A dozen of our writers project the summer to come
It’s time to lay it on the line and stand up for our picks to win (and, sometimes, lose) for the 2025 season. We detailed some of the reasoning for the most popular picks on our Sox Populi podcast earlier this week and is also touched on with our Opening Day Preview podcast, but here’s our full-on take, with everyone’s picks in.
But first, let’s review our 2024 competition, which never did get a review post at South Side Sox but fell in this order:
Congrats to Hamster for her first win in this friendly competition.
I’m fairly certain there have never been this many ties (two of six divisions) and absolutely sure there has never been a three-way tie, as appears this year in the NL East. The only unanimous pick is the Dodgers in the NL West, and the second-biggest rout comes is by the Brewers in the NL Central. Kristina, Dante and Joe will be sat down for a talking to with their NLC division pick.
Surprisingly (?) there is much more consensus when it comes to the best and worst of the leagues, as Boston and the Dodgers seem runaways for best record, while the White Sox and Rockies are predicted to repeat their cellar-dwelling of 2024. Interesting to see a Baltimore-Boston split for the AL pennant, with five writers predicting that the Dodger will NOT repeat as World Series champs.
Gluttons for punishment are we, as Garrett Crochet is forecast as the AL Cy Young winner in one of the more hotly-contested races. All of the NL races are runaways, however, with Shohei Ohtani repeating as MVP, Paul Skenes taking the Cy Young, and Roki Sasaki Rookie of the Year.
Now for the fun stuff, all of our White Sox predictions. The average win total picked this year rounds up to 50 wins, exactly the amount both Dante Jones and Brian O’Neill picked. The division loss averages to 42 games, meaning that our dozen pickers here collectively see the AL Central champ coming in with just 92 wins. Despite the unlikelihood that Luis Robert Jr. sticks in Chicago all season, he is the sole runaway pick, for top player. Interesting that some of our writers have picked certain players as both best and worst for 2025; Andrew Vaughn, Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin and Miguel Vargas appear on both sides.
Not many surprises in our bonus round, with a few unanimous picks but three writers thinking Chris Getz will be fired, one that CHSN will fail, and two that The 78 will get approval.
Unlike last season, this year we promise a season picks review feature after player awards are all named.
Feel free to make your own picks in the comments!