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AL East

New York Yankees

Boston Red Sox*

Tampa Bay Rays

Baltimore Orioles

Toronto Blue Jays

Even as a Red Sox fan, I cannot pick them to win this division. I’d love to be wrong here, but as an unbiased writer trying to pick what I feel is the most likely outcome, I have to go with the Steinbrenners on this one. Gone are Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui from last years squad, but, though they didn’t spend much money this offseason, except for some chump change on guys like Randy Winn, they’ve quietly gotten some big names into town, stealing Javier Vazquez and Curtis Granderson from the Braves and Tigers respectively. The Red Sox are still too talented to be overlooked though. I do not like what they did this offseason, overpaying the likes of Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron, but the addition of John Lackey, no matter how much they spent on him, can’t hurt their rotation. If Jon Lester and Josh Beckett continue to give the Sox what they have been in recent years, and Clay Buchholz continues to develop, and Dice-K is even a fraction of what he was in 2008, this is probably the best rotation in baseball. Their offense is nothing to be overlooked either, though they lack that fearful middle that Sox fans have been so used to. I think they are the favorites for the Wild Card right now. The Rays season is ultimately going to depend on their bullpen. Their bullpen was great in 2008 and bad in 2009 and, coincidentally, the team made the playoffs in 2008 and not in 2009. The young talent is still there, but I’m not sold on their leaky pen enough to put them past the Sox and Yanks, who will remain divisional juggernauts once again. The Orioles have the young talent to surprise people, especially with their young outfielder, and the reacquisition of Miguel Tejada adds another bat to their lineup, though he’s not going to be the MVP he was a decade ago. The Jays just traded their ace Roy Halladay and are clearly looking towards the future. I don’t think they’ll have the pitching to contend this year at all, and I’m not expecting much from their offense either.

AL Central

Minnesota Twins

Chicago White Sox

Detroit Tigers

Cleveland Indians

Kansas City Royals

The Twins made the playoffs last season despite Justin Morneau going down with injury late. They will continue to do what they do every year, win games. I can’t tell you how they do it with a team that, talent wise, is a .500 team, but they do it. Joe Mauer is going to continue to anchor both their lineup and their defense and I’m expecting a bit of a bounce back here for Francisco Liriano, now over a year removed from Tommy John surgery. He adds to a young rotation that showed a ton of promise last season. The White Sox and a full season of Jake Peavy will be there too in contention. The Tigers gave up Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson in a head scratching cost cutting move. That will show itself on the field this year as they will struggle to get to .500. The Indians were my sleepers last year, and while they don’t have the pitching to be a true contender, their surprise some people assuming their bats stay healthy this year. The pitching staff, though not great, is underrated. They have some interest sleeper names in that seemingly ace-less (or #2 starter-less for that matter) rotation. The Royals have the young talent, but again, I can’t see them putting it all together and getting above .500.

AL West

Los Angeles Angels

Seattle Mariners

Texas Rangers

Oakland Athletics

The Mariners look better on paper and, though this may not be the best reason to not give them the division, but something has to go wrong there. They have arguably the best 1-2 starter punch in the league with Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee, but every single year, they have hope, granted not as much as this year, and the Angels still win this division. The Angels have been hit hard in free agency in recent years, Mark Teixiera, Francisco Rodriguez, John Lackey, and Chone Figgens, but this is a resilient bunch who I am picking to win the division. The Rangers could be a 95 win team if they hit like they did in 2008 and pitch like they did in 2009, but their rotation doesn’t have any starters proven for more than one good year and I’m not counting on Rich Harden to be that guy either. The A’s will pitch well, with vets with Justin Duchscherer and Ben Sheets atop the rotation and great young talent, but neither Duke or Sheets pitched at all last year, so they aren’t reliable. Plus, their offense figures to be one of the worst in the majors.

NL East

Philadelphia Phillies

New York Mets

Florida Marlins

Atlanta Braves

Washington Nationals

Not a huge fan of the Phillies trading Cliff Lee for Roy Halladay simply because, if its working, don’t try to fix it, but its hard to argue with getting Roy Halladay in your rotation next to Cole Hamels. I think this is a team that’s a lock to win the division again with a powerful offense and the best 1-2 pitching punch in the NL. The bullpen could be their achilles heel, but Brad Lidge does well in even numbered years for what its worth, and either way I think they have what it takes to make it back to the World Series. The Mets can’t be worse than last year unless their new stadium collapses on them. The addition of Jason Bay helps, but getting guys like David Wright and Jose Reyes back, hopefully for the season, helps a lot too. Don’t forget they are getting a lot of injured pitchers back as well and Carlos Beltran is reportedly going to be ready to go by May. I think this team is going to challenge for a Wild Card spot. The Marlins will always be there despite never spending any money. They have young talent up to their eyeballs. The Braves lost their best pitcher, Javier Vazquez when they traded him for 65 cents on the dollar to the Yankees, presumably to cut costs. They have some interesting young bats almost ready for the show, but I think they’re going to struggle to find the talent to make the playoffs. 75-80 wins is more likely. The Nationals will continue to be the laughing stock of the league. Jason Marquis and Chien Ming Wang are intriguing offseason additions and Stephen Strasburg’s much anticipated debut will be a big story, but they just don’t have the talent on their roster.

NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals

Chicago Cubs*

Cincinnati Reds

Milwaukee Brewers

Houston Astros

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Cardinals may have overpaid for Matt Holliday, but he’s a hell of a bat protecting Albert Pujols, who, by the way, can swing the bat alright himself. They always seem to find the pitching somewhere and with Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, both of whom were in the top 3 in Cy Young votes, atop their rotation, that shouldn’t be as hard as its been in years past. They are the clear favorites here, but watch out for the Cubbies. They have the talent to win 85+ games when they put their heads together, instead of trying to hit each other in the head with bats. Milton Bradley is gone and, say what you want about Carlos Silva, who they got in exchange for him, he’s not going to cause any problems in the clubhouse. Just as long as they don’t let him on the field. The Reds are my sleeper pick to win 81+ plus games and finally get over .500. They had some very nice quiet offseason additions and they won 78 games last year despite major injuries in their pitching staff. I think they get all the way to 81 this year. The Astros have the bats, but not much else. The Pirates did absolutely nothing this offseason and will continue to be laughed at with the Nats.

NL West

Los Angeles Dodgers

San Francisco Giants

Colorado Rockies

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Diego Padres

The Dodgers had a rough offseason thanks to a martial dispute between owner Frank McCourt and his wife and CEO Jamie McCourt. That really stopped them from doing much this offseason, but all they lost was Randy Wolf. They still have a lot of young talented players, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw, in the rotation, and an underrated offense that was noticeable better when Manny was in the middle of the lineup last year. As long as he doesn’t try to impregnate himself again, he should be in the lineup everyday, minus a few “Manny being Manny” days off. The Giants have the pitching assuming Matt Cain continues with 2009 success and highly talented Jonathan Sanchez continues what he had going late last season, but the offense is a question mark. Adding a winner like Mark DeRosa helps, but overall I think they’ll struggle to score enough runs. The pitching will continue to bail them out of games though. The Rockies had a great season last year, but I can’t see it continuing this season. This team has potential sophomore slump written all over it, though you can never count them out. The Diamondbacks should be in it too, should their rotation stay healthy, with guys like Dan Haren, Brandon Webb, and now Edwin Jackson, but the question remains whether or not they can score the runs to support them. I think they’ll score enough to contend, but not enough to make the playoffs. The top 4 in this division are going to be very close and I expect all to win more than 80 games. The Padres will continue what seems like a permanent rebuilding effort this year and thus not contend for another season.

ALDS: Red Sox over Angels

ALDS: Yankees over Twins

NLDS: Phillies over Cubs

NLDS: Cardinals over Dodgers

ALCS: Red Sox over Yankees

NLCS: Phillies over Cardinals

World Series: Red Sox over Phillies 

Phillies World Series Gear 2009

The Yankees are loaded, as you would expect them to be after all the money they’ve spent this decade, especially the 440 million or so they spent on 3 players last off-season. Despite the fact that its been proven not to work as an effective offensive strategy in years past, this team wins games by hitting a lot of homeruns and any one of their hitters 1-9 is capable of hitting one out in every given at bat.

This team scored more runs than any other team this season. They hit 244 homeruns this season, good for most in the league and 20 more than the two 2nd place teams in that category, the Texas Rangers and the Yankees’ World Series opponent, the Philadelphia Phillies.

