Baseball: Who could be surprise team?

How about the Indians? With a stockpile of young players ready to become stars, Cleveland is reaping the rewards of trading away Bartolo Colon a few years back. And Ken Rosenthal says after the Indians had a decent run last season, they are done rebuilding and ready to start contending.

On the day he traded righthander Bartolo Colon -- June 27, 2002, with his team a mere seven games out of first place -- Indians general manager Mark Shapiro angered fans by suggesting the team would contend again in 2004 or 2005.

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the mariners will win this one going away...they have added beltre and sexson during the off season, the only way to go is up for the m's this year

Glad to see we're all optimistic about our teams! I like the Phillies chances this year although the teams in their division really made some big moves. Hudson to Atlanta, Beltran and Pedro to the Mets, Delagado to the Marlins, etc. I'm hoping for bounce back seasons for Burrell, Thome, and Billy Wagner and hopefully Abreu can be his usual potent self. Will be interesting to see how our free agent Jon Lieber from the Yankees will fare as the ace of the staff.

The Phillies lost Kevin Millwood to the Tribe, who as TRD pointed out, could be one of the surprises this season with a ton of young talent.

I have a strange feeling that the Tigers will have a good year. I believe they could have a great year if everyone they have plays to their potential.

Dont forget about the Orioles who added Sammy Sosa to an already potent lineup. It looks like pitching will be the biq question mark in Baltimore, they shouldn't have any problems scoring runs.

PROJECTED LINEUP

1. Brian Roberts 2B
2. Melvin Mora 3B
3. Miguel Tejada SS
4. Sammy Sosa RF
5. Rafael Palmeiro DH
6. Javy Lopez C
7. Jay Gibbons 1B
8. Larry Bigbie LF
9. Luis Matos CF

This is the Cub's year, if the Sox can break the curse so can the Cubs. that's my NL suprise team, my Al suprise is the Devil Rays.

the orioles should have a much improved team but unfortunatly they will be playing for third place behind the red sox and the evil empire...

Do you really think that the O's will still be behind the other 2? What if the bottom falls out from under the evil empire, and the Sox continue to be too cocky? They are poised to sneak in there and take the division.

of course the bottom could fall out from under the yankees but if that happens the boss would just go out and buy another team to replace them, he is like the spoiled little rich kid who wants it all no matter what the cost