2011 MLB Baseball: Previewing the Grandest Sport's New Season

Awards

American League Most Valuable Player: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers; .331 AVG, 43 homers, 127 RBI, .410 OBP.

American League Cy Young: Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox; 21-8, 2.80 ERA, 235 strikeouts.

American League Rookie of the Year: Mike Moustakas, Kansas City Royals; .290, 23 homers, 85 RBI, .370 OBP.

National League Most Valuable Player: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants; .315, 25 homers, 110 RBI, .390 OBP.

National League Cy Young: Roy Halladay, Philadephia Phillies; 20-11, 2.30 ERA, 220 strikeouts.

National League Rookie of the Year: Brandon Belt, San Francisco Giants; .275, 27 homers, 77 RBI, .385 OBP.

American League East

The American League East had a busy offseason. The Boston Red Sox loaded up.

The New York Yankees tried to keep pace with some low-risk, high-reward veteran signings.

The Tampa Bay Rays took a step back.

The Baltimore Orioles made some sneaky good signings and hired a tremendous coach, Buck Showalter.

The Toronto Blue Jays are still built to contend.

Barring injury, Boston should be in the driver’s seat for the division’s crown. They have starting pitching depth, a flurry of stars in their lineup and an improved bullpen—everything a team could ask for.

The catalysts for the team are speedy outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who missed most of 2010 with a rib injury, starting pitchers John Lackey and Josh Beckett and closer Jonathan Papelbon.

It is unknown what these four will bring to the table.

Ellsbury had a solid Spring Training, so he should be a force atop their order if his injury is truly behind him, but Lackey, Beckett and Papelbon struggled in 2010 and without their production, Boston could have an underwhelming season.

Lackey lacked consistent control last season, but trusted his off-speed pitches enough. If he can locate his pitches he should rebound.

For Beckett and Papelbon, two pitchers in love with their fastballs, relying more on their off-speed pitches is key. Beckett has a terrific curveball, and Papelbon has an effective changeup. Losing predictability could mean excellent seasons for them.

The Red Sox lineup is dangerous enough top-to-bottom to pick up for Lackey, Beckett and Papelbon if the trio struggles, but time and again it’s been proven that pitching wins championships.

I think the Orioles can really surprise some people.

Showalter has already stirred the pot by calling out Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein and Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter, and his Orioles seem to have a positive outlook by adding power threats like JJ Hardy, Vladimir Guerrero, Mark Reynolds and Derek Lee to a team that has a lot of young, proven talent.

With them the holdup is pitching.

They have struggled year-to-year to put together a solid staff. This season should be no different, as they surprisingly didn’t make many additions to the rotation, but with a better offense, they should increase their win total and possibly leapfrog teams like the Rays and Jays.

American League East Projected Finish

Red Sox, Yankees (three games back), Orioles, Blue Jays, Rays.

American League Central

In the AL Central the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins will once again jockey for positioning throughout the season, as each team has an adequate mix of accomplished veterans and vibrant youth as well as impressive rotations and bullpens. Each team is capable of winning 90 games or more.

The return of Twins first baseman and former Most Valuable Player runner-up Justin Morneau could further sway the division in Minnesota’s direction. He battled concussions last season and missed the season’s final months.

The Twins somehow continued to contend and win the division by a comfortable margin. Now, with his insertion into the starting lineup for Minnesota’s opener, they add a 29-year-old player who has four 100-plus RBI seasons and who managed to club 18 homers and drive in 56 RBI in just 81 games last season.

Pairing him with former MVP Joe Mauer in the middle of the lineup gives the Twins their deadly one-two punch back. Healthy, anything short of another division title would surprise me.

American League Central Projected Finish

Twins, Tigers (two games back), White Sox, Indians, Royals.

American League West

Perhaps the most uninteresting division in baseball is the American League West.

Even still, three teams are projected to be in the hunt: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Oakland Athletics and the 2010 World Series representative Texas Rangers.

The Angels had a disappointing offseason, in part because they missed out on current Red Sox Carl Crawford, who was their primary target.

Anaheim is a team on the decline, having suffered their first losing season last year since 2003 with an 80-82 record and not doing much in the offseason to reverse course.

To compensate for the loss of Crawford to Boston, they traded for Vernon Wells and his hideously lucrative and long contract. Even if Wells does play well with a change in scenery, Anaheim doesn’t seem to have enough pieces in the lineup and rotation to keep up with the Rangers and possibly the A’s in the division.

As long as Billy Beane is the General Manager in Oakland, the Athletics will be intriguing.

He isn’t one to spend money, but he continuously makes thrifty moves to benefit his team. He has taken a liking to signing veterans, and this year’s crop features Hideki Matsui, the former Yankee slugger who may have a 25-homer, 80-RBI season left in him.

Their lineup isn’t flashy and doesn’t have the power to put up five or six runs per game. This is why their intrigue begins and ends with their rotation.

Beane has put a lot of work in over the years in building up his team’s starting rotation and drafting well.

