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Don't count them out yet. They still have some talented young guys that might push them to the top. Anything is possible in this division. The AL Central is up for grabs.

They have no bullpen..thats the reason why I put the Twins and ChiSox above them.

You are right on.

1.6, 0.6, 1.5, 2.2, 1.7, 3.0

Those are the WARP's for Betancourt, Kobayashi, Lewis, Perez, Smith and Wood according to Baseball Prospectus. For a top-6 in a pen, this is among the best in the AL. To say they dont have a bullpen is simply incorrect because they have a top 5 bullpen in the league. Whether or not the bullpen performs as a cohesive unit is completely up in the air as all bullpens are subject to extreme volatility. But the arms are there and there are plenty of reasons to believe that the Indians will have one of the better bullpens in the entire AL, let alone in the AL Central.

As a side note, the White Sox look to have one of the worst bullpens in the MLB this year. Jenks is there "elite" guy and he has gone from being a dominant strikeout pitcher prone to giving up the occasional walk to a simply above-average CL who has trouble missing bats and is more reliant on infield defense which got worse from last year as Konerko aged yet another year, Cabrera and Crede left town and Ramirez moved across the keystone where his wildly erratic play will be magnified at SS despite making a large number of highlight caliber plays. Thorton and Dotel are burners without a true 2nd offering, but Dotel has about as good of a health track record as Wood by the way. Wasserman is a cast off, Carrasco, Russel and Jiminez aren't exactly world-beaters either.

They did finish strongly in '08 to blast back to respectability when 90 loss disaster loomed so they now start out on a clean slate and added a quality reliever and utility player in between. They have the talent to contend and most likely will. Their offense and defense is above average and they possess a Cy Young winner in their rotation. 90 wins should guarantee any resident of the AL Central a playoff spot. We'll see who reaches that plateau.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 03:31 PM ET  03.17 by Baseball in a Cubicle

1.6, 0.6, 1.5, 2.2, 1.7, 3.0Those are the WARP's for Betancourt, Kobayashi, Lewis, Perez, Smith and Wood according to Baseball Prospectus. For a top-6 in a pen, this is among the best in the AL. To say they dont have a bullpen is simply incorrect because they have a top 5 bullpen in the league. Whether or not the bullpen performs as a cohesive unit is completely up in the air as all bullpens are subject to extreme volatility. But the arms are there and there are plenty of reasons to believe that the Indians will have one of the better bullpens in the entire AL, let alone in the AL Central. As a side note, the White Sox look to have one of the worst bullpens in the MLB this year. Jenks is there "elite" guy and he has gone from being a dominant strikeout pitcher prone to giving up the occasional walk to a simply above-average CL who has trouble missing bats and is more reliant on infield defense which got worse from last year as Konerko aged yet another year, Cabrera and Crede left town and Ramirez moved across the keystone where his wildly erratic play will be magnified at SS despite making a large number of highlight caliber plays. Thorton and Dotel are burners without a true 2nd offering, but Dotel has about as good of a health track record as Wood by the way. Wasserman is a cast off, Carrasco, Russel and Jiminez aren't exactly world-beaters either.

What you talkin about boy? Carrasco, Thornton, Jenks, Dotel, Linebrink all are above Avg pitchers in the pen. You talk about Betancourt, Kobayashi ?? I'll give you Perez, Lewis and maybe Wood (if he stays healthy) but thats it boy. You need a check-up from the neck-up.

Tribe sucks

****

You ingest

they didn't show it on opening day..but the Indians are my "after thinking long and hard pick"

uh yeah and so are the twins, royals and tigers. Way to single out the tribe after one game.

E-WARNING! any response to art modell may result in a nasty rat bite.