AL East Hot Stove Recap

john1981cr · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 111

By Chris Goudey
Inspin.com/WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

If you’re a baseball geek like me, the winter months are almost as much fun to follow as the regular season and playoffs because of all the player movement between teams. This annual “hot stove league” leaves every team feeling as if they has added just the pieces needed to compete for a World Series title in the upcoming season. Some teams are just fooling themselves, of course, but it’s nice for everyone to have a dream.

Here is a recap and brief analysis of each American League East team’s offseason moves:

Baltimore Orioles: As is usually the case with the O’s, top-level free-agents decided to sign elsewhere, as the management is hamstrung by the inability of owner Peter Angelos to shell out the big bucks. When your big signing in the offseason is Aubrey Huff, you know it hasn’t exactly been a stellar offseason. Sadly for the O’s, Huff is an upgrade over most of their hitters from last year. Huff really isn’t a bad player, he's just not the kind of superstar the O’s need. He should split time between 1B, 3B, DH and OF. The O’s also picked up OF Jay Payton as a free agent, and Payton is another guy who is solid but not spectacular. He’ll probably play LF on a regular basis. The O’s also filled a hole in the rotation by picking up Jaret Wright from the Yankees. The O’s are hoping that by reuniting Wright with his former Atlanta pitching coach, Leo Mazzone, he can have some of the same success he did with the Braves. Most of the O’s free-agent budget was spent on upgrading the bullpen. Big money was paid to former closer Danys Baez, who’ll be the primary set-up guy for current closer Chris Ray. Solid middle relievers Chad Bradford and Scott Williamson were also added, and all three represent a very large upgrade over the 2006 O’s pen.

Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox didn’t have a lot of activity in terms of number of new players, but the few they did get should certainly help them a lot. In what now looks like a relative bargain after the Barry Zito signing by the Giants, the Sox got what they hope will be a solid No. 2 or No. 3 starter in Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese sensation. Matsuzaka is only 26, so assuming he’s as good as everyone says he is, he should be a fixture in the Sox rotation for years to come. The Sox also upgraded offensively at SS with the addition of Julio Lugo. Lugo is a guy who will give them a little bit of power and some nice speed, and is a definite upgrade over Alex Gonzalez, at least on the offensive end. The outfield is going to get what could be an upgrade (if he can stay healthy) in J.D. Drew, who was signed away from the Dodgers. Drew is a very talented hitter, but has always had problems staying on the field. The bullpen of the Sox also got some much-needed new blood with the pick ups of Brendan Donnelly from the Angels, J.C. Romero from the Twins and Joel Pineiro from Seattle. There is talk that Pineiro could be in line for the closer’s role, which might be good for him since he has a live arm but has faltered as a starter. If he can claim that closer’s role, it will free up last year’s rookie sensation, Jon Papelbon, to move into the starting rotation, which will make that group much stronger.

New York Yankees: The last couple of years, the Yankees’ main problem has been in their pitching staff, not their hitting, so they looked to the past and talked former ace Andy Pettitte out of retiring and put him back in the familiar pinstripes. Randy Johnson was sent to Arizona in a trade, so the only holdovers from last year’s rotation will be Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina. Pettitte, Wang and Mussina are a nice start to the rotation, and to fill the hole left by the Big Unit’s departure, the Yanks decided they needed to keep up with their main rivals, the Red Sox, so they also brought in a Japanese import. Kei Igawa is slated to be either the No. 4 or No. 5 starter, but he is not as highly regarded as Matsuzaka. That last spot in the rotation is still up in the air, but the Yanks are hoping that former Florida ace Carl Pavano can return from two years of injuries and seize the day. The rest of the Yankees team is basically unchanged from last year, with only the loss of OF Gary Sheffield being the difference. Sheffield was hurt most of last year anyway, so it shouldn’t make a huge difference in the Yanks’ powerful offense. It looks like we are headed for yet another year of Yanks-Sox battling at the top of the division, unless one team’s pitching staff is clearly better than the other.

Toronto Blue Jays: The one team in the division that could throw a monkey wrench in the Yanks-Sox race is the Blue Jays. The Jays’ main offseason move was to get star OF Vernon Wells signed to a long-term deal. The only other fairly big acquisition for the Jays was to pick up DH Frank Thomas. If Thomas can be the player he was last year for the A’s, then he will definitely help the Jays’ lineup, as Wells was their only real power source a year ago. The only other player the Jays have picked up who will start for them is SS Royce Clayton, but he’s hardly newsworthy and won’t make any difference in wins and losses. The rest of the team is basically intact, and that is probably not good news for the Jays' playoff hopes in this division. In any other division the Jays might have a shot because they are a fairly good team, but without any other big offseason moves and the loss of starter Ted Lilly to the Cubs, I don’t see them being any better than they were last year, and when you are lumped in with the Yanks and Sox, it’s bad times for you.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays: The Devil Rays have had their usual amount of offseason movement, which is basically none. The Rays haven’t added a single player to their squad that will play a large role in the 2007 season. For once, though, this might not be a bad thing, because the Rays do have a ton of young talent that needs the chance to play at the major-league level. There is a surplus of good young outfielders, and there are rumors that one of them might be moved for a top-shelf starting pitcher, which wouldn’t be a bad idea. With Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, Jonny Gomes and hot-shot prospects Delmon Young and B.J. Upton, there are simply not enough places in the lineup for all these guys to play, even if one of them plays DH. Baldelli is the player most likely to be moved, and Florida has been named as a possible destination for him, with one of the Marlins’ excellent young starters coming back in return. That would be the kind of move the Rays have needed to make for years, using their tradeable assets to acquire depth where they need it. If the Rays can just practice some patience for once and not make stupid trades or sign old players to bad contracts, they have the homegrown talent to maybe challenge the big boys in the next 2-3 years.

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