With the American League Central, there is a lot of promise with the bottom of the division. But at the top it is all about who has the better complete team on paper. That is exactly what the Detroit Tigers have coming into the 2015 season. You look at their starting pitching. They have three guys that have thrown one no-hitter in their major league careers (David Price, Justin Verlander, and Anibal Sanchez), and if you are the Tigers you have to love that. With the back end of their rotation, Alfredo Simon brings some consistency to the back end along with Shane Greene. In addition to that, they have just as much fire power in their bullpen. Joe Nathan, Joakim Soria, and Joel Hanrahan all have previous closing experiences in their big league careers. Add to that they also have reliable bullpen arms with Tom Gorzelanny, Al Alburquerque, and the big guy Joba Chamberlin. Offensively, the Tigers have some bats that can flat out rake with Ian Kinsler, Victor Martinez, Yoenis Cespedes, and former Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Yoenis Cespedes adds some more pop to what they already had with Cabrera, Kinsler, and Martinez. With the rest of their lineup, there are some guys that show some promise with Nick Castellanos, Anthony Gose, J.D. Martinez, Alex Avila, and Jose Iglesias. J.D. Martinez brings the most out of that group with some power from the five spot of the lineup. With their bench, there is only really one name that really sticks out there with Rajai Davis, who is a decent backup outfielder in his own right. Tigers have the pitching clearly along with a few big bats and should be one of the better teams in the Majors this year.
2. Kansas City Royals (2014 Finish: 89-73, 2nd Place and American League Champs):
With the Royals, the loss of James Shields and Billy Butler will be tough pieces to replace. With every team when losing key pieces from previous years, you can never replace them sometimes with one guy. Sometimes that is not the case with big market teams. In this case, I think it is the other way around. Adding Edison Volquez and Kris Medlen will help the Royals ease the pain in losing James Shields. Both have had solid starts to their major league careers. Add to that Jeremy Guthrie has had solid years in the past. Jason Vargas as well as had solid 10 win seasons in past as well. So there is some good veteran leadership in their rotation. Youngster Yordano Ventura won 14 games last year, and it will be intersting to see what he can bring in another year in the majors. Danny Duffy has some starting experience just in case of an injury to their rotation. With their relief pitching, Greg Holland is a stud at closer, who has had back-to-back 40+ save seasons the last few years. Wade Davis and Jason Frasor are good pieces behind that. With Wade Davis, the Royals also have another piece their in case something happens injury wise in that rotation. Luke Hochevar, who used to be a starter could also factor in there as well. Franklin Morales has had some solid years as well in the pen, so he'll add some more depth to the Royals bullpen. Kelvin Herrera was just as dominate last year as Holland. Ryan Madson is a big reclamation project that could pay some dividends for the Royals. If Madson stays healthy, he could be a good piece to the back end of their bullpen down the line. With their lineup, losing both Butler makes the lineup lose a bit of it's punch. Adding Kendrys Morales to it will help with that as he can easily put up 25 home runs for them hopefully this year. Add to that Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer both have serious power as well. Two guys I think to watch out for with the Royals: Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain. Salvador Perez proved that he can be one of the best catchers in the American League last year. So the question there will be how does he follow that up. Lorenzo Cain, the former Brewers prospect, who was the League Championship MVP last year is in for a bigger year than he had last year. With the rest of their lineup, Alcides Escobar, Alex Rios, and Omar Infante are all good supporting pieces to the power they have with the rest of their lineup. With their bench, they have some young bats with Jarrod Dyson and Erik Kratz that could help play that Nori Aoki role this year. Rafael Furcal helps add some veteran experience as well. The Royals should be a playoff team this year if everything plays out.
