soriano : i be lookin for your input
Took:
BAL o79 -115 (great defense, Davis probably not repeating his 2013 numbers but added another power bat in Nelson Cruz, Reimold another decent bat and Schoop might be an upgrade at 2nd. Rotation has no real ace but is very balanced at Hammels weak 2013 numbers were replaced by Ubaldo Jimenez, who should at least deliver an ERA around 4. Lost Jim Johnson, but JJ blew a bunch of leads last year and I'm high on Hunter, also still like their bullpen and overall depth. Should hover around .500 at least). 83+
Added:
ATL u87.5 +100 (if they stay healthy and their OF can regain their past prime forms, they'll get to 90. Just don't see that happening: BJ Upton hasn't performed well for quite some time now, Justin Upton might bounce back, but didn't like his batting approach last year at all and Heyward has trouble staying healthy. Gattis imo will struggle catching a whole season, the team as a whole strikes out a ton and with the exception of Freeman (and Heyward) doesn't get on base a lot and has no depth aside from C/1B. Bullpen still good with great closer, but lost several very good arms (O'Flaherty, Downs, Ayala) and starting rotation looks great without a true ace, but won't make it through the year: Medlen already complaining about some discomfort and resting, Minor had some minor issues too, Beachy a huge question mark after 2 huge surgeries incl. TJ and just throwing about 80IP in b2b season, also left todays spring start after just 2IP instead of the planned 4IP and Wood also huge ??? once his IP-total gets to 140+. They have lots of pitching depth with guys like Hale, but even ATL would struggle to replace two SPs...). 81-86, depending on injuries...
Thinking about:
ARI o81, NYM o74, NYY u87.
Agree with Peta about NYY, love both Japanese SPs, but not much depth behind them and Kuroda can hardly be expected to improve on last years numbers and Tanaka won't be such a huge upgrade since Pettitte already performed very well. Some huge upgrades like McCann (instead of .200 pushovers like Stewart/Romine), maybe best offensive OF, but defense looks bad on paper, unless they start Ryan (terrible bat) maybe the worst middle infield defensively and bottom lineup looks weak. Don't expect much offensively from Jeter or Tex, so that would mean not much production from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, SS, while having only two very strong pitchers with no depth and losing Rivera, Logan, Chamberlain (the latter being addition by subtraction) in the pen. 85 or less
ARI added Trumbo, imo will be a huge presence in the lineup pushing for 40HRs. Rotation got bolstered by Arroyo, McCarthy will be back after being hit by that comebacker, maybe in June they promote their top prospect Bradley...again no real ace, but balanced starting rotation with lots of depth (even without Bradley, they have McCarthy or Delgado as #5 + additional depth). Very deep bullpen, too, after adding Addison Reed & Oli Perez. I see them at 82-85.
NYM lost Harvey + Hawkins, but have way more pitching depth than last year: Colon should provide them with a nice replacement for Harvey, Niese should perform better than last season when he wasn't 100%, Wheeler should only continue to get better, Gee improved after the ASB, Mejia looked very good, Syndergaard might get his shot in June...Bullpen is kind of a question mark, but imo will be decent enough, at least not worse than last season. So they should get way better pitching despite the loss of Harvey since they won't have to start guys like Dice-K, Marcum or Harang this year, plus their anemic offense from last year left them not much room to do anything else than improve...Byrd is gone, but Granderson/Young will be significant upgrades over last years OFs not named Byrd, ike Davis can't do worse (plus Duda might take his job at 1st anyways) and D'Arnaud was one of the top hitting prospects at C, so you should expect an improvement over his 2013 numbers...Their overall defense is very good too, so imo they will do better than last year by going the Tampa route (pitching + defense), when they already won 74