In honor of baseball season starting tomorrow, I wanted to do something fun: Look at each division and put together the best lineup and starting rotation within each one…and then determine which divisional team would be the best. For the sake of this, I’m going to give the National League a DH so I can judge the teams evenly. I’m also not counting any player that is injured for the entire 2019 season. So let’s dive right into it.

AL East

Lineup

1. Mookie Betts, CF

2. Andrew Benintendi, LF

3. JD Martinez, DH

4. Aaron Judge, RF

5. Justin Smoak, 1B

6. Xander Bogaerts, SS

7. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 3B

8. Gary Sanchez, C

9. Gleyber Torres, 2B

Rotation

1. Chris Sale

2. Blake Snell

3. David Price

4. Louis Severino

5. Rick Porcello

AL Central

Lineup

1. Whit Merrifield, 2B

2. Francisco Lindor, SS

3. Jose Ramirez, 3B

4. Nelson Cruz, DH

5. Miguel Cabrera, 1B

6. Nick Castellanos, RF

7. Eddie Rosario, LF

8. Wellington Castillo, C

9. Byron Buxton, CF

Rotation

1. Corey Kluber

2. Trevor Bauer

3. Jose Berrios

4. Carlos Carrasco

5. Carlos Rodon

AL West

Lineup

1. George Springer, RF

2. Jose Altuve, 2B

3. Mike Trout, CF

4. Khris Davis, DH

5. Edwin Encarnacion, 1B

6. Carlos Correa, SS

7. Alex Bregman, 3B

8. Justin Upton, LF

9. Jonathan Lucroy, C

Rotation

1. Justin Verlander

2. Gerrit Cole

3. Sean Manaea

4. Mike Fiers

5. Wade Miley

NL East

Lineup

1. Trea Turner, SS

2. Ronald Acuna, CF

3. Freddie Freeman, 1B

4. Bryce Harper, RF

5. Robinson Cano, 2B

6. Juan Soto, LF

7. Anthony Rendon, 3B

8. Rhys Hoskins, DH

9. JT Realmuto, C

Rotation

1. Max Scherzer

2. Jacob deGrom

3. Noah Syndergaard

4. Aaron Nola

5. Stephen Strasburg

NL Central

Lineup

1. Lorenzo Cain, CF

2. Christian Yelich, RF

3. Joey Votto, DH

4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

5. Javier Baez, SS

6. Kris Bryant, 3B

7. Marcell Ozuna, LF

8. Yadier Molina, C

9. Scooter Gennett, 2B

Rotation

1. Jon Lester

2. Jameson Taillon

3. Carlos Martinez

4. Miles Mikolas

5. Kyle Hendricks

NL West

Lineup

1. Charlie Blackmon, RF

2. Daniel Murphy, 2B

3. Nolan Arenado, 3B

4. Manny Machado, DH

5. Eric Hosmer, 1B

6. Corey Seager, SS

7. Cody Bellinger, CF

8. Buster Posey, C

9. David Peralta, LF

Rotation

1. Clayton Kershaw

2. Madison Bumgarner

3. Zack Greinke

4. Walker Buehler

5. Kyle Freeland

Breakdown

The AL East has the best outfield in the league. I give them the edge over the NL East outfield because they have a little more experience. A LOT of runs would be generated by Betts, Judge, and Benintendi. I didn’t want to put Vlad Jr. in here just for the fact he hasn’t played a game yet, but when looking at all 3B in that division, I would feel most confident with him. We all know Gary Sanchez has his problems, but he still has great potential and will drive in a lot of runs. The infield could be better, but they do roll out a very good staff with a very dangerous 1-2 punch in Sale and Snell.

The AL Central has a great infield, but I’ll give the slight edge to the AL West in that category. I love the Merrifield, Lindor, Ramirez combination. Miguel Cabrera had to go from DH back to first base because Nelson Cruz has to be the DH. I’m not crazy about their outfield at all, and I did NOT want to include Buxton (believe me), but when you look at all the other center fielders, he made it on potential alone. The rotation is ok, and pretty Indians-heavy. There’s definitely a solid drop-off from top to bottom.

The AL West has the best infield and the crazy part about that is it features three Astros. Altuve, Correa, and Bregman, with the addition of Mariners’ Encarnacion is going to score a lot of runs. The best player in the game in Mike Trout anchors a solid outfield, although it’s nothing to brag about. They do feature a lot of power though. I’m not a fan of the rotation in comparison to others. Verlander and Cole from the Astros is pretty good, and Manaea can be good, but it really falls off from there.

I love the NL East squad. With this team, you have to start with pitching. The rotation is easily the best out of all the teams, with the first four all having a pretty good chance to win the NL Cy Young this year. Very, very scary rotation. The outfield is just behind the AL East’s for the best outfield. Acuna, Harper, and Soto would be a lot of fun to watch together. Even though I’m very confident that Acuna and Soto will be perennial all-stars, they’ve only played one year, which is why I rank them just behind the AL East. The infield features so much talent as well, led by MVP candidate Freddie Freeman. And then add in arguably the best catcher in baseball right now in JT Realmuto…that’s a really good team.

The NL Central I feel is a team that would perform better than a lot of people think they would. MVP Christian Yelich leads a talented outfield, which would be even better if Ozuna can get back to his MVP form. The infield is where this club makes their mark. Goldschmidt may be the best first basemen in the game, so he gets the nod over Votto, but with Votto’s age he’s a nice DH. Baez had an MVP-like year last season and Scooter Gennett is a name more people need to be aware of. I hated not including run-producer Eugenio Suarez, but had to give the nod to Kris Bryant at third. Bryant does so many things so well. The rotation is a little under the radar, but is pretty good with names that people will soon know more about.

Lastly, we have the NL West. This is an interesting group that features good players, but with a lot of age. Kershaw, Bumgarner, and Greinke can’t be left out of the rotation, but all seem to have seen the prime of their careers pass. Walker Buehler is a rising star, though. Buster Posey and Daniel Murphy are both past their prime as well, but still perform too well to leave out. They can flat out hit the ball. I chose to go with Seager over Story simply because I think he’s better overall. That’s not a knock on Story because he’s very good, it’s just a credit to Seager who everyone has sort of forgotten about since he didn’t play 95% of last year. Finally, two of the best third basemen in the game are in this division, so I chose to put Manny Machado in the DH slot while Nolan Arenado mans the hot corner.

Superlatives

Best Outfield: AL East

Best Infield: AL West

Best Rotation: NL East

Best Offense: AL West

Best Defense: NL Central

Best Team: NL East

Let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter. Do you agree or disagree? Do you think I left certain players out? Is the NL East the team to beat? Let’s have a good discussion about it.

Garett

Which MLB Division Would Field the Best Team?

AL East

Lineup

Rotation

AL Central

Lineup

Rotation

AL West

Lineup

Rotation

NL East

Lineup

Rotation

NL Central

Lineup

Rotation

NL West

Lineup

Rotation

Breakdown

Superlatives