Even though there was no way I was going to get up at 6 AM in the morning to watch the games, I was excited to see the baseball season officially start with Boston's split "series" with the A's in Japan.  No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to enjoy sports from the time that the NFL is over in February until baseball starts in April.  March Madness--well, let's just say that I really don't care about basketball, outside of a reason to go out to the bar and pretend to get excited with friends.

Now, I'm not trying to slight the National League here, but I'm going to just focus my predictions on the ultra-competitive, interesting, and DH-lovin' American League.  Without further ado...

American League East:

1. Boston Red Sox - With that pitching staff and that offense, Boston will definitely repeat as the AL East champion.
2. New York Yankees - With the deep pockets of the Steinbrenners and the need to have a respectable final season at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees will be a competitive team all year, but I do believe that this is the year that New York misses the Wild Card and the playoffs.
3. Toronto Blue Jays - A surprisingly strong dark-horse team, I could see the Blue Jays winning over 80 games this year, but in a division with New York and Boston, they are doomed to be an also-ran.
4. Tampa Bay Rays - The Rays have some good young talent but not nearly enough to compete in this division (couldn't that just have been copied-and-pasted from the past decade?)
5. Baltimore Orioles - The once-proud franchise will remain the laughingstock of the American League.  Peter Angelos continues to drive the franchise in the ground and Baltimore continues to be more known for smack than "whack".

American League Central

1. Cleveland Indians - Yes, I'm a homer, but the Tribe has one of the most impressive and deep starting rotations in baseball.  Follow that up with a balanced offense headed by Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner, and you have a team that will easily win 95 games.
2. Detroit Tigers - Detroit has gone for broke this off-season, spending money that's usually reserved for New York teams.  Unfortunately, they did very little to shore up an iffy rotation, and if I learned anything by watching Jon Hart build teams in Cleveland in the 90s, it's that pitching beats offense every time.  Detroit will have enough wins to make it to the post-season though as the AL Wild Card winners.
3. Minnesota Twins - No longer the tough team they were the first half of the decade, Minnesota will fall to below .500 this year.
4. Kansas City Royals - Will somebody please help the poor citizens of Kansas City?  They truly deserve better baseball than they've watched for the past 15 years.
5. Chicago White Sox - 2005 is becoming a distant memory on the Southside of Chicago.

American League West

1. Seattle Mariners - This is a long-shot, but I'm going to take it anyway.  After an extremely competitive season that fell short, Seattle is hungry and ready to rock Safeco Field again.  Ichiro, JJ Putz, and a balanced offense make Seattle competitve through the All-Star break and ownership will pull the trigger to make a trade for a stretch run.
2. Los Angeles Angels - The Angels will be neck and neck all season with Seattle, but will far short.
3. Oakland A's - It's just not happening this year.  Moneyball is great, but having a payroll 1/3 of that of the other teams in your division just doesn't hold up down the stretch.
4. Texas Rangers - When were the Rangers last good?

ALDS:

• Cleveland over Seattle - It's the pitching, stupid.
• Boston over Detroit - It's the pitching, stupid.

ALCS:

• Cleveland over Boston - A complete home-team call here.  I want Cleveland to win.  But there are reasons to think they will be able to pull it off.  Cleveland's younger team will hold up to injuries better than Boston.  Rotations and bullpens are fairly even between the two teams, but the Indians are hurt and hungry from last year and will parlay that into their first World Series appearance since 1997.