Season 8 AL Predictions

AL NORTH

(1) Kansas City Jayhawks - Last season KC was miles ahead of all other AL teams having finished with 111 wins and 14 games ahead of the next best team. Using some excess talent, KC traded its starting SS Javier Jacquez, to add good prospects and build for the future. Defensive SS Humberto Cortez will likely take the place of Jacquez in the field. The big move was adding a champion, former all-star and WS winner with Dover, Armando Perez, which may get KC over the hump and into the World Series.

(2) Philadelphia Phillies - the gap will be much tighter with the additions of Lee Collins and DH Kelly Bochtler. Ace Red Howard is now in Scranton, but wholck got Julio Martinez in return, who statistically was a better pitcher than Howard. Time will tell how good this team is, but manager wholck really likes his chances, having said, "I said this last season and was wrong but I really like my team. I think I have a nice team barring injuries...."

(3) Portland Pub Crawlers - A very active manager, gjello10's Crawlers started slowly last season, but finished strong. Back with the Club is Franchise Favorite Carl Walls who won a WS ring when the team was in Seattle. Walls (34) has held up quite nicely over the years and should help drive in runs. Rookie Willard Carney will add some pop to the line-up, Don Yamaguchi and Bruce Riley are solid players, $72 Million was spent on top free agents, andand the pitching will benefit by having old Geronimo Julio in the clubhouse. Also a very vocal manager, gjello10 has discussed everything from top pitching rotations and his thoughts on having a World Series Contender to his success in the bedroom, on the subject he stated "Not been my experience, Gentlemen, and it's been 10 years for me. Sucks to be you guys." Hopefully his team can be just as durable.

(4) Milwaukee High Lifes - Being at the bottom in this division still means a winning record. The AL North is a tough place to play. Near the bottom in Pitching as season ago, the High Lifes promoted Pitchers Christopher Rossy, P.T. Delgado, and Jerry Glover. In the Free Agent Market, along with the two Tony's (Maeda and Guapo) pitching was also a priority, adding Clint Averill, Jumbo Suarez, and Andy Robbins.

AL EAST

(1) Washington D.C. Lobbyists - Lost 17 game winner A.J. Young to free agency, but was able to acquire Ace Adrian McGuire to replace him. Washington also added Paul Hoover and Kenny Beltran and resigned Seth Poppell off from the free agent market and even got him at a discount over last season. The pitching staff to say the least, is very very strong.

(2) Rochester EliteDucks - Acquired Charles Radke, giving Rochester 3 guys who are capable of collecting 200 hits. No big name free agents, but Sammy Elcano will help out in a set-up role.

(3) Trenton Tater Rakers- Promoted young pitchers Luis Lee and Robb Mahomes who will boost the pitching staff. Lost a Hobbs great, Placido Guerrero who is fifth on Hobbs all time career batting average and has collected 1326 hits, which is good for third all time behind only hitting machine Lyle Padden and Mr. Sidney Fabregas. He will be missed. Guerrero (35) is now in San Jose.

(4) Syracuse Orange- For now in the bottom of this division, but not for long. New Owner hopkinsheel has taken charge of this franchise, something that hasn't happened for a while. Players are excited to know that there will be a manager at the games.. The pitchers are especially looking forward to being able to take a few days of rest between starts. Some players reported that former manager, tbook, often chose to stay home and catch the game on TV or send his 12 year old son to fill in. The son, cbass would consistently send in the same pitcher game after game after game. Hopkinsheel has so far promoted 5 guys from the minors, including Johnny Faulkner and Enrique Rodriguez who are expected to do great things in the future. Keep an eye on these guys. Also worthy of note, Syracuse owns two of first four picks in this years amateur draft. (cbass is a fictional character and does not represent a real person)

AL SOUTH

(1) Austin Kangaroos - Acquired two decent hitters from Salt Lake; Russell Damon who hit .281 with 27 HR and 90 RBI's and Graham Browne. Those two will help, but the majority of the return to the top comes from the offseason callups. The Kangaroos have added 5 new players to the ML roster, none of whom had ever played in the majors prior to this season. One guy, Matt Mahomes is a legitimate 30/30 threat for the future. Three others, Antonio Fox, Ed Thomas, and Andre Knight will have immediate impact as they all will be inserted into the starting rotation.

(2) El Paso TaTa's - Basically the same team as last year, and should put up similar stats, but Austin has significantly improved and it likely won't be good enough to stay on top of this division. But as we saw last season, if there is a team that can surprise everyone, its Jpelot's group. The TaTa's signed some supporting players to help out and were able to resigned both Deivi DeLeon and Esteban Tavarez who tested the free agent market, but agreed to stay for last seasons salary. Harold King will bring his five season streak of 30+ Homeruns and 100+ RBI's and put in on the line in the Big Leagues.

(3) Florida TIGERS acquired Jim Crawford from Scranton's AAA team. Crawford put up nice numbers as a minor leaguer for the Blue Collars, but didn't stand a chance of pitching in the Majors with Ace-hog Stnick44 as the manager.

(4) Louisville Knights signed two time WS Champion and former fireman of the year Randy Lowe who is now 39 and is playing his 18th season. Also Adam Badilla is back with the team after briefly testing the free agent market.

AL WEST

(1) San Diego Surf Sharks - Not a lot of action in the offseason for manager Iceman67. Promoted Clint Halter to help out in the bullpen. This team is young and still has two of the most powerfull hitters in the game, Jimmie Segui and Omar Ordaz.

(2) Albuquerque Pilots - Signed Albert Greer, an aging reliever, but still has a few years left and will add some depth to a very good pitching staff. Also, although not in the Majors last season, Hobbs Great Angel Barrios retired after 15 seasons in the big leagues. Who knows how many Homers this guy had prior to the creation of Roy Hobbs, my guess is alot. The league began when he was 30 years old, he ends with 199 Home Runs and a career avg of .308.

(3) San Jose Silicon Splinters - Signed one of the leagues best hitters, Placido Guerrero. Also signed 2B A.J. Becker to a 4 year contract worth 24.8 million and CF Boomer Davis to a one year deal worth 4.6 Mil.

(4) Las Vegas Beer View Mirrors - Trying to reshape this team, manager mal247 was very active, Said mal, "I took over this team last season and the prior owner's HBD philosophy differs greatly than mine, so it's going to take some time to get things in order." After making many moves, mal247 successfully moved all players with a multiple year contract, "After trading Sweeney I have exactly $0 committed to contracts beyond this season. Crazy." Next season Las Vegas should be a much different team.
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PLAYOFFS

Division Winners:

Kansas City Jayhawks
Washington D.C. Lobbyists
Austin Kangaroos
San Diego Surf Sharks

Wild Cards:

Philadelphia Phillies
Portland Pub Crawlers - Tough call here picking a third team in the AL NORTH and Portland over Rochester, but it comes down to pitching, and Portland is clearly superior in that area.

AL CHAMPIONSHIP - Kansas City Jayhawks vs Washington D.C. Lobbyists
AL CHAMP - Kansas City Jayhawks

WORLD SERIES - Kansas City Jayhawks vs Scranton Blue Collars
WS WINNER - Kansas City Jayhawks