The most competitive division in all of baseball got even more competitive after the 3rd place Yankees spent close to a half a billion dollars this off-season. Adding to that the Red Sox added scary depth to their pitching rotation, and the Rays sured up their lineup concerns by adding another bat. The 4th best team in the division last year in the Blue Jays would be a contender to win any other division in baseball, scary.
Tampa Bay Rays: After winning 97 games in 2008, what can the Rays really do for an encore? Well they lost Cliff Floyd and Rocco Baldelli to free agency, but they replaced them with Pat Burrell and Matt Joyce. Pretty much a push in terms of production over the past 2 years. Their pitching rotation will be the key to the Rays having a shot to repeat as AL East champs. At the top they bring back electric oft injured lefty Scott Kazmir. Kazmir is an ace when he's healthy, but when he's dinged up he's a very hittable south paw. Behind him they have Matt Garza, James Shields, David Price and Andy Sonnanstine. Not only is this group ridiculously young, but they are also ridiculously talented. Garza showed in the playoffs last year that he can be ace when needed to, and Shields keeps defying the odds despite having marginal stuff. David Price is the wild card, he was lights out from the bullpen last season, but so was Joba Chamberlin for the Yankees and we all know how that's worked so far. I like Price, but he relies too much on his fastball slider combo, which is great for a closer but not so much for a starter. Sonnanstine probably won't end up the year as the 5th starter. He's simply not that talented and he gets by on guts and guile rather than actual ability. Look for another uber prospect in Jeff Niemann to be starting by July. The Rays lineup looks strong at through the 7 spot. They feature great power threats in B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria, Carloas Pena, Pat Burell in the 2-5 spots, and a great leadoff hitter in Carl Crawford. After the 5 hole they might have some problems with Diener Navarro, Gabe Gross, Aki Iwamura and Jason Bartlett. Regardless of the weak bottom half, the Rays should still challenge for the AL East crown.
Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox lost the ALCS last year because they couldn't avoid the injury bug. Despite being down the best post season pitcher of our generation(Josh Beckett), and the best post season clutch hitter(David Ortiz), the Red Sox took the Rays to a decisive game 7. They were also without 2007 WS MVP Mike Lowell, and yet they still looked every bit as good as the eventual losers of the WS the Tampa Bay Rays. For the 2009 season, the Sox will feature the deepest starting rotation in all of baseball. Josh Beckett will anchor the top end of staff that features 3 ace caliber arms. Jon Lester, Daiuske Matszuzaka, Brad Penny, Tim Wakefield, Clay Buchholz, John Smoltz, Justin Masterson and Michael Bowden will compete for the remaining 4 pitching spots. The likely rotation to start the year will be Beckett, Lester, Dice K, Penny and Wakefield, but by June look for Smoltz and Buchholz to fill the last 2 spots. Regardless of who the 5 guys are, the Red Sox should have no problem getting a ton of quality innings from their starting pitching. The Bullpen is also loaded top to bottom. With the addition of Ramon Ramirez from the Royals, the Sox feature Manny Delcarman, Javier Lopez, Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima, Takashi Saito and Jonathan Papelbon. Offensive is the only question mark on the Red Sox upcoming season. They have great young bats in Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Jacboy Ellsbury, but they also have aging vets who haven't been 100% healthy the past few years in David Oriz, Mike Lowell and JD Drew. Not to mention the black hole in their lineup named Jason Varitek, the Red Sox offense has some question marks despite returning all 9 playoff starters that scored the most runs in the AL last year. This team has the potential to be a 100 win team if they stay healthy, should be a great run.
New York Yankees: After spending close to 500million dollars this past offseason, the Yankees look to make it back to the post season after missing it in 2008. Their biggest strength(much like every other team in the AL East)is the potential to have dominant starting pitching. CC Sabithia was lights out last year after getting traded to the National League, but he lost his muster in the post season(like usual). Following CC will be AJ Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlin and Andy Pettite. Each one of these 4 save for maybe Pettite has #1 pitcher potential barring injury. All 4 save no one has been healthy for a full season more than once in the past 3 years. They also have serviceable young arms to turn to in Ian Kennedy and Philip Hughes should one of those 5 go down with injury, but they would provide no where near the quality of innings. Despite the hype the Yankee lineup has been receiving, it still has big holes. Trusting Johnny Damon to be a consistent lead off hitter is tough to do, as is expecting Derek Jeter to hit .300 again. The 2 things they can count on is for Mark Texiera and Alex Rodriguez to hit a combined 80HRs and drive in over 200RBI. Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, and Hideki Matsui represent the rest of the Yankee lineup, hardly a Murderers Row type of squad. They will struggle early on, especially if A-Fraud gets rattled by the boos.
Toronto Blue Jays: By winning 86 games last year, the Blue Jays proved they were more than just a whipping boy for the big 3 in the AL East. Well that will happen when you have Roy Halladay on your team. Halladay is the best pitcher in the AL, he was last year and he should be again this year. Despite losing AJ Burnett to the Yankees, the rest of the Jays rotation is solid. Jesse Litsch, David Purcey, Casey Janssen and Matt Clement round out this 5 man group. While not overly flashy, this rotation has been good in the past, and have posted solid K/BB ratios as well as eating up alot of innings. BJ Ryan anchors a pretty good bullpen with Jason Frasor and Scott Downs as set up men. The lineup will be the difference in how far the Jays can go this year. Aaron Hill and Alex Rios will leadoff what should be a pretty potent top of the order. Followed then by Vernon Wells, Scott Rolen, rookie Travis Snyder and Lyle Overbay, the Jays lineup could score with the big boys barring a major injury.
Baltimore Orioles: The O's sucked last year, and they will suck again this year. The reason behind it is lack of talent up and down the system. Their starting rotation is garbage, featuring Jeremy Gutherie as the #1 guy, and then a combination of Mark Hendrickson, Rich Hill, Koji Uherea and Brad Hennesey. This rotation will struggle to produce a single 10 game winner among the bunch, and that's just sad. George Sherril should still be a solid closer, but with no other quality arms in front of him, the O's put together one of the worst pitching staffs in all of baseball. The lineup isn't much better than the pitching staff. Aubrey Huff, Brian Roberts, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis are all capable of hitting close to a .300 clip with 20HRs or so, but they would need all of them to do so to have a shot at finishing above 70 wins. The only thing for O's fans to look forward to this season is the beginning of what should be an All-Star laden career of catching uberprospect Matt Wieters.
Projected Finish:
Red Sox- 97 Wins
Rays- 95 Wins
Yankees- 90 Wins
Blue Jays- 83 Wins
Orioles- 65 Wins
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