MLB Season Preview and Predictions- AL East

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

MLB Season Preview and Predictions- AL Central

With Spring Training getting underway today I think it's appropriate to take a look at the upcoming 2009 baseball season. After a very competitive year around the league last season, look for the competition to be even stiffer this year. Let's start by going division by division.

AL Central:
Last year was a tight race that ended with the White Sox edging the Twins in a 1 game playoff. I could argue day and night why the Twins were the better team and deserved to play that game at home, but instead let's just put it behind us and look ahead to this season.

Chicago White Sox Preview: The White Sox traded Javier Vasquez to the Atlanta Braves leaving their starting pitching a bit thin. Anchored by veteran left hander Mark Buehrle, the White Sox pitching staff will struggle this year with a lack of depth and overall talent. Jon Danks and Gavid Floyd have shown signs of being steady middle of the rotation guys, but they are still brutally inconsistent. Bartolo Colon is slated to be the #4 or #5 guy, and while he pitched good in a short stint with Boston last year, word is that he got lazy this offseason. The White Sox will also struggle to maintain their high level of offensive production that they showed in years past. Losing Joe Crede won't hurt that bad, but replacing him with a college quarterback named Josh Fields will. Fields has good pop, but struggles with a high strikeout/walk ratio. Jim Thome and Paul Konerko will each get their 30HRs, but not without the cost of striking out 130+ times and hitting below .270. Carloas Quinten and Jermaine Dye are the 2 bats that anchor the White Sox lineup, and I'm just not sure if Quinten can have the same kind of production 2 years in a row. Nonetheless I still see the White Sox as an AL Central contender and a team that could win 90games if the chips fall right.

Minnesota Twins: The Twins have to be disappointed after last year's should've been division title. They return essentially their entire team that won 88 games last season, and the core of that team is in their mid 20s. The pitching staff will be headed by potential all-stars Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano, both of whom will make a run at 18 wins and a sub 3 ERA. The bottom 3 guys in Slowey, Blackburn and Perkins are one of the better back 3s in the game today. Slowey is kind of a Derek Lowe type of pitcher, a guy who relies on his sinker and great control to get a ton of groundballs. I expect him to be a 15 game winner this year. Blackburn showed signs of being an ace last year, but he also showed how young he was and his lack of feel for a changeup. When his cutter was flying around he was unhittable, but when it was left up he was exposed. I think he has a shot to win 13 or 14, but his ceiling is much higher. As for Perkins, he's kind of an enigma, he has great stuff but he's got a 10 cent brain, I believe the Twins would be better of trading him while his stock is maxed out. On offense I expect the same thing as last year for the Twins. They will hit for a high average, hit well with RISP, but they will finish near or at the bottom of the league in Home Runs. This is the story of most years for the Twins so it won't come as a surprise when it happens again in 2009. Morneau will get 25-30, Kubel 15-20, Young 15-20, and Crede(playing 140 games) would get 10-15. Now other than those 5 guys, the likelihood of anyone else getting double digits is close to zero. That being said they should still win a ton of games with game management and small ball.

Cleavland Indians: Last year was a disaster after coming off a ALCS appearance in 2007. They traded CC Sabithia for overrated 3B prospect Matt Gamel, and Fausto Carmona reverted back to his 2006 form of walking a ton of guys and giving up a bunch of dingers. If Carmona is CY caliber again this year they have a shot to be above .500, and if not they are going to be a bottom dweller in the AL Central. Cliff Lee will not repeat his dominance of 2008, but he should still be solid. After those 2 they have Carl Pavano, Anthony Reyes and Adam Miller. Correct me if I'm wrong but not one of those guys has thrown over 50 innings in a season in a few years. Those are just spare parts being thrown on a major league roster. The Indians rotation is going to struggle throughout the year, and as a result they will need a miracle to make the playoffs. On offense they have some good bats, but not near enough to be a contender. Victor Martinez will be healthy and should get back to hitting .300/25/100, while Travis Hafner MIGHT get back to his 2006 form of slugging over .650. Other than those 2 guys all they have is centerfielder Grady Seizmore. While Seizmore is a very good all-around toolsy player, he's a bit overrated at this point in his career. Sure he hit 30HRs last year, but he hit .260 as a leadoff guy. He has all the tools to be a star but at this point he hasn't put it all together, and until he does Cleavland will struggle to score runs consistently.

