(Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
The Major League Baseball season started this month, bringing hope to fans of all 30 professional baseball teams that this might be their year.
AL East
The Yankees were a big disappointment last season as they missed the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. They have tried to end this issue by spending a lot of money in the offseason by improving their starting rotation in signing CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to long term contracts. They also should see some increased power production as they picked up Mark Teixeira.
These moves probably will bring the Yankees some stability during the first few years of these players' deals, but as the players get older, their numbers might decline and make them regret overpaying these three guys a total of $423.5 million during a time when the economy is at its lowest in a long time.
The Yankees will be opening up a new stadium this season, which cost them over $1.6 billion and will take the place of the stadium that "Babe Ruth built," and had stood since 1923.
The Tampa Bay Rays will be hoping to continue the success they had last season, which ended bittersweet, after losing to the Phillies in the World Series. It was the first time they had won more than 80 in a season, so people will be able to see early on if they are a one-hit wonder.
They will return pretty much everyone from last season, so they should be even better this season. One of the players who should play a big role in determining how far the Rays go is Evan Longoria, who will be looking to improve on a very solid rookie season in 2008.
They will be at a big disadvantage, though, as they play in the AL East, which means they will have to fight with the Yankees and Red Sox for the division crown. Also, in Major League Baseball, a maximum of two teams from a division can make it to October, which might cause a team with a high win total to be sitting at home during postseason play.
The Boston Red Sox will be hoping to avenge last year’s loss in the American League Championship Series to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox made a lot of moves in the offseason that seem like they could end up being low risk/high reward type transactions.
Pitching should not be a problem for the Red Sox this year, as they will return four of the five men in their starting rotation and will have Jonathan Papelbon in the back end of the bullpen to close out Red Sox wins.
The Red Sox offense should also not miss a beat from last season, as they also will return last season’s most valuable player Dustin Pedoria, who will be counted on to continue what he did last season. Last season, he did it all, by putting up above average numbers in every single offensive category.
The Toronto Blue Jays will have low expectations in 2009, as the media is basically saying that the AL East will be a three team race with the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays.
For Toronto to be a surprise, it will probably depend on the pitching staff. They do have one of the top pitchers in the American League in Roy Halladay, but after that, they have a lot of question marks, as they lost A. J. Burnett in the offseason to the New York Yankees, who was their number two starter last season.
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