Clearing The Bases

Now that the fantasy players rankings are done it’s time to rank the teams they play on.  Yeah I know that predicting which team is going to finish where isn’t really fantasy relevant, but I do like to put my predictions on paper.  This column is dedicated to the American League.   With the addition of a second wild card team there are really only four teams that I don’t believe have any shot at the playoffs.  Baltimore, Minnesota, Oakland and Seattle are just playing out the string, everyone else you could make an argument for, maybe not a good one, but an argument none the less

American League

East

1. New York:    What a difference one day makes in the off-season.  Before the Yankees acquired Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda, they might have been no better than 3rd in the division.  Hard to imagine they could win the division again with a patchwork rotation of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, and Freddy Garcia, but now, all of a sudden they are extremely deep and now even have Andy Pettitte trying to make a comeback.  Not to mention their offense is still one of the best, and their bullpen may be the best.  Hard to see how they don’t finish 1st.
2. Tampa Bay:  If the Rays had a better offense I’d be tempted to pick them 1st.  That pitching staff is as good as it gets in the AL.  David Price, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Moore, and Jeff Niemann.  Not to mention they have players in the minors to cover if anyone of the top five get hurt.  Where the Rays are going to run into problems is at the plate especially if they are to suffer an injury or two.  They don’t have the resources of the Yanks or Sox to go out and get a player they need, you know they can’ t take on salary.  Can they hit enough?  That is their only question.
3. Boston:  The Sox are where the Yankees were last year, trying to survive an entire season with a top heavy rotation.  Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and a healthy Clay Buccholz will win quite a few games for Boston, but Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves have quite a few question marks.  Bard failed as a starter in the minors due to his inability to always know where the ball is going to go.  He may be the key to their season as we know the Sox are going to score a boatload of runs and their bullpen is close to as good as the Yankees.
4. Toronto:  If only they didn’t play in the AL East.  This is a pretty good team that is only going to get better.  They aren’t really loaded with superstars like Boston and New York, with the exception of Jose Bautista, but have several up and coming stars.  Brett Lawrie is expected to be one of those stars, possibly as soon as this year.  They stole Colby Rasmus from St. Louis with the hope that he will be able to reach his potential.  Their pitching staff has one of the best unknown starters in baseball in Ricky Romero, Brendan Morrow who just needs to put it all together, and a slew of others that have potential written all over it.  Speaking of thefts, not sure why the White Sox gave away Sergio Santos.
5. Baltimore:  You know things are going bad when even Buck Showalter can’t turn things around.  The biggest concern for the Orioles is figuring out why none of their young pitchers are progressing as hoped.  Zach Britton, Brian Matusz, and Jake Arrieta, can’ t seem to stay healthy.  Why is that?  Better hope they figure it out before super prospect Dylan Bundy is ready for prime time.  As for their offense, it’s nothing to get excited about.  Chris Davis and Mark Reynolds are strikeout machines.  Brian Roberts may or may not be able to get over his concussion.  Adam Jones and Nick Markakis have yet to live up to their expectations.  Another last place finish for Baltimore I’m afraid.

Central

1. Detroit:  The Tigers won this division by 15 games last season and one has to wonder if it will even be that close this year.  They are by far the class of the division led by Cy Young Justin Verlander.  The rest of their starters aren’t the best, but they are good enough.  You do have to worry about their defense however as new addition, Prince Fielder, forces the Tigers to play Miguel Cabrera at third and Brandon Inge at second, just an ugly defensive alignment.  That being said they will score plenty of runs even without Victor Martinez who is gone until 2013.  We know Fielder and Cabrera are offensive monsters, but look for Delmon Young and Brennan Boesch to have big seasons.
2. Cleveland:  The Indians actually led the Central for most of the first half last season but then ran out of gas.  The trade for Ubaldo Jimenez that sent Drew Pomeranz and Alex White to Colorado could haunt the Indians for the rest of this decade if Jimenez can’t find the form he had in the first half of 2010.  It should come as no shock that Grady Sizemore will once again begin the season on the DL.  This is certainly a problem as the Indians offense is going to struggle.  There just isn’t much pop there.  Casey Kotchman and Lonnie Chisenhall will man the corners and may not hit 30 HRs between them.  Even if Shin-Sin Choo returns to form they are at least two bats short.
3. Kansas City:  Could this be the year the Royals make it to .500?  Possibly.  They have a ton of young talent that will only get better and better with more experience.  Eric Hosmer is a superstar in the making.  Alex Gordon has finally lived up to his potential.  Billy Butler may not hit the long ball, but he is a doubles machine.  This year we will find out what Lorenzo Cain can do.  It’s a shame that Salvadore Perez is down until June with a knee injury and Joakim Soria is dealing with an elbow problem, but this team is on its way, they just need the young pitching to catch up to the young hitting.
4. Chicago:  Not sure what the White Sox are trying to do.  As mentioned above they pretty much handed the Jay Sergio Santos.  Generally teams don’t just trade away young live arms for not much in return.  They pretty much traded their manager, but that’s not a shock as Ozzie Guillen’s act was definitely getting old.  They hired Robin Ventura to be the new manager, a man who has never managed anywhere else.  Can Ventura figure out why Adam Dunn couldn’t hit last season?  Can he figure out a way to get the best out of Gordon Beckham?  Veteran managers may not be able to fix these problems more or less a rookie one.
5. Minnesota:  Talk about a team that has just fallen off the face of the Earth.  Their fortunes come down to two players, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.  Can either one stay healthy and possibly play 140+ games.  The smart money is they can’t, and even if they can, will they be the same player they were before injuries struck.  Neither player seems to have adjusted to playing in Target Field.  Perhaps they are trying to hard, perhaps not, but the Twins aren’t going anywhere until these two get back to their All-Star status, and that may never happen.

West

1. Texas:  Possibly the best team in the AL.  The Rangers have everything.  We know they can hit with Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, Adrian Beltre, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, and Mike Napoli in the lineup.  Their starting rotation may not have some of the sexy names that other teams have but they are effective, and did add Japanese import Yu Darvish.  The addition of Joe Nathan allows Neftali Feliz to move into the starting rotation, a place where management thinks he belongs.  In short, the only thing that may stop the Rangers is complacency, or perhaps, lack of focus over losing in the World Series each of the past two seasons.
2. Los Angeles:  With the acquisitions of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson this off-season, the Angels are announcing to the Rangers that they are in for a battle to repeat as Western Division champions.  Their starting staff is really good.  Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Wilson, and Ervin Santana can rank right up there with the Rays staff.  Kendrys Morales should return to full-time duty early in the season and if he is able to swing that same lethal bat than their offense will be better than average, he would provide solid protection behind Pujols.  Not everything is rosy, they do have a numbers problem, to many corner infielders/outfielders which will force Mike Trout back to the minors, but it’s always a good problem to have to many, rather than not enough.
3. Seattle:  You have to hand it to Seattle.  They haven’t been able to attract any top end offensive talent to play there in free agency, so they go the trade route and acquire some talent.  Trading Michael Pineda is a risky move, a move many GMs wouldn’t make for fear of making a mistake, but they did get Jesus Montero, a bat they can immediately place in the middle of their lineup.  It’s a slow process, but it’s a start, Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Now if they can only get something out of Chone Figgins and have Ichiro Suzuki do well in the three hole.
4. Oakland:  It’s a shame what is happening to this organization.  Everyone seems to know that they need to move and build a new ballpark yet are being blocked by the Giants.  Until this situation is resolved this is a barren wasteland of a team.

Wildcard Teams

Tampa Bay and Los Angeles

World Series Representative

Texas once again