I'm ready to play, look at me, I could be, centerfield

On my shelf, I have nine books dedicated to medicine, eight based on business and businessmen, and seven on baseball. Those are kind of my priorities right now in life. (Well, besides religion. I have roughly twenty books not including scriptures or manuals, and no, I have not read them all, it's a little more than half.) Just to catch everyone up, I've been summarily rejected by all twenty med schools I applied to. Ok, I guess that's not official yet, but I've seen this movie before, and I know how it ends. Suffice it to say, I'm reapplying in June and if I have to show up outside the admissions office with a tent and two week supply of ramen to get in, then so be it. I'm going to be a doctor, it will just be one year later than originally planned. It's just what I'm built to do.
That's not what I want to hit on. You see, I spend approximately two hours daily talking, reading or listening about baseball, and now that I work for a minor league team, that is about to jump. So, with the Johan to the Mets deal solemnized by his passing a physical, it's time for a state of the union of baseball. I'm going to go ahead and list some predictions and we'll see how well they turn out at the all-star break, and then at the end of the season.
We'll start with the AL Central. And that is the end of my bias because simply put, the White Sox are not a playoff contention team this year. They probably won't be next year either for several reasons. I'd go into depth on them, but it just hurts too much. I have them pegged for a 78-win season. Yes, this means I'm saying they got marginally better, but certainly not demonstratively. The kings of this division will likely be the Tigers, and I'll slate them for 97-wins. Yes, I do realize that is about ten more than then had last year, but they did get much better with Dontrelle stepping in the three slot behind Bonderman and Verlander, he'll be an innings horse with moderate numbers. And putting Cabrera in at Third makes them a very potent offense. They're only knock on offense is that they only have two batters than can hit from the left side of the plate. They will have to handle with the loss of the unhittable Zumaya in the relief, department, but still this team is the team to beat in the two horse race that now is the AL-Central. The Indians will limp into the number two slot with 92-wins, and the Twins, without Santana and Garza, will rely on Liriano (just coming back from Tommy John) and Bonser to try and make something out of the season. Yep, they've got 71-wins, and the Royals will thank they're lucky stars when they win #63, and finish with 65 to avoid a 100-loss season.
As for the AL East, we'll start with the World Series champ Red Sox. I don't know how else to say this, and I dare anyone to refute this, but they look mighty good on paper to repeat as division champs and make a solid run at 100-wins. Beckett, Schilling Dice-K, Wakefield and Lester. Obviously, it does get weaker as you go along, but with Dice and Wake, you get proven innings chewers that rest your bullpen for Schilling and Lester, if necessary. That's their opening rotation, but I expect Lester to jump at least Wake, and probably Dice into the three spot, and then Buchholz taking the five spot away from Wake leaving their rotation Beckett, Schill, Lester, Dice, Buchholz. That's pretty dang good. The whole gang is back on offense with the only real concern is Lowell's performance in a non-contract year and his aging body. Yep, I'll pick them to take the division. Without hesitation. Of course, no AL East talk could be began or completed without in depth mention of the Yanks.
