In my 2008 NL Predictions blog I made a lot of predictions that flip flopped. Here I give you a review of my predictions and how they turned out. To see my predictions you can click here.

National League

- N.Y. Mets. I picked the N.Y. Mets to win the National League East. Unfortunately for them history repeated and the Marlins knocked them out of the playoffs in the final day of the season, and the Cubs+Marlins knocked them out of first place in the final week. Mets should have ran off with the division if not for a poor first half by Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes. Mets finish in second, instead of first.

- Philadelphia Phillies. Phillies should have finished in second if not for ANOTHER Mets collapse in the final week of the season. Their pitching was horrible and their offense inconsistent. Jimmy Rollins had injury problems and Brett Myers lost himself. Phillies finish in first instead of second.

- Washington Nationals. Who would have thought they would have been this bad. Lastings Milledge, Willie Harris, Elija Dukes, Ronnie Belliard, Christian Guzman and Ryan Zimmerman is the face of the lineup. Most of these guys would be bench players on other teams. Paul Lo Duca flopped and the names of these once top propects have been lost just like their talent. They finish dead last not even close to my third place prediction.

- Florida Marlins. I picked them to finish in fourth and debated with myself that maybe I am not having enough faith in them. I knew coming into this season there was a chance that they were going to score runs, but when you have Josh Johnson, Henry Owens, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, and Sergio Mitre injured to start the season and is come out with Mark Hendrickson as your ace after trading Dontrelle Willis, you have to be skeptical. One thing I knew for sure was that the Braves were going to be a bad team. I never anticipated that the Nationals would be horrendous. I quickly followed up my prediction with a statement in the blog following that reads "In my last blog I picked the Marlins to finish in 4th place, but now I am having second thoughts about that prediction. The thing I failed to include in my thoughts, just like many others predictions, is the maturity of the players over the offseason. Statistics is usually indicative of what to expect, but with young players you always have to keep an eye open to how they handle themselves. This team could potentially be a third place team, or 2nd place team if ...". Marlins finish in third as opposed to my original 4th place prediction.

- Atlanta Braves. I was appalled at the idea that the Braves was picked to finish above the Marlins and Nationals. I don't remember which writer between Larry Dobrow or Scott Miller actually picked them to finish in first or second place. The Braves finished in 4th place, opposed to my last place prediction. I was close. Very close!

NL Central

- Chicago Cubs. Picking them to win such a weak division was a no brainer here so I thought. Correct Prediction.

- Cincinatti Reds. What in the world happened here? Volquez, Cueto, and Haraang should have each been 15 game winners. Only Volquez lived up to expectations. This team simply did not play as a unit. Griffey and Dunn got traded and Haraang's arm looks like it is going to fall off. Edwin Encarnacion had a career year and Brandon Phillips was easily among the best second basemen in the game most of the year. When  watched the Reds play the Marlins my answer to what happened became apparent. This team is immature, Griffey and Dunn are veterins with no leadership skills,and Dusty Baker is a horrible manager. Reds finish in fourth instead of second.

- Milwakee Brewers. Something told me that this team wouldn't go far with the departure of Doug Davis to the Diamondbacks and the preseason rumblings by Prince Fielder. It still doesn't make sense to fire their manager after 2 long winning streeaks that got them into contention after acquiring C.C. Sabathia. Brewers finished in second and wins the Wild Card instead of my 3rd place prediction.

- St. Louis Cardinals. LaRussa has always been a good manager and I felt that he was going to do something special, at least good enough to finish above the Pirates and Astros, and he did. Cardinals had an excellent season and finished right where I expected them. Correct Prediction.

- Pittsburg Pirates. All those moves and all that hope. This team lost Ian Snell early, traded Xavier Nady and Jason Bay, and quit before they even got started. They began the season getting pounded by the Marlins and Cubs. They finish in dead last instead of 5th.

- Houston Astros. Roy Oswalt got splattered around the league. No Roger Clemens or Andy Pettitte. No Billy Wagner. Just a lineup of guys looking for syringes and hoping no one catches them. That was my thoughts. They overachieved and finished in third place instead of last.

NL West

- Los Angeles Dodgers. I picked the Dodgers to somehow find a way to win the NL West even though for most of the season I barked about how good the Diamondbacks pitching rotation is. Early on I was sold on Joe Torre, Brad Penny, Jason Schmidt, Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones, and Rafael Furcal having outstanding seasons and edging out the D'Backs. They edged out the D'Backs of course, but definitely not because of Schmidt or Andruw Jones. The acquisition of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake, resurgence of Nomar, and rise of Billingsley got it all done. Correct Prediction.

- San Diego Padres. I should have known last year was a fluke season where everyone overachieved. But honestly I thought they had what it took. I expected Mark Prior to step up, Chris Young the pitcher to have a Cy Young run, and Jim Edmonds to be at least half of what he was in St. Louis last year. What went wrong Khalil Greene and company underachieved, went to sleep and played dead all year. Padres finish in last instead of second.

- Arizona Diamondbacks. Their offense was weak last year and again this year. Their rotation was good, but they did not have Doug Davis all season. Micah Owings attitude got him traded to the Pirates, and R.J. put out what he has left. Dan Haren was solid, but not always healthy and Brandon Webb pitched lights out. It don't matter how good your rotation is if you can't score runs though. D'Backs finished second instead of third.

- Colorado Rockies. Last year was a fluke and most people knew it. This team didn't change and they finished a little better then what I expected. They finish in 3rd instead of 4th, but still with a bad record.

