The Workermonkey

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 4/08/2005 01:15:00 PM

AL East: In order of predicted finish.

NY Yankees: its hard to improve upon lasts years performance. A-rod will hit better, so will Matsui. The offense is going to score more runs this year then last. Better years from those two guys with a full year of jeter, another solid performance from sheffield (he’s a fucking professional, bottomline) and a better season out of giambi all mean more runs. Remember last year when tony clark, enrique wilson and miguel ciro got a ton of playing time? Gues not, now replace them with tino martinez, tony womack and rey sanchez (yeah I know, he can’t hit, but neither could wilson, and he’s not going to play anywhere near as much). Womack bating ninth brings a great dimension to the lineup; he can get on base, still has some speed and will give jeter a bunch of RBI opportunities. A-rod will also benefit from this batting in the two hole. Bernie williams is the problem. His black hole status is no secret. He’s lost two steps, made up for by the fact that he’s finally learned how to get a good jump on the ball, and he can’t seem to hit the ball hard any more. He should never hit higher then eighth in the lineup. I was amazed to see him hit three fly balls this week after I didn’t see one all spring. One thing I can say about a-rod, after each spring training game, after he was taken out in the 7^th or so, he could be seen running wind sprints on the adjacent practice field. One of the games I saw jeter was running with him but left early. A-rod was definitely putting more work in then other people. Giambi was also taking extra batting practice early in the morning when no one was paying attention. I also saw him hit bombs in games, so it wasn’t all steroids.

The pitching will be solid. Johnson, pavano, mussina, and wright will all have great seasons and win 15 games. Brown is another story. Every year someone seems to think brown will stay healthy all season and give them 30+ starts. Well, this hasn’t happened in quite some time and the dodgers/yanks/padres have all been burned. The yanks will need a fifth starter to fill half the games he’s supposed to start. The bull pen gets a B this year. Gordon, quantril and rivera were all over used last year and there will be some hangover. Rivera is still a great pitcher, but Boston has his number, just like the yanks got Pedro’s number. Torre needs to learn this and either not put him in or have the balls to pull him. I like Felix Rodriguez, I love mike Stanton but he’s going to suck. We dumped him two years ago because we burned him out, so lat year the mets burned him even more and we pick him up. Fucking fantastic. The bullpen is better, but its going to take a more ensemble cast this year. Don’t count out tanyon sturtz.

Boston Red Sox: (wildcard, unless a lot of things go wrong, then watch out for Oakland and the white sox!)The offense will be the same. Renteria will hit better then Cabrera and Reese combined and make up for belhorns drop-off in production. Many is the same, ortiz will be a little better, but he can’t win the MVP until he plays the field, which won’t happen. If Mueller and millar falter, the offense will take a hit. If this happens, youkilis may se some playing time. Johnny damon may play himself into the yanks starting center fielder next year, something I don’t want to see. Nixon is the wildcard here, he missed most of last year and that hurt, he’ll be back strong this season and will provide any missing umph to the line up. They are sill going to score a ton a runs.

Their pitching is where the fault is. Shilling is going to be fine, but his missing the start of the season will give the division to the yanks. Wells isn’t going to be great but he’s a solid pitcher and will fill lowes shoes well. Clement is the unknown here, he got no run support from the cubs last year but he’s never really been a good pitcher beyond that. This spring wasn’t anything great either. Wakefield will pitch until he’s 60 or that knuckle ball stops fluttering, which ever happens first. Bronson arroyo will be a solid pitcher and give the team a lot of quality innings. Wade miller was the steal of the off-season, he may not be back anytime soon but he’s a front line #2 guy and will be better then a midseason trade. The problem with the starters is no one can really fill Pedro’s shoes and this is going to hurt come October. Last year schilling and Pedro were a great pair of aces to put teams away, now its going to have to be more of a group effort. This is where the bullpen comes in….and fails. Foulk isn’t the same pitcher he used to be and they’ve added no good arms back there. Meyers? Embree? Come on, timlin still has it but they will struggle late. If miller comes back strong, barring any injuries, arroyo will be pushed back to the pen, maybe wakefield, and that may be the help they need.

