My goal, since this is probably my last "free" week, is to hammer out division-by-division previews one day at a time. I haven't looked too hard at much of this, but I have done a little homework on all 30 teams. I'm going to get the division I hate out of the way first.
AL East
I hate this division only because it's all the major pundits talk about. There's always so much focus on what the Red Sox and Yankees do. I'm a firm believer in the East Coast bias when it comes to sports in particular. I'm sure you could argue that me starting with this adds to the bias, but really, it was the first division I really read up on, plus I wanted it to be out of the way.
I have to say, this is one AL East power I can actually tolerate, just because they're fresh to the scene of being a great team and they don't have the sickening Boston or New York ties. As for the team itself, they have arguably the best rotation in the American League (up there with the Angels and Rangers), and a solid lineup that returns Carlos Pena from his one year hiatus in Wrigleyville. He once again had a low average last year, but came up with some timely hits. His protection of Evan Longoria should give the Rays enough of a punch to battle with the ferocity of the Yankee and Red Sox attacks.
Truth be told, I had a moment of sadism back in September watching the final collapse of Boston's season, but this team will be back in the hunt again this year. I don't see that starting rotation having that bipolar of a season again, and I also feel pretty confident in saying that Carl Crawford can't possibly have as bad a year as he did last year. The thing keeping me from picking them #1 is the departure of Papelbon, though Andrew Bailey isn't a bad replacement. They'll grab one of the 2 wild card spots (hence the asterisk) in the American League.
If you go by SI's projected batting order, that 2-5 scares me, even the 1-5 if you add Jeter at the top. No one feels comfortable having to face Granderson, Cano (who has over the last couple years developed into probably the most underrated offensive player in the game), A-Rod and Teixeira in succession. This team will score runs in bunches again. The question is, how many will they give up? They solidified the rotation with guys like Kuroda and even Michael Pineda, but I'm just not as sold on this rotation as I am Boston's or Tampa's. I don't know that I see Ivan Nova being as good as he was last season, though he's a legit #2 starter. These guys will be in the playoff race for sure though.
The new Tampa in the division, these guys are going to surprise some folks. I can see Toronto being in the thick of the race in June and July before they start to fade away a little bit. If their starting rotation starts to get things figured out more, they'll be in the race into August and September. We know they're going to hit well. Brett Lawrie should be a fun kid to watch in his first full season, and that Bautista guy isn't too bad either I guess.
Poor Baltimore. They have some decent talent in guys like Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, but they don't have the firepower at the plate or on the hill to go toe-to-toe with the other teams in the East. Camden will have to settle for watching another year of not-so-great baseball (something I've been stuck doing for years). They're at least a few years away from contention.
One down, 5 to go. Tomorrow I will switch leagues and go to the NL East.
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