- San Francisco Giants. No Barry means "More Money, More Problems". This team was horrible most of the year. If not for a flip flop by the Padres, the Giants would have ran off with last place. Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain had favorable matchups while Zito lost to every Ace he faced, meaning he pobably shouldn't be your #1 go-to guy anymore. Giants finish in 4th instead of last.

AL East

- Boston Red Sox. I picked them to win the division, but I didn't expect the Rays to be that good. Finished in second instead of first.

- N.Y. Yankees. They got old overnight and picked up Joe Girardi. I forgot to factor in Girardi's management skills would knock them out. Yankees finish in third instead of second.

- Tampa Bay Rays. I picked them to be in third because the Orioles and Blue Jays were that bad and the Rays is actually a very decent team. I figured this being 2008, 8 means perfection in the bible and the Devil being castrated from the team name, hey why not, but the Rays blew away my expectations. Rays finish in first instead of third.

- Baltimore Orioles. Not a whole lot to say here. I didn't expect much from them, but you have to give them respect for such an outstanding first month. They were the most likely to tail off to the bottom and so they did. They finish in last instead of 4th though.

- Toronto Blue Jays. Aye ya ok. So who is this A.J. Burnett that has underachieved most of his career. He blew up my prediction and helped the Jays finish just behind the Yanks in 3rd place instead if my las place prediction.

AL Central

- Cleveland Indians. I picked them to finish in first. I wasn't sold on C.C. last year, but I figured he would be serviceable. My gut feeling told me to draft Jake Westbrook and Cliff Lee in the final 2 rounds. Westbrook was red hot in his first few starts and same with Lee. Jake went down, but Lee continued for an entire season. Still the offense wasn't there for the tribe. They finish in third instead of first.

- Chicago White Sox. It took the ChiSox 163 games to decide where they finished and they decided on winning the division instead of my second place prediction. This is a team that won the World Series a few seasons ago and with the maturity of several ballplayers, how could you not pick them to finish high in the division. I wasn't sold very much on the Tigers. White Sox win the AL Central instead of finishing in second.

- Detroit Tigers. Something was fishy with them. It is called AGE. Most of their players were due to break down. Miggy became a fatty in the offseason and the D-Train was due to break down. Apparently so did most of the old guys on the team. Tigers finish in last instead of my third place prediction.

- Kansas City Royals. Bannister was the surprise for the first couple months, and Greinke was his typical self. John Buck should have started more games. I figured the catching situation would be ugly with Jose Olivo and it was. Royals finish in fourth. Correct Prediction.

- Minnesota Twins. They traded Johan to the Mets. I should have known better then to predict them to finish last. Every team that rips off the Mets get better the following season. Plus Ron Gardenhire did an excellent job. Mauer and Morneau had great seasons too. Twins finish in second instead of last.

NL West

- Anaheim Angels. They have been beating on the division for years. Gotta go with them fir first place. Correct Prediction.

- Seattle Mariners. They're nothing without Mike Hargrove as their manager. Not even a good pitching rotation can pitch to the worse catcher in the majors and win with such a lousy manager replacement. They finished in dead last and destroyed my prediction.

- Texas Rangers. Thanks to Seattle being so horrible, the Rangers finished in second place, instead of third. They are a good team, but I really doubt they would have had much success if Seattle woke up.

- Oakland Athletics. You can't win if you give up bfore the season begins. Only reason the A's finish 3rd instead of last is because the Mariners stunk it up.

Originally, I picked Odalis Perez to be NL comeback player of the year, but MLB handed the award to Brad Lidge. I didn't pick an AL comeback player of the year. Cliff Lee wins it over Josh Hamilton. Pretty tough one between Lee/Hamilton.

• I wasn't impressed with Jeff Francouer early on. I compared him to Mark Kotsay and realistically that is what he was similar to. Franc got sent down to the minors twice. He is still young, but you have to wonder if he can rebound and stop swinging at everything the pitcher throws.
• Micah Owings should have been a good fantasy sleeper, but he got booted out of the D'Backs rotation and then out of Arizona after his temper tantrum.
• Indians did not have the best rotation as I predicted. Sabathia got traded, Carmona and Westbrook injured, Byrd was himself, and Lee had the season I expected.
• Jake Westbrook will not win the Cy Young, and the Indians won't win the World Series.
• I mentioned Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, and Fausto Carmona would all be Cy Young candidates.
• I said the Tigers pitcihng rotation sucks outside of Verlander and I was right. Verlander got injured and all hope was lost. D-Train broke down and I was correct on the Tigers pitching situation.
• I said 1-6 the Marlins players can hit 20+ homeruns and I was somewhat correct. Hanley, Cantu, Jacobs, Uggla, and Ross all hit 20+. Hermida fell short at 17.
• Brad Penny won't be winning the Cy Young. I was wrong there.
• Neither will Oliver Perez.
• David Wright will get an honorable mention for MVP as expected, but he won't win it.

Media Stories

• I was wrong on Clemens. He has gone ape mad, but he hasn't snitched on anyone yet.

• I predicted the Red Sox would be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. They won't be playing the Indians like I predicted, but they can still get eliminated.

• So really, who would you rather have, Alex Rodriguez or the Florida Marlins?

•  N.Y. Mets and Yankees BOTH didn't make the playoffs.

• Sadly there won't be an all Florida world series since the Marlins didn't make it.