how their season slowly unraveled until finally falling apart altogether in the Division Series with the eventual World Champions, it's hard to get too enthusiastic about the eventual result—especially when you consider how I felt about Barry Bonds and the Bay Area fans that mostly remain apologists for him.

But looking back, the way this season played out certainly defied most every expert's initial prediction—which is usually the case when the New York Yankees somehow aren't involved in the Fall Classic.


Anyway, for the sake of shits & giggles, here's how the experts I tracked ended up doing during this year's playoffs:

1. (1) Steve Henson, Yahoo: 6-1 [1]

2. (2) Tim Brown, Yahoo: 3-4 [1]
2. (6) Kevin Kaduk, Yahoo: 3-4 [1]
2. (2) Jayson Stark, ESPN: 3-4 [1]

2. (2)YOURS TRULY: 3-4 [1]
6. (5) Karl Ravech, ESPN: 3-4 [0]
7. (6) Jerry Crasnick, ESPN: 2-5 [1]

8. (8) Jeff Passan, Yahoo: 2-5 [0]

Yeah, so unless you're Steve Henson, you didn't really end up with much to brag about this postseason. Ultimately, that majority of poor performances should serve as a further reminder of just how much this October defied popular predictions.

And looking back on how I'd forecasted this year before Opening Day, well ... yikes. I suppose the upside for me would be that this year with 10 of the 30 teams correctly predicted in their final spots in the standings, I technically improved on the previous year's performance. However, aside from the Yankees winning their first-round series, nothing else in my playoff predictions was correct.

Of course, the lasting memory of this year will still be that of the long farewell to dear ol' Bobby Cox as skipper of the Bravos. The hope had been that maybe his one last shot would result in one more World Series, but the spate of unfortunate injuries ultimately deflated that fantasy.

It's a little hard to begin prognosticating about what to expect next season—and considering how I've done these past few years, it also seems somewhat pointless—but if I've learned nothing else in recent years, it would be that when I don't pick both the Yankees and Red Sox to make the playoffs, they both do and when I pick both, one usually misses out.

We'll see who ends up signing with new teams, but if Cliff Lee indeed ends up in the Bronx, it seems hard not to immediately believe that the Bombers will once again be the popular favorites in 2011. But perhaps if nothing else can be gleaned from how this year played out, it would be that in baseball, even the unlikeliest of teams can come out of nowhere and end up on top.