SB Nation Reacts: Readers pick the division winners

Mar 31, 2023 - 7:00 PM

The day before Opening Day, I posted my 2023 season predictions, and the division winners I chose were:

NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Padres
AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Guardians
AL West: Astros

Turns out I concur with SB Nation Reacts voters, because my picks agree with all six votes taken in the most recent survey:

Some of these votes were closer than others — the Astros were the runaway vote-getter for the AL West, with 70 percent of the vote. The team with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani got... seven percent.

Another overwhelming majority picked the Cardinals to win the NL Central, with just 10 percent picking the Cubs. (Note: This isn’t me picking the Cubs; I, too, picked St. Louis. Just noting the Cubs’ fairly small percentage. I do think the Cubs have a chance to finish second.)

Voters thought this was the Padres’ year, and they are definitely in win-now mode. Nearly twice as many people in the survey thought they’d win the NL West than voted for the Dodgers, who have won that division nine of the last 10 years and won 106 games the time they didn’t win.

The closest voting was for the AL East, where the Yankees’ 42 percent just edged out 40 percent who voted for the Blue Jays. Since 1995, when the Yankees returned to the postseason for the first time since 1981, they have won the AL East 15 times in 28 seasons.

Many of you posted your predictions in my article from Wednesday; if you didn’t, or have more thoughts, feel free to add them in the comments.

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