Major League Baseball

Yankees figure to lose ground in '11

Published Nov. 10, 2010 7:07 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

The free agents are barely even free, and the coils of the hot stove aren’t even hot. Heck, there’s been no meaningful player movement to date, and some particularly exuberant Giants fans might not even be over their celebratory hangovers just yet.

In other words, the time for any predictions related to the 2011 season is a long way away.

Or not!

Indeed, what about Ridiculously Premature Predictions for the 2011 season? There’s never a bad time for those. So here are those Ridiculously Premature Predictions for 2011, which, it must be noted, are informed by nothing more than recent history and a smattering of reckless assumptions ...

AL East

Reckless Assumptions: The Rays will lose Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena, and the Yankees and Red Sox will both make conspicuous, high-dollar additions on the free-agent market. The Sox, coming off an 89-win season despite a stranger-than-fiction run of injuries, will be far healthier and notably improved in 2011. That will be enough to edge the Yankees and their aging roster and a Rays team faced with the loss of one of the most complete players in baseball. This will remain baseball’s toughest division.

Predicted Standings:

1. Red Sox
2. Rays (AL wild card)
3. Yankees
4. Blue Jays
5. Orioles

AL Central

Reckless Assumptions: The promises of Tiger ownership are to be believed and they’ll be active on the market this winter. Carl Crawford, Adam Dunn or Victor Martinez will wind up in Detroit. In contrast, the Twins will fail to re-sign Carl Pavano, Orlando Hudson and perhaps a couple of other mentionables, and the White Sox will say goodbye to Paul Konerko and his 39 bombs and otherwise fail to improve a bad offense. No team in the division gets to 90 wins.

1. Tigers
2. Twins
3. White Sox
4. Indians
5. Royals

AL West

Reckless Assumptions: The Rangers achieve some separation by re-signing Cliff Lee. Even without Lee, though, they’d still open the season as the favorites in the lackuster AL West. The Angels, of course, have the financial wherewithal to make a headline-grabbing addition, but the Rangers (and A’s for that matter) are far better positioned to win. The Mariners? The offense requires too much major surgery for them to be taken seriously.

1. Rangers
2. A’s
3. Angels
4. Mariners

NL East

Reckless Assumptions: The Phillies will make no major moves, and their core hitters will continue to show signs of age-related decline. The loss of Jayson Werth will lead to problems vs. left-handed pitching. The Mets have a capable front office in place, but repairing the damage will be an incremental process. The Marlins will trade Dan Uggla and, as is their wont, settle in at between 77 and 84 wins. The Braves? Jason Heyward continues to develop, Brian McCann soldiers on as one of the most overlooked players in the game today, Craig Kimbrel thrives in the closer role, and the deep rotation otherwise carries them. The first season of the post-Bobby Cox era ends in a division title.

1. Braves
2. Phillies (NL wild card)
3. Mets
4. Marlins
5. Nationals

NL Central

Reckless Assumptions: Albert Pujols and Colby Ramus remain Cardinals for the entirety of the 2011 season, someone other than Skip Schumaker is the starting second baseman, and Jake Westbrook returns on a three-year deal. Pujols puts up the numbers that have typified his superlative career, and Rasmus makes the All-Star team. The reigning-champion Reds? They need a starting catcher and a starting shortstop, but the market offers little in the way of workable solutions. As well, the back end of the rotation will also be a problem. The Reds will be a good team but not good enough in 2011.

1. Cardinals
2. Reds
3. Cubs
4. Brewers
5. Pirates
6. Astros

NL West

Reckless Assumptions: Buster Posey contends for the NL MVP award, Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe return, and the San Fran rotation is baseball’s best. Meanwhile, the Rockies lose Jorge De La Rosa to free agency, and the same goes for the underrated Hiroki Kuroda in L.A. The Padres regress just a bit, and the Diamondbacks continue to rebuild.

1. Giants
2. Rockies
3. Padres
4. Diamondbacks
5. Dodgers

And as long as we’re making Ridiculously Premature Predictions for 2011, why stop there?

AL MVP: Evan Longoria, Rays
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester, Red Sox
NL MVP: Albert Pujols, Cardinals
NL Cy Young: Josh Johnson, Marlins

What could change between now and Opening Day? Other than absolutely everything, not much.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball