Watching an early-season game between the defending American League West Champion Angels and the defending AL last-place Mariners provides an interesting preview of the opening month of the Major League Baseball season ‘mdash; even when your team has Russell Branyan hitting in the three-spot and the guy who ate Ken Griffey Jr. hitting before him, there’s still hope that this could be the year. Thus, at this early-season junction, it’s worth taking a division-by-division look at those teams that, one month in, can keep hope alive and those teams that will probably end up winning the division. Starting with the AL and continuing with a National League preview next week, the mission is to batter everyone over the head with baseball articles in hopes of convincing people that this is not a boring sport, or at least that it’s almost as exciting as watching seven hours of the NFL draft.
AL East
Probable division winner: Boston Red Sox.
Keeping hope alive: Tampa Bay Rays.
Last season, the Rays proved that the Red Sox and New York Yankees can’t always buy the AL East. The Rays showed that a well-developed farm system and key veteran acquisitions can equate to a World Series berth, even while the Evil Empire (now with a new Death Star!) tries to buy its way back to dominance. After spending slightly less than C.C. Sabathia’s weight in the off-season, the Yanks continue to look weak due to a strange mix of egotistical all-stars and stunted up-and-comers. The Rays again have a chance to return to postseason play, though they no longer have the benefit of being overlooked, and it will be interesting to see when the decision is made to call David Price to the big-league club.
Nonetheless, this division should return to the Red Sox and their legion of annoying, arrogant and largely uneducated fans. Even without Manny, the Red Sox have spent wisely and should get at least one surprise from their underpaid trio of newcomers in Brad Penny, Takashi Saito and John Smoltz.
AL Central
Probable division winner: Chicago White Sox.
Keeping hope alive: Minnesota Twins.
The AL Central is the least clear-cut in baseball. The Detroit Tigers continue to be better on paper than on the field. The Kansas City Royals will probably be better with Zach Grienke coming on strong, before settling into their customary fifth-place position. The Cleveland Indians were banking on Fausto Carmona, and he’s almost making Chien-Ming Wang look good. It appears that the White Sox and Twins, having played a one-game playoff last season, are destined to battle for the division crown once again this season. The Twins have the superior pitching, with Joe Nathan in the bullpen and the most complete starting rotation of any team ‘mdash; Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano, Kevin Slowey and the luxury of having pretty much anyone they call up being at least decent. Even when they sell off most of their players, the Twins seem to stay competitive. However, the White Sox have by far the better offense and a rotation led by Mark Buehrle and John Danks that should be good for at least on
e more postseason appearance by Ozzie Guillen, before he inevitably gets fired for calling one of his players a cracker and challenging some fans in the stands to a knife fight. ‘ AL West
Probable division winner: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orange County Near the Hooters Off the Freeway.
Keeping Hope Alive: Seattle Mariners.
The Angels have dominated the AL West for much of the past seven years, and things look to remain the same heading into the 2009 season. However, the team usually built on pitching and defense starts the season with three-fifths of its rotation on the disabled list. Ervin Santana and John Lackey led the team to a 2008 divisional championship, but have yet to pitch a game this year, while Kelvim Escobar is an unknown after missing last season. And it finally looks like Vladimir Guerrero’s actual age might be catching up with him. The unlikely Mariners are off to a hot start this season, behind the awesome one-two punch of Felix Hernandez and Eric Bedard. Of course, awesome is probably just an overstatement that deranged Mariners fans (like Cameron Tillisch) would use, while most reasonable individuals would refer to the tandem as somewhere between solid and fluky.
New manager Don Wakamatsu’s small-ball theory has also paid off early for the Mariners, who presently are sitting pretty atop the AL West with an impressive 11-6 record. While guys like Endy Chavez and Jarrod Washburn will probably not continue to produce at their early-season levels, Seattle remains the division’s the best shot at challenging an Angels team that has been decimated by injury and tragedy.