put me in coach 2013

baseball is back! tonight the houston astros open the season against the texas rangers. it's the astros first game as an american league team. it will also be their loss of many this season. but what better way to start the season: a perennial american league powerhouse against a future powerhouse. but what about this year? this is going to be an interesting year. the american league east has lost some steam. the red sox are back to making terrible decisions and the yankees are just getting old. they are actually watching how much they spend. it feels like a wide open season. i could reel off about eight teams that i think could win the world series. i don't remember the last time that was the case. here is how it will shake out:

al east: tampa bay
al central: detroit
al west: la angels
nl east: washington
nl central: cincinnati
nl west: san francisco
al wild cards: toronto and texas
nl wild cards: atlanta and st. louis

i think the world series will be washington and detroit. the odds are against detroit getting back, but i think they're the clear favorite in the al. maybe the angels could stop it from happening. but that's it. detroit has a pretty clear path. tigers against nationals. done.

washington will again be the toast of the nl. the rockies are going to be horrible again this year and the astros will be too as already discussed in previous blogs so my two teams will not be making an appearance in october baseball again. but i did find something interesting. i couldn't understand why the astros were coming to denver. the astros were supposed to play the nl central this year (each year a certain division from the opposite league makes up your interleague games). i found out that the reason the astros are coming here is because the rockies have no natural al rival. therefore, the astros were chosen as the rockies new al rival. each year in addition to your preselected interleague division, you also have to play your rival.

so that means the astros will be coming to denver every year! how awesome is that. i think the rivalry is lame and totally fabricated, but i'll take it. because so is the rivalry with the rangers. i will always remember the astros and cardinals going at it. that was the rivalry i'll remember. but times change. rivalries change. and i'll keep eating hot dogs and laughing my through it.