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Dorf’s 2013 MLB Preview

Dorf

Just a quick check in, getting my thoughts on the upcoming 2013 season in the public record. We will check back in at the end of the season to see how we did.

American League 

American League East

1.            Baltimore Orioles

2.           Toronto Blue Jays

3.            New York Yankees

4.            Tampa Bay Rays

5.            Boston Red Sox

The non-traditional powers will win this division this season. The unknown in all of this is how well the revamped Blue Jays team will do. They have the talent to win almost 100 games, but are always hit by the injury bug. The Orioles are an up and coming team that has tons of talent blocked up in the minors. They will all make big impacts later in the season, powering them to a first place finish. That talent could also net them whatever prize is to be had at the trade deadline to push them over the top this season. The Red Sox are going to struggle again this year on their quest to return to their glory of the early 2000’s. The current roster is filled with a bunch of injury plagued veterans and youngsters who aren’t quite ready for the big time. The once powerful rotation will trot out there John Lackey and Ryan Dempster, who will each struggle to keep their ERA under 5.00 in the powder keg known as the American League East.

American League Central

1.            Detroit Tigers

2.            Cleveland Indians

3.            Kansas City Royals

4.            Chicago White Sox

5.            Minnesota Twins

The Tigers are the best team in this division, and will likely run away with it. They have the best offense and the best pitching. Offense wins games and defense wins championships. The Royals are a young team that doesn’t just have enough pitching to take them over the top, whereas the offense is completely ready. The Twins will bring up the basement, with no offense or pitching to speak of, making it another long year in the twin cities. The White Sox are old and crusty and will be in every home game because of the all or nothing style off offense played where the fences are only 20 feet beyond the infield, but will struggle mightily on the road. Cleveland made some very nice moves to improve the offense in the offseason, but the pitching still isn’t there enough to get the ball to the very talented back end of the bullpen.

American League West

1.            Los Angeles Angels

2.            Oakland Athletics

3.            Seattle Mariners

4.            Texas Rangers

5.            Houston Astros

The American League West is baseball’s best division by far. They have four teams that should contend for the playoffs, and if things fall into place, they might get three of them in. The Angels have the veteran star power plus God’s gift to baseball (Mike Trout) to win the division, but the Oakland A’s will give their best effort to finish in a close second. The A’s have tons of pitching and just enough offense to make a run at it. The Rangers have gone stagnant, not adding to their firepower in several seasons, and will finish in fourth, with not enough pitching to win with the drastic reduction in offense. The Mariners are one good developmental year from making a good run at it. The addition of Mike Morse to that offense will do wonders for their run production. Now if they could get a constant improvement from their pitching they would be in a great spot.

National League 

National League East

1.            Washington Nationals

2.            Atlanta Braves

3.            Philadelphia Phillies

4.            New York Mets              

5.            Miami Marlins

The National League East will be baseball’s second best division, but will have the MLB’s best team. The Washington Nationals will go beast mode on the entire MLB all year long. They have tons of offensive talent, they have great pitching, and play excellent defense. They are the most complete team in all of baseball if they stay entirely healthy. Heck, they traded a 30 HR and 100 RBI guy because they didn’t have anywhere to put him. The Braves also did their best this offseason to stock up on talent. What will be the death of them is the lack of an adequate leadoff hitter. They also have plenty of pitching and a great bullpen. The Mets, Marlins, and Phillies will all be looking up at those two titans all year long. The Phillies have the starting pitching to hang in games, but their bullpen outside of Papelbon is garbage. They just won’t hit enough to make up for that.

National League Central

1.            Cincinnati Reds

2.            St. Louis Cardinals

3.            Pittsburgh Pirates

4.            Milwaukee Brewers

5.            Chicago Cubs

Another solid division, but it won’t be a division with two playoff teams for the first time in recent memory. The Cardinals have all the talent in the world, just won’t be able to piece it together this season, and will be the best team sitting at home in October. Mister game cover, Andrew McCutchen won’t lead his Pirates to the playoffs because they just won’t pitch enough, even though they have plenty of talented arms on the way. If Jason “Gas Can” Grilli is your closer, you’re in trouble. The Brewers don’t pitch well enough, they have a nice top end of the rotation, but the bullpen is absolutely awful.

National League West 

1.            Arizona Diamondbacks

2.            San Francisco Giants

3.            Los Angeles Dodgers

4.            San Diego Padres

5.            Colorado Rockies

With the amount of money spent on acquiring talent by the Dodgers, you’d think that they would be so much better than they are. The bullpen is a mess, as well as there is no talent waiting in the wings to take the place of injured stars. They have a nice rotation, but then again, Clayton Kershaw can only win so many games by himself. The Diamondbacks have a nice mix of youngsters and veterans who just flat out play, mostly guys that most fans haven’t heard much of. They will win the division followed by the also playoff bound Giants. For the most part, the Giants kept the band together, but why wouldn’t they. They will have a slight drop off in performance, mostly because Marco Scutaro and Angel Pagan will come back to earth. The Rockies and Padres will bring up the rear, not creating much of a threat to any of the big dogs in the league.

 Award Winners

Playoff Predictions 

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