{"id":869,"date":"2007-03-07T23:22:10","date_gmt":"2007-03-08T04:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=869"},"modified":"2007-03-07T23:22:10","modified_gmt":"2007-03-08T04:22:10","slug":"jetnation-fantasy-baseball-preview-al","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2007\/03\/07\/jetnation-fantasy-baseball-preview-al\/","title":{"rendered":"JetNation Fantasy Baseball Preview (AL)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike Dietrich<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hello and welcome to the second part of players to watch in Spring Training.\u00c2\u00a0 Today we will cover the American League.<\/p>\n

New York Yankees
\n<\/strong>They have most positions filled up and you want to stay away from that ugly platoon at 1st base but I would keep an eye on Igawa to see if his soft tossing is effective.\u00c2\u00a0 Also watch\u00c2\u00a0for Jeff Karstens and Darell Rasner for when Pavano goes on the D.L<\/p>\n

Boston Red Sox<\/strong>
\nDustin Pedoria is the perfect Money Ball player based on his minor league stats so keep an eye on him as well as the undecided closer spot.\u00c2\u00a0 The Red Sox would love for Craig Hansen to win this job and not one of the retreads (Pineiro, Taverez, Donnelly)<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong>
\nGreg Zaun is a catcher who will not kill you as a backup and in the rotation John Thomson won 14 games a couple of years ago and could be worth a look.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Devil Rays<\/strong>
\nThe closer position is wide open but I see Seth McClung getting the majority of the work.\u00c2\u00a0 Also keep an eye on Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes two very highly rated successful minor league hitters.\u00c2\u00a0 What do they have to lose?<\/p>\n

Baltimore Orioles<\/strong>
\nNick Markakis is the breakout star here.\u00c2\u00a0 He will bat 3rd in a pretty good lineup. Daniel Cabrera has maybe the best stuff but no head.\u00c2\u00a0 This could be the year Leo Mazzone gets him on track.<\/p>\n

Detroit Tigers<\/strong>
\nThis team will be the same as last years but with the addition of a motivated Gary Sheffield.\u00c2\u00a0 Todd Jones is now 38 and I can see Joel Zumaya moving into the closer role midway through the year.\u00c2\u00a0 He is worth finding a spot in your pitching staff.<\/p>\n

Chicago White Sox
\n<\/strong>The CF spot is up for grabs.\u00c2\u00a0 Brian Anderson has all the tools but Darrin Erstad has the experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Juan Uribe could also have some issues.\u00c2\u00a0 So long as there are no farmers in camp hopfeully he will be okay.<\/p>\n

Cleveland Indians<\/strong>
\nTrot Nixon looks to be the everyday RF and has always produced in Boston.\u00c2\u00a0 If he is the full time player he should hit 30 Hr\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s if healthy.\u00c2\u00a0 Buyer be lucky with a closer here, Joe Borowski who had a decent year in the NL last year but he is Joe Borowski.\u00c2\u00a0 Rafael Betancourt is the sleeper in that bullpen.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Twins
\n<\/strong>Jason Kubel is the favorite at DH and has been a promising prospect for a couple of years, time to step up.\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Garza is the pitcher to watch, he has proven all he can in the minors and has the electric stuff to backup Johan.<\/p>\n

Kansas City Royals
\n<\/strong>The best rookie live in Kansas City in 3b Alex Gordon.\u00c2\u00a0 He has been labeled a can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss but the Royals have been quite unlucky with young players.\u00c2\u00a0 Octavio Dotel has been a good closer but watch how much he pitches and not the results.\u00c2\u00a0 He could be a steal at the end of a draft.<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers<\/strong>
\nNelson Cruz is the favorite at RF but you have to take a look at Sammy Sosa, he looked done last year but you never know.\u00c2\u00a0 Most SP go to Texas to die but Brandon McCarthy is ready to break out and could break the trend.<\/p>\n

Seattle Mariners<\/strong>
\nJose Guillen had major surgery at the end of the year so maybe this is the spot where Jeremy Reed breaks out into a star.\u00c2\u00a0 On the pitching front Miguel Batista is the perfect end of draft guy moving into a pitchers park and could get 15 wins.<\/p>\n

Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/strong>
\nThe signing of Shannon Stewart may push Dan Johnson to the bench but that would be a mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 Johnson could be the power hitter that this lineup needs, If he has a job, he is a guy to watch.\u00c2\u00a0 Rich Harden has the talent but Mark Prioritis.\u00c2\u00a0 If he is healthy, he is worth a flyer.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Angels<\/strong>
\nHowie Kendrick is a possible ROY and Casey Kotchman is another who is a big time hitter in the minors.\u00c2\u00a0 Juan Rivera is out until mid-season.\u00c2\u00a0 Jared Weaver is hurt already so make sure he is pitching by the end of Spring Training.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading!\u00c2\u00a0 We will come back next week with a look at the top rookies in each league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Dietrich\u00c2\u00a0 Hello and welcome to the second part of players to watch in Spring Training.\u00c2\u00a0 Today we will cover the American League. New York Yankees They have most positions filled up and you want to stay away from that ugly platoon at 1st base but I would keep an eye on Igawa to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[226,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-baseball","7":"category-fantasy-sports"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-e1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}