MISSION IMPOSSIBLE:

Yikes, I am really procrastinating on these division previews. At this pace, I will have the 2007 NL West Preview just in time for the All-Star Break. That’s a problem. So my mission, if I am willing to accept it, is to get these five remaining previews done in the next two weeks, before the Mets open the season against the Cardinals on April 1. I still can’t believe those losers won the World Series. I don’t think I’ve even seen the highlight reel of them clinching the damn thing. Hands down the most pathetic excuse for a world champion since David Arquette won the WCW Championship belt. On we go to the AL Central…


Detroit Tigers: Last year’s surprise team shouldn’t be taken lightly this season, meaning I don’t think a performance drop-off is in the cards. What drove the Tigers last season, their solid starting pitching, has remained completely intact for 2007. Their rotation is led by two young arms in Jeremy Bonderman, considered their fantasy stud/ace, and last year’s Rookie of the Year Justin Verlander. Nate Robertson (not Nate Robinson) is a very solid number four starter. And while he’s either guilty of defacing baseballs or wiping his ass with his hand, “George Clooney impersonator extraordinaire” Kenny Rogers should add another 15 win season in the twilight of his career. The guy was able to shed the stigma of beating up a cameraman last off-season, so how hard could it be to make people forget you cheated in the World Series?

A big misconception with the Tigers is that they have an average lineup, when in fact their offense last year was one of the league’s best. The team finished eighth in runs, sixth in homers and tenth in batting average. The thing is they spread the production throughout the order, and they don’t have that one big power bat as their automatic All-Star. Now while he’s getting up there in age (screw it, he’s already there), Gary Sheffield could be that guy if he stays healthy this season. He’s going to be nestled in the lineup with their second and third best hitters, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen, which is a pretty respectable heart of the order. Another reason I like Sheffield is the influence he can have on the team’s core of younger African American players, Granderson, Munroe and Thames. It is rare for a team in baseball to have four black players in the lineup this day and age, and while Sheffield has been labeled as someone who is hard to deal with, I think he is just misunderstood.

Speaking of Thames, it should only be a matter of time before this guy replaces Sean Casey at first base, or is inserted somewhere else where he can be an everyday guy. He is currently the team’s 10th man on offense, and he’s just too powerful a hitter for that to continue. Last season Thames had 26 homers in fewer than 400 at-bats, which means he’s due for at least 35 if he gets a full season in. On top of that, look for Joel Zumaya to finally take over the closer role from Todd Jones. Sure he was stupid enough to get injured while playing Guitar Hero, but he also throws in the triple digits, and is the league’s premier right handed reliever. I have total faith in Jim Leyland to make the right decision in both cases. Basically, I like this team a lot in 2007, and have them right behind the Yanks as favorites in the American League.


Minnesota Twins: The Twins second half surge to the playoffs last season (11 games back at the All-Star break to division champs) has to be one of the more underrated runs in league history, but there’s good reason for that. First off, their breakthrough starter Francisco Liriano, a guy who was labeled injury prone his entire minor league career, only two emerge as “Santana the Second” after joining the rotation last season…got injured. He had Tommy Jon surgery in November and is expected to miss the whole season. Without him in the playoffs, The Twins got swept by the Athletics, and just like that, their late season comeback didn’t seem as impressive.

Despite the disappointing end, there were a lot of things to be happy about if you were a Twins fan in 2006. First off, your ace pitcher had another dominating season, posting 19 wins, a 2.77 ERA and 245 strikeouts to win the Cy Young award. It’s not even a fantasy attribution for this guy – Johan Santana is the league’s greatest pitcher, and the drop-off after him is pretty big. Then you have your first baseman that sounds like a hockey player, Justin Morneau, come out of nowhere to win the MVP, and while many argued for Jeter, I think either guy was worthy. On top of that, your homegrown catcher, Joe Mauer, comes out of nowhere to win the batting title, becoming the first backstop to do it since…(google check) Ernie Lombardi! So a team that was dead in the water at season’s half came back to win their division, and produce the AL’s Cy Young, MVP and batting title winners. For that, there is a lot to look forward to in 2007 if you’re a Twins fan.

