The AL Central, arguably the least competitive division in baseball this year has a major move occur this off-season in the Tigers signing Prince Fielder to a gazillion dollar deal. After the Tigers lost V-Mart they went looking for a bat and found one of the top free agents available this off season and snapped him up. With Justin Verlander leading the squad and Fielder/Cabrera manning the corners this team is a World Series contender. The rest of the division merely cleaned house or stood pat. The promising Royals have hit hard times recently with the injury to rookie Salvador Perez and a TJ surgery to their closer Joakim Soria. The Indians, a team of young talent ,lost oft-injured Grady Sizemore for the foreseeable future. They are riding on the past success of Ubaldo Jimenez and Casey Kotchman to lead this squad to a respectable season. The White Sox have declared themselves sellers after a disappointing 2011 season. Finally the Minnesota Twins decided to go cheap this off-season and signed Jamey Carroll to be their every day short stop, a first for the journeyman. They also spent money on Ryan Doumit, Josh Willingham and Jason Marquis. The Twins after the worst season they have had in their long history are looking to return to respectability in 2012.
Detroit Tigers.
In early January the Tigers learned that Victor Martinez would be out for the season with a torn ACL. Not to be left in the dust the Tigers stood pat until a few weeks into February when they signed Prince Fielder to a large contract. They are moving Miguel Cabrera to third base, which will sacrifice defense. However, with any defensive error the Tigers will make up for on offense. The Tigers have some solid players behind these two including the under-rated Johnny Peralta at shortstop, Brennan Boesch and Ryan Raburn who is currently raking in spring training. The rotation includes the MVP/Cy Young winner Justin Verlander who is sure to regress some from last year's amazing season. After throwing over 4,300 pitchers last year tiredness has to creep in at some point, he is human after all. The Tigers should see the team ERA rise with the defensive indifference and this will surely affect a few wins each season, especially for ground ball pitchers. The Tigers are poised to win the AL Central easily.
90-72
Minnesota Twins.
The Twins, my favorite team is poised for a sub par year at best. However, looking at this division I feel like they should have no problem with a second place finish. They have a healthy Joe Mauer coming back and offense in Ryan Doumit who will be DHing and Josh Willingham who will be playing LF. Any day you don't have to start Nishioka is a plus and Jamey Carroll should be a .290 hitter with some speed. The Twins largest question mark lies in 1B Justin Morneau who 2 years removed from a concussion is still battling issues. This spring hasn't been kind to the former AL MVP, but he has started to heat up in the latter parts of this month and is starting to get his timing down. Justin has complained about a sore wrist on top of everything, are his best days behind him? That question should be evident sooner rather than later. Currently Chris Parmalee is battling for a spot on the 25 man squad, his battling has made it an almost sure bet he will make the squad skipping AAA all together like Joe Mauer did almost 10 years ago. The Twins should have a healthy Denard Span back in CF and left fielder Ben Revere should continue to blossom into a good player. I see the Twins possibly sending Span out this season and move Revere to CF. The pitching side of things is where this team gets rocky. With Carl Pavano as their deemed "ace" they have a pitcher who last year struggled immensely, the Twins lack a true ace and this has been more evident in the last 2 years than ever before. Behind Pavano they have up and down Liriano who this spring has pitched to a 18/2 k to walk rate. Remember it is a contract year. I think Franky puts it together this season and carries this squad for the most part. Behind these two you have Blackburn, Baker and Marquis. The Twins are in trouble in the bullpen after trading Joe Nathan. Matt Capps hasn't shown he can do much. Ultimately this team will either be really good or REALLY bad.
81-81
Chicago White Sox.
This team is supposed to be bad. I think they can't be THAT bad can they? This team does have some solid players that are due for some return pop in Adam Dunn and Alex Ríos. Do I see them coming back all the way? No, I do see them putting up somewhat decent numbers though. Paul Konerko is almost money in the bank for a .300 with 35 home runs. Though, Dunn was like that before the 2011 season and we saw what happened there. The White Sox have John Danks and Gavin Floyd manning the rotation's top. With an oft-injured pitcher in Jake Peavy we don't know what to expect. The bright spot for the Sox is that of Chris Sale who is sure to dazzle in the rotation.
78-84
Cleveland Indians.
Cleveland isn't this bad. They have Carlos Santana at catcher, Casey Kotchman at first, Asdrubal Cabrera at short, up and comer Jason Kipnis at 2, and Sin Shoo Choo in right. This team has talent but yet something tells me they will fall short of contending. After last year's surprise the Indians will be better down the stretch with the talent. There are just too many question marks; can Ubaldo repeat 2010? Casey Kotchman repeat 2011? Can Choo bounce back? Grady Sizemore actually play in 150 games? Cabrera repeat last year? I don't know. I am not comfortable with this team winning anymore than 78 wins and that is where I have them.
78-84
Kansas City Royals.
One of the most talented young squads in baseball the Royals started out this spring with injuries to their catcher Salvador Perez and closer Joakim Soria. Lucky for them they have plenty of young talent who can close. The Royals return much of the same squad as last year. Eric Hosmer should be better, Mike Moustakas should be better and Alex Gordon should shine. Jeff Francouer resurrected his career in KC last year and look for him to continue that ride. The Royals have a semi decent team. Though looking at the pitching rotation is where the train falls flat. When your "ace" is journeyman Bruce Chen you know you are in trouble. The Royals have the talent but I think they still will face many obstacles this year.
77-85
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