ア・リーグ東地区はヤンキース優位

MLB HPより抜粋。
The favorite
　
Yankees
In the land of World Series ring-or-nothing, the Yankees are still very much trying to recover from Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. Since the Red Sox began their historic climb out of an 0-3 hole, the Bombers are 3-10 in postseason games. They've kept their offensive thunder and upgraded their leaky outfield defense with Bobby Abreu, but are lefties Andy Pettitte and Kei Igawa enough of a rotation makeover?

Projected regular-season finish: AL East champions

The challengers

Red Sox
In 2006's final lap, the Sox splattered like a direct-hit piñata. In response, they became more balanced -- J.D. Drew now has Manny Ramirez's and David Ortiz's backs and Theo Epstein got even smarter. The GM's total investment of $103 million for six years of Daisuke Matsuzaka looked pretty good after the Giants dropped $126 million for seven years of Barry Zito.

Projected regular-season finish: Second place

Biggest ST challenge: Warm up to Manny Ramirez again; his "desertion" in September didn't sit well with anyone. And if Ramirez truly had a disabling knee issue, he is one of many -- Ortiz, Coco Crisp, Jonathan Papelbon and Jon Lester -- who crumbled with various ailments and now must prove healthy.

Best position battle: Open auditions for the back end of the bullpen. Brendan Donnelly is an ideal eighth-inning guy, but may emerge as a closing candidate because he's more reliable than Julian Tavarez and more battle-tested than the kids -- Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen.

Wild card: Until Matsuzaka actually winds up and delivers as expected, fingernails will be chewed down in Red Sox Nation. The emotional investment is as steep as the financial. No one can afford mediocrity.

Maybe next year

Devil Rays
"I can't take you guys anywhere." That could've very well been manager Joe Maddon's plaint as his young team won a total of three road games following the All-Star break. That undermined a lot of progress and held the D-Rays to 61 wins -- or two fewer than in their debut 1998 season. Two words: "Bed check."

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ヤンキース１位、レッドソックス２位、デビルレイズ５位（最下位）が大方の意見。