Preview/Prediction

The 2011 Major League Baseball season is less than a month away, and with several big stars in different colors this year, baseball fans should be in for an exciting summer.

Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez join forces in Boston to try to bring Beantown its third World Championship in eight seasons, and Cliff Lee joins Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels in Philadelphia to try to send the Phillies to the World Series for the third time in four seasons.

Spring Training is in full force now, and we now have some insight into the teams of the MLB.

This piece is second in a series of seven, each predicting the records of teams in each division and then predicting the entire postseason (the schedule for which can be found on the last slide).

The Tampa Bay Rays have prided themselves in having strong pitching in the past few years, from Scott Kazmir, to Matt Garza to David Price.

Price, Jeff Niemann, Wade Davis, James Shields and Jeremy Hellickson, the entire rotation for 2011, were all drafted by the Rays. Now that's called a stockpile of talented arms. But there's more on the way.

The Yankees farm system has been thrust into the limelight in 2011. 

This spring has been an opportunity for some of their up-and-coming stars to showcase their talents in front of their major league counterparts. 

While Yankee fans would love to see them crack the Opening Day roster, some time marinating in the minors would only benefit their development. Rushing a player to the next level can sometimes set them back physically or even mentally. 

The American League West looks like it will be a very interesting division this season.

The Rangers made it all the way to the World Series last year, only to come up short and lose to the San Francisco Giants. One of the main reasons that the Rangers made it that far was because of the midseason acquisition of Cliff Lee. 

With Cliff Lee leaving the Rangers, the American League West is now up for grabs.

The Cleveland Indians can’t possibly be much worse than they have been each of the last two two seasons. After going 65-97 in 2009, Cleveland improved slightly last season winning 69 games. They once again finished in fourth place in the AL Central, but could be looking at a last place finish in 2011.

The Kansas City Royals ended 2010 dead last in the AL Central with an overall record of 67-95. While the immediate future doesn't look great, there is a good chance the Royals will turn things around here soon. GM Dayton Moore has put together what is considered the  game’s best farm system.

The Minnesota Twins have been following the same old story over the last 10 years. They have dominated the AL Central with six division titles over the last nine seasons, but that is overshadowed by their 12 straight postseason losses.

The Chicago White Sox finished 2010 with an 88-74 record, which put them in second place in the AL Central, but it wasn't enough to give them a wild card spot. With the addition of Adam Dunn in the offseason, the White Sox should have an even more potent lineup. Put that with a rotation that looks good from top to bottom, and Chicago believes they can improve on last year’s win total.

Following a meltdown late in 2009, the Detroit Tigers struggled to get back on track in 2010. Once again, Detroit collapsed in the second half and ended the year at 81-81—third place in the AL Central division.