Baltimore Orioles
I may be in the minority on this one, but I feel like the Orioles are a pretty good team. Especially considering how they ended last season, where they won more games in Buck Showalter's 57 games managing the team than the other 105 games, which may be some sign to come. Other than whats probably a great managerial hiring, the team itself has also improved, mostly on offense. New additions are veteran first baseman Derrek Lee, shortstop J.J. Hardy, slugger Mark Reynolds at third base, and a likely future hall of famer in Vladimir Guerrero. Unfortunately they are catching Lee and Guerrero towards the end of the careers in which last year Derrek Lee saw major drops in almost every offensive category and Guerrero reversed a downward trend in his production, but it may have served as more of a swan song than a sign of things to come. Hardy won't be anything stunning at shortstop, but I am interested in Mark Reynolds who even though he hit below the Mendoza line last year is playing in a division that would allow him to play in Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, which are both pretty well tailored to righties who swing for the fence (ask Jose Bautista). As for the returning starters, they have a pretty good young outfield in Luke Scott, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, the last of which I feel is not too far from super-stardom given that he can raise his power output. The return of Brian Roberts from injuries last year should also provide a good spark as he is an above-average leadoff hitter and should be able to get on base and swipe a few bags when he gets there. Lastly we have the so-called "Joe Mauer with power", Matt Wieters, who isn't backing up those comments quite well thus far, if he is going to have a breakout season its probably now or never. As with most of the lower-tier teams, they don't have too bad of an offense, but their pitching staff is abysmal, the only one worth keeping an eye on is Brian Matusz, and that is only because the analysts say he is going to be good someday, but I don't see it yet. I think I'm going to name the Orioles my total surprise team, but don't read to much into them.
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| This is how you intimidate a bad team into winning. |
The offseason sure has been kind to the AL East, the moves that the I just praised the Orioles for making were mere child's play in comparison to the blockbusters the Red Sox organization pulled off. First was the trade for Adrian Gonzalez (do I hear MVP candidate?) who is already known as an elite hitter despite playing in Petco Park his whole career, if he and his shoulder come back well this season, there really isn't a reason he shouldn't be the best player in baseball. But I am forgetting their other move in acquiring Carl Crawford to play left field (a waste of his speed and defense in my opinion), who I never thought would come to the Sox because he has a habit of leaving every three game series against them with another 10 stolen bases. Crawford will lead the league in triples once again, and continue to be a nearly unstoppable force. The team also is going to see the return of Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis (unfortunately not his beard though), who each missed large portions of last season and were the two best players on the team previous to the other guys coming in. The other outfielders are Jacoby Ellsbury (stolen base fiend, but shitty fucking outfielder) and J.D. Drew, who plays baseball with the same enthusiasm of a 7 year-old eating broccoli and takes third strikes with the same enthusiasm as a 7 year-old eating chocolate cake. Meanwhile David Ortiz will continue as the DH, and will likely continue trying to decide if he is washed up or not much like the last two years. The last two starters are Marco Scutaro, who will hold the fort at shortstop, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia getting yet another chance to show he is capable of being an everyday major league catcher. The pitching staff is also quite good, with the young talents of Jon Lester and Clay Buccholz (one of the two will be a strong Cy Young candidate), and the presence of John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matusaka is great in the case that any of them rediscovers the talent that brought them to Boston in the first place. Probably the best bullpen in baseball by the way, even though I give it until May when they decide to get over their Papelboner, and get a total Bard-on.
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| I should try to seem less biased... |
New York Yankees
It's the Yankees, and the caption to the picture above suggests that I should try to seem less biased. So objectively speaking, the Yankees are a fantastic team just like they always are. Brett Gardner is becoming one of the better basestealers in the game, although he does need to bring his average up a tad, Curtis Granderson annoys me because he sells himself as a leadoff hitter because of his speed, but he continues to get on base less than a third of the time, if he advertised himself differently he would be a real good player. Nick Swisher on the other hand, he would be on the Shin-Soo Choo All-Stars of massively underrated talent (more on Choo when I talk about the AL Central), he gets on base, he hits for power and does what he needs to do on a baseball field, any other uniform on his back and I would like him. Alex Rodriguez is still one of the best five hitters in baseball, and despite the steroid talk is one of the all-time greats (he was a hall of famer before he took steroids anyways, just as a different type of player). Derek Jeter showed last year that he is human and that he is getting old, but I wouldn't expect that to stop him from doing anything to win a game. Next comes Robinson Cano, who had a monster season in 2010 and in my mind is deadlocked with Chase Utley for the best second baseman in the league distinction. As for Mark Teixeira, he is not as good as Adrian Gonzalez, and that all I'm gonna say. Russel Martin and Jorge Posada switching off between catching and being the designated hitter was a pretty good move, especially seeing that it was basically the team's only move. But the offense possibly will not be enough to win another World Championship for New York because the pitching staff doesn't go much deeper than C.C. Sabathia and Phil Hughes, and it takes more than two pitchers to win in 2011's MLB. Lastly, we need to find out what Mariano Rivera has been doing the last three years and make a DVD of it to sell to the American public as a cure for aging.
