Tailgate Crashers figured since we have a guy who writes a column called East Coast Bias that we should probably give him the previews for the East. If we didn’t, he threatened to whine… and it’s never fun to hear a 30-year-old whine. We give you Thomas Daniels with last year’s World Champion Division, the American League East
Baltimore Orioles
Management: Manager – Dave Trembley
Notable Additions: Adam Jones – CF, Luke Scott – LF, George Sherill – LP: Also known as “prospects”.
Notable Losses: Erik Bedard – SP, Miguel Tejada – SS
Down the Road: Jim Hoey – RP, Radhames Liz – RP, Garrett Olson – SP, Troy Patton – SP, Nolan Reimold – OF.
Projected Starters:
C – Ramon Hernandez
1B – Kevin Millar
2B – Brian Roberts
3B – Melvin Mora
SS – ???
LF – Luke Scott
CF – Jay Payton
RF – Nick Markakis
SP – Jeremy Guthrie
SP – Daniel Cabrera
SP – Adam Loewen
SP – Brian Burres
SP – Matt Albers
CL – Chris Ray
Vegas’ Over/Under (Wins): 65.5
2008 Outlook: Peter Angelos ended his man-crush on Miguel Tejada about two years too late to get a really good haul for him. In 2006, there was a plan on the table that would have netted him a pile of Mets and Astros prospects in return for sending Tejada to Houston. Turns out, he wound up doing the same thing a few years later for much crappier prospects. Had that deal gone off, the prospects would have been major league ready by now and the “rebuilding era” in Baltimore would have been coming to a close. Instead, they had two more years of awful baseball before now entering a re-building phase. It’s going to be another long, crappy season of baseball in Baltimore, but at least there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for long-suffering Orioles fans. At the very least, they can look forward to another year of pleasant Red Sox and Yankee fans invading their park. Looking at their division, this under is one of the best bets on the board. If Angelos is smart he’ll ship Brian Roberts out of town for another batch of prospects. However, if you read that previous sentence, you’ll see a few words that have likely never been in a sentence together before.
Boston Red Sox
Management: GM – Theo Epstein; Manager – Terry Francona
Notable Additions: Prospects Clay Buchholz – SP, Jacoby Ellsbury – CF, Jon Lester – SP
Notable Losses: Eric Gagne – RP.
Down the Road: Brandon Moss.
Projected Starters:
C – Jason Varitek
1B – Kevin Youkilis
2B – Dustin Pedroia
3B – Mike Lowell
SS – Julio Lugo
LF – Manny Ramirez
CF – Jacoby Ellsbury
RF – J.D. Drew
DH – David Ortiz
SP – Josh Beckett
SP – Daisuke Matsuzaka
SP – Tim Wakefield
SP – Jon Lester
SP – Clay Buchholz
CL – Jon Papelbon
Vegas’ Over/Under (Wins): 93.5
2008 Outlook: I’m not sure I can think of a time in recent memory where a World Series winning franchise came back with pretty much exactly the same team. That’s the case with the Red Sox this season. The only two real differences are the likely replacement of Coco Crisp with homegrown prospect Jacoby Ellsbury and the replacement of injured Baconator Curt Schilling with prospect Jon Lester. As for the team itself, I expect Mike Lowell will come back down to Earth and Manny Ramirez will experience an option-year bump. In the rose-colored world of the Red Sox Nation all four of their sophomores will put up the same numbers they did last season. However, it’s likely that one or most of Pedroia/Ellsbury/Buchholz/Lester will fall back. The problem with this Red Sox team is that it’s just on the border of falling apart due to injury. I know they flew through the World Series last season against an over-achieving Rockies team, but I don’t think the juice is in the tank for this supposed 95 or 98 win season. The Red Sox, even when they’re great, have this terrible tendency to not put the division away. I don’t think the Yankees are going to be as forgiving on them as they were last year. Under 93.5, threat to grab the Wild Card.
