2017 AL East Standing Predictions

[Rene88]

I saw SI picked us at dead last. I am no homer, but that seems absurd, even with a "blah" SP staff.

I am going to go..

Red Sox

Orioles

Blue Jays

Yankees

Tampa

 

What say you?

[maybenxtyr]

1. Red Sox

2. Toronto

3. Baltimore

4. Tampa

5. New York

I don't believe New York is that bad but someone has to be last. I think Toronto and Boston are better in all aspects compared to Baltimore. I would not be surprised if Toronto finishes in1st.

[ArtVanDelay]

Red Sox 103-59

Orioles 90-72

Rays 86-76

Yankees 80-82

Blue Jays 0-162

[Rene88]

3 minutes ago, ArtVanDelay said:

Red Sox 103-59

Orioles 90-72

Rays 86-76

Yankees 80-82

Blue Jays 0-162

LOL-that's awesome:) ha ha

[Spy Fox]

I'm thinking something like this:

• Boston Red Sox, 92-70
• Baltimore Orioles, 89-73
• Toronto Blue Jays, 88-74
• New York Yankees, 80-82
• Tampa Bay Rays, 78-84

O's win the WC rematch with the Jays in Baltimore, then face Cleveland in the ALDS. 

[TommyPickles]

1. Boston

2. Baltimore

3. New York

4. Toronto

5. Tampa Bay

 

I feel like Toronto could have a down year.  Encarnacion gone, Bautista ageing, Pearce starting in LF or even moving to 1B...  I think their starting rotation somewhat overperformed last year, and even team president, Mark Shapiro, mentioned that their starting depth is a concern.

“If you said ‘what’s your one fear heading into the season,’ it probably would be the drop-off from our fifth starter to our sixth starter. That’s not a subtle drop-off,” Shapiro said.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/shapiro-blue-jays-starting-pitching-depth-concern/

That being said, I know their rotation is way better than ours on paper, so maybe I'm just reaching here.  I'm not a big fan of the Jays.

[MDtransplant757]

AL west looks good, though i'm kind of nervous about the Mariners' BP and SP. They could either be great or be awful and sink the team. 

Anyway, back to the east. 

Boston's BP is garbage, and we'll see how bad losing Papi is going to effect them. 

Toronto's BP is garbage, and they'll lose run production from letting Encarnaion go. No way Morales/Bautsita/Donaldson put up the numbers they did last year. Travis isn't all that special, Smoak will be replaced by Pearce probably, Carrera isn't all that good either. 

[joe42]

3 hours ago, Rene88 said:

I saw SI picked us at dead last. I am no homer, but that seems absurd, even with a "blah" SP staff.

I am going to go..

Red Sox

Orioles

Blue Jays

Yankees

Tampa

 

What say you?

Would agree with your order of finish! 

[oriole]

 I'll be an optimist for the sake of optimism

 

Orioles

Red Sox

Yankees

Rays

Blue Jays

[Orioles0615]

With this horrible pitching staff I think we will be lucky to win 82 games. I think we fight for 4th with NY. 

Boston

Toronto 

Baltimore

NY

Tampa

 

The pitching seriously looks like a disaster and of course we will be "buyers" at the deadline when we should probably selling. 

[Ned from York]

5 hours ago, Spy Fox said:

I'm thinking something like this:

• Boston Red Sox, 92-70
• Baltimore Orioles, 89-73
• Toronto Blue Jays, 88-74
• New York Yankees, 80-82
• Tampa Bay Rays, 78-84

O's win the WC rematch with the Jays in Baltimore, then face Cleveland in the ALDS. 

Yep, and Buck pitches Britton first inning to avoid any controversy.

[25 Nuggets]

4 hours ago, Spy Fox said:

I'm thinking something like this:

• Boston Red Sox, 92-70
• Baltimore Orioles, 89-73
• Toronto Blue Jays, 88-74
• New York Yankees, 80-82
• Tampa Bay Rays, 78-84

O's win the WC rematch with the Jays in Baltimore, then face Cleveland in the ALDS. 

This is closest to what I think.  I'll fudge the numbers to appear original:

• Boston Red Sox, 95-67
• Baltimore Orioles, 87-75
• Toronto Blue Jays, 85-77
• New York Yankees, 81-81
• Tampa Bay Rays, 75-87

Some of this is predicated on the long term health of David Price and Chris Tillman, but of course you can expand that to team health in general.

In this scenario I think the Orioles get the 2nd Wild Card again and play the 2nd place team in the AL West.

[weams]

12 hours ago, andrewochs615 said:

With this horrible pitching staff I think we will be lucky to win 82 games. I think we fight for 4th with NY. 

Boston

Toronto 

Baltimore

NY

Tampa

 

The pitching seriously looks like a disaster and of course we will be "buyers" at the deadline when we should probably selling. 

http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2017/03/mlbcoms-richard-justice-talks-orioles.html

[ChuckS]

Everyone thinks the Blue Jays are going to take a step back. 

I'm not sure about that. There were + 93 and only won 89 games last year.  They could still win 89 this year and only score +30 to +50 (assuming their offense takes a step back), which isn't unreasonable.  Or.....Stroman and Sanchez could become bonafide aces and they could win more than that.  They arguably still have the best starting rotation if Price misses much of the season (if not all of it). 

I still have it: 1. Boston (97 wins) 2. Toronto (89 wins) 3. Baltimore (86 wins) 4. New York (81 wins) 5. Tampa (76 wins). 

 

[MurphDogg]

19 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Everyone thinks the Blue Jays are going to take a step back. 

I'm not sure about that. There were + 93 and only won 89 games last year.  They could still win 89 this year and only score +30 to +50 (assuming their offense takes a step back), which isn't unreasonable.

 

Their Pythagorean W-L was 91-71, so it was hardly a 2012 Orioles situation. The expected wins for a +30 run team is 84, 86 for a +50 run team, so it would be more of an aberration for them to win 89 as a +30-50 run team than as a +93 run team.