2008 St. Louis Cardinals
February 17, 2008
The St. Louis Cardinals come in to 2008 with a roster that barely resembles that of the team that won the World Series just two year ago. While injuries didn’t help their chances of repeating in 2007, they still managed to finish third in the Central. The Cardinals are trying to ease into a transition of bringing in young talent to get rid of the old. They traded away CF Jim Edmonds to the Padres and 3B Scott Rolen to Toronto. The team also lost their spark plug in SS David Eckstein who will play...
2008 Minnesota Twins
February 17, 2008
Last year Minnesota Twins fans were hoping for another division title after they took the Central title in 2006. That didn’t happen, as the Twins just couldn’t seem to get things rolling. They ended up finishing 4th in the division and only winning 79 games. Manager Ron Gardenhire will have a tough road ahead of him in 2008. The Twins lost the best pitcher in baseball in Johan Santana and one of their best offense and defensive players in Tori Hunter. What you have to remember is that the...
2008 Chicago Cubs
February 17, 2008
The defending 2007 National League Central Division winners, have fans of Chicago saying that his will be the year they break the curse and finally win a World Series. This year will mark a 100 years of suffering for Cubs fans and hope that a century is enough punishment. Manager Lou Piniella has the team ready to make a great push to win back-to-back division titles for the first time in club history. While the story of the off-season was the addition of Kosuke Fukudome, whom many believe could...
2008 Kansas City Royals
February 17, 2008
In 2007 the Royals didn’t lose a 100 games for the 4th straight season, but they did manage to finish in last place in the Central yet again. So even though the team showed improvements they didn’t look like a team ready to seriously compete in this division. They hired a new manager in Trey Hillman to come in and make this team a winner again. The Royals last winning season came back in 2003, when they finished third with an 83 -79 record. The last time the Royals made the playoffs was in 1985...
2008 Cleveland Indians
February 15, 2008
The defending American League Central Champs made it to game 7 of the American League Championship game before losing to the eventual World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. The Indians are led by last years American League Manager of the Year, Eric Wedge. The Indians return almost the exact same team from the year before. Management believed that it was a weak class of free agents and didn’t feel that any trade offers would better the team. While they do return an outstanding pitching staff, many...
2008 Chicago White Sox
February 15, 2008
The Chicago White Sox are coming off a very disappointing season in which they finished 4th in the American League Central. The team won 72 games and only finished ahead of the Royals by 3 games. This isn’t the team that won the World Series in 2005, but they shouldn’t be as bad as there were last year. Manager Ozzie Guillen needs to get the team to show some sort of improvement or he could be looking for a new job. The team lost won of its better starting pitchers in Jon Garland, but did add...
2008 Detroit Tigers
February 15, 2008
2007 was a disappointment for Tiger fans. After going all the way to the World Series in 2006, they failed to make the post season. The Tigers had the best record in baseball on July 21, but after an injury to OF Gary Sheffield the team finished the rest of the season seven games under .500. 2008 looks a lot better after they team went out and got SS Edgar Renteria, 3B Miguel Cabrera, OF Jacque Jones, and LHP Dontrelle Willis. They also have had a chance for players such as Sheffield and pitchers...
2008 Baltimore Orioles
February 14, 2008
The Baltimore Orioles were hoping to be a team over the past years to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. But what has happened instead is they have continued to get worse. Last year they barely finished above Tampa Bay for 4th place in the AL East. This year won’t be any different with the trades of Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard. This is a team starting completely from scratch. While General Manager Andy MacPhail is hoping that by reloading the farm system by trading away high priced players...
2008 Tampa Bay Rays
February 14, 2008
The team didn’t show much improvement last year winning just 66 games, but the future looks bright in Tampa Bay. While you might of thought it was a miss print when you read the Tampa Bay Rays, but the team decided to drop the “Devil” from their name and now are just known as the “Rays.” The Rays are coming off their 10th straight season of more than 90 plus losses. The team is moving in the right direction by keeping and developing their young talent. General Manager Andrew Friedman probably...
2008 Toronto Blue Jays
February 14, 2008
What many people might not know is that the Toronto Blue Jays are coming off back-to-back winning seasons. When you are constantly up against the Yankees and Red Sox its hard to get noticed. What has Blue Jays fans looking up is how well they were able to perform last year with star player after star player heading to the DL. Some credit has to go to manager J.P. Ricciardi, and the young players who stepped up when needed. The Blue Jays made a couple big moves bringing in SS David Eckstein via free...