While the Liriano injury may sting, it may not be as detrimental to the team’s rotation as people think. When he went down last year, some bloke named Boof Bonser stepped in to emerge as the team’s second best starter, and finished the season strong (before the whole rotation, Johan included, choked in the playoffs). Now I’m not sure how much faith one should have in a guy who shares his name with Michael J. Foxx’s love interest in Teen Wolf, but all I am saying is give Boof a chance. As for the rest of the rotation, sure Brad Radke retired, but he was on the tail end. It’s looking like Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson with fill out the three and four spots, so hopefully one of the Twins farm guys can emerge in the number five spot. Oh yeah, and they also have the league’s most underrated and dominant closer in Joe Nathan, to lead their steady pen. So all in all, I really like the Twins this year to compete with the Tigers, but ultimately settle for the wildcard. Let the Boof be told.


Chicago Whitesox: Not exactly the year the team was hoping for following their World Series run in 2005, as the starting rotation fell apart worse than Lindsay Lohan’s body. Mark Buehrle and John Garland got lit up last year in a majority of their starts. Jose Contreras started to show his age (85) and hit a huge a wall after a very strong first half. The same can be said for Javier Vasquez, who lets face it, has never been a top starter since leaving what was then the Expos. Probably their most consistent starter from last year, Freddy Garcia is gone, and for reasons I can’t explain, the Sox dealt away their top pitching prospect Brandon McCarthy to the Rangers.

That last move really has me scratching my head. I know they got two pitching prospects in return, but to trade a guy as highly regarded as McCarthy, who never really got a chance when he joined the team last season, just doesn’t make sense to me. I think the Sox are really panicking about their rotation, and figured a two for one deal was needed to insure their suspect starters. Call it quantity over quality I guess, but nothing can really be said about the move until the season is a good 50 games in. The thing is, despite their pitching problems the Sox did start last season on about the same pace as 2005, going 57-31 at the break. The problem is, they fell a lot harder in the second half of the season, and the competition around them grew. It’s said that pitching wins championships, so when a team wins a World Series on said pitching, and then has its rotation become exploited by two better rotations (Tigers, Twins) the following year, the championship mentality will vanish rather quickly.

I still feel there is a winning mentality on this team, but it is definitely coming from the opposite side of the roster, as the bats crushed the ball in 2006. The team hit a whopping 236 homers last year to lead the league, with the four top guys (Dye, Thome, Konerko and Crede) all hitting at least 30. Now that is an insane amount of power, but it was pretty much wasted on a team that finished third in its division. While many fantasy experts predict drop-offs for both Dye and Crede, I predict similar numbers, the question is will it be enough. The good news is Scott Podsednik has recovered quickly from his off-season hernia, and will be able to start the season on opening day. If not the team would have gone with Darin Erstad, whose career is definitely on the decline (great signing!) Still, I expect this team to hit well enough to have a respectable season. Considering I just picked two of their division-mates to make the playoffs, respectable is the best they can hope for.


Cleveland Indians: A lot of people are really high on the Indians this season for some reason, similar to how they were touted as a playoff team last year. Buster Olney, who I suppose I have to respect because he’s one of ESPN’s top baseball insiders, even picked them to win the World Series while filling in on Mike and Mike this week. Now I say people are really high on the Indians, and it makes perfect sense here, because what exactly is Buster Onley smoking? (I assume some old man weed he snatched from Peter Gammons wooden pipe). The Indians have a fine offense, which will probably only get better this year with the growth (ahem) of Grady Sizemore, and the addition of sleeper second baseman Josh Barfield. Leading the pack is the league’s most underrated slugger Travis Hafner. Sure the guy decided to stop fielding at the ripe age of, uh, 29, but he is probably the league’s premier player when it comes to the overlooked category of OPS. He’s just a monster at the plate.

But what did we just learn with the Whitesox? Hitting can only get you so far, especially in the American League. I’m not saying the tribe’s rotation is awful, but can someone tell me who their ace is? It sure isn’t C.C. Sabathia, unless you’re fine with admitting that your ace is C.C. Sabathia. Cliff Lee, who helped the Indians have the best team ERA in 2005, ballooned to a nice 4.40 last year. Even worse was the team’s bullpen, also strong in 05, which ranked at the bottom of every pitching category possible. “Well obviously I have the Indians picked to win the World Series this year…” rambles Buster Onley, while I’m forced to switch to whoever talks sports on WFAN at ten in the morning.

