American League Preview: AL East

Lets run down the best league in baseball one division at a time. Starting with the…

The Eastern Division

Baltimore Orioles:

2007: 69-93 4th East
2008 Projection: 67-95 5th East

Looks like the Orioles are in for another rough season at Camden Yards. Interim manager Dave Trembley will be returning this season after leading the O’s to a 40-53 record after taking over on June 18th of last year. The Orioles are a statistical nightmare with the only shimmer of light coming from leading the AL in stolen bases with 144. After a December 13th deal that sent 2002 MVP Miguel Tejada to the Astros for Luke Scott, Troy Patton, Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate, and Mike Costanzo the O’s are in real trouble. The only hope is that Trembley can mold some of the young talent and take his squad out of the cellar after a year or two of prospect development, I don’t see any miracles happening in Baltimore.



Tampa Bay Rays:
2007: 66-96 (30 GB) 5th East
2008 Projection: 70-92 4th East

Tampa Bay wants to leave 2007 in the past, they’ve dropped the Devil and are going with a more hip rhyming scheme. Next task: Fix their pitching at any and all costs. They came up ranked 14th in ERA, BAA, OPS, SV, and WHIP. Over the last four years Joe Madden has taken them to a combined 154-221 record, hardly anything to write home about.

Rotation:
1. James Shield: 12-8 ERA 3.75 (Resigned to a 4 year contract worth 11.25 million)
2. Scott Kazmir: 13-9 ERA 3.48
3. Matt Garza; 5-7 ERA 3.69
4. Edwin Jackson: 5-15 ERA 5.76
5. Andy Sonnastine: 6-10 ERA 5.85
Silver Lining: Between them they have an average of two years in the show between them. Let’s hope they are still developing.

With a salary sitting around 35 million a year and ranked 28th in spending they have another year to develop before major deals need to be made. Outlook: Sports Radio keeps talking about the Bulls and how they were #2 once.


New York Yankees:
2007: 94-68 (2 GB) : 2nd East, AL Wildcard
2008 Projection: 85- 72 3rd in the East

In 2007 the Yanks were first in every major statistical batting category. My issue with the Yankees can be seen from a couple different perspectives. First i’m not sold on Joe Girardi’s managing credentials. I don’t know if he has what it takes to even finish out his three year contract. I think the amount of pressure on him from the City, the Press, and the Management is enough to make a man weaker than Torre crack. Secondly, I think that age is becoming a huge factor. Its nice to have a blank check when it comes to signing talent, but there comes a point where the all-star team you are assembling doesn’t come together. I am a big believer in a balance between young players and seasoned veterans making a team what it is. Just because you have the payroll of the Red Sox doesn’t mean you have the chemistry, just ask ARod and Jeter. That being said I do realize they won 94 games last season and made the playoffs, as a fan you should take that any day. The issue is that it is New York and looking at postseason performances, something just isn’t clicking.

Off-season Dealings:

LaTroy Hawkins: 1 Year
Mariano Rivera: 3 Years
ARod: 10 Years
Andy Pettitte: 1 Year
Jose Molina: 2 Years
Jorge Posada: 4 Years
Bobby Abreu; Exercise 2008 Option

Bottom Line: Play like the veterans you are, realize you play in New York, forget some of you played with Girardi or miss the playoffs.


Toronto Blue Jays:
2007: 83-79 (13 GB) 3rd in the East
2008: 89- 73 : 2nd in the East

The Jays were the surprise team in the East and arguably in the AL, but received little to no attention. A well above average Blue Jays team doesn’t exactly sell as many newspapers as an underachieving Yankees team. The fact of the matter is that where the Red Sox were #1 in almost every statistical pitching category, the Jays were #2. The Jays squad posted a 4.00 ERA, BAA of .251, an OPS of .706, a WHIP of 1.29, and had 91 Quality Saves all second in the AL. That leaves us with lackluster offensive production that landed them completely unimpressive numbers. That is not taking anything away from a team that was injury plagued all season. Despite major blows to their lineup their pitching still managed to propel them to a respectable record.



