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Bad teams have been much on my mind lately. Blame it on being an A's fan, blame it on marrying into a Mets family, blame it on my generally sour personality. Irrespective of the cause, I find myself less intrigued by the powerhouses or the teams in tight races for the playoffs than by the squads that will come out of the gate slow, dawdle through the dog days, and finish in a muddle of obscure Triple-A players crowding the expanded September rosters as they fight for 2013 jobs on what will likely be yet another mediocre team.

If you're a fan of one of these franchises, you'll probably watch them whatever happens. But what will the rest of you watch on the nights when your team is off, or long, lazy weekend afternoons? You can always tune in to see the Yankees and Rays face off in a game with playoff implications for the umpteenth time, but if you're like me, you get a little bored seeing the same (really good) players over and over. Let me present, then, a team-by-team list of reasons to tune into a game at which more casual fans might turn up their noses. Call it the Every Team is Special list.

A quick note on methods and format: I've chosen every team that currently has fewer than 80 projected wins on our Depth Charts. In the AL Central and NL West, this results in two teams that might actually have an outside shot at the playoffs, but I'm an inclusive guy. In the parentheses after each team's name is its current projected record and how far behind the projected division leader this record falls.

Toronto Blue Jays (78-84, 16 games behind the Yankees): They've got this right-fielder, see, and … well, that's sort of cheap. "Go watch arguably the best player in baseball" isn't in the spirit of this list, so I'll instead call out the impressive collection of young talent that Alex Anthopolous has acquired in the relatively brief time he's been at the helm. Projecting Brett Lawrie to match the .338 TAv he hit last year (in 171 PAs) wouldn't be wise, but it'll be fun to see how much of that offensive performance he can retain. Between the arguments about his actual talent level (especially on defense), the significant questions regarding his ability to stay healthy, and even the attitude/parental issues spicing the stew, Colby Rasmus is one of the great enigmas in the game today. You won't see his dad snipe at the coaching staff by pressing "Blue Jays" on MLB.tv, but if you don't watch Toronto this year, you might miss him making a very exciting return to his 2010 form with the bat.

Baltimore Orioles (72-90, 22 games behind the Yankees): Mark Reynolds is an everyday delight for Three True Outcomes fetishists, particularly since his disdain for defense extends to his attempts to field the ball himself. As a fan of hilarity, I hope that Chris Davis hits his 90th-percentile projection at first base and forces Buck Showalter to write Reynolds's name in at third base every day. On a more positive note, historical catcher aging patterns leave some hope that Matt Wieters could still make the leap from very good offensive catcher (28.9 VORP last year) to the powerhouse that his 2008 minor-league lines (and scouting reports) suggested he might be.

Chicago White Sox (78-84, 8 games behind the Tigers): Speaking of Three True Outcomes types, Adam Dunn's attempt to come back from one of the most spectacular and shocking collapses in memory should be worth watching, at least insofar as he's moderately successful in doing so. If he hits for a .218 TAv again, it could be too depressing for words. Jake Peavy is trying to return from an entirely different kind of collapse, as he hasn't cracked 200 innings since 2007 or 170 since 2008. The perpetually injured player returning to form is always a nice story, even when said story is called by Hawk Harrelson. (Choose the other team's feed if you have the option.)

Kansas City Royals (71-91, 15 games behind the Tigers): PECOTA is unmoved by Kansas City's youth movement, as the Royals are projected to be the worst offensive team in the American League and Jonathan Sanchez's 4.45 ERA is the lowest projected for any starting pitcher, but the team could be legitimately good if enough of the young players (with particular emphasis on Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas) step forward and beat their projections. Even if that doesn't happen, don't overlook the delight of watching Jeff Francoeur run around being happy. Have you looked at the headshot on his player card lately? Click his name. I'll wait.

Look at that face! How could you not want to watch that guy?

Minnesota Twins (71-91, 15 games behind the Tigers): Last week, Bill Parker looked for signs of hope for the Twins. Whether they're good or not, though, the stylistic clash between Ben Revere, a left fielder who should be a center fielder living in the body (and possessing the offensive game) of a shortstop from the '70s, and Josh Willingham, a right fielder who should be a DH living in the body of a power hitter and rumbling around the outfield pasture like a robot in need of a lube job, is compelling for those whose aesthetic tastes run toward pleasure in the dissonant.