The team has a lot of faith in Jeremy Sowers, and while he pitched well in 14 starts last year, he still has a lot to prove. He’s still developing, as is another youngster named Adam Miller also expected to come up sometime this season. If these two guys can meet their potential, than OK, maybe the Indians have something to work with, but it’s too early to crown them as anything else but a potential 80 win team. As for their bitch-slapped bullpen of 2006, the team snatched two potential closers this season in Joe Borowski and Keith Folke. Then Keith Folke retired at the ripe age of, uh, 35 leaving last year’s surprise on the Marlins, Borowski, to carry the load. Should be a solid improvement however over the mixed bag of guys they got to replace Bob Wickman last season. Nonetheless, there are too many question marks with this team, and they’re playing in arguably the best division in baseball, maybe better than the AL East. The only thing I really like about this team is that they have an outfielder named Shin-Soo Choo, which sounds a lot like shinshi shinshi from that SNL skit with Christopher Walken. What is shinshi shinshi? I let the master explain it best.

Walken: One wintry night after eating Indian...Catherine whispered into my ear, her breath rich with faraway spices, that she desired to make love. She wanted to try shinshi shinshi. Now, I'd been begging her to try shinshi shinshi for months. She'd refused on the grounds that it was unclean. Finally, she was willing to accept her lover's body in places no one had ever trespassed. Specifically, the ear canal.


The Kansas City Royals: Ugh, Do I really need to breakdown the Royals season outlook? I don’t know why, I’m sure other teams have been worse in my lifetime (although probably not), but the Royals depress me like no other franchise in professional sports. They’re just so plain and generic, and the fact they haven’t competed since the mid eighties doesn’t help. They are coming off three straight 100 loss seasons, after making a slight attempt to be respectable in 2003, which ultimately failed. In fact, does anyone remember that? I think the Royals were leading the central for most of the first half of the season that year and almost became a feel good story. Instead, they stumbled back to awfulness.

The Royals are the type of team that will never be able to hold onto a franchise player (see Beltran, Damon and Dye) because of their small, economically challenged market. The fact that the team’s most recognizable star over the past ten years has been Mike Sweeney is a true indicator as to why the team is such a modern day baseball tragedy. For the love of god, their two biggest free agent signings in the past few seasons have been Reggie Sanders and Gil Meche.

But I should really stop dwelling on this in an attempt to say one positive thing about this team. Like the Devil Rays, the Royals low win total has equaled into high draft picks, netting them top prospects like Alex Gordon, who along with Mark Teahan and Ryan Shealy makes up a fairly decent core of young hitters. But in today’s big league environment, it’s going to be impossible for a team like the Royals to compete. If anyone wants to point to the Marlins sporadic success, another meager market team, just remember that they play in Miami not Kansas City, and that anything’s possible in the National League.

I Hate New York

Why last night was about more than a missed free throw

In many ways, the 2006-07 Knicks are a lot more frustrating to watch than the 2005-06 team. What’s the optimist’s automatic response to that? Hey, we surpassed our win total from last year, and there is still a third of the season left. In my opinion, improving on last year’s record is like Britney Spears deciding to only check in and out of rehab twice this week, rather than seven. Putting things into a positive perspective often blinds us to the fact of the matter at hand – in this case, the Isiah Thomas era Knicks are just a miserable team to have to root for.

So last night, with the Knicks riding two straight victories (a streak is when you win three games in a row folks) into a showdown with the Sonics at home, they had two options on how to play the game. Option (A) win the game decisively, and create false hope in Knicks fans over a three-game streak at home against teams with a combined record of 74-109. Option (B) stick to the routine of the season, fall behind by over 20, come back to take the lead late, and ultimately lose.

Obviously, the Knicks chose option (B), as they have many times this year after stringing together a couple of wins. The turning point of this game exemplified so well what is wrong with this team. Up by one, with about a 12 second differential on the shot and game clock, Marbury brings the ball up court with the Knicks up by one. Once he stopped his progression a little past half court, I knew what was going to happen next. Marbury does it all the time in these situations. Instead of setting up a play, driving to the basket, or god forbid, advancing the ball to at least the three-point line, Marbury decided to drain the clock to about five before making his move.

Of course, when you have the ball that deep from the basket with no intent to pass, you’re left with one option; a horribly low percentage, highly contested fifty footer. It wasn’t even a shot Marbury put up as much as it was a chuck. I can only imagine what was going through Marbury’s head. My friend Grandpa said that Marbury goes into “street ball” mode in these situations, always trying to one-up the opposing team. He probably had Bobito announcing the action in his head saying, “It’s Starbury baby! Here come the pain! You can’t stop the kid from Coney!”

