The Royals have enough young talent to make them the team most likely to stop the Tigers from ruling the AL Central for the next few years. But they're a year, or more, away.

2011 record: 71-91 (4th in AL Central). Projected 2012 finish: 80-82 (2nd in AL Central).

Possible starters: C Salvador Perez, 1B Eric Hosmer, 2B Johnny Giavotella, SS Alcides Escobar, 3B Mike Moustakas, LF Alex Gordon, CF Lorenzo Cain, RF Jeff Francoeur, DH Billy Butler, SP Luke Hochevar, SP Bruce Chen, SP Jonathan Sanchez, SP Felipe Paulino, SP Danny Duffy, CL Joakim Soria, RP Jonathan Broxton, RP Aaron Crow.

Half-full outlook: If all of the kids miraculously hit — or at least approach — their ceilings all together in 2012, the Royals will be really good. Even optimists have to admit that's not likely, but the Royals should be much better than they've been. Hosmer is a star in the making, and he, Gordon and Butler could make for a scary middle of the order. On top of that, Francoeur and Moustakas are both realistic threats to slug 20-plus home runs. It's tough to be too excited about the rotation, but in Crow, Sanchez and Duffy, there is some young talent. If Broxton bounces back, he and Soria could make the Royals almost impossible to beat from the eighth inning on.

Half-empty outlook: Even most bad rotations have at least one guy you can point to as likely to produce above-average results in 2012. The Royals don't. Their kids haven't show enough to be counted on, at least not yet, and the Hochevar/Chen/Paulino triumvirate has an extremely low ceiling. That means the Royals will have to outslug everybody. To do that, they'll be heavily reliant on things like Gordon duplicating his 6.9 WAR season from 2011 (he produced a WAR total of 0.1 in 2009 and 2010 combined) and Moustakas (who had a .675 OPS in his 2011 debut) breaking out. There are way too many things that have to go right for this to be the kind of offense that can carry a pitching staff this mediocre.

Halfway between the two outlook: I think it's very likely we'll see some good things come of the Royals' highly-regarded farm system this season. The future is bright in Kansas City ... if two things happen. One, the Royals have to be able to keep their young core together long enough for it to approach its potential. Two, they have to develop some pitching. The lack of developed pitching is going to keep the Royals from being a serious contender in 2012. It will be a successful season if they develop a young arm or three and their hitters continue to progress.

Even with Prince Fielder, Detroit may have only the sixth-best roster in the American League in my book (maybe the seventh if the Blue Jays really put it together). In the Central, that is plenty to be the favorite.

2011 record: 95-67 (1st in AL Central). Projected 2012 finish: 91-71 (1st in AL Central).

Possible starters: C Alex Avila, 1B Prince Fielder, 2B Ryan Raburn, SS Jhonny Peralta, 3B Miguel Cabrera, LF Andy Dirks, CF Austin Jackson, RF Brennan Boesch, DH Delmon Young, SP Justin Verlander, SP Doug Fister, SP Max Scherzer, SP Rick Porcello, SP Jacob Turner, CL Jose Valverde, RP Joaquin Benoit, RP Octavio Dotel.

Half-full outlook: Barring a big-time bounceback from Joe Mauer (or, perhaps, Justin Morneau), the Tigers have the 3 best players in the division in Fielder, Cabrera and Verlander. Fielder is better than the out-for-the-year Victor Martinez; therefore, the Tigers should be even better offensively. A full season from Fister will only help what has become a fairly deep rotation behind Verlander. Who cares what playing Cabrera at third base (and Fielder at first) is going to do to the Tigers defensively? They'll rake it, and pitch it, so well we'll hardly notice if they can't pick it.

Half-empty outlook: Fielder, Cabrera and Verlander are awesome players, but is it really realistic to think they'll total 19.8 wins above replacement between them, as they did in 2011? And they're not the only Tigers that are likely to regress. I'll be shocked if Avila duplicates his 5.5 WAR season — which was largely possible because of his obscene .366 batting average on batted balls in play. Valverde has long had more success than his peripherals suggest he should; don't be surprised if that changes. Fister can't possibly replicate the 1.79 ERA and 0.84 WHIP he recorded after coming to Detroit last year. All of this suggests that, even with their splashy new first baseman, the Tigers could be quite a bit worse than their 95-win form of a year ago.

Halfway between the two outlook: I didn't like the Tigers too much going into last season, picking them to finish third ... and they won 95 games and finished 15 games ahead of second-place Cleveland. I guess I learned my lesson, because I'm picking them to roll to a division title this season, but that's more a product of the teams they share their divison with than it is of me suddenly loving Detroit. The Big 3 is just too good to envision anyone else catching the Tigers. Much as I see them regretting the Fielder contract in 5 years, it makes them the clear-cut favorite in the near future.

I was exactly right with my Super Bowl prediction.

Though I neglected to put it on the blog, I did tell some friends. You can ask them — exactly what I said would happen did. I predicted a 33-24 Patriots win ... and every time I told someone about it, i prefaced it by saying I had no feel whatsoever for what was going to happen, and that I was sure the opposite would happen no matter what I picked.

Two really simple things made me think the Patriots would win. Tom Brady is a better quarterback than Eli Manning (though he wasn't Sunday), and the Patriots were 13-3 this regular season to the Giants' 9-7. I should have put more consideration into all the factors going the Giants' way — things like the complete 360 their defense has pulled, Rob Gronkowski's health and, most importantly, the way the Giants had already proven me wrong THREE TIMES this postseason when I'd picked again them. How does the saying go? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me four times, I'm a complete idiot?

