Fired up for baseball! Part 1 American League

Although it's not 1985, I need to post George Bell on this site as he was just too great. I'm currently listening to Big Country and I'm tempted to call Karl so I can see his 80's dance one more time.

But in all seriousness, I wanted to post a picture of Toronto's new $126 million dollar man and I found this link.

Let's look ahead at the upcoming season.

The spending in the off season was exciting, lots of ridiculous spending by a lot of teams making J.P. Riccardi look like a genius for signing Burnett for $55 million. How will all this spending help the teams? Let's have a look.

The American League has lots of talent. I've spent some time reading some reviews and there are definately four stand out teams. No matter how much of a Blue Jay fan I am, I simply can't ignore the Yankees, Tigers, Angels and Red Sox. On paper, the Yankees have again the best batting order of any team in the AL but I have to admit there may be some question marks surrounding an aging starting rotation. I sincerely hope those question marks turn into exclamation marks of failure and The Rocket goes back to the NL where he belongs. If these two hopes hold true, I believe the Jays can challenge the Yankees for the wildcard spot as the Jays turn the same question marks into exclamation marks of excellence. Towers, Burnett and and Ohka have been great this past month.

The Red Sox on the other hand added Dice-K as a number three starter. I know spring training shouldn't relied on too much, but if he's the real deal, the Sox have a great rotation. Of course, I hope Schilling goes down to age, and Beckett goes on the DL again, but that would be wishful thinking on my part. They have a new line up and altough I'm still not convinced that J.D. Drew was worth all that money, Lugo makes a great leadoff man and Crisp will bounce back from a poor season. Ortiz and Ramirez will continue to score runs and after the three team royal rumble in the AL East, the Sox will come out on top.

With Detroit adding Sheffield to their line up, I just don't see how such a great team with five great young starters won't win the Central. The critics hold high favour for the Indians but sorry Dwayne, I can't see it. Maybe they all want a pat on the back for predicting a worst to first team, but it certainly won't be the Indians.

In the west, it will be a tight finish again, but the Angels have too many arms and too much bat. Altough Vlad has had 9 great seasons, I feel we have yet to see him at his best. If you buy into the Garrett Anderson hype and Mike Napoli is the catcher of the future, this team will score. An outstanding rotation combined with a solid bullpen should prove LAAA to be the best.

When I get a chance, i'll post my NL picks. I'd love to read about your predictions.

On a fantasy note, Bread, Rye, D-Wayne and Big El, good luck with the draft. Bread, I have to say, you have some bats. Wow! It could be your season.

Rye, I hope your gamble on Rios pays off!