A Couple Major League Sleepers

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Indians and Brewers to be the big surprise for the 2007 MLB season says BetVega.com senior writer Shane Dayton.

Picking surprise teams in Major League Baseball is a tough job—they’re not called surprise teams because every Tom, Dick, and Harry could see them making the play-offs from a mile away (that would be the Yankees).

It seems almost every year there are at least a couple teams who perform well above expectations, and a couple who were expected to who just fall flat.  Just look at the Tigers and the Braves as last year’s examples.

Heading into the 2007 MLB season there are two teams that jump out at me.  One is the Cleveland Indians.  Despite being in one of, if not the, toughest division in baseball, Cleveland is a loaded team that really had to have virtually every bad break in the universe to end up with the 78-84 losing record they had.  Take this to the bank: that was a mirage.  A fluke.  A once in fifty year freak occurrence.  Cleveland outscored their opponents by nearly ninety runs, had great starting pitching, and looked better than the Yankees, Red Sox, and Tigers in many aspects of the game.

They also blew 21 saves, meaning they blew almost as many leads as they kept through out the season.  Cleveland has brought in several new pitchers both as set up men for middle relief and new arms to compete for the closing job.  Add three starting pitchers from last season who were tied for the league lead in shut outs and even converting half those blown saves puts Cleveland in the wild card hunt.  A team with three ace starters, two MVP candidates on roster, and depth all across simply is not a losing team.  With the closer situation addressed, there is no way that such a fluke is going to happen again. This year not only will Cleveland have a winning record, but they will be one of the most feared American league teams come September and October.

In the national league I like the Milwaukee Brewers.  The first question that comes up with any team is the pitching staff, and the Brewers by far and away have the deepest rotation in their division.  With several free agent additions the Brewers are five deep with quality starters, and also have an excellent minor league prospect in pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who led the minor leagues in strikeouts last season.  Good pitching is almost always an indicator of a team ready to make a jump—like last year’s Detroit Tigers.

Manager Ned Yost also has his team working on the small details.  Error waiting to happen Rickie Weeks is being forced to take thousands upon thousands of ground balls to shore up an atrocious defensive performance last season, and adding catcher Johnny Estrada adds a quality batter to a line up whose previous catchers were marked as almost sure fire outs.  An excellent pitching rotation with more quality prospects to come, an improved line up, and attention to detail will help the Brewers take advantage of a weak division and are my pick to place first in their division this year.

These two teams will rise above the pack, while others such as the Royals and Cubs will improve, but show how far to go they still have.