A few predictions

My wife loves sports, like very few women that I know. She knows sports generally but not specifically, making for fairly shallow discussion. She does recognize that I have a lot of useless knowledge and very worthless opinions on the topic. She encouraged me to put them out there, to open up discussion. So, I am going to start by making a few predictions about the rest of the baseball season (since nothing else is happening right now).
First: something will happen this season that has not happened since 1994: neither the Yankees nor Braves will make the playoffs.
The Yankees will make a late season push (they always do), but this season they will fall a little bit short. The division is too much improved this season, so those late season series against the Rays, Orioles, and Blue Jays are not gimmes, as in years past. The wild card is going to be a tough swing for them with the resurgence of the Tigers, the talent of the Twins, and the consistency of the A's. In September they have 26 games: only 6 of them are against teams with losing records (as of 7/6/07), half of them are against teams currently leading their division, and the final 3 are at Fenway.
The Braves shouldn't be that big of a surprise to not make the playoffs as they continue to rebuild. They were too good for too long. Baseball, like golf, always has a way of humbling those involved with it. Still, with these two teams having been as dominant as they have been, to have neither in the postseason is a bit strange, and exciting for the rest of us!
Second: C.C. Sabathia will not be pitching in the World Series this year. That is assuming that he doesn't get traded to the Twins (which I don't see happening!). If he goes to the Brewers, he is not going to a real contender. If they got matched up with the Phillies in the first round, they might win that series but it doesn't put them over the top by any means. Besides, who knows what they might have to give up to get him. They are one year away still, in my opinion.
Third: this year is here. The Cubs will make it to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1945. If the season ended today they would have a rematch against Arizona in the first round. The D-Backs have shown this season that they are the exact same team as last year: above-average pitching, coupled with very average hitting. The Cubs, however, are VASTLY improved at some positions, while still solid at all the others. The bullpen (despite a few too many blown saves by Kerry Wood) is as good as I remember it ever being. The starting pitching has been good too, despite several poor starts by number two, Ted Lilly. They could probably use another ace in the rotation, but I'm not sure it's necessary given the make-up of the team, barring major injury to Big Z.
I won't make any bold AL predictions, but I'd put my money on the Angels. Offensively, they play good station-to-station ball, with power potential from Vlad, Hunter, and Napoli (if only he could hit for average too!). I expect the offense to play better in the second half. The pitching staff is about as good as anybody in the league, when healthy. Lackey has been outstanding since he came off the DL (1.93 ERA).
Later this week: NCAA Football