3. Chicago White Sox (2014 Finish: 73-89, 4th Place):
The White Sox are really close to making a playoff push just like their Chicago counterparts in the Cubs. Adding Jeff Samardzija adds some punch to a rotation that already has John Danks and Chris Sale. With the White Sox rotation, they have some depth behind that with Jose Quintana (who had a 10 plus win season a year ago), Hector Noesi, Carlos Rondon, and Kyle Drabek. The White Sox have some good arms in their bullpen as well this year. Adding Zack Duke to the bullpen was a good move. Duke was a big arm coming out of the Brewers bullpen a year ago. David Robertson, who used to be Mariano Rivera's heir apparent in New York with the Yankees, could be a dominant closer for the White Sox, and that is something I said their Chicago counterparts desperately need to push them over the top. With their lineup, they have a few bats that can seriously pack a punch to a lineup. Adam Laroche in his career, has put up 25 plus home runs year in and year out. Jose Abreu was one of the major's best home run hitters last year in his first year in the big leagues. So it will be really interesting to see if he can do that again. Melky Cabrera has put up some good numbers in his career as well. Avisail Garcia is a promising bat as well and could hit around 20 home runs as well. They have some good supporting pieces in that lineup as well with Alexei Ramirez, Conor Gillaspie, Tyler Flowers, Adam Eaton, and Emilio Bonafacio. There could also be a platoon at second with Bonafacio and Gordan Beckham. The White Sox have some good bats on their bench with J.B. Shuck, George Kottaras, Jordan Danks, Leury Garcia and Geovany Soto. Of those guys, I really like Soto, who just like Samardzija is a former Cub. Soto has had a good bat throughout his time in the majors and could be good backup to Tyler Flowers at catcher. With the pitching the White Sox have along with the pop they could get from Abreu and LaRoche. I think they could maybe jump the Royals in this division depending on how their season goes. There is some potential here, but as of now the Royals have the better pitching than them at this point.
4. Cleveland Indians (2014 Finish: 85-77, 3rd Place):
As I said there is some promise with the American League Central especially at the bottom. The Indians won 85 games last year, but that could take a dip this year. With their rotation, they have four or five pitchers that are projected to have more than ten wins this year. One of them is Corey Kluber, who won 18 games last year and won the CY Young award for that performance. So it will interesting to see how he builds off that in 2015. Some guys I think could factor into their rotation in 2015 are Shawn Marcum, Gavin Floyd, and Bruce Chen. All have had some good years in their big league careers. Carlos Carrasco adds to that as well as he's had a few eight win seasons in his career. They have some other young pitchers that could factor into their rotation this year with Trevor Bauer, Zach McAllister, and T.J. House. With the Indians, there are not too many wild things in their bullpen when it comes to names. Cody Allen is projected to be their closer after having his best year as closer last year with 24 saves. The other names that stick out in their bullpen are Anthony Swarzak, Mark Rzepczynski, Mark Lowe and Scott Atchison. Their bullpen doesn't have the names like the some of the teams in this division have. So we'll see what they can get from it this year. Offensively, there are some good things collectively in the Indians lineup. You have to like Michael Bourn's speed out of the lead off spot. There is some power in it with former Brewers prospect Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana, and Nick Swisher. Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall have had good starts to their careers as well. Yan Gomes and Jose Ramirez are the supporting parts to the rest of the lineup. With their bench, Mike Avilas and David Murphy bring some experience as well to the Indians roster. With this team, even though they did make the playoffs as a wildcard last year, I think they take a miss this year with how the rest of the division is talent wise.
5. Minnesota Twins (2014 Finish: 70-92, Last Place)
Moving on with the promise from the bottom of this division. The same goes for the Twins, you can tell that the Twins are at least trying to make some improvement. Looking at their rotation, they have good experienced arms with Phil Hughes, Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco, and Mike Pelfrey. All of which can put up a 10 plus win season this year. Behind that they have Tom Milone and Kyle Gibson. Milone could also bring a 10 plus win season as well, which he also did with the Athletics in 2013. With their bullpen, Glen Perkins is their closer and has put up back-to-back 30 saves seasons, and we should expect that for 2015. Brian Duensing and Casey Fien both had under 4 ERAs last season. Tim Stauffer adds some punch to their bullpen after coming to them from the Padres. The Twins do have some experienced bats in their lineup with Joe Mauer, Brian Dozier, Torii Hunter, Kurt Suzuki and Trevor Plouffe. It could be interesting by the deadline if they trade any of those pieces to get younger. It will be first baseman Kenny Vargas first full year in majors. Vargas produced about 20 home runs in a few of his minor league seasons, so it will be interesting to see what he can put together in a full season. Oswaldo Arcia had his best year last year in the big leagues with 20 home runs, so it will be interesting to see what he does to follow that up. Danny Santana and Aaron Hicks do provide some good promising bats in the outfield. With their bench, Chris Parmelee, Jordan Schafer, and Jason Bartlett are some good pieces off the bench. The other question that we'll see if it gets answered this year is whether or not they'll call up Miguel Sano at some point during the 2015 season. Sano is one of their prized prospects coming up in the minors. So as I said the Twins are definitely improving, but it should be a good improvement for them in Paul Molitor's first year as manager.
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