2007 Injuries:
Roy Halladay, Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, A.J Burnett, Troy Glaus, Reed Johnson, Gustavo Chacin, B.J Ryan

Off-season Moves:
Acquired Scott Rolen and David Eckstein: 1 Year Deal
Catcher Rod Barajas: 1 Year deal
Pitcher Scott Downs : 3 Years
IF Marco Scutaro: 2 Years
Jason Frasor: 1 Year
Gustavo Chacin: 1 Year
Brian Tallet: 1 Year

Bottom Line: Stay Healthy. Eckstein and Rolen are great additions to this club, and if the pitching stays health there is no reason they shouldn’t win close to 90 games. Unfortunately, I still think they miss the playoffs considering the strength of the AL Central this year.




Boston Red Sox:
2007: 96-66 : 1st East, AL Champs, World Series Champs
2008 Projection: 92-70 1st East and another ALCS visit

The Red Sox held off the surging Yankees to claim the Eastern Division last year then cruised to the ALCS/World Series against the Tribe. It’s hard to critique a team that seems to have found the balance of pitching and offensive production. As far as batting is concerned they were 2nd in the AL in On Base % (.362), 3rd in Runs (867) and Slugging (.444), and 5th in average (.279). On the pitching side they were first in the AL in ERA (3.87), Average Against (.247), OPS (.705), and WHIP (1.27). The only major statistical categories they did not sit on top of were Saves (2nd at 45) and Quality Starts (6th at 84).

Off Season Moves:
David Aardsma acquired from the White Sox for Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich

Contract Extensions and Deals:
Kyle Snyder : 1 Year
Javier Lopez: 1 Year
Doug Mirabelli: 1 Year
Mike Timlin: 1 Year

Bottom Line:
As long as the Sox keep up the chemistry and poise they have in recent years, as well as keeping their rotation healthy we should see them make another run at a pennant.


The East will again be a lopsided contest. While the Red Sox and the Yankees are always the two teams to beat, do not count the Blue Jays out. I think they have all the ingredients to make a run at second place and even a wildcard spot. That being said I think that the odds of that are slim seeing as two of the three best teams in the American League call the Central Division home.


4Real Out...
More after the jump...

A couple quick thoughts on the Mitchell Report:

I was wrong about Cleveland, the Yankees had 23 players on the report.

With that said, doesn’t that make you wonder a little bit more exactly what a Red Sox front office man chose to include in the report. And also what he might have left out.

I think it’s funny. The phrase someone’s been linked to something has been around forever. People have used it to describe the players on this report being linked to the steroid era of baseball and the Mitchell Report. Technically if you go to Wikipedia, they are actually linked to the Mitchell Report.

Will these guys have to wear a patch on their uniforms next season so we can identify the 80 of the 86 that we don’t know or have never heard of.

If they did what would it be: Syringe? Scarlet "M"? Asterisk? Discuss.

There are glaringly obvious stats that back up exactly when some of these players started using according to the evidence. I don’t know when Brian Roberts is reported to have purchased or used steroids, but his stats shed some light on it. His batting avg in 2004 was .273 with a .376 slugging percentage and 12 career Jacks in 4 seasons. In 2005 his avg was .314, slugging was .515 and he hit 18 Bombs.

Look at Troy Glaus between 1999 and 2000. It’s fun, go ahead you try look up these guys on your favorite stat site. And it’s also worth noting that a lot of these guys’ numbers increase after a injury shortened year. Probably because they began using to treat the injury.

Will there be serious consideration to add a ‘Roid wing in Cooperstown. Major League Baseball quietly allowed this to happen, and I’m not so sure that they weren’t silently supporting it. Might as well just show the utmost support by adding a wing specifically for Bonds, Clemons, Knoblauch, maybe even Canseco’s Mullet can be on display next to his Devil Ray jersey.
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Counterpoint...

I hate to argue or debate, especially on a topic as low to me as this but, I cannot, by any way in my being root for the Rockies. And this is really hard for me, but it's a big picture kind of thing. My rules of fandom for the World Series are to root in the following fashion:

1) Root for the Cubs, they're my team, but since they haven't been in the world series since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were safe places to drink the water, that one rarely comes into play.

