The New York Yankees have missed the playoffs one time since the strike-shortened 1994 season. Will 2011 be the second time? The Yankees have two solid starters in CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes. With the retirement of Andy Pettitte, the Yankees will try to replace his 11 wins with A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova, and Freddy Garcia. The Yankees' bullpen is solid but starting pitching will be the key to winning for the Yankees if they are going to make a playoff run in 2011. Offensively the Yankees will be potent once again. Derek Jeter will become the first ever Yankee with 3,000 hits, which is a remarkable statistic to me, seeing as how many great players the Yankees have had over the years. Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, and MVP candidate Robinson Cano will provide the power for the Yankees. As great as this lineup is, it may not be the best in the division.
The Boston Red Sox are the preseason favorites to win the 2011 World Series. The Red Sox won 89 games last season, which is remarkable considering the amount of injuries they had. This season they have added Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford to the lineup. With a healthy Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Kevin Youkilis, this team will score plenty of runs. Jon Lester is the ace of the pitching staff and Josh Beckett looks to return to ace form after being injured and having a rough 2010 season. Closer Jonathan Papelbon may be the weakest part of the Red Sox team. If he struggles, look for the Red Sox to turn to Daniel Bard to close out games.
The Tampa Bay Rays should finish 3rd in the division. They have the pitching to compete and have added Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon to the lineup, but Ramirez and Damon aren't the players they used to be. The Rays could be a surprise and contend with the Yankees for the Wild Card. The Baltimore Orioles have added some bats under new manager Buck Showalter. Vladimir Guerrero, Mark Reynolds, and Derrek Lee join Luke Scott as players who will bash homeruns for the Orioles. They will be a fun team to watch, but the Orioles are playing in the AL East and won't pitch well enough to survive. The Toronto Blue Jays will be a competitive team as well. They have really good starting pitching with Ricky Romero and Brett Cecil. They had the most homeruns in baseball last season with Jose Bautista leading the majors with 54 long balls. The Blue Jays could easily win 85 games again in 2011 as they did in 2010, but will it be enough? The AL East has 4 really good teams and should be a fun division to watch in 2011.
Projected standings:
Boston Red Sox 102-60
New York Yankees 88-74
Tampa Bay Rays 84-78
Toronto Blue Jays 83-79
Baltimore Orioles 72-90
No comments:
Post a Comment