In what we’ll consider our semi-official Fans First Sports Network and Sox Populi coming-out party, part two, a half-dozen (Chrystal O’Keefe, Tommy Barbee, Adrian Serrano, Dante Jones, Joe Resis, Brett Ballantini) of our 22 prognosticators got together to discuss the differences and similarities we feel about the fortunes of the coming 2023 baseball season. It’s been roughly 43 mothership podcasts since our last MLB prognostication pod, and in that time — you may have noticed — some things have changed. We now represent the Fans First Sports Network and record under the umbrella of Sox Populi. And we soon will be debuting a new program, hosted by Chrystal O’Keefe: Visiting Dugout. Chrystal will be previewing upcoming opponents, with enemy team guests from inside and outside of the FFSN. Tune in, you’re gonna dig it You got some ’splainin’ to do, part one: Tommy Barbee (again) picks the Angels to win the AL West. There’s a support group for that, Tommy — but it’s not us (OK, Darren picked them for a Wild Card) You got some ’splainin’ to do, part two: Dante Jones picks the Cubs for the playoffs, again one of just two writers (Trooper, NLC champs) to see the ivy bumblers in the postseason Because who really cares about the other divisions (aside from, apparently, the AL West), we dive in a bit more to how the AL Central will wrangle out. Warning: there are some seeming inconsistencies in some of our writers’ bold stances We run through our World Series picks, with special guest and late addition to the podcast, Willow O’Keefe Does Brett enjoy the Tomahawk Chop? Related: Brett will not be invited on any Mets podcasts anytime soon, while both he and Tommy (who picked New York, by the way) anticipate actual Steve Cohen crimes in order to secure a title Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices