Tuesday, February 5, 2008

AL East Predictions

AL East
I am a Red Sox fan and that may have made this a biased pick. I like the Sox to win the division because they won it last year and could have a stronger team this year. Basically, the AL East will come down to the Red Sox and the Yankees. The Blue Jays, Orioles, and Devil Rays were 13, 27, and 30 games back respectively of the Red Sox last year. Realistically the Orioles and Devil Rays have no shot at winning the division and the Blue Jays just don't scare me. So that leaves the Red Sox vs. the Yankees. Big surprise. The Yankees did nothing to get better in the off season and I'm sorry, a rotation that features Mussina, Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, and Kei Igawa/Ian Kennedy just doesn't strike fear into opponents. Now one that has Beckett, Dice-K, Schilling, Wakefield, and then the combo of two great youngsters in Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz is intimidating. The Sox and Yankee hitting lineups don't need help but the Yankees are getting old and A-Rod likely won't put up the same eye popping numbers of 2007. The Yankees are older (I suspect injuries will take their toll) and have Jason Giambi at 1st. It's not the early 2000 version either, no, this Giambi hits .236. The Red Sox will likely have Jacoby Ellsbury starting from the beginning of the season rather than Coco Crisp and Pedroia will get another year of experience to build on his Rookie of the Year campaign.

Red Sox: 96-66
Yankees: 90-62
Blue Jays: 81-81
Devil Rays: 73-89
Orioles: 62-100

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