Maybe.We'll have to see just how good the Tigers and Indians are. But on paper, those two look every bit as competitive as the Sox and Yankees...with the White Sox, Twins, and Royals giving the Blue Jays, Rays, and O's runs for their respective money in the win column.
As of mid-February, we already know Detroit was the big winner of the offseason, adding Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Edgar Renteria, and Jacque Jones to a team that won 88 games last year. And their only major contributor from '07 who won't be back in '08 is Sean Casey. That's a pretty good offseason. It also gives Detroit, arguably, the best lineup in the game. They have speedy contact hitters with Renteria, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen and Placido Polanco...and mashers with Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, and Gary Sheffield. Plus they're tremendously strong up the middle defensively with Ivan Rodriguez, Renteria, Polanco, and Granderson. The only unknown for Detroit is the pitching staff, which could be, but isn't a lock to be, quite good. Justin Verlander is a bona fide #1, and Willis could be a very capable #2, but he looked like number two in '07 going 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA and 87 walks in 205 IP. Minus the walks, Jeremy Bonderman had a similar year, but much better run support, and therefore, a winning record. And the ageless Kenny Rogers should be a capable #4 so long as the cameramen keep their distance.
For the Tribe, they're bringing back almost the exact same team that won 96 games last year and did so without a particularly productive season from Travis Hafner and a year from Grady Sizemore that was very good but still failed to meet lofty expectations. Plus, I'm sure they're excited to see what newbies Franklin Gutierrez, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Ryan Garko can do with 600 ABs. Like Detroit, it may come down to pitching for Cleveland. Can C.C. Sabathia turn in another Cy Young-worthy performance? Is Fausto Carmona for real? And what are they going to get from Paul Byrd and Jake Westbrook? The answers to those questions may determine who wins the division.
As for everyone else, the White Sox are an interesting group going into '08. They added some nice offensive punch with Nick Swisher, Carlos Quentin, and Orlando Cabrera. So if Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko can hit a little better, and if Joe Crede can bounce back, they're going to score a lot of runs. The front-end of their rotation is filled with solid, unspectacular veterans (Mark Buehrle, Javy Vazquez, and Jose Contreras) while the back end is largely untested (John Danks, Gavin Floyd). It's for that reason that they'll finish no higher than 3rd, unless Cleveland or Detroit go completely belly-up.
The Minnesota Twins had an offseason to forget. They traded their number one starter (Johan Santana), their number two starter (Matt Graza), and lost their number three starter (Carlos Silva) and All-Star center fielder (Torii Hunter) to free agancy. Ouch. Francisco Liriano now projects to anchor this makeshift staff, which also includes journeyman Livan Hernandez and late-20-somethings Boof Bonser and Scott Baker. They did makeover their outfield with Delmon Young from the Garza deal and Carlos Gomez from the Santana deal. They'll make it easy to forget about Torii Hunter in a year or two, but this year, it won't matter.
And then there are the Kansas City Royals, who inexplicably gave Jose Guillen a $36 million 3-year-contract.
Here's my take on the Central in '08...
Detroit 98-64
Cleveland 96-66
Chicago 81-81
Minnesota 75-87
Kansas City 60-102
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