To further rankle my fellow writer Brendan, a devout (and delusional) Boston sports fan, I think its appropriate to pull together a preview of the upcoming baseball season written by none other than this site’s own devout (and delusional) New York sports fan (ahem, Yankees and Giants… not Mets and Jets, ew).
I haven’t been this excited for baseball season in a long time. It could be leftover euphoria from the glorious run of the 2008 SUPER BOWL CHAMPION NEW YORK GIANTS. It could be that the Yankees have finally pushed aside their moronic tendency to overspend on crappy free agents. It could be that my adopted home team, the Washington Nationals, will be opening a killer new stadium and have a potentially great lineup.
Or it could be the chance to finally move on a bit from the crap that went down this offseason with the Mitchell Report and the Clemens hearing.
Regardless, I’m excited and you should be too.
Let’s start from the top. The Sox won the World Series last year and nothing from the offseason changes the fact that they are the team to beat. In fact, Curt Schilling’s injury – which many are pointing at to show their weakness – may be a blessing. Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester have tons of talent, they just need the opportunity. With Schilling’s large presence (um, physically, egotistically and metaphorically) gone, those two can comfortably join a rotation with #1 & 2 already set in place – Beckett and Dice-K respectively. Stick Julian Tavarez (or another waistline-challenged vet – Bartolo Colon) in at # 5 and you have the makings of a very solid rotation with potential to be great. When that rotation is combined with a lineup that can drive in 950-1000 runs, success shouldn’t be hard to come by.
Their competition offers no surprises. The Yankees, Tigers, Angels, White Sox, Indians, and maybe the Mariners (now that they added Bedard to King Felix) all will be in contention. The conventional moron-dom has been to anoint the Tigers as the 1b to the Red Sox 1a. They pulled off some ballsy moves this offseason, trading for Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Renteria, and Jacque Jones. They no longer have a farm system, but their big league team (at least their lineup) appears to be stacked.
I agree with the pundit class that this lineup will succeed. Leyland will coax the best out of Miggy Cabrera and somehow convince Renteria that playing in the AL doesn’t always mean screaming legions of psychos (ahem, Red Sox fans). This lineup will torch most pitchers. The problem is the Tigers pitching. Justin Verlander is awesome, no doubts. Bonderman is a solid #2, but he’s had his share of health problems. After that, there’s a bunch of question marks… Kenny Rogers is old and mean. Dontrelle Willis pitched terribly last year and now he moves to the AL and gets to face lineups like the Red Sox, White Sox and Yankees on a regular basis. And Nate Robertson is, well, Nate Robertson. I’m concerned about this rotation.
The Yankees have a similar plight. Questions about their rotation hold the key to their success or failure this season. Their lineup is unquestionable, like the Tigers and Red Sox. They had the opportunity to ease the concerns of the masses by trading for Johan Santana, but smartly – in my opinion – balked at the asking price. The Yankees have enormous potential in the pitching rotation. Phil Hughes appears ready to take that step to becoming an elite starter. I see him as a touch ahead of Buchholz in their progression. Ian Kennedy has shown in his limited time in the bigs a gritty ability to outsmart hitters and pitch in tough situations. Joba Chamberlain has shown what he can do, which is blow away hitters with 3 nasty pitches and an awesome “fuck you!” mentality. They also have at least 3 pitchers in the minors who have potential to be very good starters (Andrew Brackman, Alan Horne, and Humberto Sanchez). The future is bright… but what about the present??
Mike Mussina is going downhill fast and starts the season off as their #4 (probably will be supplanted by Joba in May-June). He showed at the end of last year that he can still pitch well from time to time, but on the whole his game is no longer top of the line. The top of the rotation is Wang and Pettitte. Andy the Horse had a rough offseason, but came away with little tarnish to his image (thanks to a late apology-filled press conference). I don’t see this affecting his game. His age – and potentially balky elbow – might however. Chien Ming Wang is a good #1, but will be a much better #2 or 3 when and if Hughes shifts him down. Hughes and Kennedy round out the rotation. Its loaded with talent, but equally loaded with questions.
The other contenders – Indians, White Sox, and Angels – have bigger question marks. The White Sox specifically are trying to rebound from a disastrous year with a suspect rotation and generally old lineup. The additions of Nick Swisher and Carlos Quentin were very good, but probably not enough to catapult them ahead of the Tigers and Indians in their division.
The Indians have the potential to build on last year’s success, where they made it to the ALCS. C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona have the goods at the top of the rotation. The rest of the rotation isn’t overly attractive. The scrappy lineup should pester pitchers with smart hitters up and down (Martinez, Sizemore, and Hafner to name a few).
The Angels intrigued me until john Lackey got hurt. Losing your ace is very close to a death knell. If he comes back around his mid-May timeline than it might not be a killer (especially in that division), but it puts a lot of pressure on new addition Jon Garland and young guys like Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders to carry the load. The lineup doesn’t worry me, especially with the addition of Torii Hunter who now gives them the outfield with the greatest arms in baseball (Hunter, Matthews, Vlad, and Anderson).
