Baseball Preview

I remember in high school when Opening Day was a holiday worthy of celebration. TVs were on in the library and I walked in to watch Armando Benitez close out a win for the Mets. And then a few years ago Opening Day was on Monday, the same day as the NCAA National Championship. I think it was a Michigan State/UNC matchup or something similar. What did I watch? The Oakland A's playing the Angels, teams I didn't really care about. But it was baseball! And that's all that mattered.

Since then, Bud Selig is doing everything he can to ruin any anticipation and excitement of the start of the season. A two-game series last week in Japan aired here in the states at 6am a week before everyone else in the middle of preseason was the dumbest idea ever. And now tonight is one game (at night?!), tomorrow has 7 games, there are 9 games on Friday, and not until Saturday is everyone playing. What is the point of that? I guess I am targeting Friday as my time to celebrate the start of the season. But this makes NO sense.

It's like a party where two people come an hour before everyone else, only to leave when they realize the party hasn't started. One couple comes at the scheduled time and start setting up tables. Half hour later more people start trickling in and the grill gets fired up, and a little later while everyone is enjoying some burgers and potato salad the rest of the guests arrive. It's totally awkward for everyone until that moment.

Anywho, "Opening Day", at least the concept of it, is the most optimistic, hopeful moment of the entire year when everyone's team is starting out at the same level (except for the M's and A's, who each have a loss and a win) and dreams of the playoffs run freely. Even here in Jersey, there are actually Mets fans who call up the radio station saying their team has a chance.

Here is my division by division preview:

The AL BEast is one of the strongest divisions in the history of baseball. The Yankees have a lot of depth all around, including starting pitching, which was a very shallow rotation a season ago. ARod will try to prove he still has some pop and Cano will once again contend for the MVP. The Rays' Joe Maddon is the best manager in the league and is fortunate to return practically the entire team from a year ago. The Blue Jays are my surprise pick to ride Johnny Bats (Jose Bautista) into contention in September. Last year's trendy pick, the Red Sox, have not ceased to crumble since September and have now lost their closer for a while, the week of Opening Day; this coming after an offseason where they lost their previous All Star closer. This once star-studded team now has holes all over the place. Orioles are not a terrible team but are in a terrible position. They could be the best team to ever lose 100 games. Whatever that means.

AL Central is a one horse race. Despite the forced move to 3rd base, no one will be happier with the Tigers' signing Prince Fielder than Miguel Cabrera, who should have won the MVP last year without the protection of a 40 homer threat in the lineup. The rest of the division, yuck! Now that Ozzie is out I guess the best manager is the Ron Gardenhire, and with the possibility of a full return of Mauer and Morneau the Twins ought to hang around .500. Indians, what is there to be excited about? I've heard a lot of people that want to pick the Royals to get 83+ wins but think of this: Bruce Chen is their Opening Day starter. Bruce Chen. And the White Sox are headed in the wrong direction.

AL West will have a great season-long fight. The California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the United States of North America has just picked up baseball's best player (Pujols), has 3 or 4 legitimate aces in the rotation (Weaver, Haren, Wilson, Ervin Santana), including stripping their division rival's rotation leader, to help an already great manager in Mike Soscia. Rangers have back-to-back World Series appearances and pretty much replaced CJ Wilson with Yu Darvish. Mariners can't be any worse than last year but still over very little excitement. As for the Athletics: you would be hard pressed to name two players on their roster and I don't see how they will be competitive.

Like the AL, the NL East is also a beast with two improved teams to challenge the Phils and Braves. After writing the Nationals in at the top and then changing to the Phils, what the heck: this blog is for fun. I'm picking the Nationals to take the division. Stephen Strasburg has supplanted Doc Halladay as the honored Miles-Miller's-Favorite-Player-Not-On-the-Yankees distinction. The Nats have been on a shopping spree the last couple years and are surprisingly solid in the rotation, bullpen, and lineup. They won 80 last year; with a full year of Strasburg along with additions of Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson, that ought to win at least 12 more. As much as I don't want to pick the Phillies, they still have Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels, and with that trio starting 90 games the Phils are a postseason lock. Their lineup is incredibly average. The Marlins made some big improvements adding Reyes to lead off, Buehrle and crazy Carlos Zambrano to round out the rotation with a now-healthy ace Josh Johnson, Heath Bell to close, and the fiery Ozzie Guillen in the dugout (sometimes). There definitely is the chance for turbulence but there is also 100-win potential. The Braves' 2011 collapse was epic, and since this mostly-young team is mostly-returning, we ought to see a solid but not flashy team. As for the New York Mess, I mean Mets, I like Ike Davis but that's it. There is no upside on this team.

Take away 2 of the 3 biggest sluggers in the division and The National League Central will once again be very, very mediocre. Brewers won the division last year and are returning a solid rotation with Stinky Greinke, Yovani Gallardo and Shaun Marcum, and do have the reigning MVP Ryan Braun. (So the reason he won the appeal is that his positive PED sample was transported incorrectly??) Ought to be enough to win the division handily. Reds are... red. Last year they finished on the wrong side of .500 and their biggest move was resigning Joey Votto, baseball's Pride of Canada. They will stay around that 81-win mark. Speaking of .500, I think this is the year. That's right, I'm picking the Pirates to win 81 games and reach that threshold. Welcome to Pittsburgh, AJ Burnett. Cardinals are the unlikely but lucky champs once again. Losing Pujols and La Russa sounds like a honeymoon swoon is in the works, especially after losing Chris Carpenter again to a lengthy injury. Cubs are a bad team. Houston Lastros are a VERY bad team.

Naturally, the NL West is the division that I am the least familiar with. All I know is that Ian Kennedy couldn't make the major league roster with the Yankees and ended up winning 21 games with the Diamondbacks last year. Their team is much deeper and more talented than anyone else in the division. Dodgers finally seem to have reached some stability in ownership and that ought to create stability on the field. Kemp displayed superstar attributes last year; more of that will keep the Dodgers in contention. Same ol' same ol' for the Giants: one of the best duo of aces in Tim Lincecum and "Richy Rich" Matt Cain to go opposite an impotent lineup. Rockies feature a couple star sluggers in CarGo and Tulo but I couldn't pick anyone else out of a police lineup (besides Helton and Giambi, who are both practically senior citizens at this point). You would be hard pressed to name anyone on the Padres.

There is my semi-quick preview. Tomorrow I will post my predictions and projections for team records and awards.