A week or two into the season and already the Dodgers are the favorites to win the World Series and the entire AL East will be struggling to stay above .500. The over-reactive baseball fandom is in overdrive early in 2012, just as it is every year around this time. Can you really blame them (us)? The offseason is a long, cold and unexciting venture. Fans become so starved for any news of baseball that they cling to MLBTR for hours at a time, travel to Arizona and Florida in droves and conclude their opinion of teams for the next six months based off of two weeks worth of statistical analysis, unrefined scouting and Keith Law articles. Here at the Outside Corner, we’re fans as well, and as such we take great joy in forming our own conclusions as well. These are the most dangerous (potential) playoff teams in Major League Baseball.
Washington Nationals. They’ll be lucky to make the playoffs with the slough of injuries they’ve incurred. However, come October, if this team manages to find itself in the division series and so on, they could be awfully hard to beat. Morse and Harper should be healthy/promoted by then and offer dynamic “quick-strike” ability with the long ball. Zimmerman, LaRoche and Werth bring similar assets to the table. Strasburg, Zimmerman and Gonzalez will keep competitive while relievers like Storen, Lidge, Clippard and Burnett can shorten a lot of games.
Cincinnati Reds. They aren’t particularly what I’d call a “strong” team, but they have the pieces necessary to string together enough wins when it counts. Bruce, Phillips and Votto can score runs if the others reach base. Aroldis Chapman looks all but unhittable right now and will likely move into the rotation before the end of the season. Cueto and Latos can shut opposing teams down, but the wild cards here are Sean Marshall and Jose Arredondo. In terms of “stuff” and recent success, if the Reds can grab a lead by the 7th inning, they should be good.
Arizona Diamondbacks. The D-Backs rotation looks good now, but by the all-star break it will look untouchable. Ian Kennedy and Daniel Hudson are the front of the rotation starters every playoff team should have. Cahill is a dependable third starter, but Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs may be the best young starters to come into the NL since Lincecum and Scherzer. The offense has the right blend of power and speed to never run into any severe ruts and the Arizona bullpen is the deepest in the West.
Texas Rangers. It pains me to give credit where it is due because I openly despise this team. But in terms of being a dangerous playoff team, even the 2010 and 2011 Rangers couldn’t keep pace with this squad. The offense won’t be as good because 2011 was a magical season that probably won’t be repeated, but the Ranger offense doesn’t need to be THAT good. It’s the rotation that scares me. If Neftali Feliz and Derek Holland can last 200 innings, they’ll have the front of the rotation starts they need. It’s clear Yu Darvish will have trouble staying in the strike one and keeping runs off the board in Arlington in the summer, but he’ll undoubtedly be a good third starter in most scenarios imaginable.
New York Yankees. Speaking of teams I openly despise, the Yanks will be, well, the Yanks. Sabathia can match up well enough with most front of the rotation starters and Kuroda will keep New York in games. Andy Pettitte is rested and a proven playoff starter and will arrive back in the Bronx before long. I don’t need to tell you how great the offense is, I’ll just list off some names. Jeter, A-Rod, Granderson, Cano, Teixeira. I wouldn’t anticipate Robertson or Mariano Rivera surrendering many late leads either.
