Baseball Season 2007

I'm a HUGE baseball nut. The winter leaves me with few avenues for my baseball fix, so I'll have to manufacture some.


My predictions for the 2007 Baseball Season:

There are still a lot of major free agents out there (like Barry Zito and Roger Clemens) that can really change one of these predictions, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm going to spread things out over a couple of posts and do my predictions by division. First up, the AL Central.

White Sox: Tadahito Iguchi will improve. Andy Sisco will prove to be a good pickup, but Dye, Thome, and Konerko will not age very well. All will have down years. As a result of their regression and a tough division, the White Sox will only be a .500 team.

Indians: Peralta will turn things around. Marte will start to show why he was such a highly touted prospect by Atlanta (or prove that Schurholtz bribes other teams' scouts). Grady will make the ladies H-A-P-P-Y. The rotation will take a step forward, instead of step backwards. Then, Pronk will be Pronk and will go to town on baseballs like a hurricane on a New Orleans levee. But, the economy in Cleveland will start to drag the baseball team down (no more good paying blue collar jobs). LF/RF/1B is still a hole (might I suggest a trade with the Royals?...). The Indians will fall just short of the AL Central Crown, but will be frontrunners in 2008.

Tigers: Deep rotation (1-5) and a good bullpen are keys to success. The offense is nothing to sneeze at (as long a Shef doesn't pull a T.O.). Guillen is aging and needs to be replaced. Pudge is aging and will need a replacement soon. There's also the danger of Verlander falling into a sophomore slump. None of that will make a difference as the Tigers safely secure the AL Central Crown for the first time in years.

Twins: Sometimes, doing nothing is the best strategy, especially given how wild the market has been this year. It gives the young players another year to mature. Plus, there's always Johan Santanna. Liriano is a huge question mark, though. There are also a lot of inconsistent young players who will have major ups and downs this season. Apologies to Bat Girl, but the Twins need a healthy Liriano to compete. They will be not much more than a .500 team without him.

The Royals: Ah, the Royals. At least they HAVE starting pitchers this year. They did pick up Jason LaRue and Ryan Shealy. LaRue will take some of the edge for that horrible Beltran trade (anyone seen John Buck lately?). Unfortunately, they still have Berroa. And Glass. In this division, the Royals are cannon fodder.




















Next up: NL Central