Oakland Athletics (73-89, 18 games behind the Rangers): This is too easy. Yoenis Cespedes might be Bo Jackson, he might be Wily Mo Pena, or he might be some weird thing we've never seen. Either way, barring injury, he's certain to get more at-bats in 2012 than Pena ever got in a single season. Dented walls, a new source of wind power, the second 40-40 Cuban outfielder in history—it's all on the table.

Seattle Mariners (70-92, 21 games behind the Rangers): If the Mariners insist that Jesus Montero is a catcher, Felix Hernandez's starts will be even more compelling than they already are. If Montero is just a DH, then I'll still want to watch. The ex-Yankee is the most hyped hitting prospect with a clear shot at a full-time major-league job. On Kevin Goldstein's Top 101 for this year, only Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Jurickson Profar rank ahead of Montero, and none of those three has been penciled in as a regular starter this season. (Perhaps Harper requires a "yet," though.) I've always thought that Seattle's ballpark plays as beautiful as any in the game on TV, and the pleasures of watching Montero and Hernandez need not be reserved for the same weirdos who get off on Josh Willingham's brand of defense.

New York Mets (78-84, 11 games behind the Phillies): The NL East is a quiet beast, per PECOTA, with the Mets coming in last despite being projected for a reasonably-close-to-.500 record. There's talent on this team, intriguing talent even, as David Wright and Johan Santana try to regain their peaks after injuries laid them low, to some degree or another, in 2011. But the player I'm tuning in for every five days is R.A. Dickey. There may not be characters in the game these days, but Dickey, with his now-unique knuckleball, his bats named for swords from Tolkien and Beowulf, and his forays up Kilimanjaro, is as close as we've got these days. (And don't forget the face.) Sure, most of this won't come out on the field itself, but I find that knowing Dickey is swinging a bat named Orcrist adds to my enjoyment of a game.

Chicago Cubs (74-88, 14 games behind the Cardinals): It's easy, in light of the offseason the Cubs have had and the players the Cubs have, for the kind of people who read Baseball Prospectus to get more caught up in the movements of the front office as it goes about trying to rebuild a franchise than in the men who wear the uniforms. If you want something to watch besides the (d?)evolution of Starlin Castro, then keep an eye on Quad-A superstar Bryan LaHair, a first baseman with Triple-A TAvs of .293, .320, and .335 over the last three years. He's 29, though, and he has a grand total of 219 major-league PAs, so he's going to have to seize his chance to have a semblance of a career ahead of the ascension of actual prospect Anthony Rizzo. I always root for these types of players—maybe it hearkens back to the glory days of my A's fandom, before the baggage of the playoffs and Moneyball weighed everything down. Geronimo Berroa's not walking through that door in Oakland, though, so my transferred affections go to LaHair.

Pittsburgh Pirates (72-90, 16 games behind the Cardinals): Andrew McCutchen has put up about 40 VORP in each of the last two seasons, with his FRAA marks making the difference between a nice, above-average season (3.1 WARP in 2010) and a legitimate star season (5.2 WARP in 2011). I have no idea what McCutchen's talent level on defense actually is or will be, but I do know that the Pirates trust him to play center and that he's worth roughly four wins over a replacement center-fielder between his bat, legs, and durability. He's also just 25, so there's a chance that he could see his performance jump even further. Indeed, PECOTA sees something north of a 30 percent chance of McCutchen improving upon his already excellent 2010-11 seasons. If McCutchen is a five-to-six-win outfielder for the next eight years, you'll want to be able to tell your kids that you were watching him all along.

