Monday, March 27, 2017

2017 AL East Predictions

Well Yankee family, it's that time of year again! Last year I did a prediction series where I went through each division, team by team, predicting what the end-of-the-year outcome would look like. I am hoping to have a little bit more success this season, as I only predicted one division, in it's entirety(NL East), correctly. If you didn't have a chance to read them, I had Boston, Kansas City, Houston, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco as the respective division winners, with Pittsburgh and New York representing the NL Wild Card teams and New York and Detroit representing the Wild Card squads for the AL. I should also note that I predicted Cleveland to take fourth place in the AL Central... So like I said, hoping for some better results this season.

We begin, as we did in 2016, with the best division in all of the game, including three teams that advanced to the 2016 postseason; the American League East. After witnessing one of the greatest final seasons from any single player in the history of our game, David Ortiz lead his Boston Red Sox to another division title. Surprisingly, they were treated to an early exit thanks to a three-game Division Series sweep at the hands of the eventual AL champs, the Cleaveland Indians. Honestly, you could easily see any one of these five teams representing the East, as this is one of the strongest and tightest divisions in the show. Will the East produce three playoff-bound teams yet again in 2017? Let's take a look.

5. Tampa Bay Rays

Starting pitching has always been a perennial strength of the Tampa Bay Rays. Despite having one of the top 10 SPs in all of baseball in Chris Archer, their once strength has transformed into one of the shake year rotations in the American League. Their next best starter outside of Archer, Drew Smyly, was shipped off to Seattle for a package of prospects. Alex Cobb is returning this season after missing all of 2016 due to injury. Jake Odorizzi, Matt Andriese and Blake Snell round out the end of Tampa's thin rotation. And Smyly was not the only big departure of the off-season. All-Star second baseman and Rays leadoff man Logan Forsythe was shipped to the Dodgers, forcing Tim Beckham and Corey Dickerson into a lefty/righty platoon  atop the batting order. James Loney, who was HUGE for the Fish when Logan Morrison went down, is in Texas now and Steve Pearce is playing north of the border. With so many subtractions and very few impactful additions, I don't see Tampa finishing anywhere other then at the bottom of the division.

4. Baltimore Orioles

The unofficial theme for this ball club in 2017 should be "feast or famine". After losing Matt Wieters to free agency, the O's acquired Wellington Castillo from the Diamondbacks. Which is like George Foreman having another child; it's just going to be another George. Castillo has the same " homerun or bust" hitting mentality as 2/3 of the rest of the Birds batting order(Trumbo, Davis, Alvarez, Hardy, Schoop). Even their bullpen, outside of Zach Britton, is unhittable one day and gives up 1.7 million runs the next. And as is perennially the case, Baltimore's starting pitching staff is a major concern. It will either be the unproven Kevin Gausman or the inconsistent and often injured Chris Tillman competing for the number one spot. After those two you have Dylan Bundy(the lone bright spot in the Orioles rotation), the not-so-good-anymore Ubaldo Jimenez and the simply awful Wade Miley to round it out. They will definitely need to hit the ball out of the ballpark in order to stay competitive in 2017. I just can't see a potent offense carrying a suspect starting pitching staff over the course of a 162 game season.

3. Toronto Blue Jays

A season after making their second consecutive trip to the postseason, Toronto lost maybe the most important player on their team to the Cleaveland Indians in free agency, Edwin and Encarnacion.  Left with the task to replace the gawdy numbers by the All-Star first baseman, the Jays signed Kendrys Morales and Steve Pearce to fill the void. Pearce should help shore up the revolving door that is left field for Tarano and  Morales may end up as one of the more underrated signings of the winter. As for their pitching, staff ace Marcus Stroman got his '17 off to a great start by taking home MVP honors of the World Baseball Classic. J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada and Aaron Sanchez are coming off career-best seasons and are hoping to build off of them in 2017. To round it out, Toronto is hoping for much more than they received last season from their trade-deadline acquisition, Francisco Liriano. The only bugaboo for the Jays this season, and has been for the last few seasons, is the uncertainty of their bullpen. Despite representing the Dominican republic in the WBC, closer Roberto Osuna fell apart at the end of last season and has much to prove to get back into the conversation of elite closer. Though picked third, I fully anticipate Turano being in it until the very end.

2. New York Yankees

Yankee fans are finally going to get an idea of what a Brian Cashman team looks like. The seasoned GM has managed to keep his team relevant while almost completely overhauling the roster. Since the trade deadline from last year, Cashman has managed to obtain the second best farm system in all of baseball, with his gutsy moves like: Chapman for the number three overall prospect Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren and Billy McKinney, Miller for Clint Frazier(#27ovr), Justice Sheffield and two others,  Beltran for Dillon Tate,and even moving back stop Brian McCann this off-season for a couple of fireballers from Houston. And none of those names include the Yankees three most promising young stars Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Greg Bird. The latter Bird has had an incredible spring and has made the signing of 2016 NL homerun champ Chris Carter almost obsolete. Cashman also signed Matt Holliday this off-season for his electric right-handed bat and his invaluable clubhouse leadership. As for the pitching staff, Cashman inked Chapman to a record deal(5yr/$85M) to bring back the Cuban Missile to close for the boys in pinstripes. Tanaka had the best year of his Yankee career last season and can opt out of his contract at seasons end. Sabathia completely reinvented himself a season ago, sporting the lowest ERA he has had in pinstripes. And Sabathia said that he believes this is the year that Michael Pineda puts it all together and competes for a Cy Young award. Luis Severino has had a tremendous spring and has asserted himself as the number four starter for New York. With maybe the best bullpen in baseball and such a young, counted nucleus of players, the Yankees look to be in it for the long haul and should, at worst, be one of the two Wild Card teams in the American League.

