This blog is going to take a look at specific teams to watch based on their performance last year and possible acquisitions in the off season on where their team should stand as well as teams to watch.
American League
The Orioles, Red Sox and Yankees are all having interesting starts to the season that people probably wouldn’t expect. To start the reigning MLB World Series Champs the Red Sox are sitting at 2-7 which is not at all what you want to see. For them they’re lucky it is still very early and they have plenty of time to figure out what is going on and what they need to do to stop the bleeding. The Yankees also started out rough winning 1 game in a best of 3 to the Orioles who only won 47 games last year. However, the Yankees are currently 3-4 and seem to be slowly getting a grip back on things and figuring out what they need to do to get back to the playoffs again. Then their is the 47 win Orioles who are currently 2nd in the AL East at 4-3 which is no incredible mark just yet and it is still early but this teams shows some promise that they can contend this year if they maybe pick up one or two more crucial pieces. The Orioles goal this year should be 60 wins, which is still a low mark to shoot for but it is an improvement . Then their are the Royals at 2-5 and the Angels who are 2-6 but thankfully for them it is early which will give them plenty of time to turn their team around and start to look more like contenders.
National League
Their are a good amount of teams in the National League that will be drawing eyes this season. In the NL East the Braves and the Phillies will be the teams to watch, then in the NL Central the Brewers and Cubs, followed lastly by the NL West the Dodgers and Padres. In the east we have the division champs and 90 win Braves from last season, and then the 80 win Phillies from last year who now own Bryce Harper after signing that immaculate deal. So will Harper be able to help boost this team into the playoffs over the reigning division champs the Braves, or will another team step up and make a push for that playoff spot. Then we move to the Central where we have the current 7-1 Brewers who won the division as well as were the best team in the NL last season who beat the Cubs in a 163 game to claim the division title. The Cubs currently are 1-6 and have already 10 errors to start the season making their team look very rusty in the early part of this season, so we will have to see if they can clean up their game and make a run for the division again as they did last year. Finally we move to the West where we have the Dodgers who ended up making it to the World Series after beating the Brewers in 7 games. They are facing off against the Padres who also have a major off season signing in Manny Machado, so we’ll have to track his progress and how well both teams do. Both teams are up at top the division right now with the Dodgers at 6-2 and the Padres at 5-3. Another reason to track the Padres this season is because they only had 66 wins last season, so if they are going to contest this year with Machado they are going to have to hope for at least about 25 more wins from their previous season.