You all know what happened next, the Sonics drove it right to left, and Rashard Lewis got the ball for a ridiculously wide-open three, which he hit. The Knicks were now down by two with five seconds left, and that is when Isiah decided to call timeout. That pains me more than anything else. Why didn’t he call a timeout when Marbury brought the ball up with a one point lead? Does he have any faith in himself to call a successful half court play late in the game? He should have called the timeout, set up a play where Marbury could draw some contact and get to the line. Worst case scenario, if the Sonics rebound and bring it back, he could at least set up some defensive assignments to stop them from scoring.

But no, Isiah decided to keep his timeout, almost predicting that his team would screw up, and that he would need to have one. This is what separates good coaches from bad ones. The idea is to use timeouts in favorable situations, not pressure ones. Instead of calling a timeout up by one with 36 seconds left, Isiah was forced to call one down by two with four seconds left. Which situation would you rather like to be in as a head coach? It’s like the Knicks were a football team with a third and short in field goal territory (favorable situation) and a bonehead play put them at 4th and long, forcing them to punt (pressure situation). If Isiah Thomas coached one football game, at least four of his players would suffer career ending injuries by the end.

So for me, it boggles my mind why radio hosts, TV personalities or writers would waste one second on talking about the missed free throw. It was irrelevant to me (although Kenny Smith’s horrible jinx was the type of thing that Charles Barkley will surely make him pay for on TNT tomorrow).

The thing that really disgusts me, or at least bothers me the most, are all these pointless comebacks. Every time this team comes out playing like shit and falls behind by 20, they somehow manage to comeback in the second half. Now why exactly is this a problem? Because the players are having too much fun, in games that they are for the most part losing. There’s too much towel slapping on the bench, too many players bumping chests for a team that isn’t winning, and it’s all caused by these comebacks. Did anyone see Steve Francis’s weird dance last night late in the fourth? He looked like a skinny white kid from Valparaiso whose team just made the big dance.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I just want some fucking wins. I don’t care if they play like San Antonio in the height of the Tim Duncan era at this point; just win some games, beginning to end, like a respectable basketball team. If I see one more of these “20 point deficit turned comeback lost cause” games, I’m going to think I’m Phil Connors from Groundhogs Day. I’m going to have to kidnap local groundhog Malverne Mel (my newspaper owns him apparently) and drive my car off a cliff to see if it’s true. I guess the only question is…does the Sports Jew feel lucky?

MLB Season Preview: AL EAST

With the baseball season just one month away, I figure a season preview is in order. I’ve decided to break it down division-by-division, team-by-team, to see which squads are at the top of the 2007 food chain. I’m going to start things off newspaper standings style, top to bottom, with the AL East.

(Note: These teams are not listed in the order I think they will finish this season, but rather on last year’s standings.)

The AL East


New York Yankees: Every off-season since 2000, the last time (gasp) the Yankees won the World Series, George Steinbrenner has made it Brian Cashman’s goal to sign the biggest free agent available. From Giambi, to Mussina, to A-Rod (not a free agent, but a huge catch), to Sheffield, to Matsui, to Pavano, to Johnson, to Damon…the list is endless. Actually, it’s not endless. It’s pretty much made up of those guys I just mentioned. The point is, all these acquisitions amounted into absolutely nothing, as far as world championships are concerned. The Yankees have transformed from a team with undeniable chemistry and heart, into a team that constantly has to hand over the reigns to their new star player. So this year, the Yankees decided to buck the trend of spending big bucks, and had their most quiet off-season in years. Sure they signed Pettitte, but he was no where near the biggest free agent signing off the winter. Sure they signed another Japanese prospect in Igawa, but they didn’t shell out the big chips for Dice-K.

So will it pay off? In my opinion, the reason the Yankees have been underachieving so much these past few years is because all the new players deterred any chance of the team creating and building on chemistry. So now, the core they preserved from last season is a year wiser, and a year closer together. Their lineup is unquestionably still the best in baseball. It has a nice blend of speed up top (Damon, Jeter, Abreu), and power in the middle (A-Rod, Giambi, Matsui). I don’t care what anyone says about his inability in the clutch, his fielding, his purple lips or his “I’m too sexy for my shirt” outings in Central Park; when it boils down to it, A-Rod is a great player.

