Never too early to start talking baseball...I've already started looking over stuff for my fantasy drafts. Predictions... NL East: Phillies obviously. Best starting pitching the Braves in the '90s. Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Oswalt -- LOL. NL Central: Brew crew finally going to do it? Adding Greinke & Marcum to Gallardo is pretty nasty. Should be a heck of a battle between them, the Redlegs & the Cards. NL West: Giants. Legit pitching again with an offense full of scrappy overachievers. I think the Rockies will bounce back and battle with them all year. AL East: Toss up between Sox, Rays and Yanks IMO. Sox & Yanks are basically the same team. Solid lineup, shaky rotation. Rays have the better pitching but their lineup took a hit by losing Crawford & Pena. I'm taking the Sox. Ugly Adrian is going to rake at Fenway and they shored up their pen with Jenks & Wheeler. AL Central: Sox barely over Twins & Tigers. Adam Dunn will be nice to go with Konerko & Quentin in the middle. Rotation is very solid..their pen sucks though. AL West: Rangers again. Anaheim did nothing in the offseason to get better. Texas added Webb (who may never recover) and Beltre (who sucks when he gets paid)...but at least they tried to improve. Lineup is still nasty...pitching is shaky though obviously.
NL East: Yea I hate to say it but I'll go Phillies. Although I'm not so sure they will be as dominate as everyone thinks. Their hitting struggled last year and they lose Werth, besides, who's their closer? Brad Lidge? Meh. NL Central: Reds. Having Volquez for the whole year and Chapman as a starter will make them even better than last year. NL West: Giants. Pitching was awesome last year it will be better with another year of Bumgardner and a full season with Posey. Arizona is a mess so is LA, Padres threw in the towel (no idea why), Colorado will be better but they always start slow, Giants are for real, there wont be a magical run this year, their hole will be to deep. NL Wildcard: Cardinals. Just hard to see them missing the playoffs 2 years in a row. AL East: Red Sox. Only if Beckett, Dice K and Lackey pitch better, otherwise they might miss the playoffs. Rays wont be as bad as everyone thinks. AL Central: White Sox. Eh, who cares? This division sucks. I guess Dunn will help them enough and Beckham wont suck again. AL West: Athletics. Well there's a surprise each year right? Not that I think Matsui and DeJesus will be a big difference makers but they will help. I think their young pitchers will finally step up similar to the Giants just not as good but good enough to make the playoffs. AL Wildcard: Yankees. Gonna need their pitchers like Burnett and Nova to step up, same with Jeter to step up on offense. BUT they probably have the best 8th and 9th inning guys in all of baseball. Nasty bullpen.
So THAT is why MLB has sucked for so long...(except 2006, when my Cardinals beat the....umm....Tigers...sorry Deuce). Seriously, in the NL Central the Brewers have really made some moves, but they always seem to not be ready for prime time when it counts. Maybe that changes this year, but that has been their mantra since I have been up here. I see it being a horserace between the Reds and Cards, and agree with Eddie that the Reds have the inside track.
That series upset me, just because it's my life as a sports fan summarized. My favorite team usually does great up til the end, then lose to a team they should handle. I'm sort of numb to it now, but man... frustrating.
Yeah, I think we were 83-79 that year in the regular season. Tigers were up among the best record in the league that year, if memory serves....
