The baseball season starts in two days, with the World Champion White Sox facing the Cleveland Indians Sunday night on ESPN2. This means that it's time for my annual baseball predictions. First, let's review last year and see how I did.

In the American League I picked the Yankees to win the East, the Twins in the Central and the Angels in the West, with the Red Sox as the wild card. Got three out of four right there. Not too bad.

In the NL I picked all three division winners: the Braves in the East (I'm not picking against them again until they actually lose one), the Cardinals in the Central and the Padres in the West. I didn't get the wild card, picking the Cubs instead of the Astros.

Six out of eight playoff participants is pretty good. Maybe I ought to head out to Vegas and make some bets before Sunday.

I didn't do quite as well with the World Series participants. I had the Angels taking on the Braves, with the LA winning their second world championship.

I didn't do so well with post-season award picks, either. I had Vladimir Guererro and Carlos Beltran as MVP's. Vladi finished a respectable third in the AL behind A-Rod and Big Papi, but Beltran had a mediocre first season with the Mets. Albert Pujols won the award.

My Cy Young picks were Randy Johnson in the AL and Tim Hudson in the NL. The actual winners were the Cardinals Scott Carpenter and the Angels Bartolo Colon.
Ready? Here are my 2006 predictions:

AL East champion: New York Yankees
AL Central champion: Chicago White Sox
AL West champion: Oakland A's
AL wild card: Boston Red Sox

NL East champion: Atlanta Braves
NL Central champion: Houston Astros
NL West champion: LA Dodgers
NL wild card: New York Mets

AL Champion: Oakland A's (Billy Bean finally wins a couple of playoff series)
NL Champion: Atlanta Braves

World Series Champion: Atlanta Braves

AL MVP: Paul Konerko
NL MVP: Andruw Jones

AL Cy Young: Johan Santana
NL Cy Young: Roy Oswalt