It’s Major League Baseball Opening Day.
Finally.
America’s favorite pastime is back, and I couldn’t be more excited.
It’s also time for me to bust out some spot-on predictions with tons of bias.
Mark them down now. I won’t be here in late September, but I’ll still be bragging when all eight of these picks are right.
 
NL EAST
I was wearing my Sunday red home Atlanta Braves jersey around campus the other day when a friend stopped me and said, “This isn’t the ’90s.”
The Braves are back. This year is going to start a new run for the Braves, who will take back home the NL East title.
All blind homerism aside, the Braves are going to have one of the best offensive teams in the league, should they stay healthy (unlike last season).
Anytime you can stick Brian McCann and Jason Heyward in the five and six holes in a lineup, respectively, you know you have something working for you.
The bleeping Phillies will have an excellent rotation with Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. But any true Phillies fan will tell you how awful their offense will be this year.
It’s going to come down to the last five games, but the Braves will take it and the Phillies will take the wild card.
 
NL CENTRAL
The NL central is a favorite of The Daily Reveille sports staff. Somehow, we have five of the six teams represented.
Let’s start with this: The Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros will not be anywhere near winning this division. The Chicago Cubs won’t win it because they are who we think they are.
I don’t see the St. Louis Cardinals overcoming the loss of ace Adam Wainwright, so they’re out of the picture.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds will battle down to the last two games of the season, and the Reds will take it.
Reds ace Edinson Volquez wins the NL Cy Young Award.
 
NL WEST
Oh, the NL West. How I love to disparage you frequently in random columns. You are a garbage division, and the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series last year was not only a fluke but a joke.
The Colorado Rockies will avenge last season and take the division from the Giants, a mere five games above .500.
The Giants will finish third behind the San Diego Padres.
 
AL EAST
You ready for this?
The fighting Buck Showalters will win the AL East. That’s the manager of the Baltimore Orioles, for those who don’t know.
The Boston Red Sox will take the wild card.
 
AL CENTRAL
The Chicago White Sox will take the AL Central.
They have one of the better pitching staffs in the AL this season, especially if Jake Peavy returns to his pre-injury form. They also have a solid offense with the addition of slugger Adam Dunn.
The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins are going to hang right there with the White Sox, though.
The Tigers have ace Justin Verlander, my pick for the AL Cy Young Award, but their offense can be shaky at times.
The Twins have one of the best offenses in the AL.
Expect this three-team race to be within three to five games come the end of the season.
 
AL WEST
I’m interested to see how the Texas Rangers respond to their newfound success.
Their rotation rivals any in the AL, and their offense will be beastly.
Should they not collapse under the pressure, I see them winning this division without a problem. But should they falter, watch out for those Oakland Athletics, who could come out of nowhere to steal the division.
I’ll stick with the Rangers.
Good luck this season to whatever your team may be. It’s going to be fun.
I’ll be back in October to brag when the Braves win the World Series.
 
Andy Schwehm is a 21-year-old English and psychology senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_ASchwehm.
 
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Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]