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Predicting Major League Baseball. AL East
NL East
NL Central
NL West
Detroit Tigers -- 93-69
Not to nitpick, but it's important to remember that -- much like Men in Black -- Prince Fielder isn't joining Vic Martinez ... he's replacing Vic Martinez. The Tigers paid a lot of money to make another run at a World Series with Justin Verlander in his absolute prime despite Martinez's awful season-ending injury. I think there will be an issue with Miggie Cabrera at third base, but I think that is true nitpicking. Poor defense at third base does not a season ruin. Game to game, maybe. It especially minimizes Doug Fister's capabilities as a groundball pitcher.
Kansas City Royals -- 81-81
Yeah. I went there. It's my blog. I do what I want. I think the offense and bullpen will be good to great and that's good enough to take a bad franchise to .500 in a bad division. That's my reasoning. The starting pitching is not ideal by any means. I think Jon Sanchez is a clear X-factor. National League guy coming over to the designated hitter. Still, could be an improvement to the rotation. A full year of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas. Keep an eye on Alcides Escobar, the shortstop had in the Zack Greinke trade. Twenty-one doubles, eight triples and 26 stolen bases a year ago.
Cleveland Indians -- 78-84
It's quite tremendous that the Indians were able to finish as well as they did without Ubaldo Jimenez (for half a year) and Shin-Soo Choo having good years. This was a bunch of kids. Granted, they fell on their face in the second half of the season, but they had zero expectations a year ago. This year, there's expectations. And mine are for a down year after surprising some folks a year ago. Seems like there's not enough there.
Chicago White Sox -- 75-87
I think it's a rotation of No. 3 or 4 starters. Way too many dead spots in the line-up. Aside from maybe Chris Sale, is there a young guy on the team that will improve? I think Adam Dunn gets beater, Paul Konerko will continue to rake and John Danks and Gavin Floyd will continue getting 12 wins and a 4.50 ERA, but I don't know how they're any better than last year without first getting a little worse under a manager that got beat up by Nolan Ryan.
Minnesota Twins -- 67-95
The good news is that the Twins won 63 game a year ago and I would bet money that it's really hard to actually get any worse. At the very least, my fantasy team's betting on a Comeback Player of the Year performance from Justin Morneau and maybe 150 games of Joe Mauer. On paper a dreadful team, but one that doesn't know any better and will pick up four games from 2011 to 2012.
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