AL Central

Pretty much everywhere you go for baseball predictions, you will find that the Royals will be finishing last in the AL Central with comments like, "This is the toughest division in baseball, and while the Royals are improving they are still nowhere near where the other 4 teams are at." There is just so much negativity when it comes to comparing the Royals to the other 4, but even though I don't disagree with what they all say, I think we need to find some positivity when comparing these teams.

So here goes: I'm going to find places where the Royals are better than the other 4 teams in the division THIS SEASON.

TWINS: Umm....man...this is a little harder than I thought. Ok, let's start with 3rd base. They have Nick Punto penciled in to get most of the time there. He's been an above average utility guy the past few years. We have Alex Gordon. Advantage: ROYALS! This is a stretch, but I guess the only other advantage is Teahen at corner outfielder and they have Rondell White, who we got rid of 3 years ago.

INDIANS: There are a couple spots here. I have a theory: If you are platooning guys at a position, then neither one is good enough to play there. The Tribe is platooning at 1st base and both corner outfield spots. I think that Teahen and Brown would start. They have a mixture of Jason Michaels, David Dellucci, Trot Nixon, and Casey Blake. Blake is good, Nixon past his prime, and the other 2 not on the same level. But with Teahen and Brown, Blake would play 1st base full time. Advantage in the corner outfield: ROYALS! 1st base: Blake and Garko vs. Shealy. Probably a wash...ok...hopefully. At closer: Borowski vs. Dotel. This could go either way, I hope by May Dotel is back in his groove from before the injury and Borowski has always been a little shaky.

WHITE SOX: Umm...it tough to find a lot of holes. It looks like they are platooning in center with Anderson and Erstad. I would take DeJesus over both if we knew for sure he would stay healthy. Now if were grading on who could punt a football further? Erstad in a heartbeat. Jenks has been real shaky at the end of games so far, and again, I hope by May Dotel is the second best closer in the division (behind Nathan). Also, as a team, the Sox are OLD. I'd like to think that in 2 years we would be ahead almost everywhere.

TIGERS: Alright, I've spent a little time looking at the Tigers lineup, and there are 2 ways of looking at it. First way, you definitely can't find a clear cut winner for the Royals anywhere. The Tigers don't really have any real weaknesses at the bat. You could make a case for Gordon over Inge or Shealy over Casey, but it's arguable. The other way to look at it is that besides catcher and short, the Tigers aren't vastly superior anywhere else. It's conceivable that the Royals COULD win any of the other positions. I'm not saying they will, but it's possible. And this is in the field, I wouldn't even think about comparing pitching rotations.


OK, so the Royals don't compare too well against these other teams, especially pitching-wise, but you can see where we are getting better. Hopefully a year or 2 from now, the positives won't just be heard locally, they will be heard nationally.