MLB Part II

And now for the cheese' AL predictions...


AL East
1. New York Yankees (ARod hit .290/35/121 in a "bad season," add to that greater pitching depth and a somewhat younger, and probably healthier, lineup and the Yanks will win their 10th! division crown in a row)
2. Boston Red Sox - Wild Card Berth (better rotation, upgraded lineup [though one can pray JD Drew goes down with a season ending injury] and Papelbon back in the bullpen will see the Bo'Sox back to the playoffs)
3. Toronto Blue Jays (poor Jay's fans, no matter how much money you spend you can't catch the behemoths on top, at least Halliday might win another Cy Young)
4. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (look at that, the D-Rays have some nice young talent, and Scott Kazmir could have a break out year, so a non-last place finish is entirely possible)
5. Baltimore Orioles (its a sad state of affairs when the O's look worse than the Devil Rays, if Cal Ripken were dead he'd be rolling in his grave, Eric Bedard and Miguel Tejada should both demand trades so they don't waste any more productive years in Angelos' cursed shadow)
Overall Breakdown - Comes down to NY and Beantown, as everyone assumed it would. The Yanks lost some bat in trading Sheffield, but they don't hurt for firepower, and the improved rotation and bench depth make them the team to beat. For the other non-NY and Boston teams, they should simply be moved to other divisions so that they might make the post season more than once every lunar eclipse. Of course, not into the AL Central cause, god is that a scary division.


AL Central
1. Minnesota Twins (yes they have rotation concerns past a certain left-handed wizard named Santana, but they have a ton of hitters, a great manager and GM, and they played absolutely hellish in the second half last year, plus 4 division titles in 6 years ain't nothin' to scoff at)
2. Detroit Tigers (last years pennant winners should have walked away with the division, but were overtaken by the Twins on the final day of the season, no reason to think they can't win the division other than the Twins being so good and so experienced in pennant drives)
3. Cleveland Indians (their run differential from a year ago points to them having some tough breaks in 06, if Sabathia has a solid season this is a team poised for a break...or would be in they didn't play in this division)
4. Chicago White Sox (two years ago they won a WS title, this offseason they made moves that might turn out to be genius in a year or two but weakened their pitching in the short term, would probably run away with a division crown in just about any other division, but...)
5. Kansas City Royals (poor Royals fans, nearly 20 years of suckage, at least that profit sharing has allowed them to spend some money, although poorly [Gil Meche, really?], but maybe they can hold on to some of that talent starting to crop up out of their farm system
Overall Breakdown - This is a division that could produce a 90 win team in 4th place, and send only one team into the playoffs, it's just that scary good. In fact, any of the top four are interchangeable in some regards. Bit like the NL Central, actually, but here it's because everyone's so talented, as opposed to the mediocrity that reigns in the NL counterpart.

AL West
1. Oakland Athletics (no concrete reason to pick them, other than the fact that Billy Beane's still GM over in Oaktown)
2. Anaheim Angels of Anaheim CA in Orange County where Anaheim is (more talent, on paper, than the A's, but the cheese thinks Gary Matthews Jr. is going to be a bust, Garrett Anderson is in decline, and there's no real protection for Vlad, plus Colon's 350 lbs. is going to wear on him more than people think taxing an already overrated starting rotation, still they have former Dodger All-Star Mike Sciosscia so that's a bonus)
3. Seattle Mariners (won't finish in last, won't finish in first but the kid Hernandez will make strides toward becoming the next Pedro, so if the M's play their cards right they might contend next year and for a while to come)
4. Texas Rangers (man can they hit, too bad they have almost no one to pitch and they play in a veritable band box, Gagne won't be nearly as helpful to a team not built around pitching and defense and once the temp starts spiking in Arlington watch how the Rangers fade)
Overall Breakdown - Actually most of these teams are fairly close, a few breaks and the M's and Rangers could push for the division. Mostly the benefit of the doubt has to go to Beane and Co in green for their stellar regular season record over the last decade+.

Well, there you have it. The cheese' 2007 regular season predictions. Only 6 months to see how close he got it...