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With the playoffs kicking off later today, experts all around the baseball world are entering in their predictions for what should be the wackiest, wildest, light-all-those-predictions-on-fire-anyway postseason.
Still, it’s fun to hold the people we read accountable for their takes, and obviously, it’s most fun to see who is taking the Rays. So I found eight of the biggest sports news outlets and have gathered their collective predictions here. For each outlet, I’ll note how many writer predictions were collected, and then how many of those writers had the Rays: A) losing in the first round, B) winning the pennant, or C) winning the World Series, with names included for the first and last of those groupings, to know how to put on our love and hate lists. I’ll also embed links to all of them as their header.
MLB.com
Total number of predictions: 12
Number of writers with the Rays losing the first round: 1 (John Paul Morosi)
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 7
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 2 (Alyson Footer, Mark Feinsand)
ESPN
Total number of predictions: 30
Number of writers with the Rays losing the first round: 1 (Not listed)
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 15
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 6 (second to Dodgers who had 16)
Sports Illustrated
Total number of predictions: 6
Number of writers with the Rays losing the first round: 1 (Connor Grossman)
[Only predicted first round for now.]
CBS Sports
Total number of predictions: 8
Number of writers with the Rays losing the first round: 1 (Stephen Pianovich)
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 1
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 0
The Ringer
Total number of predictions: 5
Number of writers with the Rays losing the first round: 1 (Claire McNear)
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 3
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 0
Yahoo
Total number of predictions: 5
[No hard predictions for first two rounds]
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 2
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 2 (Mark Townsend, Zach Crizer)
The Score
Total number of predictions: 6
Number of writers with the Rays losing the first round: 2 (Tom Ruminski, Simon Sharkey-Gotlieb)
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 2
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 1 (Michael Bradburn)
Sporting News
Total number of predictions: 5
[No hard predictions for first two rounds]
Number of writers with the Rays winning the pennant: 3
Number of writers with the Rays winning the World Series: 1 (Joe Rivera)