The American League has had a different champion in each of the last four years, including a run of eight pennant winners over the last decade. Only the Boston Red Sox (2007, 2013) and Texas Rangers (2010-11) appear on the list twice. Compare that to the National League, which has been dominated by the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Those franchises have played in the World Series a combined six times since 2005.

There is a good chance the Junior Circuit will send a new set of faces to the Fall Classic yet again this season with no clear favorite in sight.

The defending champion Kansas City Royals lost James Shields and aren't the favorites in the AL Central. The Red Sox have flashy new parts but questions abound on the mound. The Detroit Tigers no longer have a dominant starting rotation and their best hitters, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, aren't getting any younger. Who will win the AL?

 

East

Once the strongest division in all of baseball, the American League East has clearly seen better days. The Baltimore Orioles ran away with the crown last season, winning 96 games and sweeping the Tigers in the LDS before suffering the same fate at the hands of the Royals. They should be the favorites once again despite losing Nelson Cruz, who clubbed 40 home runs and posted an .859 OPS.

Baltimore dominated the division without anything consistent from Matt Wieters (112 plate appearances), Manny Machado (354 PAs) or Chris Davis (.196/.300/.404 without his prescribed ADHD medication). Regular contributions from those three will make up for what they lost in Cruz. Buck Showalter also has a very underrated pitching staff and a strong bullpen despite losing Andrew Miller. As if that wasn't enough to compete in this division, the Orioles have an MVP candidate in Adam Jones.

It's a shame that Marcus Stroman went down because the Toronto Blue Jays could have earned a Wild Card berth had he been headlining the rotation. The 23-year-old quietly had a great 2014, with a 2.84 FIP and 3.96 strikeout-to-walk ratio. They had an above average offensive and will only improve with Russell Martin at catcher and Josh Donaldson at third base.

The Red Sox will hit plenty with Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval joining David Ortiz and Co. in the bandbox that is Fenway Park, but the absence of a front-end starter is going to give John Farrell fits. Rick Porcello could turn out to be the best of the lot, but they'll need more from the rest of the rotation.

Only two AL teams scored fewer runs than the New York Yankees last year and only big seasons from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira (unreliable for different reasons) will rescue them from a similar fate in 2015. Joe Girardi cobbled together a pretty good pitching staff despite injuries last season and run prevention should be a strength with better defense at short, a good rotation and strong bullpen. The main concern will be how long Masahiro Tanaka's elbow holds up and how many innings they get from CC Sabathia.

It has been suggested that the Tampa Bay Rays should accelerate their rebuild by dealing Evan Longoria, but the better plan would be to hold onto him through at least the summer of 2016 (his huge extension kicks in after next season) and see just how good their pitching staff can become. When healthy, they have the best rotation in the division and maybe even the league. We could be talking about a Washington-esque starting five of Alex Cobb, Matt Moore, Chris Archer, Drew Smyly and Jake Oddrizzi before long. Longoria, an emerging Steven Souza and a few spare parts should be able to score enough runs in support of that rotation to put the Rays back in contention sooner than later.

Projected Standings

1. Baltimore -- 91-71*

2. Toronto -- 84-78

3. Boston -- 82-80

4. New York (Yankees) -- 80-82

5. Tampa Bay -- 72-90

 

Central

He may not have been enough to get them to the LCS last fall, but the Tigers would be in a lot of trouble this season if they hadn't traded for David Price nine months ago. The left-hander helps soften the blow of losing Max Scherzer to free agency and Justin Verlander to ineffectiveness.

The pitching won't be as good as we've come to expect, but the offense will help pick up the slack. Detroit averaged 4.67 runs per game last season and the offense could get better if Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez maintain their production, J.D. Martinez's 2014 wasn't a fluke and Nick Castellanos fulfills some of his promise. The bullpen will be an issue, but that can be fixed with a midseason trade and the back end of the rotation is underrated (Alfredo Simon and Shane Greene).

The Chicago White Sox are a trendy Wild Card pick after an offseason that saw them add Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, Jeff Samardzija and David Robertson. That isn't too far-fetched, especially if the Cleveland Indians don't play as well as many project (they won't) and the Royals regress back to the mean. The bullpen was an issue for Chicago and Robertson (along with Zach Duke) will help fix that. LaRoche doesn't get enough credit for how good a hitter he really is and his presence will help Jose Abreu put together another MVP-caliber season.

