As NESN explains, SI’s Baseball Issue picks the Red Sox to finish third in the AL East behind the Yanks and Rays. On the other hand, the latest issue of ESPN: The Magazine (which I was perusing last night while spread out on ESPN: The Futon) picks the Sox for AL wild card, then goes so far as to predict the Sox thumping the Twins in the ALDS and the Yankees in the ALCS, and then emerging victorious over the Phillies in the 2010 World Series.
So how do they figure this stuff out? SI’s methodology involves cow’s blood and playing Redd Foxx albums backward. ESPN used Baseball Think Factory’s ZiPS projection system and ran 100 simulations of the 2010 season (interestingly, throughout the entire projected season, Ozzie Guillen was kind of a dick).
Personally, I rely on a far less scientific method. I ask the UPS guy at my office what he thinks, since he’s also the guy who predicted the Sox’ 2004 ALCS comeback when they were three games down as well as the turnaround against the Injuns in 2007. He likes the Sox in first and the Yanks for the wild card. So there you have it.
