SFGiantsGuy

With the season about 2 weeks from opening, it's time for my annual predictions. I had some hits and misses last year ( MLB Prediction 2011 ) if you want to check the track record. Fair to say, my guess is as good as yours. I do live and breathe baseball however so consider these predictions to be based on well informed guesses at the very least. Bold = division winner, italics = wildcard. AL West: Rangers , Angels , Mariners, A's AL Central: Tigers , White Sox, Twins, Royals, Indians AL East: Yankees , Rays , Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles NL West: Giants , Dbacks, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres NL Central: Brewers , Cardinals , Reds, Pirates, Cubs, Astros NL East: Braves , Marlins , Phillies, Nationals, Mets AL MVP: Prince Fielder, DET NL MVP: Joey Votto, CIN AL Cy Young: David Price, TB NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, SF AL ROY: Yu Darvish, TEX NL ROY: Trevor Bauer, AZ ALDS: Tigers vs Rays, Yankees vs Rangers NLDS: Giants vs Marlins, Brewers vs Braves ALCS: Tige...

The Giants kept telling us fans all offseason that their priority was to lock up their pitching. That's all we heard. Pitching, pitching, pitching. They didn't go after big free agent hitters because they wanted to lock up their pitching. I'm pretty sure locking up the pitching didn't mean just signing Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez to above market contracts. I'm pretty sure they meant they wanted to lock in Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, and Matt Cain. Maybe even get some cost certainty over Madison Bumgarner. Well, one out of four is great, right? The Giants signed Vogelsong to a team friendly 2yr/8M deal with an affordable option for a third year. But aside from that? They settled with Lincecum on a 2 year 40.5M deal that did not buy out a single one of his free agent years. And while they discussed a long term deal with Bumgarner, they couldn't come to an agreement and settled on a one year deal. And Matt Cain, the potential free agent, remains u...