AL East

New Britain has a definite formula for success. Starters that are replaceable, but do their job. A super bullpen (as seen by the best 3 pitchers section), and a team that hits well enough to get ahead so that the bullpen can get the win. This year William Baek and JJ Spoljaric were dropped from the team. Delanor Estes was an excellent pick up if he can rebound from last season (and at age 36 that's questionable), while John Jang can be a decent utility fielder. Dewey Halter has held off father time, and Vin Romero had a great season. This team is solid, and definitely one to keep an eye on.

Dover continues to spend big money in hopes of overtaking the Rock Cats. Chad has missed his chance the last two years and this year will be just as tough. The pitching staff is solid enough to compete, and the addition of Luis Martin ($9.5 mil), and Mike Coco ($5 mil) will certainly bolster the bullpen. The Senators stole former Rock Cat slugger William Baek to fill to the DH spot and he is a huge addition to an already potent offense. A "did you know" question...did you know the Senators didn't have a single player with a negative WAR? Ya...crazy.  Chong is the reigning MVP (check out the stats...wow), while Hermanson, Frias, and Cabeza provided an excellent "supporting" cast. This might be the year that we have two teams from the same division win over 100 games.

The PawSox season was dashed upon the rocks when the injury bug struck the pitching staff spring training. Sam Tucker was lost for the year, and Brian Yammamoto went down for 3 weeks. Anytime you lose two starters things get a little dicey. Especially when the team wasn't great to begin with. The only good news is that payroll was already low, and there was no chance to compete with New Britain and Dover anyway. The PawSox made good signings and built a team that would have competed without breaking the bank. Which leads me to the question will Brad D'Amico and Eugene Robertson be made available?

Durham gave up 971 runs last season and so the first order of business was to fix that problem. They spent a LOT of money on aging, but very good, veteran pitchers in Everett and Benes. Valenzuela also gets his chance in the bigs at age 21. This should easily help the team become more respectable, but how much? There will be no drop off in offensive production so any help that they get from their pitchers will make them a better team. This team probably won't be a playoff team, but will make it interesting.

NL East Preview

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.