Wow, so the Nats and Braves are going to finish ahead of the Mets and the Giants are going to finish third? Matsui may be new to Houston but he's been around awhile, having played for the Mets and the NL Champion Rockies.
Are you sure you watch baseball? Who lists the standings from last to first anyway?
Well yeah I do watch Baseball, while I'm NOT new to it at all, I used watch Baseball till they cancelled the world Series in 1994, I was so bitter I didn't start watching it a again until 2005.
My mistake, I met to say the Mets. And from what I've heard things aren't looking to good for them this season with a low BA and sloppy bullpen they may fall victim to the Braves who have the unique ablility to take advantage of a teams poor bullpen.
As for on the AL side, I'd say the Mariners and Angels will have pretty good season in the AL West maybe the strong BA and I can recall Suzuki faring well against the White Sox despite their well balanced bullpen. To be honest I'd love to see the Mariners sweep the Sox in a 4 game streak. As for the Angels, they were remarkable last season and I look forward to see strong again in '08.
on the AL central, I honestly say I HATE the White Sox. I'd be much rather see thier manager Ozzie Gullien removed from team then to see them have another streak of pathetic errors and poor fielding. the rate of errors from thier baseman that would give the opposing team the upper hand last season was just laughable. It's going to be interesting to see how they'll fare against the Tigers and Indians, after all Dye was on DL for most of last season and considering that thier veteran CF Iguchi got traded last year(Do you know where?) I wonder how Swisher will fare in Iguchi's shoes?
The Indians seemed to have a strong season finishing first in the AL central, but could the Tigers overcome that close-but-no cigar season of 2007 and have another 2006 strong season? That's the million dollar question.
The AL East. There's no question about it, the Red sox are a force to be reconed with. Not only does the team now have two new modern WS titles 2004 and 2007, but thier batting lineup is amazing. Last year, they outhit every AL team. Will the NEW lineup add fuel to the fire? only you know Shemps#1.
As for the Yankees well it's obvious thier heyday is over. I don't think we'll see another era of the team winning a handfull of titles like we did in the 1940's and 90s, rocked by scandal on thier bullpen with the steriod allegations, and the departure of thier much loved manager Torre who ditched them for the legendary L.A. Dodgers who were once the sworn enemies of the Yanks, it's time for the Yankees to sit down for a while and let other teams take there spotlight.
Well you do have a point about the NL west after all, the Diamondbacks are unpredictable. the Hurdle both the Dodgers and Padres have to overcome as well as the Astros, is there a way to stop there starting lineup which usaully what helps them stop a team from catching up in runs scored. the anwser lies in the the preformance of the teams' bullpens.
Well the Giants have always been my favorite team, but I'm sorry to say the the lost of Bonds is going to come back and bite them, meaning they'll regret throwing Barry under the bus. There bullpen has been great,but not even the amazing young pitcher and brillant pitchhitter Linececum will be able to save them this year.
I really hope that the Astros can come in strong in the central division, they've really got to fix thier bullpen especially with Qualls and Rodriguez, I don't think we'll see much of Lidge because Sampson will be busy trying to make up for his sudden slump last summer( reminder Sampson did an excellent job saving face for Roger clemens in 2006).
As for there batting lineup, there's much hope. Berkman has completely recovered from his shocking poor season and is batting and scoring more frenquently. There's tremendous pressure on Matsui to full the shoes of veteran 2B Craig Biggio and for the team since it hopes them having a Japanese player can help give them some popluarity. Pence was incredible as a young rookie last year and there's some sign he'll preform even better. Lee did well last year, but can he increase his B.A. and do a better fielding job?Wigginton did well, but he caused too many errors and forced the team to be outhit and outplayed in thier chances to groundout the opposing teams.
All these are good signs that things will be much better for the Astros this year, the fans really hope the Astros can outpreform the Cubs. If they fare strong with about 77-62, they have a change of grabbing the pennat again so they can try to make up for the WS cheat they recieved by the White Sox in '05.
