2012 Season Preview: Rest of the AL

April 2, 2012 by Mike Axisa 49 Comments

Buck Showalter — (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Last week we took a nice long look at the teams who figure to be the Yankees’ primary competition this season, meaning the Red Sox, Rays, Tigers, Angels, and Rangers. There are eight other clubs in the American League though, and the Yankees are going to play those eight teams quite a bit more than the five other contenders. Most of those eight teams aren’t very good, but every game counts the same.

Rather than doing a boring old offense/defense/pitching preview for each of those eight non-contenders, I decided to have a little fun with this one and put together some haikus. I encourage you to leave your own in the comments.

Baltimore Orioles
No pitching, few bats.
Buck is all talk and no bite.
Don’t dare dis Flanny!

Chicago White Sox
Rebuild or contend?
Kenny can’t seem to decide.
I wish we had Danks.

Cleveland Indians
Some funny names,
Asdrubal and Ubaldo?
Not winning this year.

Kansas City Royals
Hosmer is the shizz.
Young pitching ain’t quite there yet.
LOL Frenchy.

Minnesota Twins
Mauer and Morneau
Used to be really awesome.
Now they are broken.

Oakland Athletics
Yoenis is here.
Trade all of the pitchers!
Where are the fans?

Seattle Mariners
Felix is the man,
The rest of the team sucks.
I miss Montero.

Toronto Blue Jays
AA the best,
Until he gets Jeff Mathis.
New unis do rule.

Robinson Tilapia

I used to work with a crazy woman who insisted on writing haikus for just about everything. You just reminded me of her.
- 42isNotMortal
  
  Was in a fantasy league about a decade ago with a guy who did weekly wrap-ups via Haiku. Must be a baseball writer thing.
vin

Nice work, Mike.
Klemy

Inclusion of Haiku automatically makes this the best article ever.
Hank

I must be greedy
More detail for O’s and Jays!
The rest are funny
Chad Gaudin the Friendly Ghost

Preview in Haiku?
I think it’s hipster poetry
I still think Mike is cool.
I am not the droids you’re looking for…

Nice racist comment about the “funny” names ‘Axisa’ ;)
http://twitter.com/sprotster sprot

Trade Felix you hoes
You are #6org forever
90 loss season
Monterowasdinero

Very nice and succinct.

At this point in Pineda’s Yankee career I feel as if Monterowasnotdinero but I am hopeful.
http://twitter.com/sprotster sprot

Never won a thing
Price will be a Yankee soon
Lets contract the Rays!
al

AA not the best
Gives McGowan extension
What are you thinking?
http://twitter.com/sprotster sprot

Forever fourth place
Your owners are cheap and dumb
Travis Snider sucks
Soriano Is A Liar

Bobby Valentine,
say Yanks don’t practice Flip Play.
Stick to managing.
Nick

Young Mike Pineda,
For how long DL’d, who knows?
come quick dear Andy!
Andy in Sunny Daytona

Red Sox doomed to fail.
Saltalamacchia sucks.
Stone. Leaf. Wind. Gammons.
Plank

Never got haiku.
Think you’re clever but you’re not.
I just don’t get it.

*Just a personal preference. Nothing against you, Mike.
- V
  
  Cool
  story
  bro
Andy in Sunny Daytona

Genius Managers.
Bobby, Buck, John and Maddon.
Win a ring sometime.
- CS Yankee
  
  …or not.
Jimmy

All’s well in the Bronx.
Boston chokes and to the East,
The sound of Flushing.
UncleArgyle

Funny Article. I enjoyed it. However, most of those aren’t actually Hiaku’s. Hiaku’s need to follow the 5-7-5 syllable format to fit the traditional definition.
- cuban bee
  
  Yeah I have to agree. At first I though they were all going to follow the correct formula, but I was quite disappointed to see how many did not. And most, if not all of them can be fixed by just adding another one syllable word in there. example:
  
  No pitching, few bats.
  Coach Buck is all talk, no bite.
  Don’t dare dis Flanny!
  
  or
  
  Rebuild or contend?
  Kenny can’t seem to decide.
  I Wish we had Danks.
- YankeeDave
  
  Great article Mike. Way to keep things interesting.
  
