Lets continue the brief look at each division by moving on to the AL Central. As in the last post, the order I address each team is the order in which I expect them to finish while acknowledging a shortened season actually makes it harder to predict as hot and cold streaks have greater affect on the final standings.
Minnesota Twins. This is a talented and well balanced team. They are legit contenders for the World Series…as long as the Yankees aren’t camped out inside their craniums. By the time the season starts, they’ll have Rich Hill back. They were active in the offseason, picking up Josh Donaldson and pitchers Kent’s Maeda, Michael Pineda, Homer Bailey, Sergio Romo, and Michael Pineda. About the only negative for them is that Pineda still owes about 5 weeks of a PED suspension.
Chicago White Sox. They, too, were active in the offseason—acquiring Edwin Encarnacion, Steve Cishek, Dallas Keuchel, and Gio Gonzalez. They get Carlos Rodon back in late July/early August. They’ve locked up their young talent for the foreseeable future. They are slowly becoming more competitive…I’m thinking they will surpass the Indians, but there’s still a sizable gap between them and the Twins.
Cleveland Indians. They traded away Corey Kluber. Their outfield is still a tire fire. That’s not a recipe for contention. It seems a matter of when, not if, Francisco Lindor gets traded away. The plus side is Mike Clevinger should be back from injury, and Carlos Carrasco’s elbow gets plenty of rest.
Kansas City Royals. They will get Adalberto Mondesi and Salvador Perez back from injury. They have several minor league pitching prospects getting close to MLB ready, including Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, and Kris Bubic. It’s not time to start moving them up in the standings yet though.
Detroit Tigers. Like the Royals, they have a couple pitching prospects who may or may not make their MLB debuts in 2020—specifically Casey Mize and Matt Manning. Before the shut down,Miguel Cabrera was looking healthier than he has for a couple years. A shortened season could help him stay that way possibly, but will of course delay his reaching the 3000 hit and 500 homer milestones, possibly until next year.
Fan Interference 
One (the only?) positive thing about the delayed start to the season is Tigger fans will have fewer Jordan Zimmermann starts to endure.
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I predict that this will be the best Tiger team so far this decade and that they will lose far fewer games this year than last year. Ditto for the Royals.
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I’m guessing they win fewer than last year also but that bar is pretty low so as Lloyd Christmas said, there is a chance.
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Heh, took me a moment to get that one.
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Two kwestions: (1) which Michael Pineda has five weeks of his drug suspension left to serve, or do they each have to serve two and a half weeks? And (2), can the Injuns be counted on to keep their tire fire away from the river?
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(1) I only know of one Michael Pineda pitching for the Twins. However, I will take this opportunity to acknowledge I stupidly referred to him as a team addition when he actually pitched for the Twins last year. (2) No.
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They did add him in the sense that his contract expired at the end of last year and he had to be given a new contract. Same for Martin Perez who wasn’t given a new contract.
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“They were active in the offseason, picking up Josh Donaldson and pitchers Kent’s Maeda, Michael Pineda, Homer Bailey, Sergio Romo, and Michael Pineda.”
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Ah. Well that was specifically cleared by the Department of Redundancy Department.
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Here’s my fear: The heat and humidity slows the spread of the virus and the season starts mid summer. The Twins race out of the gates and look really good for the post season. The virus ramps back up in the falling temperatures and humidity of the fall and it’s not possible to play through October.
Here’s my dream: The baseball injury Gods inflict themselves on the Yankees and the Rays win the east. Billy Beans boys take out the Yankees in the wild card. Either the Twins, Rays or Angels face off against the Nats, with President Elect Biden (pushed back schedule0 throwing out the first ball.
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Unfortunately I can’t say your fear is unfounded. The optimist view: generally seasonal respiratory viruses have a less severe impact in subsequent years. Hopefully that bears out this time too, but it can’t be guaranteed.
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I think one reason for the decreased strength of these viruses in succeeding years is the lag time needed to come up with an effective vaccine. Since if I’m not mistaken each year’s flu vaccine is composted from weakened or killed viruses from the previous year, I would guess those who do suffer from Corona next year will mainly be the unvaccinated.
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No way the ChiSox come in second. Last year, everyone had expectations for them and they failed. I don’t think they will be that much better. The problem for them is their parts gelling well. I think they’re still pretty uneven.
But that reminds me, Chris Sale. 🙂
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We’ll see. I do think the ChiSox have improved some…I also think the Indians are worse. It’s the combination that caused me to move the White Sox up…besides, it’s no fun playing Nostradumbass if I don’t go out on a limb at least a little here or there.
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I pity you for electing to pick the lesser of the turds in this division. Sigh
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