This is still a good team. Don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise. This however, is not a World Series Champion Caliber team. Not this year. For the three-four years following this one though, watch out. This year, they simply have too many young arms that they're are, wisely, going to protect. Their top five are Wang, who mundanely puts up solid numbers year in and year out, Pettitte, who will turn 36 early in the season and has back issues, Hughes, Chamberlain and Mussina. Ok Wang is solid. There's no reason to say anything other than he is the best proven pitcher in their rotation. I don't think this is debatable. You can chalk him up for upwards of 16 wins this season and the next five. Go ahead, and do it. Pettitte is good, but getting old. He had a good year last year, but he is losing some power and trying to become more of a control pitcher. He's a two, but a shakey two. Mussina is old, and sad to say, done. His ERA jumped a point and a half and struck out a little more than half of what he did last year in five less starts. The only reason he's even in there is because someone needs to handle innings instead of blowing out the young arms of the future. This brings me to Hughes, Chamberlain and Kennedy. Their potential is undeniable. Hughes was nothing less of outstanding in his rookie season, and Kennedy proved very service-able. Chamberlain, if you're still reading this baseball post, you know what Chamberlain did. Simply a sick stat line. .38 ERA, 34 K/6 BB/ 12 H in 24 Innings. That's Koufax in the World Series-esque. The problem is that each of them, and I support this decision whole-heartedly, will be on strict pitch counts. This will put a lot of stress on the bullpen and eventually Mussina. And removing Chamberlain, you're looking at Kyle Farnsworth, LaTroy Hawkins and two people no one other than Mike has probably heard about. Grim. Very Grim. The offense is still there, but it will not be as strong as it was. Posada had a career year. Coincidentally, he also was in a contract year. His average was 60 points better than his average and 50 points better than any of his past five seasons. He will come back down towards his normal levels. Giambi is... well he's off the books at the end of the year. The rest of the offense, collectively, will likely be second to none. Jeter, Cano, A-Rod, Matsui. These guys are kind of good at hitting. If by kind of good you mean near the leaders in most offenseive categories for their positions, and A-Rod, all of baseball. They will be saved by their offense and come in second with a 94-win season again. The Blue Jays are a couple deals away from being contenders, but those deals simply aren't out there right now. The Orioles and don't deserve mention and should be moved to triple-A. The Rays are the Wild Card in this division. Yes, I said that out loud, and it's not too shocking when you see the arms their putting on the bump. James Shields, Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza are three names that if you don't know by now, you should burn them into your memories. These guys will keep the Rays in contention much longer than they ever have been. I'm drinking the kool-aid on these guys, along with Upton and Crawford, and giving them 88-wins and third in the division.
The AL West is very interesting. The Angels dealt away their starting, all-star shortstop in Orlando Cabrera for Jon Garland. Yes it sounds good, talent for talent, but in LA, Garland will only be a third or fourth starter in moderately deep rotation. The hurt to their offense is not offset by the addition to their pitching. Regardless, I'll still take them to win this division. Look at their outfield for goodness sake. Left to right, it'll likely be Gary Matthews Jr, Torii Hunter, and Vlad Guerrero. Oh and if any of them get hurt, you have Reggie Willits filling in for any of them. That my friends is the best outfield in ball. Couple that with a stellar bullpen in Shields, Speier and K-Rod, and these are your AL West champs again with 95 wins. Oakland would have been number two next year, except for the departures of Dan Haren, Nick Swisher and, eventually, Huston Street. Thank you Billy Beane for your unfailing commitment to being a better than average team without a real shot at winning in the post season. Enjoy your 80-win season. Seattle is a mess, but they'll be second by defauly with 86-wins, and Texas will celebrate the $21M savings they got from A-Rod opting out only to resign, by completing a scintillating 77 win campaign.
To Recap reall quick:
AL East: Boston, New York, Tampa, Toronto, Baltimore
AL Central: Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Minnesota, Kansas City
AL West: Los Angeles, Seattle, Oakland, Texas
Wild Card going to New York. (Believe me, I regret typing it as much as you regret reading it, but it's just how things are looking to play out)
As for the NL, there are two, count them, two, teams that will matter at the end of the year. They are the Mets and DiamondBacks. The Dbacks won their division by virtue of a better heads-up record against the surprise team of September/October Rockies. They decided to go out and get one of the top arms in the game by trading for Dan Haren.
The Mets, still aching over their historic collapse, got the best pitcher in the game for four nobodies. Yes, they paid him an exorbitant amount of money, but that will not affect their future personnel decisions. They're going to be good. Very good.
The rest can squabble over the Wild Card and the NL Central winner will be lucky to have more than 85-wins. For the sake of prognostication though:
AL East Champ: Mets
Central: Cubs
West: DBacks
Wild Card: Braves (Welcome back)
This means your playoff opening round match-ups will be:
AL
Boston-Los Angeles (Boston in 5)
Detroit- New York (Detroit in 4)
NL
Mets-Cubs (Mets in 3)
DBacks-Braves (DBacks in 3)
LCS Round
AL
Boston-Detroit (Boston in 6)
NL
Mets-DBacks (Mets in 7)
World Series
Boston-Mets (Boston in 6)
Simply put, Boston has the most proven talent, with the lowest amount of expected drop-off, and is relying on the least amount of possibilities to win. My only hope is that this will spark the Red Sox Backlash that is desperately overdue. Word.