  Uncle Argyle has a valid point, however I must point out that most who are adept at the finer points of writing Haiku could not explain the infield fly rule.
  - UncleArgyle
    
    The infield fly rule is definately more complex than the Hiaku Poem Structure.
  - cuban bee
    
    Ha! It’s to prevent players from purposely dropping an infield pop-up in order to turn a double or triple play. Explained. boom.
- cantrecallmyname
  
  “… need to follow the 5-7-5 syllable format to fit the traditional definition”
  
  And the last line of Haiku is usually unrelated to the first two.
  
  Now the sun rises
  And then the sun also sets
  E Nunez E6.
Reggie C.

Pineda not well
But rest of starters still aight
Hughes needs to step up
Plank

I could see the Mariners being surprise contenders this year. There are a lot of ifs, but if Montero, Ackley, and Smoak all play up to their potential, and if Ichiro gets back to being Ichiro! then their offense goes from punchless to average or maybe even better.
- Fin
  
  Contending with who? They might not stink if everything goes right but contend with the Angles and Rangers? Content with the likes of Yankees, Rays, Sox and looser of the Angles, rangers for the wild card?
  - Plank
    
    I think the Rangers are the best team in baseball. I can imagine somewhat realistic scenarios where the Mariners finish with a better record than the Angels. Not likely, but not impossible.
Hall and Nokes

Can we start the goddamned season already?
- vin
  
  The season already started when the M’s played the A’s in Japan… that was only like 3 weeks ago?
Will (the other one)

Wonder why haiku –
Would have liked songs for each team!
Real good laugh, I had.
Hall and Nokes

I just learned that Yoenis has three syllables, and Danks has two.
Jimmy

Caption:

Buck, Joe, Mike & Ben,
Talking baseball at the field.
Show them that grip, Mike.
jjyank

Trade for Ubaldo?
Sure glad we didn’t do it
That sucks for the Tribe
Plank

What’s the deal with Morneau now? Is he playing? Do they expect anything from him going forward?

Is Mauer still their full time catcher or is he DH now?
- jjyank
  
  I think Mauer is splitting time at both, and Morneau’s career is in serious jeopardy. That’s as specific as I can get though, I don’t follow the Twinkies closely.
  - jjyank
    
    This is from my fantasy site on Morneau:
    
    “Morneau started slow this spring hitting .091 (3-for-33) before his recent five-game tear. During his slump he had said he felt better at the plate but just had to get his timing, which he apparently has now. Morneau hasn’t reported any concussion-related issues this spring and says he’s encouraged by the health of his wrist and neck after surgeries on both last season. Still, he’s said he may limit his playing time to mostly DH in an effort to reduce his risk to a relapse of post-concussion symptoms. While the risk of him suffering a setback in to his concussion woes still looms large, he’s been healthy this spring and showing signs of his pre-concussion form at the plate.”
    
    Mauer appears to be healthy and will split time at C and 1B
    - Fin
      
      A healthy Morneau and Mauer certainly changes the Twins profile. I forget sometimes just how awesome Morneau was before he got wrecked by injuries. Its hard to imagine them staying healthy all year but if they could the Twins could have a nice team. I still dont think they compete with Detroit though.
      - jjyank
        
        That’s true. If Mauer and Morneau are healthy, and a few things break their way pitching-wise, they’re not a bad team. But yeah, the Tigers will likely run away with the Central either way.
Chuck

Montero is gone
Pineda is here with bong
Put your hat on right
cuban bee

For some NL teams

Magic knows baseball
Kemp and Kershaw will agree
at least in public

Fish get new fish tank
spend money on free agents
people still don’t care
Jared

Crabby manager
Cartoon bird leads renaissance?
Retro rut reigns on.
Mike HC

River Ave. fans know
That the Red Sox really blow
Yanks in 12′ fo’ sho’
jjyank

28 is coming
The Yanks will win 100
The Sox can suck it!
Cesar “Stairs” Cabral

Mi elbow hurts
I will still hurt you bitches
RIP you all
Moose

Fried chicken and beer
Big Papi goes number 2
Must send in the troops
Jonathan

Definitely liked the change of pace Mike. Only part I didn’t like was Seattle. If Ichiro comes back to life or gets the famed dead cat bounce he could still be a good-great player. And he’s a TON of fun to watch. And I think Ackley is a superstar in the making. But ya Felix, Ackley, Jesus and maybe Ichiro. ouch.