Harden, Liriano Headline AL X-Factors

What to do now that the Super Bowl is over and spring training still hasn't arrived? Here at MLB FanHouse, we Mind the Gap.

Even the dumbest baseball fan will be able to tell you that the Cardinals won't get too far if Albert Pujols doesn't have a big year, that the Yankees will struggle if Marino Rivera isn't Mr. Automatic out of the 'pen and that the Mariners won't really be the Mariners if Ichiro isn't relentlessly pounding out his standard 200-plus hits in 2010.

As good as these players are, however, each is simply one of 25. Without the other 24 to fall back on, these stars have about as good a chance of winning the World Series come October as you or I do of winning the lottery.

Perhaps more than any other sport, baseball is a team game. Quarterbacks have carried teams to the Super Bowl. Once-in-a-generation players (i.e., Michael Jordan) have strapped teams on their backs to carry them to NBA titles.

But in baseball the list of stars who never made the it to the World Series is substantial. Hall of Famer Ernie Banks is the standard-bearer thanks to the Cubs. The men with the fifth- and sixth-best homer totals, Ken Griffey Jr. and Sammy Sosa, never made it. Don Mattingly was Donnie Baseball for a decade-plus with Yankee fans, but he never tasted the Fall Classic either.

And why? It's simple, really. Even in their best years, they needed more help from their teammates than they wound up receiving.

As we at FanHouse start looking forward to spring training, we got to wondering just who the X-factors in baseball are in 2010? These are players who are old (and young), players who are credentialed (and not), players who have been injured (or not).

In some cases their names jump off the screen. In others, it causes scarcely a ripple. But by this time next year, virtually every team will have had someone step up and perform beyond expectation.

Let's see if we can pick those names out of a hat now.

American League Central

White Sox: J.J. Putz, setup reliever. Two years ago, Putz was one of the rising stars in the world of elite closers in Seattle. But after an injury-riddled year in New York, the Mets let him go. The belief is that the injuries are behind him. If so, he could turn a sometimes rickety Chicago bullpen into a monster.

Indians: Travis Hafner, designated hitter. Hafner, 32, was nothing less than an unstoppable force from 2004-07, averaging 32 homers and 109 RBIs a season for a virile Indians offense. But the Tribe has sagged badly as injuries have whittled away at Hafner the last two seasons. With his input in 2009, the Indians scored just 773 runs, the franchise's smallest total since 2003. A healthy Hafner, still young enough to do serious damage, could make the Indians a force again.

Tigers: Joel Zumaya, setup reliever. When he helped pitch the Tigers into the World Series in 2006, Zumaya seemed unstoppable with his 100-mph fastball and jaw-dropping breaking ball. He's been hurt -- just 78 games pitched the last three years after 62 in the 2006 regular season -- but word on Zumaya's rehab is that the 100-mph fastball is still there. If so, he and offseason acquisition Jose Valverde could make a formidable late-inning 1-2 punch in Motown.

Royals: Jason Kendall, catcher. This isn't a guy who's ever going to hit 30 homers. But if his pitch calling behind the plate can keep the Royals pitchers in check, perhaps Kansas City fans will have something to look forward to this summer. When Kendall arrived on the scene in Milwaukee two years ago, the team ERA dropped from 4.41 to 3.85. Can he do it again?

Twins: Francisco Liriano, starting pitcher. Two years removed from Tommy John surgery, Liriano is at a point where history says pitchers have a chance to put it all (or most of it) back together again. Asking him to be the pitcher he was in 2006 -- 12-3, 2.16 -- is a bit much, but if he can slot in behind Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn, not too many teams are going to relish facing a rebuilt Minnesota rotation.

American League East

Orioles: Luke Scott, designated hitter. The 31-year-old slugger has been creeping up the leaderboards the last few seasons and could be ready for a breakout performance. His career-best 25 homers in 2009 came in just 125 games, so there would seem to be room for considerable upside. With Miguel Tejada back and with Nick Markakis newly awarded with a six-year deal, the Baltimore offense could be a monster with a big performance from Scott.

