2009 AL Central Preview

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Filed on April 3rd, 2009 in Baseball ⋅ ⋅

Would anyone be surprised if all the teams in this division that don’t play home games in Kansas City reversed their final position in the standings from last year, putting Detroit on top, followed by Cleveland, Minnesota and Chicago? Neither would I.

This division is wide open every year, with four potential division winners. Each year, it seems that the team to beat gets beat and somebody that wasn’t supposed to win the division wins it. This year, everybody seems to be all over Cleveland and Detroit, so more than likely, Chicago or Minnesota will win the division.

If only it were that simple. While everyone seems to want to pick Detroit and Cleveland in this division, they both seem full of question marks to me. The only constant in this division seems to be the Royals playing below .500 ball, but really, nothing would surprise me in the AL Central.

Previews in order of 2008 final standings.

Chicago White Sox

The White Sox won this division last year, but with just 89 wins and a one-game margin, they don’t seem to have improved in the offseason, making them a solid underdog to repeat. The lineup will feature three new faces this year, and none of them look to be tremendously promising. Josh Fields, Chris Getz and Dewayne Wise are unproven at the big league level, but there is hope that the 25-year old Getz is the real deal. He will play second base this year while last years bright new star
Alexei Ramirez moves over to short.

AP Photo/M. Spencer Green Other than the newcomers, expect the same familiar faces: Thome, Konerko, Dye, Quentin and Pierzynski. Not bad, not great — just your White Sox.

The pitching staff is same-old, same-old as well. John Danks took a major step forward last year and him repeating last year’s solid season is a key to this team having success again. Mark Buehrle is once again back to anchor the rotation, and he’s joined by Gavin Floyd and Jose Contreras, both of whom were on last year’s squad. The one change in the rotation is that Javier Vazquez is out and Bartolo Colon is in. If Colon is healthy, this is an upgrade.

The White Sox had baseball’s fourth best record at home in 2008, but that meant that they struggled on the road. More than likely, they’ll have to improve on last year’s 35-46 road record if they want to see the postseason in 2009.

I don’t think this team got much worse, but they didn’t really get better and they did get a year older. I won’t be shocked if they put together a solid season again, but I will be mildly surprised if they are still in the postseason hunt in the last two weeks of the season.

Most importantly, the White Sox season starting means that it is time to listen to Hawk Harrelson. He is the worst announcer in baseball and the most entertaining all at the same time. I’m ready for a WGN and Extra Inning filled season of “you can put it on the booooaard….YES!”

Minnesota Twins

This team was not supposed to win 88 games and be within one game of winning the division last year. Hell, I’m still pretty sure that some smoke and some mirrors were involved in their 2008 season. They just traded away Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano was still on the shelf, yet they kept winning games. So can they improve on that in 2009?

liriano For starters (no pun intended), Liriano is back and ready to be the ace of this staff. The rest of the rotation is full of young talent like Kevin Slowey, Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Glen Perkins and Liriano, all of whom are under 27-years old. There’s no reason, outside of injury, to think that their pitching will be the reason this team falls from the 88 wins they had in 2008.

Their biggest issue could be the health of catcher Joe Mauer. Mauer is the heart and soul of the Twins and the defending batting title champion, the second batting title he’s won in the last three seasons. Mauer is recovering from kidney surgery and back issues, and could be back as soon as the first month of the season. If he’s back and ready to play in the April, there not much of an issue, but a lingering back injury on a catcher usually is a sign of a less than ideal season. Don’t be surprised to see Mauer struggle, even if he is in the lineup until he is fully healthy.

Other than Mauer, you have Justin Morneau and everyone else. Morneau and Mauer have carried this team on their shoulders for the last few years, but saw some nice contributions from some other guys last year. Carlos Gomez was impressive in his first full year in the show. They also got solid production from Delmon Young last year and have added even more young talent this year. There’s always the chance that the Twins get some down years from the young guys, but the track record with young players in Minnesota is solid.

This team looks more built for 2009 than 2008, and they managed 88 wins in ‘08. How high can they go if they stay healthy is the question.

Cleveland Indians

The key to Cleveland’s success lies in their pitching staff. What versions of Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona and Carl Pavano show up for this team? Really, you don’t know what to expect. Lee’s 2008 season was amazing, but came out of nowhere. There is as much reason to believe he’ll go 22-3 again as there is reason to believe he’ll be back to the guy with the 6.29 ERA he was rocking in ‘07. clifflee Carmona was great in 2007 but took a big step back in 2008 with injuries partly to blame. Pavano has started nine games in three years and there is no reason to believe he has any good years ahead of him at this point. Anthony Reyes and Scott Lewis have both showed the potential to be solid starters, but have to prove it for a whole season before I believe in it.

Hitting is not the concern in Cleveland. When your lineup includes Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, Kelly Shoppach, and Jhonny Peralta, you know you’re going to score runs. And if Victor Martinez can remember how to hit the ball over the wall, they’ll be even better.

I don’t know what to make of this team. They have a solid lineup, but they did last year too and still were fourth in the division in runs scored. I can put up with one question mark in a starting rotation, two if they are at the bottom of the rotation. But the three at the top? That’s scary. If it all comes together, this team could win the division by eight games. If all the questions skew to the negative, you could be in a battle with the Royals for the cellar.

Kansas City Royals

Last year was just the third season since 1994 that the Royals hit the 75-win mark. That’s not good. They have just one winning record in the last 18 seasons. But they improved by six wins last year, after improving by seven and six the years before that. That’s a 19-game improvement since 2005. Can this team be getting better? Well, the pieces are in place to build around, they just need the young talent to develop into veteran stars and the other young guys to not be busts to possible hit the .500 mark again in the coming years.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images This year, the Royals picked up some speed in Coco Crisp and power in Mike Jacobs to go with the little bit of talent that they had last year. David DeJesus is coming off the best season of his career and there is a lot of hope that Alex Gordon turns into the prospect that the Royals hoped he would be.

Gil Meche and Zack Greinke were both solid a year ago, but there isn’t a whole lot of depth behind them in the rotation. When Sidney Ponson is your number four starter, there are going to be pitching issues with your team in the near future.

I see hope for this team in the next few years, but I don’t think the cards are in place for anything special this year.

Detroit Tigers

Ah, the team everyone loves to pick, but a team that doesn’t seem to win. This team peaked in 2006, and since then has had two disappointing seasons in a row. Perhaps they were overvalued after their amazing season that year, but for whatever reason, they have failed in two straight seasons.

magglio Justin Verlander has shown to be a good pitcher, but took a big step back in 2008. Armando Gallaraga was solid in ‘08, but I need to see him do it again. The rest of their staff is a giant question mark to me. They could be solid or terrible and neither would surprise me. And until we see otherwise, we have to assume that Dontrelle Willis is done as a major league pitcher.

As for their lineup, I find it quite top-heavy. Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson, Miguel Cabrera and Placido Polanco are all very good hitters. Brandon Inge and Adam Everett are terrible, and they make up the left side of the infield in Detroit. There’s no more Pudge and no more Sheffield, but that is probably a new thing. Perhaps it is time for the Tigers to move on from the established names that under-perform and allow some young blood to take a shot at bringing this team back.

I know everybody is picking the Tigers to get better this year, but I dont’ really see it.