Kansas City Royals: Call me crazy, but I think the Royals can win 80 games this year. Having a starting rotation with Gill Meche, Zach Greinke, Brian Bannister, Luke Hochevar and Kyle Davies should eat up a ton of innings taking the pressure of their bullpen. Meche has always been a solid guy, and Grienke, Bannister and Hochevar were all high draft picks with live arms. I honestly think their rotation could be the 2nd best in the division behind the Twins. The bullpen will be very shaky after dealing Ramon Ramirez to the Red Sox, but the closer role will be great with young sensation Jokaim Soria. The biggest concern has to be if Soria goes down, because the next guy in line is Kyle Farnsworth, yikes. On offense adding Mike Jacobs and Coco Crisp should add some much needed power and speed to their anemic offense. Add those 2 guys with a lineup already including Alex Gordon, Jose Guillen and Billy Butler, and I think you have an offense that can score with the Twins and White Sox.


Detroit Tigers: Talk about a proof positive that spending a ton of money will not guarantee you anything. The Tigers spent more money than any team last offseason, and yet they failed to win 75 games. With ESPN and every major media source pimping that great offense in the beginning of the year, it was hard to realize that their starting rotation SUCKED, and most knowledgeable sports fans knew that. Justin Verlander has a very live arm and a ton of potential, but he also lacks a solid 3rd pitch after his fastball and curve, leaving me(and many others) to believe he'll end up a closer down the road. After Verlander their rotation is abysmall. Armando Gallaraga, Jeremey Bonderman, Edwin Jackson and then a combination of the D-Train/Nate Robertson and Zach Miner(and possibly 20 year old phenom Rick Porcello come August). Talk about a team who should maybe hold on to a few pitching prospects once in a while. That rotation is brutal, and they'll be lucky to win 80 games again this year. The bullpen is solid but lacks a true closer. Brandon Lyon has a good arm, as does Joel Zumaya, but nobody with enough experience to feel truly confident in. The lineup should produce nice power numbers once again with Granderson, Magglio, Cabrera, Sheffield Laird and Guillen, but they have a big hole at short with Adam Everett. All in all they will score a lot of runs but give up even more.

Predicted Order of Finish:
1. Minnesota
2. Chicago
3. Detroit
4. Kansas City
5. Cleavland

Organizational and Player Rankings- NFL Style

Well the season is over and the Pittsburgh Steelers won a thrilling super bowl filled with tons of big plays and poor officiating. Now that the season has come to a close I see it fit to rank the top 32 players at each position on the field, as well as the most talented teams in the NFL.

Let's start with the Quarterbacks:
1. Peyton Manning
2. Tom Brady
3. Drew Brees
4. Kurt Warner
5. Tony Romo
6. Carson Palmer
7. Eli Manning
8. Jay Cutler
9. Donovan McNabb
10. Philip Rivers
11. Aaron Rodgers
12. Matt Rtan
13. Matt Schaub
14. Chad Pennington
15. Ben Roethlisberger
16. Matt Cassell
17. Matt Hasselback
18. Brett Favre
19. Kyle Orton
20. Marc Bulger
21. Tyler Thigpen
22. David Garrard
23. Brady Quinn
24. Jake Delhomme
25. Joe Flacco
26. Jeff Garcia
27. Kerry Collins
28. Shaun Hill
29. Trent Edwards
30. Jason Campbell
31. Gus Freotte
32. Jon Kitna

Running Backs:
1. Adrian Peterson
2. Brian Westbrook
3. Michael Turner
4. Frank Gore
5. Marion Barber
6. Steven Jackson
7. Clinton Portis
8. Brandon Jacobs
9. Deangello Williams
10. Chris Johnson
11. Ronnie Brown
12. Steve Slayton
13. Matt Forte
14. Merishawn Lynch
15. Willie Parker
16. Jonathan Stewart
17. Reggie Bush
18. Darrin Sproles
19. Lyndale White
20. Chester Taylor
21. Derrick Ward
22. Ricky Williams
23. Ryan Grant
24. Kevin Smith
25. Mewelde Moore
26. Larry Johnson
27. Ladanian Tomlinson
28. Josepth Addai
29. Justin Fargas
30. Michael Bush
31. Earnest Grahm
32. Leon Washington

Wide Recievers:
1. Larry Fitzgerald
2. Randy Moss
3. Calvin Johnson
4. Andre Johnson
5. Roddy White
6. Steve Smith
7. Plaxico Burress
8. Wes Welker
9. Reggie Wayne
10. Anquan Boldin
11. Braylon Edwards
12. TJ Houseyourmomma
13. Brandon Marshall
14. Greg Jennings
15. Dwayne Bowe
16. Eddie Royal
17. Derrick Mason
18. Santana Moss
19. Terrell Owens
20. Antonio Bryant
21. Steve Breaston
22. Jericho Cotchry
23. DeSean Jackson
24. Bernard Berrian
25. Lee Evans
26. Torry Holt
27. Issac Bruce
28. Vincent Jackson
29. Steve Smith
30. Kevin Walter
31. Ted Ginn Jr.
32. Ocho Sinco Johnson