Baseball season is upon us! In just a handful of days, first pitch will be coming across home plate to the sound of many screaming fans and to the delight of many, including myself. Half the fun of the season, however, is looking at the off-season and trying to predict what will happen with each team. As we are closing in on the start of baseball season, I want to start giving my projections, starting with the AL East. The way my predictions go: I give a little blurb about each team in alphabetical order, then my predictions for the 2016 season, and then a quick reason why. If you disagree and/or wish to discuss my rankings, comment below!
Baltimore Orioles: The O’s spent a lot this off-season, dropping a total of 243.06 million down on free agents in hopes of adding on to last year’s slightly disappointing end with an even 81-81 record. The only question about the O’s is if they did enough to make the team any better. Yovani Gallardo came in to the pitching staff, but Wei Yin Chen is gone. The team added a lot of power bats, but now have a log jam at 1st and DH; it is so deep that the team is sacrificing defensive abilities in the corner outfield to accommodate these players.
Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox went very top-heavy this off-season by signing David Price and trading for Carson Smith and Craig Kimbrel to try to make a lock-down bullpen from innings 6 to 9. Which was not a bad idea, given that the pitching behind Price is either injury prone (Clay Buchholz) or was underwhelming last year (Rick Porcello and Joe Kelly), so shortening the game in that instant is not a bad idea. Smith, however, is injured and there is no timetable on his return. Also, an offense that only had three players with over 400 ABs bat above a .275 clip was not addressed too much, albeit a healthy season from Dustin Pedroia and full seasons from Jackie Bradly Jr., Rusney Castillo, and Travis Shaw could really help that issue.
New York Yankees: The Yankees were very un-Yankee like in that they did not sign any big time free agents. Instead, NY went for some big bullpen help in adding Aroldis Chapman, while adding some team depth by acquiring Aaron Hicks and Starlin Castro, all via the trade. The questionable Yankees move was trading LHP Justin Wilson to the Tigers for two pitching prospects. It is good to have minor league depth, but Wilson had a 66-20 K/BB ratio with his second lowest career WHIP at 1.13. Keeping Wilson to go with the Chapman and the closer from last season, Andrew Miller, and other top relief option Dellin Betances would have given the Yankees the best bullpen, on paper, in the AL East, if not the entire AL or even the MLB. And the pitching rotation for the Yankees does not instill much confidence; of the five pitchers who had over 100 IP last season, only two were below a 4.00 and only one was below a 3.50 ERA.
Tampa Bay Rays: Always an interesting team to watch this off-season, the Rays wanted to add offense to what was a very weak aspect of the team last season (.252 team AVG last season). So the Rays dealt from their usual pitching surplus to add Logan Morrison, Brad Miller, and Corey Dickerson while also signing Steve Pearce. Just like the O’s, however, there is now a log-jam at 1B/DH and even the corner outfield slots. It does, however, give a lot of depth to the Rays roster that could lead to an early spring trade if the Rays do not get out to the start they would like. The bullpen, however, took a blow by trading Jake McGee and then watch Brad Boxberger get hit with an injury.
Toronto Blue Jays: The offense is very similar to what it was when the team climbed to the ALCS, but watch for the Jays to try to make a trade to help the OF slots as having Michael Saunders start a majority of games is not a favorable outlook as he has failed to play over 100 games since 2013, and has never played more than 139 games in a season. Even when he stays healthy, it just does not seem to be there; 2012 is his best full season when he hit .247 with 19 HRs. The rotation is going to miss David Price, but the Jays have added to it with having J. A. Happ come in via free agency and putting Aaron Sanchez in the fifth slot.
Predictions:
Blue Jays: 93-69
Rays: 89-73
Red Sox: 86-76
Yankees: 80-82
Orioles: 70-92
The Blue Jays offense is going to have a lot of points and will benefit from having a full season of Troy Tulowitzki, something the defense will benefit from as well. And we saw the Jays make deadline moves to push and that what this team will do this year, push hard to try to win with the amount of big name players entering the last year of their contracts. The Rays starting rotation is still strong, but the bullpen is risky and the offense is questionable. The Rays could win 99 games, could lose 99 games, but I think they will make a push for a return to the post season.
The Red Sox and Yankees both did not do too much to really add to the team. Both teams have huge questions with the starting rotation, the Yankees offense is aging and injury prone and the depth might not be there, while the Red Sox are hoping for a lot of health and rebounds, which can be disastrous. The Orioles are last to me as the team has very little pitching, very little depth, and a line-up that is very heavy on “Strikeout-or-HR” and that approach rarely works (yes, yes I know the Astros made the playoffs like that last year, but they also had a CY Young winner last year, which is something the O’s are missing).
Cats In The Bleachers 