The Mariners are one team that might surprise. Their lineup has holes… especially if Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre continue on in their overpaid sucky ways. Their pitching, however, could be fierce. Eric Bedard and Felix Hernandez topping off a rotation rounded out with solid vets like Jarrod Washburn, Carlos Silva and Miguel Batista should pose lots of problems for hitters and will feast on the weaker lineups in the AL. If the M’s get anything from the lineup, they could get a jump on the Lackey-less Angels and steal the division from them.
Alright, here’s my predictions for the AL. Please feel free to tell me how stupid I am in the comments, but under one condition – you have to post your predictions as well. Here we go:
AL East
- Yankees
- Red Sox 2.5 gb *
- Blue Jays
- Rays
- O’s
AL Central
- Tigers
- Indians 3 gb
- White Sox
- Twins
- Royals
AL West
- Angels
- Mariners 4 gb
- Rangers
- A’s
Playoffs:
- ALDS - Yankees over Angels(revenge for 2002, stupid rally monkey!),Sox over Tigers
- ALCS - Yankees over Sox (revenge for 2004, grrr)
(ed. note: I’m an idiot and had the Sox and Yanks playing in the ALDS, that don’t happen… thanks, Rikhav!)
Awards:
- MVP - Alex Rodriguez
- Cy Young - Justin Verlander
- Rookie of the Year - Evan Longoria
1 Brendan // Mar 19, 2008 at 02:34 PM
“Realization of the True Champions” was the dumbest title in the history of the Internet.
2 Brendan // Mar 19, 2008 at 03:38 PM
Also, Yankees suck.
3 Thomas // Mar 19, 2008 at 03:39 PM
I can’t remember what Eli titled the webpage he designed for his Introduction to Computer Science class at Ole Miss, but I am going to guess it had a dumber title. The content of it sure took the cake for dumbest in the history of the Internet.
Man, I get giggly just thinking about it and him sitting there designing it. I wish it still existed…
4 Mike W // Mar 19, 2008 at 03:41 PM
““Realization of the True Champions” was the dumbest title in the history of the Internet.”
Hehehe. Bitter much?
And hey, give me your predictions, you louts!
5 Brendan // Mar 20, 2008 at 09:50 AM
Here’s my prediction.
The Sox are going to start off the season poorly. They’ll be lucky to win one game in Japan, and then come back and take a beating on MLB’s obviously pre-arranged road trip from hell. The shock of the long trip, coupled with the hard schedule will slump the whole team and trauamtize our pitching for at least a month.
Dice K and Beckett will hold their own but the new guys will have a few issues. Wakefield will get hurt, Tavarez will struggle to stay in the fifth spot.
The bats will be the only saving grace. JD Drew will actually perform and be moved to the fifth spot by May. The Manny, Papi, Drew 3-4-5 will be the most devastating lineup this season. Mike Lowell will be a force of nature in Fenway. Tek will be the one weak spot, with a BA lower than Julio Lugo’s.
But things won’t go that well otherwise, and by the All Star Break the Sox will be third in the division and people will be lining up to leap off the Longfellow bridge. The Globe and Herald will preach doom and gloom, and Tito will start drinking Malox by the bottle in the dugout. It will be our darkest hour.
Then, Curt Schilling will descend from the heavens upon his golden chariot, miraculously healed by some otherwordly force. Velocity will be up, control improved, and his gut greatly reduced.
Schilling will proceed to mow down the entire American League, winning twenty games, throwing a no-hitter against the Devil Rays and then a 21 strikeout game against the Angels. It will be the greatest half-season in baseball history.
After winning the World Series in 4 games (after a Curt Schilling 9th inning save) the moon will become as blood, and ethereal light will shine down upon Fenway. Curt will rise up and return to the sky from whence he came. The sheer awesome beauty of the moment will leave even Joe Buck in tears. We will all bear witness.
Also, I prophecize Hideki Matsui to have a comeback year, expect at least a .305 from him with 30 homers.
Cheers!
6 Derek // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:01 AM
Yankees Suck.
Now let me defend that statement. First, their line-up… ok, their line-up doesn’t suck. They’ll score their runs, but the line-up has gone down from last year. I don’t care what performance enhancing drugs you take, 37 year old catchers start declining, and coming off a career year, Posada is a likely candidate for most diminished player of the year. And he carried the line-up at times last season.
Their outfield is aging, no way they make it through the season without significant injury; Melky’s a good replacement, but who’s their number 5 to rest the others? Their infield is solid, but they didn’t plug the first base hole - so not without fault.
Pitching. Sucky. Wang is a great number 3 starter, and a decent number 2 starter. Pettitte is passed his prime, coming off steroid scandals, and being sold out by his friend/gay-lover Roger. A good number 3 starter at this point in his career. And then your left with rookies, sophomores and killing-his-Hall-chances Mussina. We haven’t seen Joba face a line-up twice, let alone three times - he’s not king yet. A sophomore who pitched 70 innings with 4.5 ERA is not a budding number 1, not yet, sorry Phil. Where’s the intimidation? I don’t see a single AL team not thinking they have shot every single game against the Yanks. Where’s the Yankees mystique? I’ll tell you where: he’s wearing #57 for the Mets!
Predictions: (Yankees go 89-73, don’t make play-offs.) Red Sox over Detroit (wild card). Indians over Mariners.
Indians over Red Sox.
Jeter swallows.