2012 AL East Odds to Win
(The Spread) – After making a trade that should improve their starting pitching, it’s no surprise that the Yankees are favored to win the AL East in 2012.
Oddsmakers currently list the Yankees as –140 money line favorites to win the American League East Division, followed by the Red Sox at +225. The Rays are +450 while the Blue Jays are +1200 and the Orioles are the long shots at +10000.
ORIOLES: The Orioles were a bad baseball team in 2011 and they did little this offseason to improve their chances in a competitive AL East Division. The additions of Wei-Yin Chen, Tsuyoshi Wada, Jason Hammel, Matt Lindstrom, Endy Chavez, Taylor Teagarden and Wilson Betemit will hardly be enough to make Baltimore competitive in 2012. (Losing Vladimir Guerrero certainly doesn’t help either.) Even if Mark Reynolds, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis hit well, the pitching is brutal and will sink the O’s this season.
BLUE JAYS: Toronto was once again quiet during the winter but the Jays usually have enough to make things interesting in the division. Thanks to Jose Bautista (.302, 43 home runs, 103 RBI in 2011) and ace Ricky Romero (15-11, 2.92 ERA, 178 strikeouts) the Jays will once again be better than average. Whether or not they compete for a postseason berth depends on what Brett Lawrie and some of their other young players add to the mix.
RAYS: The Rays never seem to have enough talent and yet there they are, earning a postseason berth as the regular season concludes. Thanks to their pitching, which includes David Price, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson, Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann and Matt Moore, and top bats (Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena and Ben Zobrist), the Rays will once again compete for the division crown. Perhaps no manager in the league gets more out of his players than Joe Maddon.
RED SOX: 2011 didn’t go as planned for the BoSox, who were supposed to challenge for a World Series berth after acquiring Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford to add to their already stacked lineup. But Crawford never delivered and Boston collapsed big time down the stretch to miss the playoffs. Gone is GM Theo Epstein and skipper Terry Francona, in is new manager Bobby Valentine, who has the inevitable task of turning around a club that was a massive underachiever last season. Valentine will be without Jonathan Papelbon, J.D. Drew, Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek, but he still has plenty of talent to work with. It remains to be seen whether or not this team can toughen up and make a run at the Yankees.
YANKEES: The Bronx Bombers are aging but that won’t stop them from competing. Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter are all reportedly in great shape and the club added 23-year-old Michael Pineda to the top of their rotation. If Pineda (acquired from the Mariners over the winter) can overcome the pressure that comes with pitching in the Big Apple, he and ace CC Sabathia form one of the better 1-2 punches in the league. While the signing didn’t draw as much attention as the Pineda acquisition, the Bombers also did well to add steady veteran Hiroki Kuroda to their rotation. Assuming Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano don’t have a drop in production, the Yankees are definitely the team to beat again in the AL East.
2012 American League East Division Odds to Win
Baltimore Orioles +10000
Boston Red Sox +225
New York Yankees –140
Tampa Bay Rays +450
Toronto Blue Jays +1200
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