It’s their pitching that has been the big question mark during these ring-less seasons, and while the acquisition of Pettitte will help, their fate will depend more on the rest of their rotation. I hesitate in calling Wang their ace, considering he had less strikeouts last season (76) than a top notch closer like Joe Nathan (95). I have little faith in Pavano returning to his “contract year” form this season, and doubt whether or not he was ever a top rotation starter. In my mind, The Yankees best pitcher is Mussina. He’s always solid, and rarely gets roughed up for more than four runs, an amount this lineup should surpass on any given day. A perfect case in point is Game 2 of the ALDS vs. the Tigers last season. He kept his team in the game, only down by one, but the offense couldn’t produce their next run until late in Game 4. That seems to be the only thing really holding this team back. As long as the lineup doesn’t choke in October again, this team should make the World Series.

I still hate them however, and wish them nothing but the worst for the 2007 season.


Toronto Blue Jays: Yes, they finished ahead of the Red Sox last season (by one game). It was a fairly successful year for the birds. They out-slugged almost every team in the league, and proved that B.J. Ryan was worth the loot. They also managed a pretty decent off-season, signing two pitchers (Tomo Ohka and John Thomson) for almost nothing, while adding another big bat to their lineup in Frank Thomas. Along with Wells, Glaus, Rios and Overbay, Toronto should be even more dangerous than last season, when Rios, who showed a lot of promise missed over 40 games (his middle name is Israel!) The only problem I have with their lineup is that it appears legitimately one-dimensional on paper; they got a lot of power, but lack average and speed. This is why a guy like Reed Johnson, their lesser-known lead-off hitter, will be so crucial in setting the table for the big guns that follow.

Pitching wise, the Blue Jays are one of few teams in the league that can say they have a true ace in Roy Halladay. He has been consistently great in the past few years, with only Santana of the Twins being a better all-around starter in that time frame. Number two starter A.J. Burnett did something shocking last season – he got injured and only pitced 21 starts. He seems to trade off healthy and non-healthy seasons through his career, so the Jays should take the opportunity to make something of it this year. I like Ohka and Thomson rounding out their rotation. They have both shown good signs in their careers, even though Thomson is a total tool box for saying he wouldn’t play with the Mets this off-season (As if we’d want him! We are sooo set with starting pitching). The question is, will all of this be enough for the Jays to make the required leap this year in the AL East, which has been a two-dog race for so long. Considering they finished second last year (first time a team other than Boston or New York did since 98), I’d say it’s very possible.


Victor Zambrano Alert: Well someone had to do it. The Jays are the poor schmucks who ended up with “the other Zambrano” for the 2007 season. As any Mets fan could attest, Victor Zambrano is the worst starting pitcher in the history of the league. Anytime he starts a game, you can only hope that he gives up four runs in 4.2 innings – and I’m dead serious. I don’t know how the Jays plan on using him, but I suggest they keep him in the bullpen and never put him into a single game. If he ever acts up and complains about not receiving any playing time, just throw a cup filled with empty sunflower seeds in his face and tell him to get his ass back on the pine.


Boston Red Sox: After getting the proverbial monkey off their back in 04 by winning the whole thing, the Sox have stumbled back to where they were prior to their miracle run, in the past two seasons. But the reasoning is understandable. They lost their heart and soul pitcher in Pedro Martinez and their heart and soul batter in Johnny Damon. They also traded a lot of prospects for proven veterans, last year with the Marlins (Lowell, Beckett) and this year with the signings of Lugo and Drew from the Dodgers. Their biggest catch of the off-season was Dice-K, who I’ve decided to never spell his name out, since he was given such a cool nickname. Nonetheless, the Red Sox have been making a lot of moves since their World Series season, but unlike the Yankees, the Sox have created little buzz with their list of transactions.

Their starting pitching could or could not be the best in the league this season. Curt Schilling has gone from a bloodied sock warrior to a fat guy who complains a lot (if he wants to be the next David Wells, he’s about 25 pounds and a goatee away). Beckett was awful last year, seeing his ERA inflate larger than his face upon entering the hard hitting AL East. To me, it’s going to take the penciled in three and four starters to make something happen for the Bo-Sox. Converted starter Jonathan Papelbon is a total tossup for me and anyone else who only knows him as a closer. Dice-K is the guy who can really turn things around. He has the potential of becoming a big fan favorite in Bean Town if he succeeds, and can wake up a team that fell apart horribly last season (I nearly forgot about their five-game sweep by the Yankees. Never has one regular season series done so much to crush a team’s post season hopes).