Houston Astros (60-102, 28 (!) games behind the Cardinals): Projection systems being as conservative as they are, a 100-loss season and a 28-game gap between first and last on the Depth Charts are eyebrow-raising. This is an awful team, even if it's one that's in better ownership and front-office hands these days. Jack Cust, powered by a .366 OBP, projects to be the best hitter on the squad with a .285 TAv, but he doesn't have a clear job, with nondescript youngster J.D. Martinez manning left field and the even more nondescript Brian Bogusevic in right. Cust, with his strikeouts and walks, his absurd upper-cut swings, his hilarious defense and base-running, and his all-around weird ability to be a relatively effective baseball player while looking more like a moderately talented professional bowler, is one of my favorite players ever. If you share my love, you'll tune in hoping that he gets a spot start or that Brad Mills gets bored with Bogusevic. If you don't, then there's always Jose Altuve's five foot "seven" self trying to be the mightiest of all the mites.

San Diego Padres (79-83, 7 games behind the Giants): The Padres, like the White Sox above and the Dodgers below, are within hailing distance of the playoffs. In San Diego, that's thanks to a reasonably talented set of position players and a division without an obvious heavy. Even without the carrot of postseason play, I want to watch Carlos Quentin. The outfielder, who's still shy of 30, put up a 5.7 WARP season in 2008 but followed that up with a total of 3.4 over the next three years. You want to hear something weird? Quentin has a career .287 TAv, well above average, and a career .253 BABIP. This isn't unprecedented, precisely, but here's the list of hitters since 1954 with at least 2,000 PAs, TAvs above .280, and BABIPs below .260:

Player TAv BABIP
Ron Kittle .281 .259
Joe Ferguson .288 .259
Tom Tresh .283 .259
Andre Thornton .290 .256
Rocky Colavito .305 .255
Mark McGwire .332 .255
Harmon Killebrew .318 .254
Roger Maris .301 .254
John Mayberry .288 .253
Carlos Quentin .287 .253
John Milner .285 .253
Dave Kingman .280 .252
Don Mincher .294 .251
Gary Roenicke .285 .251
Gorman Thomas .280 .251
Darrell Evans .292 .250
Ken Phelps .300 .246
Curt Blefary .288 .243

When your grandkids ask you why you didn't spend more time watching the 21st-century Ken Phelps, I hope you have a very good reason at hand.

Los Angeles Dodgers (78-84, 8 games behind the Giants): "Vin Scully" is the easy answer, but legacy Expo and extreme BABIP suppressor Ted Lilly is one of my favorite pitchers around. He throws the ball 88 and his glove 92, gives up plenty of homers, and has been an average to above-average pitcher for eight out of the last nine years, with a shoulder injury derailing his 2005. He's 36, so we're approaching "can he really do this forever?" territory. The best part about keeping an eye on Lilly is that, unless he's felled by injury, his downfall should come in a Matusz-like explosion of homers, which may hurt the hearts of those of you with a shred of empathy but will at least provide some fireworks for the rest of us.

Thank you for reading

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Kongos
3/14
If more people had followed your advice and watched Jays' games last year, I don't think the MVP voting in the AL would have been close. Joeybats has been awesome to watch.

Last year I found myself checking out Cubs games on MLB TV just to catch Castro. I like "(d?)evolution" as a description of how he's progressing. Cubs games are inherently fun to watch anyway, as long as you aren't a Cubs fan.

I'd also check out the Angels' games after the east-coast games were done. Initially I was watching to see how Wells did, but increasingly it was to enjoy watching Peter Bourjos play the outfield. But the Angels didn't exactly make this list this year.
mhmosher
3/14
I'm going to watch the Mets to watch "The Dude" Lucas Duda abide.
bishopscreed
3/14
Not to be a full-on hometown fan, but does anyone except Pecota think the Royals will have the worst offense in the AL this year?
mnsportsguy1
3/14
Well with Escobar, Giovatella, Cain, Perez, and Franceour in the lineup anything could happen. I don't "expect" them to be last, but I can see how if some things don't go right it could happen
ddufourlogger
3/14
I can easily see the A's and M's being worse.
mnsportsguy1
3/14
A's, M's, Twins, White Sox could all be brutal
Agent007
3/14
Watching baseball without worrying about the two teams' place in the standings is liberating. Relaxing and enjoying talent, appreciating good plays from players on either team, enriches the experience of watching baseball, especially live (except at Rogers Centre in Toronto, which is an awful baseball environment). Then again maybe I'm saying this because I'm an Orioles fan.
kdierman
3/14
Toronto plays HARD .... Joey Bats WARP is perhaps higher than listed as his locker room influence adds WARP to everyone else. Even E-5 caught on last season.

