I've got an hour to kill on a Friday afternoon, and I dedicate to you, reader. You're welcome.
AL East
1. Boston
2. New York (Wild Card)
3. Toronto
4. Tampa Bay
5. Baltimore
I know I pick Boston to win the AL East every year, and I know it never happens. But can you blame me? I think Boston's 3rd place finish last season had a lot more to do with an incredibly viscous case of the injury bug than a lack of talent. Plus, it seems to me that Boston noticeably upgraded in the off-season, while New York remained more or less stagnate. Boston's rotation is better (Daisuke), the line-up is better (Drew, Lugo replacing Our Hero Nixon, Gonzalez), the bullpen is slightly better (Donnelly, Okajima, Romero). Meanwhile, New York replaced Sheffield with Mientkiewicz, though they'll have a healthy Matsui this year. The rotation replaced Johnson with Pettitte, which will probably be a push. At any rate, it'll be an extremely tight finish at the top. I don't feel that Toronto's rotation can carry them very far, and Tampa's plethora of young talent intrigues me enough to move them out of the basement. Expect a Tejada trade demand by June.
AL Central
1. Detroit
2. Chicago
3. Cleveland
4. Minnesota
5. Kansas City
I want to pick Cleveland or Minnesota to win here, but I just can't. They have two good starting pitchers between them (Sabathia and Santana), so I just don't see how either could overtake Chicago or Detroit. Watch out for KC - they'll still finish last, but the Teahen/Shealy/Gordon part of the line-up will do a good amount of hitting. In other words, they won't completely suck.
AL West
1. Los Angeles de Los Angeles de Anaheim
2. Oakland
3. Seattle
4. Texas
You're pretty much forced to pick the Angels here. Oakland lost its best hitter and best pitcher, and Texas has never shown it has the pitching to threaten for a division title. I feel like Seattle may make some waves this year with King Felix, but they'll still finish well behind even Oakland.Though I reserve the right to repudiate that 3rd place prediction if Ichiro is traded, which very well may happen.
NL East
1. New York
2. Philly (Wild Card)
3. Florida
4. Atlanta
5. Washington
I was extremely tempted to put Philly on top here. They have the rotation, the line-up and a descent enough bullpen to vie for the division crown. Plus, the Mets' rotation sans Pedro looks incredibly average (not to mention old). So why am I seeing a Mets title? I really don't know. Hmm...
NL East
1. Philly
2. New York (Wild Card)
3. Florida
4. Atlanta
5. Washington
Come to think of it, I like that a lot better.
NL Central
1. St. Louis
2. Chicago
3. Cincinnati
4. Milwaukee
5. Houston
6. Pittsburgh
St. Louis are the champions, but Chicago made a huge splash in the free agent pool. A line-up with Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez is frightening, and a rotation with Zambrano, Hill and Lilly looks fairly good. Holding them off will probably come down to Adam Wainwright. If he can be a legit #2 starter, with a 3-ish ERA and 200 innings, then I feel that the Cards will definitely finish on top. If he struggles, I don't think Carpenter and Pujols can hold off the Cubs by themselves (did I just say Pujols couldn't do something? And that the Cubs could? Uh oh...).
I like Cincy over Houston and Milwaukee for currently unknown reasons.
NL West
1. Arizona
2. Los Angeles
3. San Diego
4. Colorado
5. San Fran
I have no idea what's going on in this division. The only thing I'm sure of is that San Diego and Los Angeles won't be finishing last. Seriously, nothing else would surprise me. Sports Illustrated has the Dodgers getting to the World Series; I'm not sold on that. I know their rotation is pure insanity, but they're depending on Juan Pierre and Nomar for offense. Yeesh. Then again, Arizona is depending on Chad Tracy and some rookies. Like I said, no idea. I guess I'm going with the Diamondbacks on a pure hunch. Maybe its a new-uni thing.
World Series: Do I even have to say it? The only real suspense is who I'm picking to lose to Boston. I'll go with... Philly. Yeah, why not.
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5 comments:
AL East:
Boston, NY, Toronto, TB, Baltimore
Boston's clearly the class of the division, and Tampa finally found a team worse than them.
AL Central:
Detroit, Minnesota (WC), Chicago, Cleveland, KC
I think this might finally be the year when the Yanks miss the playoffs. I really like Minnesota, although another SP would help them out a lot.
AL West:
LAAAAAAA, Oakland, Texas, Seattle
I think LA is the best team in the AL. Good offense, good rotation, excellent closer.
NL East:
Philly, NY, Florida, Atlanta, Washington
Philly's only big weakness is their 'pen. Washington's only strength is Patterson and Zimmerman.
NL Central:
STL, Milwaukee (WC), Chicago, Houston, Cincy, Pittsburgh
Milwaukee's offense is a little weak, but I really like their staff (Sheets, Cap, Soup, Bush) and 'pen (Turnbow setting up F. Cordero).
NL West:
SD, LA, Arizona, SF, Colorado
This mostly seems to be a ranking according to pitching staff. I like Peavy and Young in SD, but LA's staff looks solid too.
World Series: Angels over Cardinals. Of course, I picked the Angels to win last season...
Tom, you remain the only person who can make baseball interesting to me (which is no small feat). Another entertaining analysis from Locke and Load.
You said 'repudiate'!!! *snickering*
I wish I knew what it was that made my baseball-ing so entertaining. is it my complete lack of statistical analysis? if so, that would be ripe with irony considering my number one complaint of sportswriters is their lack of using stats (re: facts) to support their arguments.
I think I want to drop the White Sox below the Indians. I didn't know their opening day starter was... Jose Contreras...
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