The GatewayAmerican League West
This will likely be the first time since 2001 that we see playoff baseball in the beautiful confines of Safeco Park in Seattle. The Mariners certainly aren’t stacked, but they also don’t really have any weaknesses on their roster. The Mariners also managed to make their lineup slightly better by adding a reliable right fielder in Seth Smith, but made a puzzling move by signing designated hitter Nelson Cruz, who won’t be able to hit worth a lick in Safeco, to a massive four-year contract. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have the longest and most annoying name in baseball, but they compensate for it by having the game’s best player in Mike Trout. Trout and the Angels’ solid lineup will have to compensate for their vanilla pitching rotation, just like they did last year.
Moving north to Oakland, the Athletics look like they’re poised to start writing the script to “Moneyball 2: Forget About Josh Donaldson,” with their rag-tag group of mediocre players who are probably pretty good at getting on base, or something. The A’s aren’t much of a threat, but knowing them, a bunch of players will overachieve and propel the team to a 90 win season where they’ll get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs (I think it would make a great movie). There isn’t a hell of a lot to say about the two teams in Texas aside from the fact the Houston Astros will probably lead the league in both home runs and strikeouts because everybody in their lineup swings at pretty much anything that isn’t throw over the backstop.
Oh yeah, the Texas Rangers are awful. Enough said.
American League Central
It looks like the Detroit Tigers reign of terror in the American League Central is over. The Tigers have had a four year streak of winning the division that resulted in absolutely nothing except one trip to the World Series back in 2012. Well, it was fun while it lasted. The Tigers lost ace Max Scherzer to the Nationals in the offseason and have done a really bad job of managing their pitching prospects recently, so when David Price leaves in the offseason, they’re going to have nothing to show for it. The Cleveland Indians appear to be the team to beat in the Central, which says a lot more about how average the division is than how good the Indians are.
I’ll give Cleveland some credit, they might not be a star studded group, but they don’t have many holes. They have a lot of pesky players who have solid defence and always seem to get on base. They also have a lot of breakout candidates on their roster to go along with ace Corey Kluber who kind of came out of nowhere last season to win the Cy Young Award. But the Tigers got a little bit better when they added slugger Yoenis Cespedes, but they made their pitching rotation a lot worse in the process because they sent Rick Porcello the other way. The rotation that just a couple years ago was oozing with talent now seems pretty mediocre, especially with former Cy Young winner Justin Verlander’s fastball velocity taking a dip. The Chicago White Sox did a lot to improve, but they still aren’t there yet, while the Kansas City Royals will regress back down to their regular territory with the departure of ace James Shields, and probably won’t make the playoffs for another 30 years.
American League East
It’s basically impossible to pick the American League East. Warren Buffet should offer a billion dollar prize to the person who can predict the standings in this division because it’s a total crapshoot. The general consensus is that the Boston Red Sox and all of their fancy new free agents will win the division, while the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles will duke it out for second and a Wild Card spot. The Red Sox are a pretty flawed team. They have a whole bunch of guys who are going to put up some mammoth offensive numbers, but look completely lost when they’re playing in the field — and that doesn’t bode well for a team with a pretty ugly pitching staff.
They also have a handful of young guys that they’re relying on to have breakout seasons, which could easily have the team struggling come July. The Orioles got a whole lot worse this offseason with the departure of outfielders Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz, but such as they have the last few years, they always find a way to win. The Jays are a boom or bust team like the Red Sox. They have a volatile pitching rotation and their roster is loaded with rookies, but they boast arguably the best lineup in the American League. They also got a lot better defensively by adding MVP-candidate Josh Donaldson and third base and good old Canadian kid Russell Martin as catcher. Who knows though, the Yankees could be good too, and you can never count out the Tampa Bay Rays — although the loss of Manager Joe Maddon makes it appear as if the Rays are closer to moving to Montreal than they are to making the playoffs.
American League Predictions
There are no easy choices in the AL. The Mariners, Athletics, Angels, Jays, Red Sox, Orioles, Yankees, White Sox, Tigers, and Indians could all be playoff teams. Last year, the Royals somehow managed to make the playoffs, so you can’t really write anyone off. When it’s all said and done, the division winners are likely to be Anaheim, Cleveland, and Boston. Those are pretty conservative choices and teams like Seattle, Chicago and Toronto or Baltimore could easily be swapped in. The Cy Young, like the division titles, are completely up in air. Felix Hernandez is probably the most likely candidate for the award, especially if Seattle has a nice season. Don’t be surprised to see Mike Trout win his second consecutive MVP award, but Josh Donaldson is a big season and a Blue Jays playoff performance away from stealing the award.
