Projected MLB Standings

[Hasselbeck]

i dont get why people are giving tampa bay a shot. last season imo was a fluke

yankees win it is all i have to say

Far from a fluke.. the Rays may have more talent than anyone in the AL East.. including the Yankees.

Crawford, Upton, Longoria, Pena is a nasty quartet of position players.. and the Rays have a ton of young pitchers.. (Kazmir, Price, Garza, Shields to name a few)..

The Rays will contend if they stay healthy.

[Lanteri]

Far from a fluke.. the Rays may have more talent than anyone in the AL East.. including the Yankees.

Crawford, Upton, Longoria, Pena is a nasty quartet of position players.. and the Rays have a ton of young pitchers.. (Kazmir, Price, Garza, Shields to name a few)..

The Rays will contend if they stay healthy.

Plus they added Burrell who is another big power bat that they were lacking last year. They should have an extremely disciplined batting order as well between Upton, Burrell, and Pena. There's going to be a lot of pitches used to get those guys out.

Their biggest question mark IMO is their bullpen. Balfour and Howell had breakout seasons, but are they legitimate, or flash-in the pan.

That and Kazmir looked like shit down the stretch last year and wasn't particularly effective in the playoffs.

[Lanteri]

exactly. They are the same dudes, but hurt (zumaya, bonderman), inconsistent (rodney, robertson), and then theres the 'wtf is wrong with you' section of the team, consisting of Verlander of Willis.

Yeah, and that's the biggest problem is that they are the same dudes. Nate Robertson's not inconsistent, he's just plain bad. He had one good year and hasn't been good before, or after that.

Willis was also never really that good of a pitcher. He relied almost entirely on the deceptiveness of his delivery. He's got below average stuff and once his control started getting worse, he became pretty much useless.

As for Bonderman, I really don't get what people see in the guy. Even when he's healthy he's not a great pitcher. His best season wasn't even that spectacular.

Rodney has had control problems his entire career. That's bound to catch up with you at some point.

Verlander just needs to learn some control. He's got good stuff, but until he significantly cuts his walk numbers down he's not going to be particularly effective.

The rest of the bullpen is incredibly bad. You really do not want Brandon Lyon to be closing games.

[BazookaJoe5]

How are the O's going to finish in 4th place when two weeks from Opening Day, we still don't have a #3, #4, or #5 starter, our #1 has been terrible through the WBC/Spring Training, and the #2 has never pitched in the MLB before? We'll be lucky to win 60 games.

[RainboUnicorn]

If anyone really believes the Cubs aren't winning the central your crazy. They have 3 aces on their rotation (zambrano, dempster, harden). Lilly as that 4th starter is nothing to shake a stick at. That is solid. Hopefully they can get something done for peavey. Zamardjia and Marmol in the bullpen is scary.

They made their offense better with the addition of Milton bradley. Johnson and Fukudome platooning in the outfield will be very nice. Watch out for hauffpaur getting some action too. The guy bangs.

I'm dissapointed we got rid of DeRosa. He really helped us out last year. He had a solid hitting year and played just about every position in the field when we needed him to

[AJay]

Love all the Ray hating and Red Sox homers on this site. Guys need to wake up and realize that the Rays are here to stay on top of the AL East for a while. The team is set up for a good 2-3-4 season run as long as they can stay healthy.

Rays
Sox
Yanks

Get used to it.

[celtsxpatsxsox]

Love all the Ray hating and Red Sox homers on this site. Guys need to wake up and realize that the Rays are here to stay on top of the AL East for a while. The team is set up for a good 2-3-4 season run as long as they can stay healthy.

Rays
Sox
Yanks

Get used to it.

I will put the Rays on top of the East if they can make the playoffs again this year. There have been a few teams that have made the playoffs and had "surprise" seasons then fell off the map. And since 05 the loser of the WS has failed to make the playoffs.

[Lanteri]

ROFL at the people that have the Cardinals winning the Central. They arent a bad team, but the Cubs are a step ahead of them.. The Cubs lineup is pretty solid. Adding Aaron Miles should help, even though losing DeRosa was killer. And to whoever said the Cubs pitching sucks... Your kidding right? Big Z isnt overrated, he's delivers 10+ wins a year. How can you say Dempster is a fluke when he hasnt played yet this year. Going from a closer to a starter like he did and having the year he had last year isnt a fluke, Lilly gives you quality starts every time, and when Harden is healthy he is just as good as any starter in the N.L. The bullpen is good too, with Jeff Samardzija, Gregg, and Marmol who is just filthy.

IMO I think the Red's will be the only team to contend with the Cubs in the Central. But I have the Cubs winning that division by 7 games.

Hi.

[FirstTimer]

Hi.

To be fair...The Cubs, before the season, on paper were easily the best team in that division. You look at the season and They lose Aramis, Soriano plays below average all year, Lee struggles through May, Bradley stinks until the All Start break, Lilly, Dempster, and Zambrano all miss time etc and it's clear to see why they are sitting 7 back right now.

But before the year looking at the division it would be tough to make a logical, rational defense of any team but the Cubs winning the central. The Cubs had the best lineup, rotation, and perhaps bullpen looking at the teams before the season. Frankly I don't see how anybody could not pick them other than trying to make a "trendy" pick, or just trying to be different.


All the credit in the world goes to St Louis for playing good baseball but the Cubs have had an awful season and if these players even played to their averages the Cubs should have won this division pretty easily. They didn't but honestly getting on a Cubs fan for thinking they had the divisions best team before the season(which they did) is a little bit ridiculous