Season 44 AL East Preview

Boston Beer Bellies
torrone 
SEA 43:  75-87

The Good: AS you would expect playing in Fenway, there are some very productive hitters in the lineup.  RF Yoslan Goya and Phil Kim at DH are probably the best, but Kim has limited Dur.  Mike Darwin and Lisalverto Rijo at the IF corners along with LF Kenneth Easley are all professional hitters, while CF Darin Gil and SS Stryker Hudson provide support.  LF Xander Oliva is a young LF with promise, but no clear place to play.

The Bad:  Can we just say pitching and not mention names to protect the guilty?  SU John Kang was good, but opens the season on the 60 day DL.  Dan Gabriel, Jair Martinez and Jalal Carver were league averagish.  CJ Lynch is a young RP with some promise.  They will miss former ace James Haney, traded in the offseason after an injury-plagued season.

The Ugly: It would be easy to just say pitching again and be done with it, but perhaps the uglier thing is an apparent lack of direction for the franchise.....best guess is that Torrone plans to rebuild on the fly, but the minors are not going to be much help.  There are some useful guys sprinkled throughout, but Mychal Shumpert, SP in Low A is the only impact player.




Predicted Record: A further slide to 71-91 sounds about right.

Pittsburgh Dream Eaters
hystericslap 
SEA 43:  76-86

The Good: 3B Octavio Javier Is a hitter with All Star potential who can play all over the IF.  He is slated to play 3B.  Alex Cooper should finally get a shot at LF.  He has a great glove and solid bat.  RF Josh Long should finally unleash his potential 40+ HR power this year while DH Bo Stewart has the ability to be the best hitter on the team. Both enter their 3rd seasons and look ready for a big step forward.  Among the pitchers, Ted Shaw looked like he had a career year, but will certainly regress.  Alex Sanchez is a good short reliever.

The Bad: Pretty much the rest of the pitching staff.  Replacing Nicholas Wilkins with Adys Bethancourt.  Adys will strike out less, but with fewer homers and SBs.  Relying on Rafael Benitz and Marv Lemon as the double play combination.  Both field well, but the team needs all the run production they can get, and there won't be much here.

The Ugly  This looks like a team poised to rebuild, but most of their decent prospects are still below AA, while the better players in the majors are almost all within a year of hitting arb.

Predicted Record:  They squeeze past Boston (like that's hard) and go 72-90. 

Durham Bulls
aaamizzou
SEA 43:  63-99

The Good: Yasiel Cayones.  Former MVP has HOF written all over him.  Defense is pedestrian, but what a bat!  35 homers in an off year.   DH/1B Darrell Lynn is right behind him, and they are supported by LF Kenny Miller, 1B Danys de la Vega and utility player Cutter Miller.  As for pitchers, I'm looking....looking....Ah, there we are; Ryan Blackley stashed in AAA looks ready to jump in and help.

The Bad:  Well we'll use this part to call out the pitching.  Aaamizzou tried an interesting experiment with a 3 man rotation, but it appears that a combination of fatigue, park effect and poor defense did it in.  Some pitchers who should have been pretty decent Like Carson Wallace, Jacob Barker and Deven Wakeland should be better than the terrible numbers they posted.  I wonder if going with a 4 man rotation with one or two tandem combinations might do better.  As it sits, this was the worst staff in the AL last year, right down there with Boston and Colorado.

The Ugly: And here we put the defense, also among the leagues bottom 3 in most categories.  So many DHs and so few DH positions.  Alex Cora and Glendon Sheffield make for a decent middle of the infield.  Not much else to brag about.






Predicted Record:  Despite my criticism of the pitching and defense, they were also pretty unlucky in terms of a lot of players having poor years at the same time.  If some bounce back, and they call up some AAA talent like Blackley and William Howard they should move up towards the pack.  I'll say they slug their way to 73-89.

Toledo Walleye
pak4427
SEA 43:  74-88

The Good: At last, a team that that is serious about winning the division.  Biggest news was the signing of ace Paul Kinney.  He will head a rotation of youngsters like Andy Cobb, Albert Wilson and Santiago Fuentes.  The pen is a rebuilt unit.  The best is probably Courtney Hermanson.  The offense is led by former #1 overall pick Donald Ritz at RF and Alex Reid at 3B.  They are joined by C Bernie Guzman and LF J.D. Crocker.  

The Bad: The bullpen is a collection of mediocre talent, despite the attention it got in the offseason.  The defense was subpar, and had very little done to improve it.  Ironically, it was better than any of the other teams that will compete with them.

The Ugly:  In all honesty, the ugliest thing about Toledo is the fact that they are a good but not great team, and will still probably run away with the division.

Predicted Record: 93-69 and likely to improve in the future.  They still have some major talent in the minors and plenty of cap space to add RPs.