Royals fan here. No real reason to think this season will be much better than last. Not that that will keep me from the home opener, and hopefully plenty of other games. Summer afternoon baseball in Kauffman is one of my favorite things.
Right here with ya my friend!
Now that that is out of the way, some other comments on the NL teams that have a chance to lose to the Yankees in the Series:
Cubs - Could be a challanger for the division and should be in WC hunt to the end…if Dusty doesn’t destroy Wood, Prior, and Zambrano. A full season of Nomar will help a lot. Bullpen scares no one.
Cards - Like the lineup A LOT. But Walker will be hurt soon. Eckstien is OK, but he is no Renteria. I think they will score about as well as last year, and the rotation should be very solid. I like the Mulder trade and I think Morris is going to have a big bounce back year.
Phils - I think the Phils are underrated. Basically have the same team as last year that was predicted to win the division, but they got rid of the worst manager in MLB. Rotation is solid, but not great. I think Wolf will have a big year, and I think Leiber is an upgrade over Millwood. Real good 'pen. I don’t think they can win the division with the improvements Atlanta made, but I think they will be in the Wild Card race to the end.
Braves - I hate the Braves, but the Hudson move was genius. The pitiching will be the class of the league again. They should score enough to win the division. But the outfield is old and if some pitchers break down, maybe they will struggle a bit.
Mets - Meh. Prove it once and I’ll believe. Bullpen is downright terrible. Heredia? Strickland? Looper?
NL West - Doesn’t matter. Whoever wins will lose in the Division Series. Way too many holes on all the teams. I hope San Diego wins the division. Don’t know why.
I’m a Mariners fan, and I’ll agree. I’m enormously pleased with the offseason moves made by Seattle management, and think the M’s are one of the three most-improved teams from last year to this. (Not difficult, considering how much we stunk, but the upgrade is pretty significant.) Even so, our starting pitching is pretty iffy, and spring training isn’t dispelling that image. But given the added pop in the lineup, if we can score another run or run and a half per game, that’ll translate to fifteen additional wins, easy.
I’m happy that Oakland seems to have gone into a pre-emptive rebuilding year rather than trying to hang on and risk suffering a longer downturn later, so they won’t contend the same way in 2005 they have in seasons prior. And while I think the Rangers had a fluke year in 2004, given their persistent holes, it’s possible their still-young pitching will step up even more than they did last year and surprise the hell out of everybody, making them a possible contender. Or the wheels could come off entirely.
Summed up: Angels in first, with the M’s, A’s, and Rangers bumping uglies for a very tight 2-3-4 positioning. It’ll be a very interesting season.
I think the SF GIANTS will do good, and should contend until the end. The team is full of old farts, but they CAN play if they stay healthy, especially the big guy. The team plugged up some huge holes on the team last year (got a decent shortstop, outfielder, and closer). The starting rotation is pretty solid, with the only knock that a couple of the starters are still young. But right now it looks like the starters are Schmidt, Reuter, Tomko, Lowry, Williams … that’s RH heat, LH junk, RH heat-, LH trickery, RH smoke again. Not too shabby. Having Moises Alou playing for his dad Felipe will be interesting. The only uncertainty I have is Benitez, the new closer … if he’s so good, how come he keeps changing teams??? But he can’t be worse than the closers last year who blew over 25 saves (while the team missed the playoffs by a game).
Detroit Tigers fan checking in…that’s right, I said Tigers fan.
They are definitely on the upswing, compared to a couple of years ago. They have spent some big bucks this year, so I am hoping we will see the results to go with it. Pitching is once again going to be the problem with this team, and I have yet to figure out how any major league team doesn’t understand that one good pitcher is worth at least two good position players.
Oh well, I hope Trammell can take them back to the golden days of 1984. Go Tigers!
Yeah, I disagree with this. I think the Angels and the A’s are the only two teams that will crack 90 wins. I see the Mariners finishing dead last again, and I don’t think Texas is going to do as well this year. Angels and A’s in a tight 1-2, and I don’t see either the Rangers or the M’s cracking 85 or 80 respectively.
We should have a Kansas City Dopefest at a Royals game. I think that would be awesome, although the baseball might not be great.
I’m encouraged by my Mariners’ moves in the off-season, but there were so many that I’m just going to have to see if these guys play well together. Here’s hoping!
Normally I’d agree, considering the A’s always seem to manage to play well above what seems to be their level, but the dismantling of the starting pitching is a huge question mark, as Ol’Gaffer says above. I see the Angels winning 95, the A’s winning 85, and the M’s and Rangers as mystery teams that could win 60 or 90 but will probably come in around 75-80. All I know for sure is, its place as a frustrating but fascinating division will continue. 
If the Orioles finish a solid third with 85-90 wins, I’ll be content enough for this year. If Sosa is gone by May 1, I’ll be doubly content.
