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| Lorenzo Cain & the Royals, ready to that next step? |
A.L. Central
At the end of last season, with Detroit getting knocked off in the first-round (as expected) and the Kansas City Royals moving on to the World Series, I made a statement of some sort that the torch has been passed in the A.L. Central (from Detroit to Kansas City) -- not really sure about that at the moment, and to be honest not sure who's division it actually belongs to. In writing and for the record books, the Detroit Tigers are the defending A.L. Central Division Champions, then again the Royals are the defending American League Champions.
The Royals finally made that jump to the playoffs last season, and once they did -- what an exciting team to watch in the post-season, personally it was one of the more exciting playoff runs that I have seen in some time; Royal fans should be excited & they need to stay excited and show off their Royal blue in the stands all year around (something that was legitimately questioned by Manager Ned Yost). With a constant heavy attendance, these players who play off momentum should keep their winning ways. The team has not made any major additions this off-season to this point, and really are not expected to -- they kept Luke Hochevar by signing him to a two-year deal; Hochevar excelled in his relief role in 2013 with a 5-2 record, 1.92 ERA & 82 K's in 70.1 innings -- but missed all of 2014 due to injuries. Traded Aaron Crow to Miami in exchange for pitchers Brian Flynn and Reid Redman. Baseball analysts believe that Lorenzo Cain is ready to make that next step & that he is starting to realize his power potential, as Cain showed off his excellent skills in the post-season. The Royals are not expected to pursue resigning free agent pitcher James Shields, expect them to go cheaper routes, going to the bargain bin for a starter or two. Moving Brandon Finnegan to the rotation I believe will be a mistake possibly, like his stuff in the bullpen; if they do send him to rotation, he will have to get used to starting again with plenty of work in the minors, it was truly amazing to watch him go from College World Series to the MLB World Series in the same year! The team still has the best bullpen in the Majors, Crow was the only departure & Hochevar rejoins it. I believe K.C. will be in the playoff contention mix once again, their chances of winning the division for the first time since 1985, depends on the Tigers resigning Scherzer or not.
How much of a difference a hop to another paragraph makes, sorry K.C. fans, but I still believe the Detroit Tigers own the division after today's flurry of deals. Now let me make the record show that I don't really love or like the idea of trading a starting pitcher for a corner outfielder usually, the reason that the Tigers did trade Rick Porcello to Boston in exchange for Yoenis Cespedes, is due to the fact that Porcello's salary was going to be hiked up through arbitration -- and that it will help the team in its quest for resigning Max Scherzer, which will likely be in the ballpark of $200 million; Plus you add a big bat like Cespedes (even though his OBP can be frustrating). The Tigers took care of their void left by Porcello, in acquiring Alfredo Simon from the Reds -- which YES, did cost another first rounder being traded away from our organization in Jonathon Crawford; Crawford was traded along with Eugenio Suarez to the Reds. The Tigers in recent years, have now traded first-round picks in Porcello, Jacob Turner & Crawford. We added Shane Greene from that three-way deal with the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Tigers rotation at the moment appears to be:
1) David Price
2) Justin Verlander
3) Anibal Sanchez
4) Alfredo Simon
5) Shane Greene
If the Tigers are able to resign Max Scherzer, the Tigers will still have the best rotation in baseball, even if they don't they still have a good rotation (most teams would not scoff at having such a rotation).
The Tigers' rotation - IF they resigned Max Scherzer, appears as this:
1) Max Scherzer
2) David Price
3) Justin Verlander
4) Anibal Sanchez
5) Shane Greene
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| Scherzer: To sign or not to sign? That is the question. |
Max signing the biggest contract for a pitcher, will also be awarded the ace slot, David Price would be great as the second slot, while Justin Verlander regains his confidence facing off against other #3 starters (or lower rotation pitchers). Anibal Sanchez is used to be in the 3rd/4th slot at this point. Greene over Simon, for a few reasons, Dave Dombrowski planned to put Greene in rotation & Simon out of the two would be a more valuable weapon coming out of the bullpen as a long reliever (using him a couple innings at a time) -- not really sure Greene would be able to come out of pen. Of course, Simon loved being a starter for the Reds. It's still early in the off-season, maybe now that we have Simon, we ship Greene off somewhere -- maybe get backups in places like at catcher, more SS depth in case Jose Iglesias gets hurt again.
The White Sox before this past week at the Winter Meetings, I had them at 4th place (at best). After all their recent moves? Possibly as good as second! This division has went from the weakest to possibly the best division in the A.L. -- it's close with the West, the East has meanwhile plummeted. The White Sox added Adam LaRoche, David Robertson (a closer), and Jeff Samardzija to their rotation; A rotation that includes Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and prospect Carlos Rodon -- Rodon is going to be a beast! Plus you get LaRoche to help protect Jose Abreu in the order, plus it will be another big plus if Avisail Garcia breaks out. It appears at the time of this post, they also signed Melky Cabrera, Kansas City inks one-year deal with Alex Rios.
A week ago, I had Cleveland in the mix for second, they had no major losses, and their starting rotation was the 2nd best in the entire American League that had a bad defense behind them -- that is why Corey Kluber won the A.L. Cy Young people, he had a bad defense behind him, in a hitter's park compared to Felix Hernandez's advantage of a pitcher's park. Kluber earned it fair & square, I loved watching this guy pitch, but was not thrilled when the Tigers had to play him. Trevor Bauer looks like he's turning that corner, and can be counted on as a solid rotation arm for the tribe. Carlos Carrasco and a bounced-back Danny Salazar will be a formidable pair, while 5th slot is manned down by T.J. House. The team acquired Brandon Moss in a trade from Oakland, at this point, he has been their only real addition.
Minnesota will likely be in last place, but they have a interesting mix of arms in Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco (if he bounces back from horrific 2014), and new addition in free agent signee Ervin Santana. The team had setbacks in their future stars Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano (due to untimely injuries), they did learn more about their team along the way, plus a strong rookie year from Danny Santana. Torii Hunter returns to Minnesota, to possible finish his career, he will be a huge mentor to the young Twinkies on the roster. HOF'er Paul Molitor takes over for Rod Gardenhire.
A.L. West is on deck...
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