Charleston won the AL East by default last season. It's a rare feat to win the division with a losing record. The team was offensively challenged, and the pitching was middle of the road. #1 starter Mike Young was allowed to walk, as was Garry Scelfo and Adrian Bowen whose options were declined to save money. That left two starter spots to fill. RJ Baez, and Louis Pena are those replacements. Both are downgrades. The bullpen is decent, but can the starters hold their own? No changes were made to the offense that only scored 654 runs. Unless everyone else sucks in the division the Dogs are up the River without a paddle.
Louisville should have won the division except they were 13-23 in 1-run games. Ouch. The starting rotation added injury prone DT Gehrig as the number five and considering other pitchers also have health concerns things could conceivably go south in a hurry. The offense is solid, although there were guys last years getting more plate appearances than they deserved (looking at you Osvaldo Guillen with 647 PA, and Andy Young with 561 PA). Overall, I think the Bats are a solid ball club that should win the division. But if the pitching staff gets hit with injury bug (hopefully the $20 in health helps), and if the bullpen blows it AGAIN...forget it.
The Tides traded out their 4 and 5 starters for new guys in the same roles, but it shouldn't help much. The biggest change that will help is rookie sensation Pepper Dillard in the bullpen as the main setup man. Combined with Carlos Quixote and Fausto Melo, Norfolk has a formidable group if they can get a lead. And that's the big question. Can the Tides score runs? Barney Enders isn't the answer. Rookie centerfielder Bobby Lackey COULD be, but he isn't durable enough to contribute more than 65-70 runs. Bottenfield has never lived up to expectations and Estrada should be more productive than he has been. This is a team that just doesn't seem destined to improve much beyond what they did last year.
The Augusta franchise fled for Charlotte after new owner gregor199 took over. They are now the Hornets. One question I have is if gregor has time for this team. With fifteen other franchises how can anyone keep up with every single team? He is a braver man than I, especially being new to HBD. The apparent strategy is to throw money around. Butch Terry, a decent but not superior setup guy, got $13.6 million to sign. Notice he isn't in the top pitchers section? The Vegas defense made him look better than he is. Alexei Santos joins the Hornets for $5.4 mil...and brings his stellar .314 obp with him. Vic Ashburn comes over to play third for $5.2 million...he played in AAA for Syracuse. Lastly Mike McCormick was brought up to play SS, and while he will provide some pop he isn't a shortstop in the sense that he can't play the position defensively. If you thought the Hornets were bad last year just wait. Things are going from bad to worse for this franchise. I'm not sure how they plan to hold onto guys like Goodwin in the future when making horrible signings. Hope gregor has a game plan going forward and that his time management skills are stellar.
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