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| Will you get washed up already!? |
May I now show you exhibit A of why small-market teams can never become larger. I sure hope the Rays had fun in their three year span as a legitimate contender, because sadly those days are likely gone for a little bit. The losses of Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena may have been a kiss of death, especially considering they have been replaced with the risk of hoping Manny Ramirez or Johnny Damon will be able to hold off the effects of aging for a year so they can hopefully persuade younger players to come and take their places next year (I sure hope Manny does, I've always liked him). The rest of their AL East champion team has returned though, especially Evan Longoria who is both the best third baseman in the league and the only player in the league who seems to be preparing himself to become an action hero after baseball (thought I was going to make an Eva Longoria joke didn't you?). B.J. Upton has shown us before that he is capable of putting up big numbers, but has also shown us that we should keep his expectations at 40 stolen bases and let anything else be a pleasant surprise. Most of the rest of the team including Dan Johnson, Ben Zobrist, Sean Rodriguez, and Reid Brignac shouldn't come with expectations much more than a .250 batting average, unless Zobrist's fluke season was 2010 and not 2009. I also need to say that I like John Jaso, maybe I just have a soft spot for catchers who hit leadoff though. Their pitching staff is no too bad, but it's nothing shocking once you get past David Price, who is one of the best pitchers in the league and the man who would have received my Cy Young vote last year if I had one. The losses of Rafael Soriano and Grant Balfour really make a large dent in the bullpen too.
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| I'm still shocked Tony Parker cheated on her... |
Poor Blue Jays, they probably would have made the playoffs a couple times in the last five years if they were just in a better spot geographically. This year makes it clear that the stress of keeping up with two of the highest payrolls in baseball, and they seem to have reached critical mass. The team's star player is Jose Bautista and that is only because he likely realized last year that he will never hit .300 so he might as well go out there and try to crush every ball he sees and it worked (also using this technique is Mark Reynolds.) Bautista is joined in the outfield by Travis Snider, who has yet to show much in the bigs, and Rajai Davis who will steal a few bases before being knocked in by a Jose Bautista homer. A majority of their infield, Aaron Hill, Adam Lind and Yunel Escobar are players with some serious potential who seriously sputtered out of the gate in the 2010 season and never managed to catch up. Since all of them are still young, I'll expect at least two of them to return to form this year. The remaining infielder, Edwin Encarnacion is much like Travis Snider in that he is a below-average starter. Their rookie catcher, J.P Arencibia has never hit above .190 in three spring training seasons and 16 games last season, which probably means Jose Molina (also known as the third best Molina brother in the MLB) will get his fair share of starts. The remaining hitter in the lineup is Juan Rivera who has seemed to alternate between good and bad seasons throughout his career, so if trends mean anything he is due for a bounce-back season in 2011, I just don't know what a bounce-back season means.
Ever since the loss of Roy Halladay, the pitching staff hasn't been quite the same, especially with the loss of Shaun Marcum and Brandon Morrow. I would like to predict that Kyle Drabek (the jewel return in the Halladay trade) will be the Rookie of the Year, but I'm not sure if I believe it so I'll wait on that decision.
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| How much do you want to bet that ball is going to left field? |
1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees
3. Baltimore Orioles
4. Tampa Bay Rays
5. Torono Blue Jays
What can I say? I believe in Buck. I also want to point out if any division can ever have every team finish above .500 it would probably be this division this year. Thanks for reading, come again soon and I should hopefully have the NL East for you. Enjoy opening day!
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