MLB '11 Predictions

American League

East-Red Sox
Central-Twins
West-Rangers
WC-Yankees

National League

East-Phillies
Central-Brewers
West-Rockies
WC-Braves

World Series-Boston over Philadelphia

AL East

The red sox won 89 games last year with a team decimated by injuries sans carl crawford and adrian gonzalez. They have among the deepest lineups in baseball, one of its best rotations, and arguably its best bullpen. In papelbon, jenks, wheeler, and bard, they have four guys with closer stuff. With beckett and lackey looking to rebound after inury plagued down seasons, you have incredible depth behind breakout stars clay buchholz and john lester. buchholz's era last year was sub 2.40. I expect a sox team that is hungry after finishing third last year, that on paper is most well rounded club I've seen in years.

The Yankees remain stacked at all positions, and have the best offense in baseball. Arod, teixeira, and posada will all be healthier this year, and I expect derek jeter to hit higher than .270. Adding Russel Martin is huge, he seems healthy and poised return to form and removing posada from the catcher slot could add 200 at bats to his season. While the rotation is not elite, lets not forget what leading trio sabathia, burnett, and hughes are capable of, and with one of the best bullpens in baseball, they may not need excellent starting pitching.

The rays lost too many key players, the blue jays lost a few and won't get a repeat performance from Jose Bautista, this could even be the orioles year for third place. This division will be the classic two horse race between boston and new york.

AL Central

The minnesota twins still can play defense and small ball, but they have the deepest lineup they've fielded in years. Morneau staying healthy isn't something you can count on but they have plenty of power even without him. Minnesota's pitching is too shallow for them to be quite at the level of boston or new york, but they will serious contenders this year, as always.

Detroit also has a pretty deep lineup but has many problems with their pitching, I don't see enough depth from the other teams for them to be in contention.

AL West

This division may be the closest race. Losing Cliff Lee hurts texas, plus they caught lightning in a bottle with vlad guererro, and saw a career year from nelson cruz. You can't count on hamilton staying healthy and he likely won't hit .359 again. That said Lee did not pitch well in texas, and they have a very talented young pitching staff featuring lewis, wilson, and hunter. Their offense is on the level of new york and boston. If everything goes according to plan, this is the best team on paper.

The angels and a's should be in contention. The angels have solid pitching, with weaver and santana, get kendrys morales back, and are still getting production from abreu and hunter. The a's could quietly have the nastiest rotation in the american league, with gonzalez, cahill, anderson, and braden all putting up sub 3.50 eras last year. They also made some modest additions to their offense, such as hideki matsui, josh willingham, and david dejesus. And the mariners suck.

NL East

Frankly the NL is much shallower than the AL, and the phillies should roll the competition, even with some severe problems with their lineup. The injury to utley is huge, and many of the veteran players are coming to the end of their usefullness, but they have Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels.

Picking Atlanta is trendy right now but they aren't deep enough to be better than philadelphia. Their rotation is good, but severely outclassed by the four aces up north. Their offense is about equivalent, but only if everything goes wrong in philly. If utley can play a large portion of the season and the phillies get some production from question marks ibanez, rollins, and francisco, the braves will be playing for the wild card.

Marlins are ok, mets and nats should quit.

NL Central

The brewers have an american league caliber offense. Braun and fielder, but also a finally healthy weeks, and an underrated hart and mcghee. adding marcum and greinke to gallardo gives them a very deep rotation.

The reds had a lot of guys over perform last year and their pitching just isn't that deep. the cardinals are going to really miss adam wainwright, in my opinion the best young pitcher in baseball, and don't quite have enough offense outside of pujols/holliday to win the division. these two teams will make a run though

wanna hear a joke? the cubs, the astros, and the pirates!

NL West

This division especially will look like the little league world series. the padres should be back to scoring like 1 run per game after losing gonzo and now latos is on the dl, the dodgers can never get their shit together, the diamondbacks have zero pitching, the giants are a punchless bunch of lucky bastards... the rockies have been a solid team for a long time and i think this has to be their year. tulo and cargo and ubaldo!