Preview/Prediction

Well, they're here—the carrots at the end of the stick, the Three Gorillas in the American League East.

The Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox look like enormous, rampaging beasts who will run roughshod through the rest of Major League Baseball while recovering from titanic clashes with each other.

Baseball rarely shakes down according to specs, but it's really tough to see how the mere mortals of the MLB world can deal with these guys on a daily basis.  Even if you make every effort to see the gaps in armor and soft underbellies.

Here are the lineups:

Yankees

*From Protect the Plate

The Kansas City Royals have been far from the national spotlight for what seems like forever, and are coming off their fifth-straight losing season. The franchise had its best run from 1976-85, making seven playoff appearances, capped off by a World Series championship in 1985.

The Royals haven't made the playoffs since, and while a postseason birth may be out of reach again this year, there is reason for increased expectations in KC this season.

This probably won't be a popular article in Maryland, all the more so because a lot of baseball people are creating some irresponsible hype around the Baltimore Orioles.  I say irresponsible because Oriole fans deserve better than to be grossly misguided like that.

Make no mistake about it—Baltimore is done.  DOA.  Forget one fork, the Os have four protruding from their collective corpus.

One from the New York Yankees, one from the Boston Red Sox, one from the Tampa Bay Rays, and one from the Toronto Blue Jays.

This is a projection on the players that I believe will make up the Texas Rangers 25-man Major League roster come Opening Day.

Since Spring Training is still not over, obviously this is not my final list and I will make adjustments by the week and as we get closer to Opening Day.

Those players that are italicized are players that I believe are locks for the 25-man roster, and the stats listed with them are their 2008 season stats.

STARTING ROTATION

Kevin Millwood- 9-10, 5.07 ERA, 168.2 IP, 125 K, 49 BB

Ruth and Gehrig...Mantle and Maris...Mays and McCovey...Aaron and Matthews.

All superstars in their own right, all capable of carrying a team on their backs. Put them together and you had dynamite.

The Minnesota Twins' Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau don't yet belong in this rarefied company. But they've accomplished a lot in their short careers.

The 2009 ball club very much resembles the team that struggled through 2008, and that’s why you can expect the records to be very similar.

The offense looks to be formidable once again, but the Tigers are going to find out once again that pitching wins games.

Assuming that Verlander returns to his dominant self and Galarraga can duplicate his rookie season success, the Tigers still have many questions pertaining to their starting rotation.

In Brief

• 2008 Record: 86 – 76

• Key Additions: Michael Barrett, Kevin Millar, Mike Maroth, Matt Clement

• Key Subtractions: A.J. Burnett, Gregg Zaun

A Look at the Lineup

In spring, hope is eternal for all 30 clubs.  Who will be this year's Rays?  Will the Cubs break the curse of whatever farm animal or dumb oaf they want to pin their century of futility on? 

As I sit behind this keyboard on March 14, 2009, here are the predictions for the 2009 Major League Baseball season.  I swear I will stand by each and every prediction until, at least, the All-Star Break.

AL East

1. Boston Red Sox

2. New York Yankees

3. Toronto Blue Jays

4. Tampa Bay Rays

Though we are still a few weeks away from Opening Day, most pitchers have made three to four Spring Training starts at this point. It’s still a small sample size (the league leader in IP has just 14.2), but that hasn’t stopped some from being very impressive. With competitions heating up for rotation spots, let’s take a look at five pitchers helping their cause early on:

Homer Bailey, Cincinnati Reds: 10.0 IP, 0.90 ERA, 10 H, 1 BB, 10 K