UPDATED POWER RANKINGS

OPENING DAY POWER RANKINGS:
 UPDATED  

FAVORITES TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES.
TOP 10

10. Boston Red Sox.  Fantasy owner friendly. Boston after starting out horrible in '11 turned it around to become the best team in baseball... and then collapsed and with that Manager Terry Francona was out. Not to long after Theo Epstein jumped ship. In comes Bobby Valentine but Managers don't win or lose you many games. Still one of the most talented teams in all of baseball even after losing long time closer Jonathan Papelbon. Replaced by Andrew Bailey while not as proven is just as good, although will now miss some time on the DL. Carl Crawford can only play better and Kevin Youkilis is back in the lineup. Short on pitching long on elite American League hitters.

9. San Francisco Giants.  signed Matt Cain long term and have Lincecum under contract the Giants are feeling good about things. Adding Melky Cabrera MLB's most underrated player will certainly help that very thin lineup. Buster Posey is back and looks healthy so look for an improved offense out of San Francisco. The staff is one of the best in the league. Bumgarner is one of the games best young lefthanders. Brian Wilson if he can stay healthy is a top shelf closer. Should be in a close race with several teams in the NL West but get the nice ranking because of their potential playoff capability.

 8. Philadelphia Phillies. Blah Blah Blah. Same old story... yet minus even less offense then before. Losing Oswalt will hurt and will certainly shorten up that rotation in a long season. Chase Utley is out. Jimmy Rollins isn't getting any younger and Ryan Howard is a big question mark. The Phillies offense confirmed what I already new last postseason. Not enough bats to score against elite playoff calibur rotations. They couldn't hit the Cardinals without Wainright. Aging pretty much every where, the window is closing quicker then everyone thought. This is a sinking ship in my opinion.


7. Atlanta Braves. Young and talented still led by future hall of famer Chipper Jones, from the bench. Top 5 pitching staff with Hudson, Jurrgens and Hanson along with the Best bullpen in all of baseball. With a staff built for the playoffs this team is looking to forget the meltdown of last summer and make a run in this October. Heyward needs to figure it out. Freeman could be the next Mark Grace. All I know is the Braves are going to be giving the Phillies a run again this year. What's new?


6. Tampa Bay Rays. Joe Maddon has a team primed to push for another run at a AL East Pennant. A Great Young stable of arms led by the real ace of the team James Shields followed in line by David Price, Hellickson and the propane arm of the phenom Matt Moore. Mix in a reliable Wade Davis and Niemann and you have a top 3 AL staff. Plenty of questions about this club like will Carlos Pena and Bossman Junior combine for over 350 strike outs this year? Can you get production out of your DH? and Kyle Farnsworth closing out games, ummmmm scary.

 5. St. Louis Cardinals. Fantasy owner friendly World Champions. Can't take that away that from them... but what you can take away is the most feared hitter in baseball. Albert is gone. The best player of his generation is gone AND Oh yeah the best manager in baseball is gone to huh? Tony "Beer Googles" Larussa. "yeah that drunk" Even while losing the best manager and the best player the Cardinals are a serious threat to get back to NLCS. How can I say that? Adding Carlos Beltran was big, it makes their defense better and saves everyone from having to watch Berkman limp after balls in the down in the corner. Seems like everyone is sleeping on Adam Wainright and his 19 wins a year being put back into that rotation which should be outstanding this season.


4. New York Yankees. Fantasy owner friendly Won more games in 2011 then anyone. Then they added Michael Pineda and Kuroda to the rotation to stack up better in playoff series. C.C. is an automatic 19 wins and they have the best bullpen in the American League now that Joba is on the shelf.  You have to put them as the favorite in the AL EAST and possibly the best team in baseball when it is all said and done. GRANDERSON, CANO, TEX, A-ROD's All those names still look good on that line up card. Big key to season will be if Ivan Nova can remain reliable. Great Bullpen should be October bound.


3. Detroit Tigers. Dominate team in a crappy division. Pairing Prince with Miguel Cabrera instantly makes them the most feared 3-4 hitters in the game. While losing V-Mart hurts it won't as bad as you think. Miguel Cabrera will not make the transition to 3B successfully and will ultimately have to go to DH . Think about it he was a bottom tier 1B defensively man. Jim Leland is begging thinking that he can play 3B. Having a 3-4 in the middle of the order like the Tigers now have takes you a long ways just look at Prince's old team for evidence of that. The prettiest card in the deck, the ace of spades Justin Verlander fresh off his AL Cy Young. oh yeah he also won the AL MVP, but he is a pitcher so its no big deal because that happens all the time. Jacoby Ellsbury didn't get robbed at all. BTW Time for Rick Porcello to figure it out. A weak division makes them a playoff lock if Verlander stays healthy.

 
2. Texas Rangers. Are they becoming the Buffalo Bills of Baseball? It is tough to win a World Series. Ask Bobby Cox. The Rangers have been so close for two years, exit CJ Wilson enter Yu Darvish. Yu will join a terrific young staff led by Ace... wait what? is this right? Colby Lewis? Umm no I guess its Derek Holland?  okayyy, Harrison and the fireballer Feliz will join Darvish. Imagine if the Rangers would of landed Prince in free agency? We may of been talking about one of the best offensive lineups in the history of baseball. As is, the line up they currently sport isn't to shabby. Lay off the sauce Joshua. Lay of white lines Ron. They def get my Fantasy owner friendly stamp of approvel. Have fun opposing pitcher. No you can't use an L screen.