Baltimore Orioles: if the red sox trip and fall, or even the yanks for that matter, watch the O’s to reap the rewards. They can flat out hit. Sosa is going to hit at least 50 at Camden yard and drive the O’s like he used to drive Chicago. Plamero is always good for at least 35 homers. Javey Lopez, well, it looks like I was wrong last year and he didn’t fall apart. I guess you can get another 30 from him too. Anyone notice what melvin mora hit last year? How about he finished 4^th in the AL in batting average? A full year of brian roberts is the benefit of moving jerry mathews jr to chi-town. Who else thought BJ surhofff was dead? I just saw him play left field tonight, must have been a typo. They a few holes but 1-6 can hit.

Their pitching is an interesting subject. They have a solid pen with a bunch of lefties. Almost too many, watch one of them get spun off for a starter somewhere down the line. Starting pitching is the problem. The other Lopez started opening day and looked good. He did well last year and this could be a breakout season for him. I watched another youngster named Eric bedard pitch for them and he was solid. Good stuff and he got guys out. Yesterday I watched cordero (or cordova, maybe cervesze, I can’t remember) and he looked good at times, but he wasted a lot of pitches. This is a problem that can be fixed and he could be good. They have their highest paid pitcher down in the forth slot in Sydney ponsone. He’s a fat bastard of a pitcher but he has done good in the past, maybe he can reclaim that, who knows. If they can steal a front line starter at the trade dead line then they could conceivably take down boston. Injuries to the sox will be the key for this teams success. Remember they do have to play each other 19 times. If they can steal some games from the yanks and sox, tampa and toronto could lay down in front of them and hand over some wins.

Toronto Blue Jays: it’s going to be a long year. JP ricardi is one of the billy bean disciples whose move on to better things but maybe he should have stayed a little longer. They’ve managed to get a few young players into the line u pand they look good, but where oh where is the pitching? Alex rios and vernon wells are going to have to lead this team. Eric hinski needs to prove he isn’t a bust and someone needs to play first. Roy halliday needs to bounce back from throwing too many pitches the last few years and a young starter needs to take a spot in the rotation. The bullpen is a mess and will make it hard of any starter. I’m not sure what their farm system looks like but it may be awhile before help arrives. My best advice is let the kids play and look at nothing but the future this year. If haliday isn’t looking good or just doesn’t have it, shut him down and wait till next year. Get some young help and maybe trade a guy like hinski for future help. Wells and rios and I think they have another great young outfielder shouldn’t go anywhere. Wait til next year.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays: whats going to make this team fun to watch are three things. 1) scott kazmir, great young lefty who’s still developing but can still beat any team. 2) the development of good young players like crawford, huff, brazelton, hall and until he tore his ACL baldelli. Watch for some awesome young talent to be called up before September like BJ upton and the other guy, I can’t remember his name. 3) lou pinella going absolutely apeshit. Its going to be a long year with some growing pains but next year it will be worth it. With baldelli out and not real offense to speak of its going to be a year of the more then ocational blowout and not enough runs. If pinella doesn’t blow a gasket this year it will be because he has some sort of heart ailment and his doctor put him on prozac or something to keep him calm. The east will be interesting next year, the devil rays will be decent and on the right track. The yanks and sox will still rule but their reign is coming to an end if the O’s have anything to say about it. The rays are building for the long run and have finally gotten it right after a few years of failing miserably. They will be forced to spend some money, if not in the rotation then in the bullpen or for a quality bat. Pinella may bolt if they don’t and it would be a shame, because they’ve build something good here and it would be a dishonor to the sport if they let it get away. It may also be a long time before they get this type of chance again.

The Workermonkey

Friday, April 08, 2005

AL East

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 4/08/2005 01:15:00 PM

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