But the pitching forecast seems to overcast a much more prominent issue in Boston this season, and that is their aging and lacking of an identity lineup. While Ortiz is still a monster, his irregular heartbeat last year worries me about the toll the regular season takes on the big guy. He doesn’t seem like someone who conditions himself to well, and it’s inevitable that he’s going to hit a wall soon and miss some games. As for Manny, he too is an injury liability, and has the worst case of bipolarism I have ever seen. One day he’s demanding a trade, the next day he’s saying how much he loves Boston and would never leave. Riiiiiight. As much crap as he’s been getting, J.D. Drew could prove to be the key of Boston’ season, so the fans would be wise to embrace him at first. A career underachiever, if Drew can just lock in on that low porch in left (the pesky pole is just 302 feet from home), hopefully his production can inspire everyone else, and get that offense going again. If not, the Red Sox can easily fall towards the bottom of the division.


Baltimore Orioles: It gets harder and harder for teams to surpass the Yankees the further down they stand in the division, and the Orioles still look years away from doing so. For a team that used to contend in the division back in the mid-nineties, the O’s still have the notoriety of a team like the Cubs to sign big players and make noise in the off-season. But unfortunately for them, it hasn’t translated into a winning season, which hasn’t been had in Baltimore for nine years now. This team hasn’t had anything to be happy about since Cal Ripken broke the consecutive game streak, and that was over ten years ago. Yikes.

The good thing is Miguel Tejada, their premier signing over the past few years, has been very solid in Baltimore, and hit a career best .330 last season. The bad thing is his power has declined at the same time, down to 24 homers last year. When a team puts their shortstop in the cleanup spot, and gets that power production in a division filled with bombers, it doesn’t speak to highly of their chances to compete in the runs department (By the way, it pains me to write all of this considering I drafted Tejada over a slew of other sluggers in my recent fantasy league, including Ortiz). The rest of their lineup is very suspect. Brian Roberts is overrated, Melvin Mora appears to be on the decline, and recent signing Aubrey Huff isn’t exactly enough to bolster them to the next level (it surely didn’t work in Houston, a much friendlier hitters park).

So, as is common with every team trying to make the playoffs, starting pitching will tell the tale of the Orioles success. And like their bats, their arms too are suspect. I am a huge fan of Eric Bedard – uh…actually I barely know anything about him, I just know a lot of sports writers who use that description. In fact, there was a huge ruckus when he was taken in that recent fantasy draft, prompting my friend Kerner to say, “Why the fuck is everyone going crazy over Eric Bedard?” But despite how good he presumably is, their rotation is very bleak from 2-5. And to add to that, Kris Benson will miss the whole year, leading his wife to sleep with former Met Steve Trachsel, who was signed to replace the injured former Met. That pretty much sums up what I think of the Orioles in 2007.


Tampa Bay Devil Rays: The Rays have an awful stigma weighing on their shoulders that sooner or later needs to be shed, or they might as well fold into nothing and disappear from Major League Baseball. They are the only team to never be good, never have a winning season and never have any positive effect on the league in their nine losing seasons of existence. In that timeframe, the Diamonbacks, who came into the league the same year, have had five winning seasons and one World Series title. Another expansion team from the past fifteen years, the Marlins, has won two championships. Even the Rockies had a short-lived period of success in the mid nineties, making the playoffs in the Dante Bichette era.

So why were seven Devil Rays selected in my fantasy draft? Well that answer to that is rather simple – their awful records have translated into a lot of high draft picks. Going into this season, they have a healthy core of Rocco Baldelli, Delmon Young and Carl Crawford at the top of their lineup, all with speed and power. Throw in some other nice bats, and this team has a young, yet slightly experienced offense. They also have an ace up their sleeve in Scott Kazmir, who has the potential to be a top five starter in baseball. The problem is, like Baltimore, their rotation completely falls apart after the number one spot, and their bullpen isn’t the type you want to hand the ball over to early.

While this season is a wash, it could serve as a good opportunity for the Rays to do something they have never done in their nine years - finish third in the division. As pathetic of an accomplishment as that sounds (and it basically is), it will be a positive step forward for a team that is still missing crucial pieces to their success. What they can really use are a few experienced veterans to round out their rotation. Guys like Jon Lieber, currently ranked 6th on the Phillies depth chart, would help their situation. If they can do that, while finding a closer, I am pretty confident this offense can scrap together enough runs to compete one day. It’s still early Tampa fans, but the quest for third is a reality in 2007!