This staff, anchored by 18-game winner Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez and Dallas Braden, was brilliant and somehow flew under the radar. Of these four, Braden had the highest ERA at 3.50.

The starting pitchers in all had a 3.47 ERA, and their closer, Andrew Bailey, has the potential to be dominant.

Teams like the San Diego Padres have won in lieu of a potent offense because of outstanding pitching. Oakland can contend for their division’s title, as long as they receive good situational hitting.

Texas is their polar opposite.

They have the offense, but in losing Cliff Lee, they lost a pitcher they desperately needed to contend this year and beyond.

C.J. Wilson, who played second-fiddle to Lee, is ace-material and will excel as their top starter, but there aren’t many pitchers behind him who can be counted on to throw seven strong innings every fifth day.

Signing Adrian Beltre to improve their offense should help make up for the lack of pitching, but Texas enters the season very vulnerable to being leapfrogged.

American League West Projected Finish

Texas, Oakland (three games back), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seattle Mariners.

 

National League West

The National League West is led by the 2010 World Series champions San Francisco Giants, a team that didn’t lose much this offseason.

The Giants should be the Athletics model. In 2010 they were, for the most part, based around excellent pitching and clutch hitting.

They let World Series MVP Edgar Renteria leave via free agency, but replaced him with an equally talented, albeit equally aged hitter in Miguel Tejada.

They kept two immensely important hitters, Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff.

These two players brought a certain mindset to the team that was certainly energizing. They won’t hit 40 homers and drive in 100 runs, but they will produce consistently and collect important hits when it matters.

With Buster Posey, who was tremendous during his rookie season, Brandon Belt, who is expected to be tremendous during his rookie season, and an incredibly slimmed Pablo Sandoval, to go along with the aforementioned three, as well as their dominating rotation, San Francisco should sit atop the division once more.

The Colorado Rockies in particular will have a lot of say in whether this takes place.

They have perhaps the most dangerous duo in baseball in Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki.

They led the Rockies down the stretch in 2010, both taking the sport by storm in the later months especially. They combined to hit 59 homers and drive in 212 RBI while batting .325.

These two will undoubtedly put up the same numbers this season, but they will need plenty of help in the offensive department to make up for the underwhelming rotation behind ace Ubaldo Jimenez.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are a team to look out for.

They always seem to hang around in divisional races but haven’t been able to get over the hump recently.

They have the pitching staff to compete, and it’s one of the better rotations in baseball in terms of how many quality starts will be made.

Young Clayton Kershaw heads the staff, with veterans Chad Billingsley, Ted Lilly, Hiroki Kuroda and Jon Garland rounding out the five.

They ate innings last season and had ERA’s under four, and can be counted on to do it again.

National League West Projected Finish

San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies (one and-a-half game back), Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres.

National League Central

There will be a similar battle at the top of the National League Central.

Already having documented the outlook of the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates, there’s only the cursed Chicago Cubs and confusing Houston Astros to chronicle.

The Cubs are built as they are every year; they are talented in every facet, but they tend to underachieve with the Billy Goat cackling at their watching the postseason on television after 162 games of disappointment.

Ace Carlos Zambrano appears to be a changed man, and if he keeps his attitude in check under new manager Mike Quade, the Cubs could make some noise and silence the Billy Goat. He makes the team’s car run.

And it’s worth mentioning that former Oregon State Beaver infielder Darwin Barney is going to be their starting second baseman, beating out Jeff Baker and Blake Dewitt for the job. If he hits as he is capable, an already potent offense would improve greatly.

While the Cubs have a direction, the Astros don’t. They are at a crossroads, without enough young players to qualify as a youth movement and not enough good veterans to qualify as a potential contender.

National League Central Projected Finish

Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers (three games back), Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros.

National League East

The Philadelphia Phillies are projected to win the National League East, but I wouldn’t pencil them in quite yet.

They have a dominating pitching staff, headed by Halladay, Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

With that rotation, not many runs need to be scored for the Phillies to be successful.

They have a potent lineup, but they are replacing Jayson Werth with an unknown, currently injured rookie Domonic Brown, and then there’s the uncertainty surrounding ever-important and injured shortstop Jimmy Rollins.

The third reason for not jumping the gun on Philadelphia? The dangerous Atlanta Braves.

Atlanta won on Opening Day, with ace Derek Lowe combing with four relievers to shut out Washington.

The Braves didn’t lose anyone integral through free agency or trade, and managed to add power-hitting second baseman Dan Uggla. Their rotation is similar to Boston’s, with an enviable mix of young arms and veterans.

National League East Projected Finish

Braves, Phillies (two games back), Florida Marlins (six games back), New York Mets, Washington Nationals.

All six divisional races should be close. There are that many quality teams, that many up-and-coming players and that many excellent veterans. Baseball is finally here.

Playoff Predictions

American League Wildcard: Yankees

National League Wildcard: Phillies

American League Championship Series: Red Sox versus Twins

National League Championship Series: Braves versus Giants

World Series: Red Sox versus Braves

World Series Champion: Braves