2) Gotta root for the National League team. My team is NL, I gotta root for my Conference (except for the St. Louis Cards) for the same reason I cheer for the NFC in the Super Bowl (unless it's the Cheeseheads) and the East in the NBA Finals and the Pac-10 (even ASU occasionally).

3) Always root for the underdog. It makes it a little more exciting to cheer for the team that doesn't have a chance, and you can feel a little more of the excitement.

4) Always root against the Sox, the Yankees, the Cardinals, and the Southside Sox, these are the teams I hate and will not budge on this fact.

With all of that said, the Rockies can NOT win this series for the sake of my mental health. I've waited 99 seasons for a World Series (well maybe not me personally, but my geneology and my franchise). The last decade of World Series Champions has been killing me slowly year by year and it has to stop now.
1997 - Florida Marlins took them 4 years to win a World Series, not fair.
1998-2000 - ok we get it, the Yankees are good, they already had 36 championships, why did they need 3 more, and in a row no less.
2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks, I cheered for the D-Backs, they fit into all 3 categories plus they're the hometown team and I had to cheer for Mark Grace, but they had only been in existance for 3 years.
2002 - the Angels, this is probably the only one in retrospect that I'm ok with, been in the league somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 years, hadn't even been there before. The only downside was the stupid Rally Monkey on my TV screen for a week, but I dealt with it.
2003 - Florida Marlins, ripping my heart out, stealing the NLCS away from my beloved Cubs (I have since released blame on Steve Bartman, it was his fault but he was in the wrong place, the 30 other people around him were doing the same thing, he was just the one who decided to fulfil his prophecy as continuing the curse, and Alex Rodriguez, not ARod, should have made that stop at short to end the inning), plus now the Marlins have won as many championships as the Cubs in 90 less seasons, not ok.
2004 - BoSox end their long streak and curse.
2005 - SouthSox end their streak, not to mention they're our crosstown rival
2006 - inter division rival wins theirs.

It all made sense, the Cubbies would win it this year to officially make it short of the century mark (though the '94 season was cancelled due to strike and I'm pretty sure we would have won it that year) and cap off a decade of habitually painful World Series stretches.

Well that didn't happen and now I have to watch the Colorado Rockies, a team whose die-hard fans, only sold out two regular season series' - the Yankees, and the last homestand. These are not true fans, how many Larry Walker and Andres Gallaraga jersey's are going to be at the Series. They're historically a joke playing at Coors Canavaral Launch Pad, never stringing together too much of an effort and come in last place for hometown fans. They love the Broncs, the Lanche, and the Nugs more. They cannot continue this stretch of twisting the knife into Cub Fans back. In the name of everything Holy (Harry Caray, Jack Brickhouse, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, etc) don't let the Rockies win the World Series.
More after the jump...

F*$@ the Red Sox

So I'm watching Outside the Lines today between classes, and of course the Boston Red Sox are on. Now I let them waste my time talking about them because well there's nothing else on television at 12:15pm on a Wednesday and today is the first game of the World Series. But then they pull away to a special about the "Red Sox Fans" and incorporate two "analysts" to examine this apparent phenomenon. They dropped some stupid ass stats like Tampa Bay baseball attendance increases by 54% when the Red Sox are in town, the Red Sox have the most home game sell outs since 2004 out of all MLB teams, and the daunting one about being more "popular" than the "evil franchise" the New York Yankees.

All I have to say is, thank you Outside the Lines for perpetuating these ludicrous, bandwagon following "New Englanders". Is a wonder why every game has been sold out since the Red Sox won the World Series? Sounds like a phenomenon there. It feels like it's the 90s all over again and the Dallas Cowboys have won the Super Bowl for the third time. Don't call these Red Sox followers "fans", don't let them think they have contributed any time in the perpetual let downs that followed them with the "Curse of the Bambino".

Also with the second largest payroll in the league only second to the "Bandwagon" franchise of the Yankees, it's a mystery why they're in this World Series. And although I'm not a fan of Rockies followers, Boston Red Sox "sheep" have brought the idea of the sports fan to a new low. I'm making a deal with God that if I start going back to church, the Red Sox better fall out. Let's see where those "die hard road fans" go if they don't make the play offs next year. Go Rockies.
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