As a Braves fan, I’m cautiously optimistic. The rotation looks like a return to mid-90s form, I’m hearing good things about the work Andruw Jones has done in the off-season, and there’s no reason to think Johnny Estrada won’t equal what he did last year. The infield positions except for 1B should be more productive than the average team, and if Brian Jordan’s healthy and Raul Mondesi is back to being his old self, they should score enough that a potentially shaky bullpen won’t be too much of a problem. But if Jordan gets hurt again and/or Mondesi repeats his non-performance of last year, we’ll be in trouble (unless Ryan Langerhans is a whole lot better than I think he is). If it all comes together, I think even the Mets will have a hard time unseating the Braves from the NL East throne. As it is, with Martinez and Beltran, they should still give the Braves a closer race than anyone has in recent years.
I dunno. Somebody said to me today that since O’malley sold the team they haven’t really had any direction, just making arbitrary moves with no real purpose.
This past off-season seems to exemplify that statement. Maybe DePodesta really does have a plan and is building for a powerhouse future, but I have my doubts. Letting Beltre leave was a huge, huge, HUGE f***ing mistake and Kent and second and Valentin and Japanese Guy platooning at third doesn’t exactly paint a Gold Glove picture of an infield. J.D. Drew will underperform because Dodger Stadium is such a difficult hitter’s park (same for Kent). He Chop Soy needs a couple of years before he’ll be a real hitter and I have my doubts the Dodgers will be that patient (although I gather DePodesta loves him; go figure). Although we only had him for a half-season, Steve Finley sure looked like he belonged in Dodger Blue for longer than that.
Without steroids, Gagne will be good, not spectacular. With steroids, I think his arm is starting to wear out anyway.
Starters will be good, Lowe will do well in this pitchers’ park. Middle relief is solid.
Bottom line: a lot of movement, still many holes, no real stud to carry what’s left of the offense. But the N.L. Weak will give them a chance to win the division, but I think the young Padre arms will bring them the division.
Oh, and Shawn Green, the only guy in the majors undoubtedly NOT on steroids will have a bust-out year in Arizona and we’ll all miss what was the classiest Dodger in years.
I obviously didn’t go into great depth on most teams, but there’s another article on that site that goes into more depth on more teams (and less depth on others). If anyone’s interested, I can try to hunt it down.
The questions:
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How will Smoltz do returning to the starting rotation? If he’s able to get the mentality back, the physical stuff should be just fine. If he can be the Smoltz of the mid '90s, look out.
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How will Horacio Ramirez do? The past year or two he’s been looking at becoming the staff ace. With that mentality gone he’s going to have to continue to mature mentally as well as coming back from the shoulder trouble that’s slowed down his career (and physical maturation, I think).
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Will Leo Mazzone continue to make John Thomson look like a viable starting pitcher?
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Andruw Jones can still get a lot better on offense. Will he return to the progress he made some years ago or will he get closer to 200 strikeouts a year?
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Is Ryan Langerhans going to be another Ryan Klesko or another Jermaine Dye, or someone else entirely?
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What in the hell are Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan going to do?
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If Marcus Giles - or any member of the infield - has a serious injury, how will Betemit, Green or whoever else handle things? Green came though quite well last year, but I’m unsure about Betemit. Spring Training has revealed some very fine (strong defense, fast) prospects, but they are probably not ready to step into a major league lineup and produce any better on offense than was ever expected of Rey Ordonez.
OK, so compared to some other clubs I look like I’m being overdramatic. Thing is that we look like we have serious competition this year.
I’m a Rockies fan, looking forward to the season we have:
- Todd Helton
- A lot of damn good beer.
- Preston Wilson
- A great view from the stadium
- Damn good beer.
- A bunch of other guys who would make a pretty fine AAA team.
Yep, all in all I’m pretty sure this basball season is going to great success in the areas of drinking a lot of beer, and enjoying the view.
So the Brewers are about to have the same season they have every year. If everybody on the squad does as well as they could reasonably be expected to do (say, put up numbers that are at least 85% of their career best), and a few key people don’t miss many games due to injuries, they should be at or near the top of their weak division.
But how often does that happen?
At least this year, the young guns are starting to get antsy in the minor leagues. So if, say, Lyle Overbay pulls a Wes Helms this year, we at least have young Fielder to call up and take his place.
-lv
I’m not a Dodgers fan, but letting Beltre leave was a much smarter move than you’re giving them credit for. Beltre is a good player but 2004 was a colossal, historic fluke, and the Mariners overpaid. Beltre’s numbers will shrink dramatically this year.
DePodestra gets no respect. When he traded Paul Lo Duca, everyone talked about how stupid he was for trading away Mr. Heart And Soul. Well, Mr. Heart And Soul’s new team (the Marlins) tanked, and the Dodgers won the division. And everybody who criticized the trade just totally forgot about how they’d said the loss of Mr. Heart and Soul as going to kill the Dodgers…
I’m an Orioles fan, and I expect to have as little reason to pay attention this year as I did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and …
I’ve been a Mets fan since birth, no choice really. I’ve decided they are going to be the new Red Sox. In 60 years we’re going to hear 1986 as a chant by our rivals. They are beyond help, but I’ll watch anyway.
This is the reason to follow the Brew Crew right now. They’re the only team in the division with any sort of decent farm system. If they keep their eye on the prize and don’t do anything stupid, they’ll have a three or four year window of opportunity within two or three years to do some major damage in the division.
As a proud Pirates fan from day 1, I can tell you that they aren’t going to do anything spectacular. More of the same, more losing, nothing worthwhile to mention.