For the NL East preview, click here.
For the AL West preview, click here.
For the NL West preview, click here.
For the AL Central preview, click here.
We've finally come down to the last division in baseball, and it's probably the weakest one. It saw major star power leave during the offseason, and it's likely at least half the teams will end up with a losing record. Heck, we could see a division champion with 85 or 90 wins and I wouldn't be too surprised.
This was a tough division to figure out. There's a clear line between the top 3 teams and the bottom 3 teams. The hierarchy at the bottom is easy to figure out; the top 3 was a little harder to picture.
As pretty much all the experts expected, Prince Fielder fled for greener (richer) pastures, leaving Ryan Braun as the guy at Miller Park. He has new protection in Aramis Ramirez, somebody who I always liked while he spent his prime with the Cubs (even though he seemed to not really show up in the playoffs those few times the Cubs made it), though Ramirez is past his prime. He will be playing on a contender through the rest of his contract though, and this team has probably the best rotation in the division. Top to bottom, I think it's the most underrated in all of baseball. You don't hear talk about guys like Randy Wolf or Yovani Gallardo every day, but these guys give the Brewers a chance to win night in and night out. They'll be back in the playoffs again this season.
Some prognosticators have the Reds topping the Brewers in the division, which I could see happening. I'd take Cincy's offense over Milwaukee's. Ryan Ludwick is a decent pickup to protect MVP candidate Joey Votto along with Jay Bruce. With the addition of Mat Latos, the rotation is solid, but even with him and Johnny Cueto, I still like Milwaukee's 5 better. The bullpens are a wash; I really like their addition of Sean Marshall (another Cub I was sad to see go) to go with Ryan Madson. I think they'll be in a tough battle with the Dodgers for the last wild card spot to the end.
The defending champs will be in the mix, probably only a few games back of Milwaukee and Cincy. Losing Pujols was big, but they still have a scary middle of the order with Holliday, Berkman, and new hero David Freese. You add in Carlos Beltran to that lineup when healthy, and this team will score runs. I'm just not sold on their pitching. Chris Carpenter was back at camp, but who knows how long he'll be out? Combine that with Adam Wainwright coming off Tommy John surgery, and I don't think the Cards make it back this year.
Slowly but surely, this team is coming back out of the despair of consecutive losing seasons. I don't think they make it this year, but they'll be close. Getting A.J. Burnett to lead the rotation was a big move, but they still need time to keep developing talent. It will also be fun to see how well the lineup meshes around Andrew McCutchen, who is going to be a great player in the league.
I'm a realist. With Theo Epstein in charge, this team needs some time to rebuild and reload for making some more postseason runs. They've taken steps in the right direction, unloading guys like Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano who killed the payroll. This is a year for Starlin Castro to develop a little bit of power and learn to field better at short. The rotation has some patchwork to it, but Garza and Dempster will eat up innings like nobody's business. And if Carlos Marmol learns that the strike zone is over the plate between the batter's chest and knees, this team could overachieve to 4th place. But expect a long season at Clark and Addison; this team is still a couple years away.
The saying almost a decade ago was, "Thank God for Pittsburgh." This year, it's "Thank God for Houston," because this team is a mess. There's really nobody proven in the lineup except Carlos Lee, and unfortunately for him, Houston only plays the Cubs about 18 times a year. The rotation really doesn't wow me either, aside from recognition that Wandy Rodriguez is a good starter. This team will probably lose 100 games or more, and could very well be the worst team in baseball this season. Enjoy your last year in the NL, Houston. Hopefully we can change the rules to get rid of the DH so you don't have to adjust.
This was a pretty fun 6 days; immersing myself in the 30 Major League teams and getting an idea of who will be contenders and who will be rebuilding for future runs in the coming years. Hopefully tomorrow I will have an early playoff preview which will probably look completely ridiculous by July when a couple teams come completely out of nowhere and a couple others decide to fall completely apart.
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