Sorry for yesterday everyone. This is a make up day so here it goes. Daily Double.
Offensive additions? Kind of. Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon. They bring leadership and experience but are up in the years and past their prime. Even though they aren't what they used to be when they played for Boston and won a World Series they still have the ability to play and lead. To go along with these veterans, the Rays still have the young core of Longoria, Upton, and Zobrist. The lineup is down due to the losses of Crawford and Pena and I believe it's going to be a hit to the team early but they will come around. This lineup won't be nearly as potent without those other guys but they will continue to be a young, fierce, and scrappy team. The base paths will be a little slower and they will have to find more ways to score runs than when they could just let Crawford run.
The pitching staff is also young but lost a piece when the team traded Matt Garza to the Cubs. They got young players in return but these guys won't be ready at the start now. Even without Garza they still have last year's AL All Star game starter in David Price. To go along with him there is James Shields who is reliable and then Jeff Niemann, Wade Davis, and Jeremy Hellickson. While the pitching staff is inexperienced there is a bright future. Also again a major loss but this time it comes in the bullpen. Rafael Soriano went to the Yankees leaving the bullpen down their closer. They have Kyle Farnsworth to take his place.
The Rays have a good team again and Joe Maddon knows what it takes to make a team go hard but I don't believe that it will be enough. The Rays will have a good season but they just don't have the right pieces to over come the power of the top two teams: 3rd in the AL East
Lineup
1. RF Ben Zobrist
2. LF Johnny Damon
3. 3B Evan Longoria
4. DH Manny Ramirez
5. CF B.J. Upton
6. 1B Dan Johnson
7. C John Jaso
8. SS Reid Brignac
9. 2B Sean Rodriguez
Now on to the other team, The Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays are usually a quiet team that tries to get it done but can never get enough. The had a key lost this off-season as the star Vernon Wells was traded for Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli, although Napoli was traded to Texas soon after that. Juan Rivera has talent but he is nowhere near what Vernon Wells was. With that being said the Blue Jays need another huge season from breakout third basemen Jose Bautista who hit 54 HR's and has 124 RBI's. The rest of the team is going to play off how well he plays. They have solid players but not elite players and it's going to be tough for them to get anywhere especially in this division.
Starting pitching is almost exactly like the offense. One guy who is going to set the tone for the rest of the team. That guy being Ricky Romero who is only 27 and won 14 games last season. Behind him there is a lot of slack and we can only imagine how the rest of the staff does with this season. The bullpen acquired Frank Francisco from Texas and will be the closer.
With all that being said, Toronto did nothing to help themselves this off-season and are, in my opinion, the weakest team in this division: 5th in the AL East
Lineup
1.CF Rajai Davis
2. 2B Aaron Hill
3. 3B Jose Bautista
4. 1B Adam Lind
5. RF Juan Rivera
6. DH Edwin Encarnacion
7. LF Travis Snider
8. C J.P. Arencibia
9. SS Yunel Escobar
To go along with what I've said I worked with Bryan McFarland to come up with we both thought would be ideal for these teams. Here is the link to his thoughts:
http://thebestofme618.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/daily-double-analysis-weekend-tampa-bay-and-toronto/
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