Vigilante Sports

1. New York Yankees – I know everyone is picking the Yankees. They should. The Yankees spent $400 trillion this offseason. If they don’t win, everyone should be fired and the Yankees should start from scratch. I don’t think that’s going to happen. No matter what happens when ARod comes back (and I don’t expect too much from him this year), the Yankees have a solid lineup top to bottom, and a pitching staff that is strong (but not a terribly deep bullpen – hey I have to poke holes where I can).
2. Tampa Bay Rays – Strong core of young players and craft vets make last years Cinderella team no joke. Evan Longoria and BJ Upton alone are reasons to be excited about the Rays. Add in their staff of solid pitchers (David Price won’t even make the Opening Day roster) and you’ve got a Wild Card potential team.
3. Boston Red Sox – I know everything points to them challenging the Yankees for the AL East crown, but I have a gut feeling that the BoSox will disappoint this year. I can’t find too many holes in this team, but I just feel like they don’t have it this year. Great balanced lineup, really tough pitching staff with one of the best bullpens in the game, but I’m just not feeling it.
4. Toronto Blue Jays – An old not very good anymore infield, a fairly young, potentially great outfield, starting rotation that is very top heavy, and a bullpen that has good depth. What’s not to like? They play in a very tough, very deep division. I think the Blue Jays will be good, but not competitive in this division.
5. Baltimore Orioles – I feel a little bad for the good players on this team, because they’re going to be dreadful. The Orioles pitching staff is rough. Nick Markakis and Aubry Huff are established solid players and Adam Jones and Felix Pie have “potential” but other than that, the Orioles pin their hopes on their young catcher Matt Wieters who will start the year in the minors. A lot of pressure for a kid. Maybe he should ask for better pitching for his 23rd birthday in May (probably around when he will get called up).

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Boston Red Sox, MLB, New York Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.