American League
American League Central

American League Central

1. Cleveland Indians

2. Chicago White Sox

3. Detroit Tigers

4. Kansas City Royals

5. Minnesota Twins

Cleveland learned a valuable lesson in 2000: don't fall too far behind a good team. The Chicago White Sox had the Indians buried early. The Tribe rallied but fell short of both the Sox and in the wild card chase.

Not this time.

Cleveland has one more big season in it and despite losing Manny Ramirez and David Segui to free agency, should be strong offensively. The Indians added some quality in Ellis Burks and Juan Gonzalez.

With Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel and Roberto Alomar setting the pace, the Indians' offense must be reckoned with.

Add Jim Thome, Travis Fryman and an emerging Russell Branyan to the mix, and Cleveland will overwhelm some teams. Eddie Taubensee and Einar Diaz will be fine as a catching tandem.

Pitching is the question.

Bartolo Colon is long on talent. Chuck Finley needs to be better. A healthy and effective Jaret Wright would be a boon. Bob Wickman is a solid closer.

The White Sox roared out of the gate last season and never looked back.

While they were destroyed in the playoffs by Seattle, expect Chicago to challenge again for a post-season berth.

The addition of David Wells should help the rotation. The offense, led by Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez is very good.

Defensively, Chicago is subpar and if that continues, it will catch up with the White Sox. Veteran Royce Clayton should stabilize shortstop.

Detroit rebounded after a bad start to finish just four games under .500. Credit Manager Phil Garner with a job well done keeping the team together.

The Tigers are not ready to challenge the Indians or White Sox but they could be an interesting team.

The additions of outfielder Roger Cedeno and catcher Mitch Meluskey from Houston gives them two offensive players who get on base. Cedeno should steal tons of bases.

Detroit believes losing Gonzalez is addition by subtraction. The Tigers need Bobby Higginson to keep improving. Closer Todd Jones heads a strong bullpen.

How does Kansas City replace outfielder Johnny Damon, traded to Oakland?

It doesn't. The Royals will still be pretty good offensively with Mike Sweeney and Jermaine Dye leading the charge. Carlos Beltran, Joe Randa and Mike Quinn all can hurt an opponent offensively.

As good as the offense is, Kansas City was fifth in the AL in runs scored and were outscored by 51, the pitching is non-descript. Roberto Hernandez is the closer.

Minnesota may be the most woebegone franchise in the big leagues.

They dumped Ron Coomer, their leader in home runs and runnerup in RBI. What?