|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Baby-Eaters Look to Repeat | ||||||
| American League Preview | ||||||
| By Jonathan Koppel | ||||||
| American League East | ||||||
| New York Yankees: They are very, very old, have few obvious sources of offense, and a second basemen in Chuck Knoblauch who really shouldn't be permitted anywhere near his chosen defensive position. But, with the addition of Mike Mussina, they have four credible starting pitchers, which is rare enough that they'll be okay just on the basis of that. Expect around 90 wins and likely at least a wild card spot. | ||||||
| Boston Red Sox: Will compete with the Yankees for the AL East championship. A team with a starter on the best run in major league history (Pedro Martinez), the best-hitting outfielder today (Manny Ramirez), and one of the best-hitting shortstops of all-time (Nomar Garciaparra) really should be better than that; they should be able to kick the Yankees' *sses, but the chaotic and mediocre nature of their pitching staff beyond Pedro will prevent that. | ||||||
| Toronto Blue Jays: Effectively f*cked up their entire season when they made the unusual strategic decision of trading 20-game winner David Wells for Mike Sirotka, a pitcher who everyone knew had a gimpy shoulder and now will probably not be able to pitch all year. This leaves them without a single starting pitcher whom opposing teams won't destroy. | ||||||
| Tampa Bay Devil Rays: A team most notable for its impressive collection of old, slow, fat guys. | ||||||
| Baltimore Orioles: The premature retire-ment of slugger and all-around scary individual Albert Belle leaves them with exactly two good players on their 25-man roster. Which is a bad ratio. | ||||||
| American League Central | ||||||
| Cleveland Indians: After falling from grace last year, they will resume their customary status as AL Central champions. A damn good team on the whole and in my not particularly-humble opinion a World Series favorite. | ||||||
| Chicago White Sox: They rose to success and prominence last year, largely because of the performance of two pitchers, James Baldwin and Cal Eldred, who will both either be hurt or lousy this year. Newcomer David Wells will also implode this year and lead the way in the general deterioration and resumed badness of this team. | ||||||
| Kansas City Royals: A team with an impressive stable of young hitters but, tragically, few pitchers who would not be better served on a AA roster. New closer Roberto Hernandez will provide a refreshing whiff of mediocrity into this team's frighteningly bad bullpen. But this team is still going nowhere. | ||||||
| Detroit Tigers: The departure of sweetly sulky Juan Gonzalez deprives this team of any reason why we should give a f*ck about it. | ||||||
| Minnesota Twins: A team that, since it won the World Series in 1991, has been rebuilding with promising young talent. Except that they use a liberal definition of the word "promising" and thus will continue with the aforementioned rebuilding for the entirety of our lifetimes. Without ever actually having anything built. American League West Oakland Athletics- An exciting team with a kick-*ss general manager in Billy Beane who not only has a name that is alliterative but has an unusually good grasp of what he's doing. Outfielder Johnny Damon, acquired from the Royals in a transaction too confusing to go into, infuses some speed into a group that will get on base more--and, therefore, score at least as much or nearly so--than any other team in the league. | ||||||
| Seattle Mariners: An impressive lot, all-around. They have a virtual monopoly of good young starting pitchers and, even without glamour boy shortstop Alex Rodriguez, enough hitting to make it hold up. Will challenge the A's for the AL Central title. | ||||||
| Texas Rangers: Alex Rodriguez, who makes more money every 30 seconds he plays than all of us combined at this school ever will, gives the team what could be the one of the best offenses in the last 20 years. However, the team will still hover around .500 because too much of said offense is injury-prone will be hurt too much of the year, and the pitching sucks. | ||||||
| Anaheim Angels: To continue on a prevailing theme, a laughably bad pitching staff will sabotage what would otherwise be an okay team. | ||||||
| Back to Main Page | ||||||
| Back to Our March 19 Edition | ||||||