Red Sox: Mike Cameron, outfielder. One of the best defenders of his generation, Cameron has never made it to the World Series. But he knows about teamwork, having co-authored "It Takes A Team'' back in 2002, and he is a serious upgrade to the Boston defense by taking over in center, and bumping Jacoby Ellsbury to left. At the same time, Fenway Park is much friendlier to a right-handed pull hitter than most of Cameron's previous big-league homes, so even at 36, a huge offensive year wouldn't be a big surprise and could make the difference in the AL East.

Yankees: Joba Chamberlain, starting pitcher. Most teams consider themselves fortunate to have one or two reliable starters. The Yankees have three -- C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte -- and that was enough to guide the club to the World Series in October. They've also added Javier Vazquez this winter. Enter Chamberlain. He came up as a reliever, but he's got a full year of starting pitching experience now, and at age 24 could be ready for big-time production. If he gives the Yankees a Big Five, they could steamroll the East.

Rays: David Price, starting pitcher. Price posted the Rays' third-best win total in his first full season last year, going 10-7 with a 4.42 ERA. The long season served to polish some of the rougher parts of Price's game, and there were times in 2009 where he was mesmerizing, including three starts of seven or more innings with just one run allowed, one of those against the Yankees. It's only been three years since he was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft for the Rays, but he could be ready to lead Tampa Bay back into the playoffs.

Blue Jays: Brandon Morrow, starting pitcher. Time will tell if the Jays got a steal by prying Morrow from Seattle, but his credentials are solid -- a first-round pick of the Mariners in 2006 who has spent almost his entire career in the big leagues. Seattle bounced him between the bullpen and the rotation, never giving him a chance to settle in with his 99-mph fastball. The Jays seem ready to put him in the rotation and set him free. He's not going to make Toronto fans forget Roy Halladay, but he might well ease some of the sting of the Good Doctor's departure.

American League West

Angels: Joel Pineiro, starting pitcher. Pineiro, a 16-game winner with the Mariners back in 2003, floundered for years after until meeting up with St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan, who helped him reestablish command of the strike zone and become the groundball pitcher he should be. That led to 15 wins last year with the Cards and the chance to head West with the Angels. It's not so much that he will take over for the departed John Lackey, but a repeat 15-win season from Pineiro this time around could give the Angels the bounce they need to stay one step ahead of the rest of the AL West.

Athletics: Dallas Braden, starting pitcher. There are two statistics that predict good things for Braden in 2010. His three-year win total as an A's starter has gone from one to five to eight. His three-year ERA numbers, on the other hand have gone from 6.72 to 4.14 to 3.89 last year. It's true that Braden is only 26, but given the progress he's made in the last three years, he could make himself one of the real upstarts in the AL West in 2010. If so, with the rest of the good young pitching the A's have been stockpiling, Oakland will be nobody's pushover.

Mariners: Ryan Rowland-Smith, starting pitcher. It's going to be easy for other Seattle starters to get lost in the glare of the top-end of the rotation, with Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee scaring hitters left and right. It would be a mistake to overlook Rowland-Smith, who has spent three years learning the craft in Seattle and Triple-A Tacoma, and who now seems ready to emerge. The lefty has thrown 88 games (27 starts) for Seattle since 2007, never once with an ERA over 4.00. And he learned about patience and the need to develop a third pitch during a mid-2009 stint in Tacoma, after which he failed to go 5 1/3 innings in a start only once.

Rangers: Rich Harden, starting pitcher. Other clubs in the division made bigger headlines with their winter moves, but Harden could be the sleeper's sleeper in the AL West this season. The power in his arm has never been questioned -- he has 783 strikeouts in 753 2/3 career innings -- and now it's time for the 28-year-old to put it all together. Should Harden emerge as an ace, he would give the Rangers another quality starter behind Scott Feldman, and maybe the kind of starting staff the Rangers have seldom had. With that offense behind them, the Rangers' limits aren't very limiting.