1. Boston Red Sox

For The second consecutive season, I am going against my Yankee-loving gut and picking Boston to take the division in 2017. Boston made far an away the biggest splash of the off-season by acquiring the dominant lefty Chris Sale from the White Sox for a truckload of prospects, headed by the number one prospect in baseball, Johan Moncado. Sale is undoubtedly the most dominant left-handed starter in the American League, and is added to a staff that already includes the 2016 Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello, former Cy Young Award winner David Price, and first-time All-Star in 2016 as well as one of the few remaining knuckleballer in baseball, Steven Wright. Additionally, with the unbelievable break out performances last year by the likes of Mookie Betts, Xander Bogarts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and number two overall prospect Andrew Benintendi, the Red Sox are poised to have as potent an offense as they did last year. Even with the loss of the retired David Ortiz, GM Dave Dombrowski brought in Mitch Moreland to shore up defensively the position at first base, as well as provide some much-needed left-handed power to their already deep lineup. The GM also upgraded the Open by trading third baseman Travis Shaw to Milwaukee for fireballer Tyler Thornburg. Thornburg, in conjunction with a full, healthy season for the hard throwing Carson Smith, should be more than enough to fill the void left by the departure of former closer Koji Uehara. They had a phenomenal 2016, and barring any major injuries, they look poised to go for it again in 2017.

 Let the debating begin.

9 comments:

  1. Yankee's Management...BE BOLD!

    35 players today, must be 25 by Sunday. BE CREATIVE!

    Most of us are sick of the status quo. There must be some pending trade
    offers that can be looked at again ?

    You must be bold as you move forward.
    I for one have had enough, and will have extreme grievances if asked to wait two more years.
    Watching other teams be creative is hard to take.

    The $3 billion dollar team is again acting like the dollar store.
    Be bold, be creative....do something.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not saying I don't want to see Brian Cashman and company be more creative, I would just like to hear some ideas from you.

      I think they have a strong core of young players to build upon like Sanchez, Bird, and Judge, while having more on the way such as Frazier, Torres, and Kaprielian. So let's see what those guys, as well as others, develop into and see where we should spend money on later.

      For example, if the outfield is set with Frazier, Mateo, and Judge in it (I'm going to hold out hope that Cashman can get rid of Ellsbury), then they should go hard after Manny Machado after 2018.

      I will admit that the future starting rotation is full of questions, though. So that "creativity" you speak of could rear it's head in that regard.

      Delete
    2. Patrick didn't the Reed post on the elf give you confidence on his ability to be bold? I mean the King of the Dumpster Dive has nothing on his plate. He sends players down because they haven't played Triple A ball, yet other organizations including the Mets i.e Conforto was moved from Double A to the majors. The Elf has a preconceived notion that you need to due your time in triple A and it might be multiple years and if lucky you might get a sniff in September. He's a gutless gm

      Delete
    3. HANSEL...Yes, it appears as you say, that young players in this
      organization must spend unneeded time in the minors before
      being moved up.
      IE: If Mike Trout was a Yankee, he would need more time to
      mature, or learn about hair cuts....Or both!

      All the while other teams promote their prize young players.
      If you can play at the top level?...Why wait ?

      Delete
    4. patrick, both you and KH are right, in a way, a small way! LOL
      Where would those guys play if not at AAA/AA? The only guys that could be replaced have too much money owed them. Ells in CF, Headley at 3rd and maybe Castro at 2nd....oh, Brett also, his days are numbered.
      So, we have 3 guys and maybe one more (Castro) that could be replaced. Let's get real here, you think Hal will eat all that money?
      Those other teams have an opening on the team, just like Jeter when he was slated for the bench until Fernandes was hurt.

      Delete
    5. Castro wasn't needed last year. RR could have done same job with less money, second we all know Ellsbury deal was a bad deal, however I think he is going to produce his year and lastly your boy the elf Mr. Reed should have been sent Gardner packing a few years ago. His contract is not awful and there is no need for a weak armed , light hitting non base stealing OF. The elf is thinking Gardner's return should be a haul and it just isn't so

      Delete
  2. I love ya man but u gotta proof read lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know if you know, but Benny is legally blind. I know he uses talk to text, so I don't think it recognizes some of the idiosyncrasies that he's trying to use. My question is, where is the editor?

      Delete
    2. While myself or Daniel would be happy to edit articles if our writer's wanted that, they have the freedom to do as they wish when it comes to publishing.

      Delete

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)