Day 2 pick: Kansas City under 67
We're going to milk the AL Central for all it's worth, so I'll take Kansas City to keep up its unstellar ways for yet another year.

Do I really need to detail why this is a bad team? I guess so.

Let's start with the offseason, where the Royals gave Gil Meche five years and $55 million to be their ace. Meche had a 4.48 ERA last year with Seattle. Of their other four projected starters, one lost 17 games in 2005 and then was in the minors last year for anxiety problems, and the other three all had ERAs over 5.00 last season. Octavio Dotel is the closer, a role in which he has never performed well.

Aside from Mike Sweeney, who has had a bad back for three years, there is no real offensive threat on the club. David DeJesus is a good leadoff hitter, but there's no one to bring him in.

The division is another factor, too. Look at all the games the Royals have to play against Detroit, Cleveland, Minnesota and Chicago. Like I pointed out yesterday, at least one of those teams will have a disappointing season, but they're all vastly better than KC.

And on track record alone, this is a team that's lost 100 games four times in the last five seasons. They should at least come close again.

THE PICKS
Monday: T.J. picks Minnesota over 83.5; Steve picks Arizona over 77.5
Tuesday: T.J. picks Kansas City under 67; Steve picks Atlanta over 80.5
Wednesday: T.J. picks ?????; Steve picks ?????
Thursday: T.J. picks ?????; Steve picks ?????
Friday: T.J. picks ?????; Steve picks ?????