With the MLB season ending with the Kansas City Royals winning the World Series, it’s a good time to look back over the season — and our Herald predictions from the start of the season.

In beating the New York Mets four games to one, the Royals helped remind of what I love about baseball: They won with a team approach that featured few high-priced starters, and a never-say-die attitude that saw them come from behind in eight of their 11 playoff wins. They were an electric team to watch, even when they were taking advantage of mistakes and hitting singles rather than launching homeruns.

Earlier this spring, we made some predictions for the season. Here’s how they turned out:

 

Jason’s picks

OK, there’s no way to sugar coat it: My predictions were abysmal. My embarrassment starts with not even picking the Royals to make the playoffs and choosing the 76-86 Seattle Mariners to win the American League pennant. It seems so obvious now after the Royals cinderella 2014 ended a heartbreaking game seven loss — and by crashing into Madison Bumgarner’s historic playoff run — that they were primed for a deep run.

In fact, I only correctly predicted one American League playoff team: the Toronto Blue Jays, but I’d picked them to win the wild card and not the Eastern Division. On the plus side, I predicted three of five National League teams that reached the playoffs.

Oh yeah, and I predicted the wild card-winning New York Yankees to finish with a losing record. I predicted the Minnesota Twins to finish below .500, and they wound up finishing 83-79 and only missed the second wild card by three games.

Better luck next year.

With that, here are a few predictions for 2016:

The Royals look like they’ll again be a force to be reckoned with. They have that team attitude that’s rare, and most of their core is returning.

The New York Mets will be one of the teams to beat in the National League if they’re young core of starters — Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz — stays health. Plus they have prized starter Zach Wheeler recovering from surgery and set to return during the 2016 season. But don’t bet money on that. Young pitchers are notorious for getting hurt these days. While the Mets are sure to be the popular pick, being the preseason favorite didn’t turn out well for the Washington Nationals in 2015.

Teams will also fear the National League Central, the only division with three playoff teams: the division-winning St. Louis Cardinals and wild card-winning Chicago Cubs and Pittsburg Pirates. All won more than 97 games. All should be good in 2016, but the Chicago Cubs likely have the most fire heading into next year. Like the Mets, the Cubs have a wealth of young talent, but they’ll need to add pieces to be hoisting a trophy next fall.

 

Eric’s picks

When I added my two cents to Jason’s Listen In column, on how the 2015 Major League Baseball season would progress, not a whole lot of thought was present. It was pretty obvious at the time, but looking back, I feel pretty good about even coming close.

My first prediction was that Twins starting catcher Kurt Suzuki would quietly lead the team in batting average and while the hardy and bruised Suzuki had a quality defensive year his batting didn’t quite make the lead. Suzuki wrapped up 2015 with a .240 average, which put him about middle of the pack in hitting. Of the regular players who saw quality time Eduardo Nunez led the Twins with a .282 average followed by Miguel Sano who had a killer second half of the season, hitting .269 and 18 homers. Not bad for a rookie.

Secondly, I predicted the Twins starters would collectively sit around 3.45 ERA. Twins pitching was admittedly shaky through the season. The Twins staff as a whole had an ERA of 4.07. Pitchers who saw the most time in the starting rotation like Phil Hughes (4.40), Kyle Gibson (3.84), Casey Fien (3.55), Mike Pelfrey (4.26), Trevor May (4.00) and Brian Duensing (4.25) unfortunately didn’t guide the starters to my much coveted 3.45 ERA. Oh, well.

And lastly, I predicted the Twins would make the playoffs. At the time, that was almost laughable and I wouldn’t have argued had Jason kicked me out of his column. And then the Twins went and had themselves a 2015 season. Often times schizophrenic — the Twins alternated between rolling for about a month and then stumbling for a month — our Twinks settled down for a memorable last third of the season, pushing Texas and Houston for the final wild card spot every step of the way.

It makes me wish I was serious at the beginning of the year so I could have avoided the madman stigma.

 

Austin attorney Paul Spyhalski’s picks

Spyhalski hit the nail on the head with his prediction that the Houston Astros will be a .500 team. The Astros improved on their 70-92, fourth place finish from 2014,

Though they faltered a bit down stretch, the Astros finished 86-76 and beat the Yankees in the wild card game before falling to the eventual champion Royals in the Division Series. It’d be shocking to see them fall below .500 at this point. His other prediction that Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki will be traded proved correct, as he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.

 

Austin attorney Dan Donnelly’s predictions

•Kyle Gibson will lead the Twins staff in wins. This came true. Gibson and Phil Hughes tied for 11 wins. Though Gibson had and up and down season, he finished with a 3.84 ERA.

•Ricky Nolasco will lead in losses. To my surprise, this didn’t happen. Somehow Nolasco pitched to a woeful 5.51 ERA but managed to win five games and only lose one before getting hurt. Gibson also led the Twins with 11 losses to tie his win total

•Oswaldo Arcia will lead the Twins in homeruns. Arcia was injured much of the year and spent much of the rest in the minors. He hit two homes in the majors. Secondbaseman Brian Dozer led the Twins with 28 bombs.

•Joe Mauer will lead the Twins in batting average. Of the Twins with more than 100 at bats, Mauer’s .265 trailed Eduardo Nunez’s .282, Miguel Sano’s .269 and Eddie Rosario’s .267.