Divison Preview: AL Central

We continue my previews of the AL divisons with the AL Central this week, and tonight I'll have another post, most likely about my family. But for now, baseball.

The AL Central for the past 2 years has needed 163 games to find a division winner. In both those final games, the Twins were involved. If things come down to the wire again, I have to believe that the Twins will be back in there. The Central, as a divison, is not filled with a lot of hope, though, mainly because whoever wins is playing either the Rays or the Yankees (if my rankings are to be believed, the Red Sox if they are not) and I really don't see that matchup working out well for any of these teams. Still, someone has to win this division, let's break it down.

We'll start with the bottom this time to make things interesting. The Kansas City Royals went 65-97 last year, and I really don't see them making great strides forward, especially not as they're paying Jason Kendall, Rick Ankiel, Jose Guillen.... heck, I could just name the entire Royals lineup as pretty disappointing. They just traded away Mark Teahen to the White Sox for two players, neither of whom looks to greatly improve the team. Wee, another sad year for Kansas City baseball fans. At least they can look forward to the Chiefs who....Oh. Right. Man, am I glad I don't live in Missouri.

In fourth place (last year, technically tied with the Royals, but moving into their own fourth place this year) the Cleveland Indians. The main reason that Cleveland is ranked higher is because Cleveland has some players that could do well. Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, Matt LaPorta, "this team has one or two all-stars on it!" But then the rest of the team, you just look at and wonder if they'll ever be anything more than decent. Their pitching ain't much to look at and the rest of the hitters are stunningly "meh." I don't see them making the strides to get into 1st place, but at least they have some decent fantasy players?

In third again, I'm putting the White Sox. Last year they finished under .500, and they just lost their designated hitter. Yes, I suppose you may be able to recreate some magic and get a few productive DH sessions with Andruw Jones, but Omar Vizquel? Really? He's at best a defensive replacement. And Juan Pierre? Congratulations, Sox fans, you got a better Scott Podsednik. Oh wait, except Podsednik got 7 home runs last year, and was caught stealing the same amount of times as Juan Pierre in 100 more games. What that means is that Juan Pierre is probably going to be caught stealing about 15-20 times by my guess, hit no home runs, substantially fewer RBIs, and frustrate the hell out of you every day. Hooray! Meanwhile, you're hoping for a healthy Carlos Quentin, a serviceable Alex Rios, and a passable Mark Teahen. Your pitching staff is good, but I don't think the offense can hold up as well as it needs to, especially as Peavy is no longer pitching in San Diego (which, having been there, has a very nice ballpark) Maybe second if you're lucky, but I doubt it. And as this is the Central, second place is still first loser.

My thoughts on second place turn to Detroit. After losing Granderson, they did not fill in enough gaps to get over the hump of second place. There's a lot to possibly like on this team; Miguel Cabrera is still dominant, Brandon Inge plays a decent 3rd base, Austin Jackson could provide some spark as the rookie center fielder, the pitching staff still has that ace in verlander. But. Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez are old. But after Verlander there's no other "great" pitchers on staff. But while their middle infield may be decent at defense, they're mediocre at hitting. But the steps to Jose Valverde are slippery and filled with home runs. Second place again, and maybe even third depending on how fat and useless Andruw Jones is or isn't.

So first place again falls to the Twins. Slowey and Baker should be better than they were last year, and their crappy first halves cover up their better second halves. Morneau, Mauer, Cuddyer, Thome/Kubel (depending on who is DHing) are all relatively dangerous, the bullpen is nice and strong, and who knows, JJ Hardy might bounce back to being a serviceable everyday player. If not, those four hitters (heck, they might even get 5 in there if they throw Kubel in left) are dangerous enough that they should be able to handle whatever is thrown at them. So Twins take it down. Next week, some AL West predictions along with my predictions for the AL playoffs. Tonight, a post about my wacky family.