AL East Division Preview: Can Anyone Take on the Red Sox?
The A.L. East is known for being the powerhouse division in Major League Baseball. Consisting of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays, the A.L. East is almost guaranteed to have a World Series favorite amongst it year in and year out.
The A.L. East has been around for 41 years dating back to its creation in 1969. Since then, 25 division winners have went on to play in the World Series, while winning the World Series 14 times. Since the inception of the Wild Card playoff berth, the A.L. East has produced 12 of the 16 wild card teams.
Enough history, let’s get on to the current status of teams and my prediction for the division winner. (Teams will be placed in the order in which I believe they will finish, starting with number five.)
5th: Toronto Blue Jays
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Not many people realize that the Blue Jays actually finished eight games above .500 last year, probably because of the dominance of the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays in the division.
Jose Bautista and Vernon Wells were hitting so many home runs for this club, Bautista with 54 while Wells hit 31; however, Wells is now in Los Angeles. Additionally, you can’t count on Bautista to have the same year he did last year.
As far as pitching goes, losing Jeremy Accardo and Kevin Gregg will really hurt this team, especially with them both going to Baltimore. The only plus I see in their pitching staff is Ricky Romero, who is a rising star. I don’t see this club taking a huge step forward this season.
4th: Tampa Bay Rays
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This may be a shocker to some, but the Rays are going to be hurting this year.
The Rays lost Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Matt Garza and Rafael Soriano.
Reuniting Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez won’t be as successful as they hope it will be.
Evan Longeria will help in the middle of the lineup, but his bat won't be enough.
David Price and Jeremy Hellickson will help keep them in games, but this team lost too many players to truly contend for the division.
3rd: Baltimore Orioles
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Call me crazy, but the Orioles will be a lot better than people think.
They grabbed Vladimir Guerrero and Derrek Lee to help with power hitting and also got JJ Hardy and Mark Reynolds to put up more RBI’s.
They also boosted their pitching staff tremendously with the additions of Accardo, Gregg and closer, Justin Duchscherer.
It won’t be enough to get them in Wild Card contention just yet, but this team is heading in the right direction.
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2nd: New York Yankees
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The Yankees had a horrible offseason, starting with Cliff Lee snubbing them and going to Philadelphia, and ending with Andy Pettitte retiring.
C.C. Sabathia and Phil Hughes will be the only dependable pitchers. A.J. Burnett is too up-and-down and the additions of Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon won’t help much.
The Yankees will really need their powerhouse lineup to carry them this year, but everyone knows you can’t win a World Series without a great pitching staff.
1st: Boston Red Sox
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While the Yanks were off trying to grab Lee, the Red Sox snuck in and grabbed two top free agents in Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez.
Getting those two in a lineup that already includes Dustin Pedroia, Jacob Ellsbury, David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis is just insane.
Hitting should not be a problem for this team, but then again, neither should pitching.
Assuming Dice-K and Josh Beckett can have solid years, this team is primed for a title run. Jon Lester, Jon Lackey and Clay Bucholz anchor the staff, and together the rotation is stacked.
The Red Sox are a heavy favorite to win the American League Pennant, and rightfully so.
Check out another preview:
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