Baseball Musings: AL Central Preview

April 02, 2005

AL Central Preview

The AL Central is slowly growing out of being an also ran division. The main things driving it are the good farm systems of the Twins and the Indians and the free agent signings of the Tigers.

Predicted order of finish:

Minnesota Twins
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals

Terry Ryan is reminding more and more of Branch Rickey, or at least John Schuerholz. He's not afraid to let a veteran player go to replace him with someone young (more about this when I discuss the Athletics). He let a perfectly good shortstop in Guzman go, but is replacing him a 25-year-old with better offensive numbers. He did the same replacing Pierzynski with Mauer and Mientkiewicz with Morneau (and those moves made the roster a lot easier to spell). If he can get the same or better performance from a younger, cheaper player, he goes for it.

And, if he has a player worth the money, he signs him to a long term deal. Johan Santana moved into superstardom last season and was handsomely rewarded. The Twins are no doubt the team to beat.

The Indians want to contend this year. Unfortunately for them, it's been very difficult to make the moves for pitchers that would solidify the rotation. The offense matured just as the price for starting pitching sky rocketed. If they can get Millwood to return to his Atlanta form, they'll have four decent starters. It doesn't help that CC Sabathia will start the season on the DL.

The Tigers got a little better with the addition of Ordonez. But a lot hinges on Guillen's 2004 not being a fluke, and Jeremy Bonderman living up to expectations. The Tigers are moving in the right direction, and again I expect them to have more wins than the previous season.

I'm down on the White Sox. Thomas is hurt, Lee and Ordonez are gone and they're counting on two old Cubans in the rotation. The increase in speed will not make up for the lack of power in my mind. The South Side will be looking at its 88th year without a World Championship.

The Royals had the good sense to keep Calvin Pickering on the team and start him at DH over Harvey. On the surface, the pitching staff doesn't look bad. Greinke is projected to be a star. If Pickering is powering and Greinke is K'ing, the KC fans will have something to cheer about.

Posted by David Pinto at 12:01 PM | Predictions | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Gammons has been extremely high on Greinke for a while now. Hopefully his instincts are like the ones he had for Santana and not like when he predicted Kris Benson for Cy Young.

Posted by: James at April 2, 2005 01:51 PM

MIN is lucky they are in a division this crappy, year after year. CLE looks decent, maybe a 75 win team, but they may go .500 in this division. The rest, yuck. DET is rebuilding with 35 year-olds, the White Sox have one of the weakest OF's in history, and I will let everyone else rip on KC.

Posted by: Al at April 2, 2005 09:04 PM

We shall see, I guess, but I really really think people are underestimating the power the White Sox still have. The White Sox set a team record in homers last year with Thomas and Ordonez gone half the season. I'm way too tired to go down the entire list now, but if you look position by position, this year's Sox team is in many ways improved from last year's. This is not a 4th place team.

Posted by: Adam at April 3, 2005 01:42 AM

I truly believe with the pitching staff the Tigers have assembled they will win the division.
When you look at the starters , mid relief and closers ...please someone tell me which team in the division is stronger.

Tigers in 2005

Posted by: Mike at April 3, 2005 07:47 PM

I think theIndians will win this division. They have the best rotation in the division with a lot of good young hitters. Watch out for Cleveland this year.

Posted by: Bill at April 4, 2005 09:15 AM