Final Thoughts on 2013 MLB Season: #BostonStrong, Pundits Weak

When a Nationals-Tigers World Series was more or less the consensus pick at the beginning of this season, I said in my predictions that it reminded me of 2011. I once again brought up a 2011 reference when the Braves concluded their third quarter. And so at year end, who should happen to win the whole thing? The team I picked to win it all in 2011, of course.

As I mentioned before, I was far from being the only person who didn't have either of these teams in the Fall Classic, seeing as none of the 63 "experts" recorded by PunditTracker had Boston or St. Louis. In fact, I was like most in relegating Boston to the basement of the American League East, so the fact that the Red Sox instead ended up winning it all is quite incredible. And while I wasn't really rooting for either one of these teams, I certainly did take some joy in knowing how miserable the loss made Cardinals fans. Thanks to the Baseball's Best Fans Twitter, we got to see every single racist, homophobic and plainly insensitive tweet from the St. Louis faithful, many of which referenced the Boston Marathon bombings (one particular lowlife actually got arrested). So I can wholeheartedly endorse the city finally getting to savor a championship, you know, considering the additional pain residents endured this past summer.

There's lessons to be learned from this Red Sox campaign, for sure—and I'm not talking about growing beards (leave that to the hockey players, please). I fully expect more teams next year to begin encouraging their batters to imitate what made so many Boston batters successful this season. Run up pitch counts, foul off pitches, step out of the box to throw off pitcher rhythms, so on. The obvious downside for MLB, of course, is games that many casual fans already feel drag out too long will drag out even longer.

Still, even in defeat, the Cardinals proved once again why they remain perennial contenders. Despite the loss of Albert Pujols that was supposed to relegate them back to mediocrity, they have arguably improved in many senses—and they made the most of that Pujols loss by drafting Michael Wacha. In fact, both St. Louis and Boston emerged from what are perhaps two of this past season's best divisions, and that could still be true next season.

So anyway, despite a pretty good record of predictions once the playoffs began (7-2, with five series predicted in the exact number of games), I once again had a pretty pisspoor showing as far as my preseason picks went (a mere 8 of the 30 teams in their correct final standing spots and only one division winner right, 6 of the 10 playoff teams correct). I thought I took a couple of risks this year (well, maybe like two), but the fact that Boston defied all odds this year to come out on top should probably compel me—and I suspect many experts—to take even more chances next year.