MLB - AL East
 

I can't believe how rich the owners of this division are!! look at the payrolls and the salaries added this offseason by the Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles.

As far as i'm concerned, it's a race for the third in the east.

So who do you think is gonna come in 3rd? the Jays or Orioles? i think the jays are still better than the orioles and will defend their 3rd place finish from last year.

Orioles, but then again, I'm a diehard O's fan...

You're actually slightly wrong on the salary thing, because the Orioles are still only around $50 million or so payroll.

I honestly don't know what will happen. The division could beat each other up so bad that the winner will have barely 90 wins. The division could be so good that the Orioles could win 83-85 games and STILL finish fourth.

Third place will come down to pitching. Toronto has Roy Halliday, but after that it gets a little dicey. Baltimore doesn't look as good on paper, but only because three of our starters will be pitching a full ML season for the first time, two of whom are top prospects and the third was one before he got hurt and came back to suprise us last year.

Tampa Bay is irrelevent; they have fantastic young talent coming up, but their pitching stinks and will be in last place even if they win 75 games.

oh my mistake.. if memory serves me correct the orioles are the ones with a ton of money to spend but no one wanted to sign with them the last couple of years (not including this off season).

It wasn't as much they didn't want to sign here as it was we didn't go after anyone important. We had a dumbass GM who made some dumbass signings.

Now the team is getting younger. Our new GMs turned our minor-league system from one of the worst to near the middle of the pack in the past year. They managed to get some good players signed this year, and will do even better next year.

The O's have one huge advantage. No pressure. Boston and New York are expected to win every game this season and the first 3 game losing streak will bring threats to fire, maim or kill the respective managers.

The O's have reloaded the offense---although I think the pitching is still questionable--and I think they are a solid choice to finish third.

The Jays are good with Halladay and Delgado, but I don't think they have much else.


Go Devil Rays!!!

i like the Jays offense - don't forget about Vernon Wells.. Delgado and Wells were the best 1-2 punch in MLB stats wise. I believe the second best duo had 32 RBI less than Delgado/Wells.

The Jays offense outscored the Yanks last year too.

The pitching behind Halladay has dramatically improved with the addition of Hengten, Batista and Lilly. Remember the jays won 86 games with just Halladay..

The potential for the Jays is there. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

This is one nasty division...

Devil Rays fan here.

It's a shame when you know when the season starts that you will not make the playoffs. I think they will be good this year. Lot's of good young talent. Tino Martinez will add veteran leadership.

The only good part I guess is getting to watch all those teams from the AL east when they come to town.

At least you get your choice of seats at the stadium. Sox fans like me pay to stand behind a pole, just to get into the stadium. Soon some of us will resort to streaking across the field just to get a good view of the game, albeit temporarily.

Don't worry. In three years, when the Yankees and Sox have completely collapsed due to age and lack of young talent, you'll be in third with your young talent :p

Yes, and not only that, but we'll probably even trade you Curt Schilling at that point for some of that young talent. Think about it.. Curt Schilling! Tino Martinez! Jesse Orosco! The Rays are gunna Be AWESOME!

Yeah, pus the AARP discount they will get at the Early Bird Specials will save the team a ton of meal money.:):):)

I am predicting that one of either the
Yankees or the Sox will finish in third and one of either the O's or Jays will come in second. The pressure in both NY & Bos is so great now that one of them will implode.

no matter how much pressure there is in NY or Boston, changes will be made if either team falters.. that's teh luxury of have big bucks to spend..

Go Jays Go!!!!!!

New York has one real prospect, and Boston has only a couple. They won't be able to do that much.

To be honest #3 is pretty much for sure the Blue Jays - they have a pretty explosive offense and good pitching (Halladay seemed to destroy other AL East teams alone last year) . Its kinda sad that if the Blue Jays were in any other division except the AL East they would probably be easily a 95+ game and division winner with little problem.

The D-Rays and Orioles are a toss up for 4/5 - on the one hand Orioles got big bats but have very questionable pitching. D-Rays have bad pitching also but have had signs of brilliance last year - and they have added veterans and have probably the top prospects in the game right now.

Actually what's amazing is that the D-Rays played something like 30+ games decided by two runs or less - imagine if they simply had a little bit better pitching or hitting what a difference it could make between losing 95 and 75.

Yeah, actually, though I'm a Sox fan I really admire the other teams in the AL East for their talent/drive (well, except the Yanks, who are scum). Imagine if Selig declared the Jays or Orioles a new AL Central team... the White Sox and Twins owners would probably puke.

Anyway, the good thing about a great AL East is that every intraleague game could go either way. I do wish, though, that the other teams would take it easy when the Sox are going for the big title. No use.. playing mean spoiler.. right?