They have a very strong rotation led by ace CC Sabathia who has proven that he can mow down the opponent even on short rest. They also have off season acquisition AJ Burnett and old but steady Andy Pettitte who are capable of having big games. Their bullpen is strong as it has ever been lead by future hall of Fame closer Mariano “Mo” Rivera and a bunch of good, young, strong arms strengthening the bridge to Mo.

However, the Phillies are equally loaded. They won the World Series last year and bring to the table an even better team this year. They lost Pat Burrell in the off-season, but replaced him in the outfield with Raul Ibanez who had a breakout year this year at 37 years old despite missing about a month with injuries.

Outfielder Jayson Werth, a former career journeyman, also had a breakout year this year with 36 homeruns and 99 RBIs at age 30. Completing their outfield is Shane Victorino, who had a career year this year and made the All-Star team on the final vote, beating out  Pablo “Panda” Sandoval.

They also added 2008 Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee to their rotation to compliment 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels. They’ve added Pedro Martinez, who has had a Hall of Fame caliber career and has plenty of Postseason experience from his days with the Boston Red Sox.

Their only question mark coming into the Postseason was their bullpen. Brad Lidge, who didn’t blow a save all last season in 48 chances and recorded the final out for the Phillies in the World Series, blew 11 saves this season in the regular season and had an ERA of 7.21. It was unknown whether or not they would keep him as their postseason closer. Lidge has been lights out thus far with 4 saves in 4 chances so far this postseason and is yet to give up a run.

On paper these teams are extremely closely matched, but the Phillies are regarded as an underdog to the Yankees who won 103 regular season games this season, most in baseball. Often times, when teams are this closely matched, the underdog will win because they will feel disrespected and thus want it more. Baseball and life often comes down to who wants it more. It will be a great series, but I expect the Phillies to win it in 7, with Pedro Martinez pitching a dominant performance in game 7 in Yankee stadium, showing the Yankees who their “daddy’ is.

Verdict: Phillies in 7

I don’t like the Yankees. Many people don’t. ESPN and Sportscenter are not in that category. Of course they love them, homeruns, highlights, big names, scandals, a history of success, New York City, all of those things sell. However, I think they are going a bit overboard. In the past three days, watching Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter cover highlights and analysis of the ALCS, I have heard one ESPN analyist say that Mariano Rivera is the greatest pitcher of all time and one ESPN analyist call Alex Rodriquez the greatest hitter of all time. Now, unfortunately I do not remember the name of said analysists mostly because in my reaction, which involved a lot of screaming at the television, cursing, and nearly throwing the remote control, I completely forgot the name of these stupid fools. Why are these analysists stupid fools? Well I’m glad you asked. Both Mariano Rivera and Alez Rodriquez are deadly in what they do and put up great stats, but both lack one thing durability and because of that, they cannot be considered the greatest.

Mariano Rivera had 526 career saves, 2nd most all time to Trevor Hoffman. Depending on when Hoffman and Rivera respectively decide to hang them up, Rivera could be the saves king when its all said and done. He had a 2.25 career ERA and a WHIP of 1.01. He also hasn’t thrown more than 80 and 2/3 innings in any season other than 1996. I don’t know what he would be like as a starting pitcher, but likely, because he only has the one good pitch, albeit amazing, and untested durability, he would not have done as well as a starting pitcher. He’s amazing at what he does and has amazing mental toughness, but can we really call him the greatest pitcher of all time over guys like Cy Young, who had the durability to win 511 games, or Nolan Ryan, who had the durability to strike out 5714 batters? I say no.

I know what you’re thinking. How can I question Alex Rodriguez’s durability. He hasn’t had any major injuries. He’s played 2166 games. He’s never played less than 124 games in a season. Well, my answer to your confusion is his lack of postseason success. Now again I know what you’re thinking. How can I still be calling A-Rod a choker. He’s doing great this year. He is doing great this year, because he missed 38 regular season games and received regular rest often in the regular season. I firmly believe that A-Rod’s postseason success this year is a result of the breaks he got this regular season and also that his past failures were as a result of breaking down late in the season in October. The Yankees did the right thing giving him rest in the regular season as shown by the results he’s putting out this month. In fact I’d argue they needed to. A-Rod is a great weapon when used right, but the greatest hitters of all time, in my mind Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Joe DiMaggio, in that order, were great because they couldn’t be used wrongly at the plate. Their teams didn’t need to give them major rest for them to produce in October.