Corey Kluber can't do it all himself, which is why the Cleveland Indians are headed for another third-place finish. Michael Brantley is as good as advertised and Brandon Moss was an under-the-radar addition, but Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn combined to produce -0.1 WAR last year and rebound years are far from guaranteed. Behind Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer would be nice No. 4 starters, but Terry Francona needs them to slate higher.

They were the talk of baseball until they ran into Madison Bumgarner last fall, but a lot will have to go right for the Royals to embark on another magical ride. That's because the stars had to align for them to win the pennant in the first place. Shields is gone, even if he struggled down the stretch, and the bullpen remains good but those historic numbers will be impossible to follow up. They might be able to buy another postseason lottery ticket if Alex Rios and Kendrys Morales prove to be bargains, Eric Hosmer becomes a superstar and Mike Moustakas finally puts things together, but those are a lot of ifs.

The Minnesota Twins may have turned the page by ending the Ron Gardenhire Era, but on the field the two most recognizable faces are still Joe Mauer and the returning Torii Hunter. They have a strong farm system and stable of Major League-ready (or nearly Major League-ready) talent, but that won't translate onto the field in 2015. Kennys Vargas looks like a DH, which is problematic because that means the 39-year-old Hunter will regularly play in the field. His combined dWAR over the last two seasons is -3.9.

Projected Standings

1. Detroit -- 88-74*

2. Chicago (White Sox) -- 85-77*

3. Cleveland -- 82-80

4. Kansas City -- 80-82

5. Minnesota -- 73-89

 

West

When it's all said and done, this will be the best division in baseball. The easiest to forecast are the Houston Astros, who will finish last. The Seattle Mariners and Angels will battle for the title with the other settling for a Wild Card berth. The Texas Rangers are hurt by the loss of Yu Darvish to Tommy John surgery, but Prince Fielder will bounce back. The Oakland Athletics don't look as strong as in recent years, but they always find a way to compete and Sonny Gray could be a Cy Young candidate.

Ultimately, the Mariners have fewer question marks than the Angels. They have star power on both ends and nearly made the playoffs last season, before they added Nelson Cruz's bat this winter and made Taijuan Walker a fixture in the rotation this spring. Robinson Cano will put up better power numbers after a slow start in Seattle last year and Hisashi Iwakuma is a great complement to King Felix.

It would have been nice for the Angels to know Josh Hamilton's fate prior to the season, but the hard truth is that he means little to them on the field anymore. They have holes in their lineup that Hamilton can't fill, but Mike Trout is often one big bandage. The reigning AL MVP, who should be a three-time MVP, is the best player in baseball. If Albert Pujols is able to hit respectably at 35 and Garrett Richards picks up where he left off prior to injury, the Angels will get a chance to put their LDS disappointment behind them.

Like the Blue Jays in the East, it's a shame the Rangers will have to play this season without Darvish. Prior to his injury, I had been considering them a dark horse amid a loaded division. Health, more than anything else, kept Texas from winning in 2014 and that should improve (although they haven't gotten a good start). Fielder is primed for a big year and they have a lot of young talent.

Billy Beane swung for the fences last summer and it backfired. The Athletics are never going to be a bad team, their operations department is too good to allow that, but so many things will have to fall into place for them to match the 88 games they won last season. The Mariners and Rangers will be better and Billy Butler was a poor offseason addition, especially since he has no defensive value.

People have been jumping off the Astros' bandwagon with both feet over the last 12 months. It's not that they don't have talent, but a sequence of events have portrayed Jeff Luhnow and Co. in a poor light. They'll win more than 70 games, but to make some noise they'll have to have Jonathan Singleton and some of their young pitchers take a big step forward. The three-four combination of George Springer and Chris Carter could flirt with 70 home runs, which could be dangerous if Jose Altuve can push his on-base percentage up from .377 (he won the batting title at .341). 

Projected Standings

1. Seattle -- 94-68*

2. Los Angeles (Angels) -- 91-71*

3. Texas -- 82-80

4. Oakland -- 81-81

5. Houston -- 72-90

 

Playoff Predictions

Wild-Card Game: Angels over White Sox

ALDS: Mariners over Angels, Orioles over Tigers

ALCS: Mariners over Orioles