Here is my assessment/predictions/thoughts of the upcoming 2007 Major League Baseball season.
The NL will continue to be a minor league affiliate to the AL. The best team by far will be the New York Mets, and their starting pitching is awful after Tom Glavine with their injuries. The good news is for Mets fans is that as bad as their pitching is, their line up is American League caliber. They are good, real good. The Phillies will be a more complete team, with superior starting pitching, but their batting lineup falls far shorts after Rollins, Utley, and the beast Howard. The Mets have a seven or eight man deep line up that will destroy opponents pitching. I can not say anything about the playoffs where there is a premium of pitching and defense, but for the regular season the Mets will dominate.
I like the Cardinals, Dodgers, Mets, and Phillies to make the playoffs. I do not think their are to many high quality NL teams, but I do think their will be a close race of mediocrity to make the playoffs at the end of the season.
The AL should continue to be the dominant league. Look for the Angles to have a big year. They are young, but extremely talented. I do not like Oakland. As usual they have good young pitching talent, but I think they will pull their typical routine and not start winning until the second half of the season. The AL is too good for that and they will fall short of a wild card berth.
The Tigers appear to be heading for another good year. They have very good young pitching in their rotation and their bullpen. Look for Gary Sheffield to make a big impact, not only by his production, but his presence will rub off on the younger hitters. This will make them take more pitches and not swing at every pitch like last year. The Twins always find a way to get things done, and I expect that again this year. The White Sox will fall short and not perform well this year. Their pitching will resemble last year rather than the championship year two years ago. The jury is still out on Cleveland. Everyone loved them last year and they tanked. Everyone seems to love them this year, but I am in the middle. They have all the potential that people saw last year, it is just a question of them playing up to their talent(not an easy thing for a team as young as the Indians).
The AL east will be another hard division. I think it is the toughest in baseball, but that could also be argued for the previously mentioned AL central. My very biased prediction is the Yankees to win the division. Their pitching could be a problem, but as a die hard fan I see the upside of a healthy rotation and a revamped bullpen. They have the best lineup in baseball. They also have too much drama, but hopefully it will bring the team together for a championship year.
The Red Sox could be a dominant team. That has a big "if" to it. Their lineup is not as good as past years, yet still one of the top in the league. Any lineup that includes ManRam and Ortiz is a scary one. Their bullpen is shaky, and their rotation could be the best in baseball, or could be awful. Beckett has yet to show signs of returning to his former self when he played for the Marlins. Schilling is getting old, and Dice-K could be the second coming of Jesus for Boston fans, or could be a complete bust. Too many question marks to know what the Red Sox will do this year.
The Blue Jays are also improved and will give the top two a hard time this year. Signing Vernon Wells to an extension was one of the best off season moves. He is a player that can do it all offensively, and defensively. The Devil Rays should not finish in last place this year with their lineup, and Baltimore should be worse than the Royals.
I am going with the Angles, Yankees, Tigers, and Red Sox to make the playoffs. (Though I could see another team out of the central getting the wild card, and the Red Sox beating out the Yanks for the AL east. To many good teams to even pretend that I know what the actual outcome will be.)
As far as playoff predictions go...I will just wait till later on those.
