Aoki Traded to Royals. Red Sox Sign Mujica

How does Aoki look in his new uniform? 

In the hunt for a right fielder the Royals acquired well rounded outfielder Norichika Aoki from the Brewers in exchange for left handed pitcher Will Smith. Aoki will be 32 next season and has 2 seasons under his belt, and those two seasons were pretty successful. He played 151 and 155 games in 2012 and 2013 respectively with nearly identical batting averages and on base percentages both seasons at .287 and .355. Aoki also features speed stealing 30 bases in 2012 and 20 bases in 2013, but being caught much more in 2013. Smith will be 24 in 2014 and has a mixture of succss and failure in his first two seasons. He sported a 5.32 ERA in 89.2 innings in his rookie year of 2012 and an ERA of 3.24 in 3.24 in 33.1 innings the following season. The chances of the Royals signing Carlos Beltran are now lowered.

Mujica will join a bullpen with Japanese duo Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara with Uehara as a closer. Mujica played with the Marlins and Cardinals the last 3 seasons and gathered 206 innings and a 2.93 ERA. Mujica closed for the Cardinals in 2013 after closer Jason Motte had to have Tommy John surgery. He eventually led the Cardinals to the World Series. Mujica is a great addition to the Red Sox bullpen. The deal is reported to be 2 years $9.5 Million.

The St Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals won the National League wildcard by making the playoffs on the last day of the season. They went on to prove everyone wrong and win The World Series.

A major reason why everyone underrated The Cardinals was the loss of Adam Wainwright. Wainwright was injured in spring training and missed the entire year. In 2010 Wainwright had a 2.42 ERA and 230 innings. In 2009 Wainwright had a 2.63 ERA over 233 innings. As you can see Wainwright has established a name for himself. Another pitcher on The Cardinals is Chris Carpenter. Carpenter showed us that he can pitch at the age of 36 by getting a 3.45 ERA over 237 innings. On the Opposite side of the age spectrum is Jamie Garcia. Garcia had a 3.54 ERA over 194 innings for The Cardinals in 2011. He is only 25.

Now everyone is saying the Cardinals suck without Pujols. They don't suck, but they aren't as good. Pujols played 11 seasons with The Cardinals picking up 455 home runs, a .420 on base percentage, and 1329 RBI's. He is considered one of the greatest hitters of all time and he just signed a 10  year contract with The Angels.

The Cardinals still have some pop in their lineup with Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman. Their stats are the following:

Lance Berkman: 145 games, 31 HR, 94 RBI, .412 OBP
Matt Holliday: 124 games, 22 HR, 75 RBI, .388 OBP
Carlos Beltran: 142 games, 22 HR, 84 RBI, .385 OBP

The Cardinals have other guys who can hit too. Yadiar Molina, David Freeze, and Rafael Furcal can get on base as well.

The Cardinals will have a chance for the division title, but they will have to patch up their only weakness: The bullpen. I don't know how they managed to win a world series without a decent bullpen. If the bullpen can preform like last year The Cardinals have a good shot at at least a wildcard.

The San Francisco Giants

The Giants finished 2011 with a record of 86-79. It was a definite downgrade from when they won the World Series in 2010. They still kept their phenomenal pitching, but need help with offense.

The pitching for The Giants speaks for itself. Here are the 2011 stats of the projected 2012 starting rotation:

Tim Lincecum: 13-14, 2.74 ERA, 217 innings, 220 strikeouts.
Matt Cain: 12-11, 2.88 ERA, 221 innings, 179 strikeouts.
Madison Bumgarner: 13-13, 3.21 ERA, 204 innings, 191 strikeouts.
Ryan Vogelsong: 13-7, 2.71 ERA, 179 innings, 139 strikeouts.
Barry Zito: 3-4, 5.87 ERA, 53 innings, 32 strikeouts.

If the Giants can find someone else to be the number five starter they will again have one of the best pitching rotations in baseball. The Giants traded Jonathon Sanchez for Melky Cabrera earlier this off season. Sanchez had a 4.26 ERA and 101 innings pitched. Melky Cabrera played in 155 games, hit 18 home runs, 87 RBI's and an 121 OPS+ for The Kansas City Royals. Seeing how the giants can barely score 3 runs a game, this trade benefits them immensely.  

Buster Posey will be back for the 2012 season, which will help The Giants a lot. With Posey, Sandoval, Cabrera, and Aubrey Huff if he can be himself again, The Giants may be the comeback team for 2012. They traded their top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran, who is now with The Cardinals. That has to be the worst trade of 2011. I would have kept Wheeler until the off season and made a trade for someone worth getting. If the Giants can score more runs in a game they can have four 15-20 game winners.

As for the bullpen: If you have a personality like Brian Wilson who needs anyone else, but Sergio Romo is also sporting a beard and a 1.50 ERA over 48 innings. Javier Lopez is a lefty who did well as a reliever also. He had a 2.72 ERA over 53 innings pitched. The Giants have a relatively good bullpen.

The Giants will be a contender for the NL West with the Diamond Backs. It will be a nice race to watch, because it will be so close.

The New York Mets

It is easy to say that The Mets are going to have a rough 2012 season. There is now four empires in the making in one division. The Braves, The Philles, The Nationals, and The Marlins are all strong contenders for the National League East.

In the 2011 season The Mets traded Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez who is also known as K-Rod. The Mets also lost Jose Reyes to the Marlins due to free agency. These three players were big parts to their team and now they have all gone their own way. Probably the most damaging aspect of losing these key players is the fact that they are all still in the National League. Beltran is now on the Cardinals, Reyes is now on the Marlins, and Rodriguez is now on the Brewers.

Johan Santana is supposed to coming back to pitch for the Mets in this upcoming season after surgery. I do not believe that Santana will be able to put up the numbers that he did with the Minnesota Twins, which feels like ages ago. Even if Santana posts a sub 3.5 earned run average The Mets' offense cannot provide enough support for Santana.

The Mets still have their franchise face of David Wright. David Wright has not been putting up the numbers he is paid to do. I consider Wright to be one of the most over rated player in baseball, which sounds harsh, but it really isn't. If The Mets were to trade David Wright for prospects and begin to reconstruct their team and replenish their farm system, they may have a promising season in the future.

Although The Mets are in a reconstruction phase, they have made some transactions. They signed a few relief pitchers including Ramon Ramirez, Jon Rauch, and Frank Francisco. Out of these 3 relievers the only one that will seem to have a decent impact on the team is Ramon Ramirez who posted a 2.62 ERA and 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings. The Mets also signed Andres Torres, Ronny Cedeno, and Scott Hairston, who will probably receive a decent amount of at bats off the bench and platooning.