SI's moniker describing "MarLinsanity" will be interesting to watch as well.... new stadium without rain delays and that Giancarlo dude that can leap tall buildings ...

Ozzie reminds me of John Ortiz' character (Teo Escalante) in the awesome HBO series "LUCK"
Kongos
3/14
@ Nathan: No, I think the Mariners will.

@ James Bond: Agreed on the Rogers Centre. But there are ways to make the experience better. The 200 level is far more comfy than the 100 level, and cheaper. But I prefer to be way up in the 500s -- on the third base side on sunny days, and the first base side on cloudy ones.
adrock
3/14
Does PECOTA really project the White Sox and the Jays to have the same record this year. Can I bet with PECOTA on that?

Greg's suggestions vis a vis Rogers Centre are good ones. When the dome's open, it's actually a half-decent place to watch a game, provided you're not way down the first base-line.

My favourite cheap seats are in the 200-level right above the visitors' bullpen. Prime heckling territory, plus Bautista's right there (and, in days gone by, Eric Hinske!)
Agent007
3/15
I prefer the outfield to the more costlier (neck-wrenching) seats along the lines. The glare from the plastic field is awful. And then there's anal-retentive ushers who pounce the moment your foot or any food item touches the concrete wall in front of your seats. I live within close proximity to Toronto but would rather drive to Buffalo for a Triple A game than attend a Jays home game.
rawagman
3/15
Agreed about the poor angling of the seats. I have also found the stadium lights to be poorly angled, lighting up the stands as much as the field. Leads to too much unnecessary squinting.
That said, I prefer to go less often, but pony up to sit in the infield when I do go.
timber
3/14
PECOTA is just so weird about the Royals. I'm not saying they're going to the playoffs, but heck, last year they won 71 games with a pythag of 78. Why wouldn't that improve? And the worst offensive team in the AL this year? Why? Based on what? They've been in the top tier of offenses in the league for the past few years now.
doctawojo
3/14
It may warm your heart to know that between the time I wrote this and now, a depth-chart update has pushed the A's aggregate TAv to .257, a point below the Royals.

"Top tier" is pretty generous, though. Even by simple runs scored, they've ranked 6th, 10th, and 13th in the AL the last three years, and they've done slightly worse by TAv.
jhardman
3/14
If Chris Davis performs above his 90th percentile rating, it will be his name penciled in at 3B. He's a better defender there than Reynolds, which isn't saying much. That said, he's still Chris Davis and he still has a bad shoulder.
jfranco77
3/14
Ichiro Suzuki might be the most exciting player to watch in all of baseball. He slashes at pitches, he steals bases when he gets on, he's an excellent outfielder and he has a laser for an arm. Forget Montero and Felix... watch Ichiro!
koopbri
3/14
When Rogers bought SkyDome a few years ago they made definite improvements to the live experience (just ignore the boring corporate re-naming).
But no denying it's not really a ballpark - more a relic of the high-tech mega-stadium era. It's too too big, too much concrete and artificial turf, with a blaring PA system and annoying advertising and promotions. But what the heck, it's home.
As others mention, an open roof on a sunny day helps a lot, and the key is a big crowd to fill most of those 50,000 seats, and I hope that's a more frequent event fo this year's team. They should be fun to watch.
anderson721
3/15
It cannot be emphasized enough that these kinds of teams are so much better to watch in person than on the tube. I can't imagine spending 3 hours watching a Mariners-Royals game on TV, but would enjoy every pitch if at the stadium.
Kongos
3/15
It's always more fun in person. One of the most memorable games I've seen in the last couple of years was an Intercounty Baseball League game in Barrie with Paul Spoljaric of the Barrie Baycats pitching against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was great just sitting on the cheap wooden benches with my son watching the game.

The game even sort-of made the news: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1702513

the "Around the Horn" at the end of that piece is worth reading, too.