Folks outside of New England/New York surely make that argument all the time, but this year it's especially true. ESPN analysts really like Boston. Like, a lot.
The Worldwide Leader posted division, league, and World Series championship predictions made by 45 of its analysts. Guess how many like the Red Sox to win the AL East. FORTY-FIVE.
In addition, 42 have them winning the AL, and 33 have them going on to win the whole shebang. Seventy-three percent of ESPN analysts think the same thing is going to happen.
Now I kind of think we're going to lose.
As far as individual awards, I expected to see lots of love for Adrian Gonzalez, and there was: 14 pick him for the AL MVP. Three predicted Carl Crawford would win it, while two brave (and probably OBP-minded) souls said Kevin Youkilis would take home the hardware. No Sox were projected to be AL rookie of the year.
But this surprised me -- nearly half the field, 22 analysts, picked Jon Lester as the AL Cy Young winner. I know it's not exactly a shot in the dark. He's in his prime, on the best team on paper, and will get run support. He appears fully healthy. I just can't believe that many people went the same way.
