Preseason 2015 MLB Playoff predictions

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Oct 26, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; A general view during the playing of the national anthem before game five of the 2014 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports /

The country is warming up and spring is here, and that really only means one thing to sports fans: baseball is about to begin.

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We’re just over two weeks away from the MLB’s opening day on Monday, April 6. With offseason transactions and spring training wrapping up, it’s time to analyze and place your bets for the 2015 MLB playoff picture.

Last year in the American League, we saw the Baltimore Orioles win the AL East, the Detroit Tigers win the AL Central and Los Angeles Angels win the AL West. The two wild cards were the Kansas City Royals and the Oakland Athletics. In the National League, we watched the Washington Nationals win the NL East again, the St. Louis Cardinals win the NL Central again and the Los Angeles Dodgers win the NL West. The Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants came in as wild cards.

The result of the playoffs? A World Series match up between two wild card winners with the Giants winning their third world series in five years.

For the upcoming season, one of the most important things to examine when asking yourself if your team will make the playoffs, or just about the potential playoff picture in general, is offseason moves.

The offseason moves can make or break a team.

Your team could sign someone to a huge contract and it could blow up in your face like the Rangers signing Shin-Soo-Choo to a $130 million contract prior to 2014. Or your team could make a boneheaded trade like the Detroit Tigers trading Doug Fister prior to 2014 to the Washington Nationals for three prospects just to get rid of two of them.

That leaves questions like, will the Chicago Cubs finally win a World Series now that they have Jon Lester? Spoiler: No. It also begs questions of whether Pablo Sandoval will be a big impact in Boston or will he bust? And how will his departure affect the Giants? How does losing Max Scherzer affect Detroit and how does it make Washington better? Will Josh Donaldson help send Toronto to the playoffs? Will Oakland even make the playoffs now? Does Jason Heyward really make the St. Louis Cardinals that much better?

They’re tough questions, but we will try to sort through the mystery with these offseason predictions for Major League Baseball.

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