I can't be the only one who was still not believing in the Giants. I know a lot of people excuse their near-collapse in the second half of the season on the strength of their schedule. It's true that their four-game losing streak came against the 49ers, Eagles, Saints and Packers, but they also lost an important Week 15 game to the Redskins. They couldn't cover anyone most of the year; I was really supposed to believe their defense was legit because they beat the choking Falcons and Alex Smith (along with, yes, the Packers) in prior playoff games?

In retrospect, though, it feels silly to have picked against a defensive line that has been that dominant. It seems stupid to have thought that Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs couldn't have a one-game revival against a defense as leaky as New England's.

Most of all, I regret picking against Manning. I still don't put him on the same level as the NFL's top-shelf quarterbacks (Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and a healthy Peyton Manning). But I think he proved this year that he is easily the fifth-best QB in the game, and right on the heels of the elites. Picking the Patriots partially on the basis of quarterback play is unwise when Manning has made the margin between him and Brady so thin.

Remember when the Indians came out of nowhere and competed in their division last season? I have a feeling that will be a lot more forgettable once 2012 is a few months old.

2011 record: 80-82 (2nd in AL Central). Projected 2012 finish: 72-90 (4th in AL Central).

Possible starters: C Carlos Santana, 1B Casey Kotchman, 2B Jason Kipnis, SS Asdrubal Cabrera, 3B Jack Hannahan, LF Michael Brantley, CF Grazy Sizemore, RF Shin-Soo Choo, DH Travis Hafner, SP Ubaldo Jimenez, SP Derek Lowe, SP Justin Masterson, SP Josh Tomlin, SP David Huff, CL Chris Perez, RP Rafael Perez, RP Tony Sipp.

Half-full outlook: An 80-win team that features this much youth should only get better, right? Santana may be on his way to stardom, Cabrera may have reached stardom last season and it's not unfathomable that the Brantleys and Matt LaPortas on the roster might finally arrive. Plus Choo is a great candidate for a bounce-back season, and it's not like Sizemore could be any less healthy than he's been the past few years. At this time last year, Jimenez was one of the best pitchers in baseball. If he's close to his old self and the rest of the rotation is at least serviceable, this offense could power the Indians to the playoffs.

Half-empty outlook: Unless, and I would say even if, Jimenez somehow regains his 6.4 WAR form from 2010 in the American League, this is a mediocre rotation. It's a bunch of low-ceiling, ground-ball pitchers, and as inconsistent as Fausto Carmona/Robert Hernandez Hereida has been, his uncertain status isn't helping the situation. That means the Indians are going to have to hit the heck out of the ball. For that to happen, Sizemore and Hafner will have to stay healthy, Cabrera may need to have another 25-homer season and someone like La Porta may have to surprise. Those things are all possible, but none is likely.

Halfway between the two outlook: It's interesting what the Indians did this offseason — building a rotation of severe ground-ball pitchers and giving Sizemore (at least) one more year. I'd feel a lot better about their chances if any of those ground ballers was any good. That the 38-year-old Lowe, fresh off a 5.05 ERA season while pitching in the National League, might well be their No. 2 starter is telling. I think it's a risk to say that the Indians won't have a good offense — good enough, even, to offset their pitching and make them decent — but considering that Sizemore is seemingly always hurt and that Cabrera had never hit more than 6 home runs in a season before 2011, I'll take my chances.

I'm starting the blog's annual baseball series here because of the alphabet, not to pick on the Sox. Just wait until I get to the Cubs, Sox fans.

2011 record: 79-83 (3rd in AL Central). Projected 2012 finish: 71-91 (5th in AL Central).

Possible starters: C A.J. Pierzynski; 1B Paul Konerko; 2B Gordon Beckham; SS Alexei Ramirez; 3B Brent Morel; LF Alejandro De Aza; CF Alex Rios; RF Dayan Vicideo; DH Adam Dunn; SP John Danks; SP Gavin Floyd; SP Phil Humber; SP Chris Sale; SP Jake Peavy; CL Matt Thornton; RP Jesse Crain; RP Addison Reed.

Half-full outlook: Dunn, Rios and (probably) Peavy have to be better than they were in 2011 ... don't they? Based on Fangraphs WAR, the Sox will be almost four wins better if Dunn can match his worst career pre-2011 season. If they get the 2010 Rios instead of the 2011 version, that would be another improvement of more than four wins. I'll say this — if those three are as productive as they're paid to be, if Konerko and Pierzynski stave off Father Time, if Sale is as good as I think he might eventually be as a starter and if everyone important stays healthy, the Sox will be pretty good. Competitive with Detroit, even.

Half-empty outlook: Mark Buehrle was probably a bit overrated by most Sox fans, but he was a qualify innings-eater. His absence means the Sox are even more heavily reliant on Peavy being healthy and on Floyd, Humber and Sale being consistent. And the rotation might be the strongest part of the team. Offensively, their best player by a mile (Konerko) will be 36 by Opening Day. It's likely he finally starts to regress. Otherwise you have an odd mix of has-beens (Rios, Dunn and maybe Pierzynski), haven't-been-yets (Viciedo) and never-will-bes (De Aza, Morel). And it's definitely not a great defensive team.

Halfway between the two outlook: I liked that G.M. Kenny Williams said he was going to rebuild early in the offseason. I didn't love any of the moves that followed. This roster's too old and expensive to be considered a true rebuilding project in project, and the situation seems pretty bleak until the Dunn/Peavy/Rios money starts to come off the books. The Sox aren't particularly terrible anywhere but they're great nowhere; even the bullpen has question marks now that Williams has shipped half of it to Toronto. Unless Dunn, Rios, Peavy, Pierzynski and Konerko all produce seasons like they had in their primes — and the Viciedos and Sales don't have growing pains — the run of the White Sox as a perennial favorite in the AL Central is probably over, at least for now.