2011 AL East Preview: Put on your Red Sox

It's that time of year again as we are simply a couple weeks away from the start of the 2011 MLB Season and I will look at each division and tell you my prediction.

First is the AL East and the traditional heavy hitters of the Red Sox and the Yankees. The Rays are not going to take a Wild Card spot this time as they have lost Matt Garza, Carlos Pena, and Carl Crawford. The Red Sox, meanwhile, look ready for a AL East takeover as they actually acquired Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. The Yankees, meanwhile, look like the same and maybe even depressed considering that they blew their free agency getting Derek Jeter to re-sign and failed to bring Cliff Lee to the Big Apple. As for the other teams, the Orioles do look a bit better and a solid 3rd place team in the division with Derrek Lee, Vladimir Guerrero, and Adam Jones. The Blue Jays, meanwhile look like they are simply stuck with Jose Bautista and that's it.

My prediction is that the Red Sox will take the AL East provided that their pitchers stay healthy. They can't simply rely on Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, they need Dice-K (don't trade him) and Josh Beckett to be on their top game. Still don't count out the Yankees, however. They've been trying to get Francisco Liriano from the Twins, a move that could get the Yankees back on top provided Liriano is pitching well.

P.S. Don't forget to listen to the Sports Khan today at 2 PM on KSUNradio.com... Pretty Good.