New York Yankees
Management: GM – Brian Cashman; Manager – Joe Girardi
Notable Additions: Prospects, Shelley Duncan 1B/DH, Joba Chamberlain – RP/SP, Humberto Sanchez – RP, Ian Kennedy – SP, Phil Hughes – SP
Notable Losses: None
Down the Road: Alan Horne
Projected Starters:
C – Jorge Posada
1B – Jason Giambi
2B – Robinson Cano
3B – Alex Rodriguez
SS – Derek Jeter
LF – Hideki Matsui
CF – Melky Cabrera
RF – Bobby Abreu
DH – Hideki Matsui
SP – Andy Pettitte
SP – Chien-Ming Wang
SP – Mike Mussina
SP – Phil Hughes
SP – Ian Kennedy
CL – Mariano Rivera
Vegas’ Over/Under (Wins): 94.5
2008 Outlook: According to Joe Girardi, the reason that the Yankees have gotten off to slow starts and have been injury plagued the last few seasons is because Joe Torre ran a country club instead of a Spring Training camp. Torre presumed his veterans knew how to get into season shape. Girardi is not taking this leap of faith, reportedly running a boot camp for veterans and young guys alike to try and prevent the stupid muscle pulls and sprains that killed the Yankees for the last two years. If this is true (and it does make sense) then the east should probably be on notice. The Yankees are still plagued with a lot of age in the field and it’s nearly impossible to pick whether Giambi, Matsui, Damon, or Duncan will be DHing on a day-to-day basis; but I don’t foresee the Yankees coming out and having the same crappy, injury-plagued, 12-30 start they’ve had the last few years. I don’t expect Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy to be the Holy Trinity the Bronx is expecting them to be. Also, this might be the year that Wang’s absurdly low K/9 rate catches up with him. However, the Yankees are going into the season with the same 1,000-run scoring offense, a bull-pen being somewhat propped up by young guys, and a starting rotation that is leaning toward young for the first time in a decade. I think the Yankees are really, really dangerous this season… to the point where 94.5 might be conservative. That said – the window is closing ever so slightly on this team. Over 94.5, AL East Champions.
Tampa Bay Rays
Management: Manager – Joe Madden
Notable Additions: Cliff Floyd – RF/DH, Troy Percival – CL, Glenn Gibson – LHP, Matt Garza – RP, Jason Bartlett – SS
Notable Losses: Elijah Dukes – OF, Delmon Young – OF, Brendan Harris – IF
Down the Road: Evan Longoria, Jeff Niemann, Justin Ruggiano, Mitch Talbot.
Projected Starters:
C – Dioner Navarro
1B – Carlos Pena
2B – B.J. Upton
3B – Akinori Iwamura
SS – Jason Bartlett
LF – Carl Crawford
CF – Rocco Baldelli
RF – Jonny Gomes
DH – Cliff Floyd
SP – Scott Kazmir
SP – James Shields
SP – Edwin Jackson
SP – Andy Sonnanstine
SP – Jason Hamel
CL – Troy Percival
Vegas’ Over/Under (Wins): 74.5
2008 Outlook: I admit I don’t Rays’ news religiously, so I was somewhat surprised to find they signed Troy Percival’s corpse to pitch the ninth inning for them. Last season, their bullpen had an absurd ERA between 5 and 6. They actually addressed the problem this year by adding Troy Percival, who’s admittedly old but coming off a full year of rest. They kept Al Reyes, who struggled with control last season but still struck out 70 guys in 60 innings. They picked up Dan Wheeler who, while not great, is a serviceable 6th/7th inning guy. They have a pretty decent core of starters, a few veterans to mentor the younger guys and, for the first time in my recent memory, don’t completely suck going in to the season. I’m certainly not saying these guys are making a run at the Wild Card in their unfortunate division, but for the first time in quite a while, I could live with myself for putting money on a Devil Rays “over”.
Toronto Blue Jays
Management: GM – J.P. Riccardi; Manager – John Gibbons
Notable Additions: David Eckstein – SS, Scott Rolen – 3B
Notable Losses: Troy Glaus – 3B/SS
Down the Road: David Purcey, Ricky Romero.
Projected Starters:
C – Gregg Zaun
1B – Lyle Overbay
2B – Aaron Hill
3B – Scott Rolen
SS – David Eckstein
LF – Reed Johnson
CF – Vernon Wells
RF – Alex Rios
DH – Frank Thomas
SP – Roy Halladay
SP – A.J. Burnett
SP – Shaun Marcum
SP – Dustin McGowan
SP – Jesse Litsch
CL – B.J. Ryan
Vegas’ Over/Under (Wins): 85.5
2008 Outlook: Much like everyone else, the sports’ media convinces me every season that “this could be the year for the Blue Jays.” Then, round about April 7th, the Jays win a few games and the stories “this could be the Jays’ year” start on ESPN. Then, Halladay, Burnett, and Ryan all get hurt and the Jays’ season falls apart. I’m not doing it this year. You know how the Red Sox score a lot of runs by having two monster sluggers in the middle of a lineup with a bunch of guys who get on base a lot and occasionally knock in runs? The Blue Jays have guys who do the exact opposite of that. The line-up is built with a bunch of .300-.350 OBP guys with declining Frank Thomas in the middle to knock them in. I have no idea where the 85.5 wins are coming from. Must be Eckstein’s gutty win factor. Under 85.5.
Projected Finish
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Tampa Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles
