With Opening Day a mere two days away, we at BP Kansas City wanted to share our predictions for the 2016 season with you. Below, you can see our picks for division winners, wild card teams, pennant winners and World Series winner along with our Royals record prediction and then one fun fact (or hot take, if you will) about the Royals season.
Bookmark this page to praise us all when the season is over. As always, if we are incorrect, please lose the bookmark and never speak of this again.
| Craig Brown | Michael Engel | Clark Fosler | Jeff Herr | David Lesky | Hunter Samuels | Clint Scoles | Darin Watson | |
| Royals Record | 90-72 | 90-72 | 90-72 | 92-70 | 91-71 | 93-69 | 92-70 | 90-72 |
| AL Central | Royals | Royals | Royals | Royals | Royals | Royals | Royals | Royals |
| AL East | Blue Jays | Blue Jays | Blue Jays | Yankees | Blue Jays | Red Sox | Blue Jays | Blue Jays |
| AL West | Astros | Astros | Astros | Rangers | Rangers | Rangers | Rangers | Astros |
| AL Wild Card | Indians | Orioles | Red Sox | Blue Jays | Astros | Astros | Astros | Red Sox |
| AL Wild Card | Rays | Indians | Indians | Astros | Tigers | Blue Jays | Red Sox | Rangers |
| NL Central | Pirates | Cubs | Cubs | Cardinals | Cubs | Cubs | Cubs | Cubs |
| NL East | Nationals | Nationals | Nationals | Nationals | Mets | Mets | Mets | Mets |
| NL West | Giants | Dodgers | Giants | Dodgers | Giants | Giants | D-Backs | Giants |
| NL Wild Card | Cubs | D-Backs | Dodgers | Cubs | Pirates | D-Backs | Giants | Cardinals |
| NL Wild Card | Mets | Cardinals | Cardinals | Giants | Nationals | Pirates | Cardinals | Dodgers |
| AL Pennant | Astros | Astros | Royals | Royals | Royals | Red Sox | Rangers | Blue Jays |
| NL Pennant | Nationals | Cubs | Cubs | Giants | Giants | Pirates | Cubs | Cubs |
| World Series Champion | Astros | Cubs | Royals | Giants | Royals | Pirates | Rangers | Cubs |
And now for the Royals hot takes.
Craig Brown: The Royals will be slow out of the gate and will be in third place in mid-May. Eric Hosmer will ignite, leading the team back to the postseason with a career year at the plate. He will ultimately finish third in the MVP vote behind Mike Trout and whomever wins.
Michael Engel: Reymond Fuentes lands in the top 5 in Rookie of the Year voting. I’m buying it.
Clark Fosler: Yordano Ventura will become the pitcher we thought he might be last year and finish in the top five in the Cy Young voting (and deserve it).
Jeff Herr: Yordano Ventura will finish third in the Cy Young voting.
David Lesky: Lorenzo Cain will not only continue what he did last year in becoming one of the game’s best all around players, but he will actually get better.
Hunter Samuels: At least one Royal will hit 30 home runs this year. Who will it be? I don’t know. I’m not clairvoyant, so get off my back.
Clint Scoles: Alex Gordon has the 2nd best offensive season of his career and finishes in the Top 5 of the MVP race.
Darin Watson: Yordano Ventura will break out, winning 18 games and earning serious Cy Young consideration. After two full seasons learning how to pitch, one full season with the tutelage of Edinson Volquez, and two months with the knowledge of Johnny Cueto to draw on, Ventura will unlock his potential. On the surface, his 2015 might have been disappointing, but a string of solid starts to close out the season was a preview of what is to come. One of Ventura’s BP Comparable Players is 2009 Jon Lester, who went 15-8 that year, then went 19-9 the following season and finished fourth in the Cy Young vote. This is the year Ventura takes the next step, just like Lester did that season. (Editor’s Note: Darin’s an overachiever.)
So these are our predictions. What are yours?