The predictions begin

FLORIDA & ARIZONA - Pitchers and catchers start reporting to spring training this week. Most fans are pretty confident about their team's chances of making the playoffs, no matter what the experts say.

How accurate are the "experts"? Let's take a short look back in baseball history and see.

About this time in 2011, Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated made the following predictions about who would end up in the post season in the American League:

2011............Predicted finish.......Actual finish           
AL East        Boston Red Sox        New York Yankees
AL Central    Minnesota Twins       Detroit Tigers
AL West        Oakland A's               Texas Rangers 
AL Wildcard   New York Yankees   Tampa Bay Rays
AL Champion Boston Red Sox       Texas Rangers

Last year was a tough year for verducci. The Yankees were the only AL team he predicted to be in the post-season that actually was.

Contributing Sources:
2011 final standings

____________

Here's how things shook out in 2010:

2010                Predicted finish          Actual finish          
AL East            New York Yankees      Tampa Bay Rays
AL Central        Minnesota Twins           Minnesota Twins
AL West          Texas Rangers              Texas Rangers  
AL Wildcard      LA Angels of Anaheim  New York Yankees
ACL Champion  Minnesota Twins          Texas Rangers

Verducci was right about some, wrong about others. We all know that feeling.

Contributing Sources:
Sports Illustrated 2010 predictions
Pennant Races

This daily dose of baseball history is brought to you by TODAY in BASEBALL.