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| Is this the year the ChiSox rule the Windy City? |
This is the worst division in baseball, which makes for an
anything-can-happen scenario–sort of.
The Minnesota Twins won over 100 games last year and
logic says they should win the Central again in 2020. Maybe, but their pitching
is thin after Berrios and Odorizzi. Maeda came over from the Dodgers and NL
pitchers often fare badly in the AL. Hill has had injury woes and Bailey just
isn’t very good. It’s nice to have Cruz as your DH and on paper an infield of
Donaldson, (Marwin) Gonzaléz,
Polanco, and Sanó is really good. The
same can’t be said of the outfield. They need much more consistency from low OBP Kepler
and “Swings at Anything” Rosario. And there’s Buxton, the Jackie Bradley
of the AL Central who catches up to anything except a pitched baseball.
I’m going out on a limb and predict the Chicago White Sox
will sneak past the Twins in the 2020 truncated season. (My second guess is that they’ll slink to the
bottom again!) Kopech is a stud in the making who can carry a pitching staff
and Keuchel wins, though no one can figure out why. Colomé is serviceable. Grandal is a very
good catcher and the infield is terrific: Abreu, (Tim) Anderson, Moncada
(another giveaway from Boston). Encarnacion is also a productive DH. The
outfield is unsettled beyond Jiménez
and could an Achille’s heel.
Alas, the poor Cleveland Indians. Terry Francona will
get the best from what he’s got, and make them a dark horse, but there
comes a time in which subtraction is just that: subtraction. Carrasco and
Clevinger are good pitchers, but the rest of the staff is a bunch of guys in
camp with high numbers on their backs and big dreams under their caps. Brad
Hand might be traded simply because there aren’t enough games for him to save.
There’s Lindor and loads of questions about the lineup, including the strange
retrogression of (José)
Ramirez. Even Francona will be hard-pressed to get these guys into the money.
The Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals are
works in progress and regress. The Royals should be marginally better
than Detroit because of a sprinkling of good players–Montgomery, Soler,
(Salvador) Perez, Gordon, and Whitfield. They might even be mediocre if Duffy’s
sore arm is healed. The Tabby Cats are waiting and praying that some young guys
show them something. He’s had a great spring, but does (Miggy) Cabrera have
much left? (Jordan) Zimmerman certainly doesn’t and it’s almost impossible to
believe that just a year ago other teams thought it would be a good idea to
trade for Boyd. Every tick over .380 will be a moral victory. Mostly, though,
there’s not much reason to catch a game in KC or Motown if you’ve got better
things to do, like clip your nails or paint the garage.
Predicted Order of Finish:
1.
Chicago
2.
Minnesota
3.
Cleveland
4.
Kansas City
5.
Detroit
Rob Weir
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