Feature Presentation

AL: East | Central | West (4/14)
NL: East (4/16) | Central (4/18) | West (4/20)

AL CENTRAL

Note: placed in predicted order of finish

Chicago White Sox

   The Good:The defending champs have a lot returning and are clearly the favorites to win the AL Central. The key to the White Sox success last year was their pitching and defense. Sans Aaron Rowand (who didn't do anything with the bat), the White Sox return a solid defense and some of the best arms in the Majors. The line-up isn't too shabby either with sluggers Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko back and they'll gladly welcome in Jim Thome.
   The Bad: The ChiSox ranked 9th last season in total runs scored (741) a stat manager Ozzie Guillen would love to improve on. Their bench is a bit weak and depleted. But other than that, the White Sox are fundamentally a good, solid team.
   The Skinny: Chicago's collective units of starting and relief pitching make the White Sox the clear favorite to win the AL Central and maybe even repeat as World Series Champs.

Cleveland Indians

   The Good: Jhonny Peralta, Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez and even Travis Hafner are some of the games most underappreciated players. Maybe this year they'll get more respect. The pitching staff could shape into a very dangerous bunch. C.C. Sabathia, Jake Westbrook and Jason Johnson should combine for 36 wins, with Paul Byrd and Cliff Lee more than capable of winning 13 apiece.
   The Bad: The Indians are known as the 'chokesters" of the 2005 season, via losing six of their last seven games to give up the wild-card slot to the Red Sox. If their offense and starting pitching can hold up, the only choking they'll have to worry about is from their bullpen. Bob Wickman is not the best option in the majors to close out ballgames, but the Indians will have to make due. Yeah, I know the bullpen was one of the best in 2005, but this is 2006, and they'll regress.
   The Skinny: Hafner is a perfect fit for the Indians and for some reason I didn't think he was for my fantasy baseball team. Damn, too many Miller Lites. Manager Eric Wedge is too good of a coach and he has too good of a team to implode again like they did in the final week of the season. Come October, the Indians have a good chance of still playing.

Minnesota Twins

   The Good: Let's start with the obvious: Johan Santana. He's the best pitcher in the American League, maybe even in the entire Major Leagues for that matter. He has a .750 winning PCT over the last three seasons and hands down should've won the AL Cy Young last season. Outside of Santana there is plenty of good to go around. Brad Racke is a solid complement at the number two spot in the rotation and Joe Nathan is an above average closer. As for showing the O-face...Rondell White, Torri Hunter and Justin Morneau should make for a tasty 4-5-6 battery.
   The Bad: But outside that "battery" there isn't much to like. Tony Batista as starting third? Juan Castro as the starting short? I would like to have seen Michael Cuddeyer in one of those spots. Shannon Stewart is a stud in left, Hunter is one of the best centerfielders, but the Twins will miss Jacque Jones more than they think. The Twins are going to struggle in putting up impressive offensive numbers which is going to give Ron Gardenhire nightmares and pitchers like Kyle Lohse and Scott Baker losses.    The Skinny: The Twins are the perfect type of "storyline" team to reach the playoffs and as they say in Major League "win the whole f*****g thing."
   Few of the storylines:

The tragic death of long-time Twin fan favorite and Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett.
The Twins playing in one of their final years in the historic Metrodome before moving into their new stadium in ??? (well, we're still unsure of that)
Tony Batista returning from playing ball in Japan to having a great year in the MLB.
Johan Santana, who many thought should've won the AL Cy Young last season, comes back to lead his Twins team to the playoffs.
12-year old Twins owner-and-soon-manager Billy Heywood leads his team to a fantastic regular season finish in the heat of a playoff race - oh crap that's from Little Big League - but you get my point.

Detroit Tigers

   The Good: Things are getting better in the city that is known for its hockey. And it's basketball. And what used to be known for it's baseball. On paper, the Tigers provide one of the most prolific offensive attacks in the bigs. Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Chris Shelton, Dimitri Young, Craig Monroe all mesh together for a high-octane offense. (I looked up in the dictionary and high-octane isn't really a word, but to me it sounds cool) The Tigers starting pitching will be fine; watch out for Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander, those kids are studs.
   The Bad: Yeah, the offense should be good, but I said that's on paper. That phrase should be taken literally because the Tigers have been hit by the injury bug the past few years. Besides injuries, the Tigers bullpen added Todd Jones, but won't be the best set of relievers in the game. Finally, flat out the Tigers aren't proven winners and will have to keep their composure during the summer flame outs if they want to stay in the hunt for October.
   The Skinny: If the Tigers want to contend they'll have to rely on everyone staying healthy (cough, cough that means you Ordonez and Guillen), their offense living up to its potential and most importantly, they'll have to steal a page from the White Sox bullpen: being the ultimate dark horse. If not they won't have a chance.

Kansas City Royals

   The Good: The line-up is not too shabby. No really, stop laughing. A few names on their roster are…please that's rude, stop it. They have improved. Okay can I continue? Thank you. Where was I? Oh yeah. The line-up is decent. I'll give you a few moments to take that in. Reggie Sanders, Mike Sweeney, David DeJesus will be a nice little top of the order for the Royals. Watch out for Denny Bautista, who has potential to be dominate pitcher.
   The Bad: The Royals have a lot of players on their roster that just have long, complicated last names. So long in fact I had to copy/paste them to this page so I wouldn't have to try and type them out. (i.e., Mientkiewicz, Grudzielanek) In all seriousness, there are a lot of issues that should worry Royals fans, but that's a lot of typing. Almost as much as spelling Mientkie…
   The Skinny: The Royals are just plain out bad. But in their defense, they'll be better than last year and they'll be more fun to watch. And who knows…if the Royals played in the NL West, they might actually finish above last place. All-in-all, Kauffman Stadium – a very underrated ballpark – will host a last place team, again.

You can reach Doug McKinney @ dmckinney@featurepresentationonline.com.