AL East Preview: A Red Sox Repeat?
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed to receive instant updates of new posts.
Last season, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and their first division title since 1995. Winning the division finally dethroned the New York Yankees from the AL East division throne after nine consecutive pennants traveled to NY. Who was the last team to win the title prior to the Yankees run…the Baltimore Orioles? Yea, the Orioles actually were good at one time. Young fans probably don’t remember the Orioles being one of the premier franchises in baseball. Heck, even some older fans may not even remember those days as the Orioles have more recently represented futility even while spending wads of cash.
The Red Sox, with two World Series titles in the last four years, are one of the favorites again this year. While the Red Sox are looking for championship titles, other division rivals have other goals: the Toronto Blue Jays are looking to move pass either the Red Sox or Yankees and get back into the top two in the division. However, they may have to hold off the upstart Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays just to keep the #3 slot. The Rays first goal will be to finish above .500 for the first time in team history, but greater goals are just beyond the horizon.
Without further ado, your AL East previews with last year’s records, key additions, key losses, projected starting lineup, projected rotation, overall outlook, fantasy impact players, and our prediction for this season:
2008 Boston Red Sox Outlook
2008 projection: (99-63), 1st place
Team MVP: Josh Beckett
2008 New York Yankees Outlook
2008 projection: (88-74)
Team MVP: Alex Rodriguez
2008 Toronto Blue Jays Outlook
2008 projection: (86-76), 3rd place
Team MVP: A.J. Burnett
2008 Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays
2008 projection: (82-80), 4th place
Team MVP: Carl Crawford
2008 Baltimore Orioles Outlook
2008 projection: (62-100), 5th place
Team MVP: Nick Markakis
Also, check out our NL East preview and check back for further team-by-team previews of other divisions.
Derek Rang
Adam Rosen
Shotgun Spratling
If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed to receive instant updates of new posts including further MLB previews.
| 2.5 |
March 13th, 2008 at 8:39 am
As a Yankee fan, I hate to say it, but the predictions look dead on for the AL East. Nothing major has really changed the makeup of either the Red Sox or the Yankees. Both are laden with veterans with sprouts of youth sprinkled into the mix. The edge in the end goes to the Red Sox pitching staff and defense. In my opinion the Yankees may have one of the worst defensive outfields in the history of baseball. They may need to go pick up Bonds or Canseco to shore up the corner spots. While it might have been nice to get that big name pitcher who signed with the lesser NY team, I am glad the organization is not just throwing more money around to try and buy another championship. It seems as though we are trying to get back to developing a farm system and add a quality veteran here and there, rather than overpaying a bunch of over the hill big names. I appreciate everything Poppa Torre did for the club, but I think the Girardi move is GREAT! As for the rest of the league, Baltimore is a joke, Tampa Bay will be fun to watch if ESPN would ever put them on, The Blue jays have a great pitching staf, especially at the top of rotation but the Scott Rolen and Eckstien move do not wow me in the least. GO YANKS!