AL Central

The second installment of my utterly un-researched predictions for the 2007 baseball season.

AL CENTRAL

The teams:
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins

The outlook: The AL Central is the best division in baseball -- period -- and this year's competition is going to be intense.

The please-don't-bunt-it-to-the-pitcher Tigers return basically the same lineup as the team that got them to the World Series last year, with the notable addition of Gary Sheffield. The loss of Sheffield is huge for the Yankees, as they will now have to find a different outfielder for Old-Timers' Day. Postseason innings can take quite the toll on a pitching staff (see Kenny Rogers), and it is a valid question as to whether the Tiger pitching staff will be able to hold up over another 162 game season and carry the tabbies deep into October. The Tigers will have a better first than second half -- look for them to get a slight lead, but fade down the stretch (your 2006 AL Central Champion Minnesota Twins anyone?).

The White Sox should be Detroit's main competition, and they could be a very capable or superior opponent. The 2007 White Sox team has a lot of ifs -- if Mark Buehrle can return to form, if Javier Vazquez can live up to his potential, if Scott Podsednik v.2005 not v.2006 shows up, and if John Danks can be a capable fifth starter. If all those ifs fall into place this White Sox team will be a handful. (Too many ifs? Remember 2005? If Orlando Hernandez can still pitch -- if Jon Garland can live up to his potential -- if this Tadahito Iguchi guy can play second base -- if Shingo Takatsu can remain a dominant closer without prototypical stuff -- and later, if this tall, wide guy named Jenks can take over the closer's duties).

Look for the White Sox and Tigers to slug it out all year, being pushed by the Cleveland Indians, and, to a lesser extent due to the loss of Liriano (injury) and Radke (retirement), Minnesota.

Spaulding prognostication:
AL Central champion -- Detroit Tigers
AL Central Wild Card -- Chicago White Sox

Tigers limp to a divisional crown, but don't get to live October to its fullest.

Up next: AL West

The Little League

I don't care what the final score of this year's Major League Baseball All-Star Game ends up at (and it is 2-1 NL in the 8th as I write this), the National League is far, far inferior to the American League. Need proof? How about this from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"...over the past nine seasons, the AL has gone 8-0-1 [in the All-Star game]. As it turned out, the highlight for the NL was the 7-7 tie in 2002 in Milwaukee, the game that prompted the format change with the World Series tie-in.

"Beyond that dominance, the AL has swept the past two World Series and ran through the NL in interleague play like General Sherman through the South, going 154-98. "

154-98! That's a .611 winning percentage. And yes, the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Devil Rays are included in that total.

For point of comparison, there are only three teams at the All-Star break whose winning percentage is better than .600. They are:

Tigers
.670

White Sox
.648

Red Sox
.616

And what do all three of these teams have in common? Yep, they're all from the American League.