Thread: 2012 AL Central Standings - Part 1

I'll remain blindly optimistic and vote Twins. My reasoning--if only to add a different point of view than those already espoused here--I'll suggest that the Twins can benefit from a more generous interleague schedule than their rivals--as their six games would come against a severely diminished Brewers team rather than the resurgent Reds, Cardinals or Pirates (the "rivals" of Cleveland, Kansas City and Detroit)--true we do still play the Reds, Pirates (and Phillies) without any cupcake set against the Astros, but what can I say...I'm happy with my delusion.

Much as I'd like to take a flyer on the Twins, I just can't see the club improving by 30+ games. That would be unprecedented. The biggest win jump in franchise history was 27 wins, and that was from 1911 to 1912 when they were still the Senators (and had Walter Johnson in the rotation). The 'worst to first' '91 Twins only needed to improve by 21 games to win the division.

The Tigers will probably regress some from their 2011 record, but when you're the only club that finished above .500 in your division, you've got a lot of room to regress before you need to start worrying.

Originally Posted by dwintheiser

Much as I'd like to take a flyer on the Twins, I just can't see the club improving by 30+ games. That would be unprecedented. The biggest win jump in franchise history was 27 wins, and that was from 1911 to 1912 when they were still the Senators (and had Walter Johnson in the rotation). The 'worst to first' '91 Twins only needed to improve by 21 games to win the division.

The Tigers will probably regress some from their 2011 record, but when you're the only club that finished above .500 in your division, you've got a lot of room to regress before you need to start worrying.

I wouldn't say unprescedented. Looking at the Diamondbacks, they went from 65 wins in 1998 to 100 in 1999, 51 to 77 in '05, and 65 to 94 last year. Seems like the best chance for a huge turn-around would be a team like this team where you have multiple impact players who were injured or played poorly the year before. If healthy (I know, big if), I think this team is closer to the 2010 version of the Twins than the 2011 version. They're still underdogs, but I think it will be fun to watch the season play out.

Tigers. If a "race" means they wind up winning by 5-6 games, OK, I could see the Tigers winning 90 games, while the Indians or Royals win 84, and not putting the division to bed until the third week of September. But I think it's unlikely that the race will be any tighter than that. Any team after Detroit would need pretty much everything to go perfectly to really make a run at 90+ wins. The Tigers probably get there if most of their plans come together just reasonably well.

As much as it pains me, I voted for the Tigers to win the division - but I don't see them running away with it. I don't think their defense is good enough to make them elite and I don't see the Twins being nearly as bad as they were last year. A healthier Twins team, a competitive Royals squad and a good Indians team will keep this division tight.

On paper it looks like the Tigers are the clear cut favorites but the great thing about baseball is you never know. A couple injuries to key players and the Tigers could fall back to the pack. At that point it could put the division up for grabs. It will be fun to see how the 2012 season plays out.