 
1. L.A. Angels of Anaheim. Fantasy owner friendly  Arte Moreno stepped up and pulled out his wallet and landed "El Hombre" and CJ Wilson for a cool 330 Mill. Result = The Angels are loaded. We are talking the best rotation in baseball. 4 Aces, thats the nuts around these parts. Stealing your divisional rival's Ace? Behave Angels, that is just naughty. Weaver, Haren, Santana and Wilson makes up my top rotation in baseball. Adding Pujols and with Morales coming back all of a sudden the powerless Angels just got juiced. A crowded OF and 1B has many rumors swirling about possible trades so we will probably see some moves made at some point. Trumbo all of a sudden has no position. Trout is stuck in the minors and Abreu is wanting to know if anyone cares about him anymore. Gone is the worst offensive player in the game in catcher Jeff Mathis he is replaced by Chris Ianetta a definite upgrade. This is how I see it, Some hits are better than no hits right? Question marks? Closer Jordan Walden, can he step up and be a shutdown closer? Will they use a Bourjous, Trumbo, Trout or Conger in a trade to get a lockdown closer? What is Not a question mark? Mike Scioscia, best manager in baseball.

Preseason Roundup Part2: NL East

NL EAST

Predictions

by staff writer  David Herrmann

The NL East was a pretty active division once again this off-season. For once though the team making the moves was the Florida Marlins errrr Miami Marlins. As they head into their brand new stadium the Marlins face a thing that they haven’t had before, money. The Marlins owner opened his pocket book and signed Heath Bell, Jose Reyes and Mark Buherle this off-season. The Phillies spent lavish on a closer by the name of Papelbon after the Red Sox balked at his contract. The Washington Nationals tried to sign Prince Fielder to no avail, however, they traded the farm for Gio Gonzalez and signed Edwin Jackson to bolster a pretty decent rotation. The Braves pretty much stood pat and will put pretty much the same squad as last years on the field. Finally the Mets, what is to say is they cut their payroll the most of any team in the history of baseball. If that is not enough to cringe about their off-season I don’t know what will.

                                                             courtesy of cbssports.com     

Philadelphia Phillies

Well they say pitching wins divisions and this is never more evident than the Phillies. This team has a 1, 2, 3 of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee. When you have three of the top 10 pitchers you are doing pretty good. Plus, they have Joe Blanton, Kyle Kendrick and Vance Worley to fill out the remaining spots. The Phillies signed Jonathan Papelbon to a big contract that they are regretting now since they acted too quickly. However, this team’s troubles are going to lie within the offense. Can they keep a major league squad on the field at all times? With a banged up Chase Utley and Ryan Howard this team will be spending more time on the DL then the Twins of last year. Plus Placido Polanco is always an injury risk. Regardless, the Phillies still have a healthy Jimmy Rollins, Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino leading the way. These guys will once again take claim to the division title but not nearly as easy as it has been previously.

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                                                                 courtesy of   bocaratonetribune.com
                        TOOK THEIR TALENTS TO SOUTH BEACH

Florida Marlins.

This team is good. How good? I would say possibly the leader of this division. They will have some struggles and we don’t exactly know yet how this new ballpark will play out. But, with a healthy Josh Johnson as the ace, Mark Buherle and Anibal Sanchez as a 2 and 3 and Carlos Zambrano as a #4 who should be re-juvenated in Miami under new head coach Ozzie Guillen, this team is destined to have some solid win potential. It doesn’t help that Heath Bell is the closer either. The Fish have a starting line up that includes Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Giancarlo Stanton, Emilio Bonifacio and Logan Morrison. This team has speed and they will run because Ozzie loves that. Do I see this team winning the division yes, but a lot of injury risk with JJ, Reyes, Sanchez, Hanley and Stanton make me iffy to pick them as the true choice in the division.

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                                           courtesy of blogs.ajc.com 
                                                                           

Atlanta Braves.

The other epic collapse team from last year returns much of the same rotation. However, quickly after the season ended the Braves traded Derek Lowe to the Indians. The team has some major injury risks in their pitching rotation with that of Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson. The always-steady Tim Hudson will continue his steady self. Look for Mike Minor, Brandon Beachy and Julio Teheran to make some contributions. Their bullpen is money again with Kimbrel and Venters. Their rotation is good, McCann, Uggla should provide decent power with Michael Bourn quietly turning into a super star. The big question mark for the Braves is that of Jason Heyward. Will his shoulder continue to zap his power? Will Chipper Jones start to finally fade into the abyss? These are major questions the Braves will need to deal with this year.

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                                 picture courtesy of  unathletic.com      NOT WERTH'LESS.

Washington Nationals.

I like this team, actually I take it back, I LOVE THIS TEAM. The Nationals have such a glut of talent with Strasburg, Jackson, Gonzalez, Lannan and Zimmerman as a starting rotation you can be sure this team will be competitive. Plus having Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard and Brad Lidge in the bullpen doesn’t hurt either. The offense is rounding out nicely as well. Wilson Ramos at catcher is sure to continue getting better making the Twins cry knowing what they should have had to fix the Mauer issue. The infield consists of LaRoche, Espinosa, Desmond and Zimmerman. The key factor here is health on the hands of Ryan Zimmerman. He is looking healthy and should be. The outfield consists of Roger Bernadina, Jayson Werth and Michael Morse. This team has another guy quietly coming up, o what the heck, the “chosen one” Bryce Harper should be up  pounding around balls come June. Look for an exciting year from the Nats.

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                               picture courtesy of picturesdepot.com   I USED TO BE GOOD.
NY Mets

Is it sad that I don’t care about even talking about this team? Essentially the only bright spot is Johan Santana might be able to pitch effectively this year. Yet, they still owe him barrels of cash. David Wright and Ike Davis are both injured already. They traded Angel Pagan and got rid of Jose Reyes.

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