It can't be a coincidence that the day I post a gif of Kate Upton on the blog, she goes to the Nationals' spring training game. It just can't be. I'm tempted to post a gif of Iron Man to see if Robert Downey Jr shows up, or maybe a World Series trophy to help them be good this year. Anyway, here comes the exciting AL East.
The East made a valiant effort to be part of the free agency market this winter, with big signings like Alfredo Jarvis and Ivan Tejada, but with Jarvis being traded a few days after his signing, that made New York's acquisition of Hoss Anderson the second biggest FA move of the winter for the division. At 35yo and with a control rating of 49, it's not surprising that he has posted a career 4.42 ERA, but it is surprising that he was a Type A free agent this winter. Tejada is a great pickup for Cincy, after posting a career high for wins last season, and his second best ERA as well. No option on the fifth year of the deal might be a tough pill to swallow when we get to that point, but maybe he'll hold up well and will either still be a solid starter, or a great bullpen arm.
Speaking of arms, go look at the Syracuse staff. Seriously. Stop reading this. Click onto the HBD tab. World Office -> Standings -> AL -> Syracuse. I'll wait here for a minute...........OK, are you back? Do you understand why these guys have been to the WS twice in the last three seasons, while winning it once? Becker and Stewart both won 20 games last year, and the entire staff is reasonably priced. Ugh. Chicago is rolling with a solid bullpen and future-HOF'er Slaughter as their ace, with a bunch of young guys backing him up. I like what they've got going on, but I'm slightly worried about the ability to eat innings. Over in Cincy, adding Tejada gives them a nice 1-2-3 punch with him and Hernandez and Gray, with another three or four guys who could feasibly round out the staff. They will have long-relief guys who could be starters on other teams, yet this staff isn't even the talk of the division. NY has a few guys who get paid money to throw baseballs. So Syracuse is the top staff, with Cincy not too far behind them, then Chicago, then the Cincy AAA staff, then NY.
You know what NY does have? Travis Tresh. He's a good little hitter who is still young and has the ability to be the cornerstone of this franchise. He should probably be playing LF/1B, but has instead been busy racking up minus plays out in CF. After Travis, they don't have much offensively. A fan favorite in ALB/OK, Lonnie Schneid was a first rounder who stole 300+ bases and had a couple gold gloves at 1B during his tenure, and is now slowly declining in NY while grinding out his final years. Love that guy. The Cincy offense is just as excited about this season as the pitching staff is. Last season they had four guys who hit 30+ HR's each (164 total) and 110+ RBI's each (479 total), with three of those four hitting .333 or better. All four of those guys are 26 or younger. What's a fascinating stat is that Chicago hit 60 more HR's than Cincy, but had 100 fewer RBI's. The Cincy OBP of .357 to Chicago's .320 might be a clue as to how that happened. Anyway, Chicago is looking at similar numbers this year, with a bunch of solo HR's. Syracuse has a couple of studs, but a lot of aging talent. They will obviously rely on that pitching staff, and hope they don't get into any slugfests. The nod goes to Cincy, then Chicago, then Syracuse, then the SUNY softball team, then the Genesis.
Chicago finally wins a category, with their defense being head and shoulders above the rest of the division. Even though their best defensive guy is a backup who never starts, they still have the range and gloves to more than cover every position on the field. Not that the Syracuse defense is bad, but I wish it was better to backup that pitching staff. I feel like if I had those studs on the mound, I would put a bunch of 80+ gloves behind them. Cincy has done a slightly better job than Syracuse in that department, they've got all of their bases covered when it comes to putting adequate range and glove guys in each spot. NY is below average at SS and CF, but above average pretty much everywhere else, which I guess makes them average? Maybe slightly above average? Either way, Chicago wins this category, with Cincy just edging out Syracuse, and then NY not as far behind the pack as they are in the other categories.
You'd be crazy not to pick Syracuse to win the division, their pitching is just unreal. But I feel like Cincy might give them a run for their money. They've gotta make up nearly 20 games from last season's record, when they didn't even get a wild card spot. But what the fuck, I think they can pull it off. Cincy will pull back a few of those wins, and get something in the 95 win vicinity, while Syracuse will be a game or two back and in a wild card spot. Chicago has been steadily improving their wins from season to season, but I think this is the year they hit a plateau and only get into the lower 80's. NY is NY and is likely looking at another 100 loss season.
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