American League East Continued

March 7, 2008 by editor.

Toronto BlueJays

Toronto finished last year 4 games over .500, good for 3rd place behind the Yankees and Redsox.  They are not that far away from really contending in their division, and they add a couple of new faces that will go a long way toward helping them get there.  David Eckstein is their new shortstop, and Scott Rolen is their new third baseman.  The question is whether Rolen can stay healthy enough to stay in the line-up on a regular basis.  His well documented injury problems prevented him from being a difference maker 2 out of the last 3 years with St. Louis.  David Eckstein still gets on base at about a .350 clip so he will be a spark plug for Toronto.  Alex Rios had a good year last year but Vernon Wells is looking to have a bounce-back season after hitting just .245 and posting an on base percentage of .304, which are far below his standards.  Factor in Frank Thomas as the DH and their lineup has a lot of power.  The big question for them is whether they can stay healthy. 

Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett anchor the starting rotation, and are a good 1, 2 combination.  Burnett finished 10 - 8 the last 2 years with an ERA under 4.00.  They need to get more innings out of him for the money they put up to get him in free agency.  His health will be key.  Jesse Litsch and Shaun Marcum are adequate back-of-the-rotation guys.  Marcum won 12 games last year and Litsch finished with an ERA under 4.  B.J. Ryan will continue to close, and they have a very deep bullpen.  Scott Downs, Jeremy Accardo, Casey Janssen, and Brian Wolfe all pitched effectively last year coming out of the pen, so they shouldn’t be pressured to over use their starters.

If Toronto stays reasonably healthy and pitches like they are capable of, it is not inconceivable that they could finish second in the division and challenge for a wild card spot.  Everything has to fall right for them, or they will be an also ran, just like previous years.

Projected finish - 3rd Place.

Tampa Bay  Rays

If the Rays finish at, or close to the bottom of their division this year it won’t be because they don’t have an interesting lineup.  Akinori Iwamura is likely to lead off with Carl Crawford hitting second.  If they get on base at a good clip, Carlos Pena and B.J. Upton are going to drive in a lot of runs.  They will be looking for Pena to at least duplicate his production from last year (46 homers and 121 RBI’s) in order for them to score a good amount of runs.  He supplies most of the power.  Cliff Floyd is with the Rays via the Cubs and he should be able to supply some power if he can stay healthy, which is a long shot.  He has a history of frequent trips to the DL.

Scott Kazmir continues to work his way back from injury and is the ace of the staff.  James Shields and Matt Garza will try to hold down some of the starting duties, but their rotation is pretty thin overall.  Troy Percival is penciled in as the closer, and he should be ok, but the rest of their bullpen is pretty much hit and miss.  They have some experience, but they didn’t perform well last year and unless that changes, they won’t be a security blanket for their starters this year either.  Their hitters will be the most exciting part of this team.  Unless they suprise on the mound, it looks like a long season again for the Rays.

Projected finish - 4th Place

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