We are a week into the 2010 season. Surprisingly the Blue Jays are leading the AL East and will be going for their sixth win in a row tonight against the White Sox. Oakland is leading the AL West after taking winning their first two series against division foes in the Angels and Mariners. While the Twins which isn’t as much surprising are leading the AL Central and showing why with their powerful offense.
Over in the not so surprising National league the Phillies are leading the NL East, winning their first five of six games on the road, that’s scary! The Cardinals are first in the NL Central winning four of six on the road behind the best player in the game Albert Pujols. But the one division that nobody could predict over the off-season the NL West has the Giants leading because of well, their pitching.
Over the course of the year there are going to be different teams leading their divisions. But who are going to be the surprise teams or the team that nobody is talking about, but people will say after the season “Oh yeah I knew they’d be there all along”. Or maybe there aren’t any surprise teams this year, here are my thoughts. I have two team in mind one from each league; The Twins in the American League, and the Braves in the National League.
Starting with the Twins. I believe this Twins team will be on top of their division if not most of the year but all of this year. They have everything a Championship team needs in winning a world series; MVP type players. Check, they have Mauer and Morneau. Solid up the middle defense. Check. Mauer, Hardy, Hudson, and Span. Starting pitching. Check. Young talented pitching in Baker who was a 15 game winner last season, young Kevin Slowey won 10 games and a healthy Lariano. They just need to have Rauch continue being a solid option while Nathan is out and this team has all the makings of a World Series Champion.
I believe the Braves can compete for the wild card and also give the Phillies a run at the NL East division title. That being said, do the Braves have enough to make it to the World series? Their starting pitching is among the top staffs in the league. It has experience in Lowe and Hudson, young studs in Jurrjens and Hanson and depth with Kawakami. They like the twins have a strong up the middle starting with Brian Mccann at catcher, Escobar and Pardo in the middle infield and it doesn’t matter in center field between Mclouth and Cabrera. Pardo is very underestimated for his defense. They don’t have the names like the Yankees do but they do have a lot of talent that will be recognized before season’s end. With a Rookie right fielder in Jason Heyward who will most likely be the rookie of the year and is already being compared to Hammerin Hank Aaron they will be exciting to watch. But in order for them to go reach these goals they need to have a healthy Chipper Jones, and Trop Glaus. More so in Jones because well, he is the Atlanta Braves.
So those are my two teams that you need to watch this season, here is what I predict for the 2010 season.
American League: East- Yankees Central- Twins West- Angels Wild Card- Rays
National League: East- Phillies Central- Cardinals West-Rockies Wild Card- Giants
World Series: Twins vs. Rockies
Rockies World Series Champions
