Much like the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox were once a for sure playoff contender but, in the past 3 years Boston has fallen tremendously.  Starting with the firing of Terry Francona back in 2011 and the trade of former GM Theo Epstein, the Red Sox then signed Bobby Valentine to the take over at the helm in 2012. Well, that fail tremendously when the Red Sox traded away Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez to the Dodgers and Kevin Youkolis to the White Sox. They finished the season with 93 loses.  Boston took the off season and revamped the lineup and brought in former Blue Jays skipper John Farrell signed Ace Ryan Dempster, Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes, Stephen Drew, and Shane Victorino.  The Red Sox brought in the talent and potential to be a competitor but so did the competition.  Boston will decide its own fate this year they could be the Cinderella story and go from worse to first or they could stay where they sat last October in last place.  I believe Boston will make much needed improvement from last year and they will finish with a .500 season but, they will still finish at 4th or 5th in the division. 

What once would've been an easy pick for the AL East crown has now become a long shot for the New York Yankees. With Toronto and Tampa Bay surging within the division, coupled with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez recovering from injury, the once juggernaut Yankees are now in a position they are not used to: being an underdog. The Yankees did have a decent offseason in bringing Kevin Youkilis in to help replace Alex Rodriguez while he recovers, but other than that it wasn't the typical high dollar offseason most Yankee fans are used to. This team has the payroll to be a contender in the AL East, but until this roster gets healthy and can perform at 100 percent, this year will be nothing more than a mediocre season for the most iconic team in Major League Baseball.

The Baltimore Orioles shocked the world when they clinched the 2nd AL Wild Card position last year and then turned around and defeated the AL's host in the Word Series the Texas Rangers. The O'Birds have shown great improvement since skipper Buck Showalter took the helm and I expect them to pick up in 2013 where they left off last year.  The Orioles basically return the same team as last year with a little improvement on pitching.  The Orioles return their top pitchers from last year and along with Jair Jurrjens and top prospect Dylan Bundy.  Jurrjens was aquired in the offseason after being released by the Braves.  Bundy is the No. 1 prospect in the Orioles organization and when he explodes on the scene in 2013 like I believe he will it wont be long before he is dominating the AL: East. Bundy posted a 2.08 ERA, 2-0 W/L and 119 K's  in his first professional season.  The O's also return leading Rookie of the Year Candidate Manny Machado!  Machado exploded on to the scene last year when the O's called him up in early August and Machado hit 2 HR's in his first 2 professional games.  Machado finsihed the 2012 hitting .262, 7 HR's, 3 Triples and, 26 RBI's in only 51 games.  The O's could have one of the deepest pitching rotations and it will help keep their young arms competing in one of the toughest divisions in the AL.  I believe the O's will finish in 2nd and clinch a Wild Card Playoff.

Next up we have the Tampa Bay Rays. Although the Rays haven't made a lot of noise this offseason, this team still returns enough key pieces to make a run at the AL East title. With reigning AL Cy Young award winner David Price leading the rotation, this team can go as far as he can take them. Another important factor for the Rays will be to hopefully have Evan Longoria healthy for a full season. When Longoria was out for 13 weeks last year the Rays were a different team. In the 85 games that he missed the Rays were barely above .500 going just 44-41 in that span. When he returned the Rays ended up finishing a solid 49-28. I predict that if Longoria can stay healty, and Price can continue to play strong, this team will challenge the Blue Jays for the AL East crown.

        The Toronto Blue Jays are the team to start off with first.  The Blue Jays have been the talk of the off season.  Toronto started the offseason with a bang.  The Marlins traded Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle, Josh Johnson, John Buck and Emilio Bonofacio to the Blue Jays for Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Henderson Alverez, Anthony DeSclafani, Justin Nicolino, and Jeff Mathis.  So after the Marlins dumped close to 146M on the Blue Jays the Blue Jays turned around and aquired raining Cy Young Winner R.A. Dickey in a 7 player trade.  They aquired RHP R.A. Dickey, C Josh Thole and C Mike Nickeas from the Mets for C Travis d’Arnaud(#6 overall Prospect), C John Buck, RHP Noah Syndergaard and OF Wuilmer Becerra.  After completing all of the above.  The Blue Jays said OK lets now give R.A Dickey and extension 2yr - 25M.  With all the aquistions the Blue Jays have very high expectations going into the 2013 season.  I expect the Blue Jays to win the AL: East and if they dont they might get deported from Canada.  With all of the aquisitions from the offseaon and the already presence of Jose Batistia, J.P Arencibia, Colby Rasmus, Mark DeRosa and, Melky Cabrera its gonna be hard to be bad.  I belive the Blue Jays will win over 90 games and could be a potential World Series contender.