The American League East is where the reigning World Champions play, and the Boston Red Sox, despite being slow out of the gate, are apt to repeat. They have so many of the ingredients necessary for winning whereas their main rival, New York, has power hitting and a good bullpen. Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi, David Price, and Eduardo Rodriguez provide more than adequate starting pitching, and that remains a key factor in the game despite all of the efforts to marginalize it. The outfield defense is superb. We all watched Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, and Jackie Bradley Jr. perform well together last year and they hit a little bit too.  Importantly, Alex Cora  has been able to keep the focus on whatever it takes to win. It helps to have J.D. Martinez as designated sitter.

The Yankees won 100 games in 2018 and they could do it again. They have lots of muscle and a P.O.N.Y. League yard. If they were in the Central Division, Cleveland would finish a distant second. Aaron Boone is a smart manager and funny enough to keep the stress level moderate. If Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Brett Gardner, and Aaron Hicks all stay in the lineup for most of the games, they could win the division.

Probably the most interesting team in the A.L. East this season will be the Tampa Bay Rays. They won 90 games last year while not many people were watching. It’s a good outfield with Tommy Pham, Kevin Kiermaier. and  Austin Meadows and Ji-Man Choi looks very solid as a first baseman with  a strong bat. Beyond all of the talent there is the  new fangled strategic thinking from manager Kevin Cash. The Rays employ what has come to be known as “openers”. Those are pitchers that pitch the first inning or two and then hit the showers no matter what. It means that the opposing manager can’t  stack the lineup the way that has always been done according to whether the pitcher is a righty or a lefty. Beyond that I don’t know what it means, but I think that Charlie Morton, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow are considered actual starting pitchers which, these days, means they might go five innings.

Toronto appears to be one of the teams that are packing it in for a while but they did lock up Randal Grichuk.

I left out the San Diego Padres when I was sizing up the National League West but, now that they have that jerk Manny Machado they will probably do as well as the Baltimore Orioles did last year. Just kidding. I’m blaming my error on the grosbeaks but, speaking, or rather writing, about the Orioles, they have come out of the gate looking competitive, but do they really still have Chris Davis at first base? Here’s hoping that they can win 60.