crewcrazy

I can deal with most people picking the Cubs, but it's pretty irritating to hear everyone on a certain network considering the NL Central a "one-team division" and moving on to other topics after spending 10 seconds predicting the Central.

Yeah, the Skip Bayless pick of the Cardinals was pretty hilarious. He said he thinks the Brewers and Cubs won't be able to pull away from the rest of the division the first couple of months, leaving the door open for Chris Carpenter to come back in June and lead the Cards to the division. He actually said that the Cards have the best pitching in the division, with Carpenter, Wainright, and Piniero. Skip's never been a big baseball expert, though, so I just kind of chuckle at his predictions. He also had both New York teams missing the playoffs (with the Mets finishing in 3rd behind the Phillies and Braves, who got the wildcard). The only thing he said that I kind of agreed with was Cleveland having a chance to win 100 games.

AL East Red Sox - They didn't really lose anything from a World Series-winning team, and Clay Buchholz will be a pretty big addition to their full-time rotation. Yankees - Starting pitching will keep them behind the Red Sox, although this race will probably come down to the final week or so. Rays - I love the top of their rotation (Kazmir-Shields-Garza) and they're set up to be good for a long time...I think 88 wins is a bit optimistic, but they should break .500 for the first time ever. Jays - I have a feeling it'll be a down year for the Jays..Vernon Wells should return to form, but the rest of that offense is pretty punchless. O's - They'll compete with the Rangers and Royals for the worst record in baseball. Adam Jones and Nick Markakis will be a great outfield duo, though. If Wieters can work his way up to a September call up, it'll be a successful season for them. AL Central Indians - Detroit's got a ton of offense, but I'm giving Cleveland the division based on slightly better pitching. Hafner and Sizemore should bounce back this year, too, which only makes the Tribe more dangerous Tigers - I'm expecting big things out of Miggy Cabrera now that he's actually motivated to play, plus he gets to feast on some crappy AL Central pitching outside of Cleveland. White Sox - Swisher's going to put up some big numbers in The Cell, and maybe Konerko and Dye can bounce back (although it doesn't seem likely). Twins - I liked the Delmon Young pick up, and they do get Liriano back this year, although he probably won't be totally 100% this year. Their starting pitching will probably be ugly, but they still have a strong bullpen and some nice bats. Royals - Their pitching is going to be horrific, but at least watching Alex Gordon and Billy Butler grow should be fun. AL West Angels - Starting pitching injuries are a problem, but they have some good young players hitting the major league level now and they still have a good bullpen. They'll score enough runs to win the division comfortably...same old Halos. Mariners - I've said it in other threads, but I think they'll be horrible with the bats this year. Luckily, they might only need a few runs to win games that Hernandez and Bedard start. They just have to hope that Hernandez stays healthy all year...there's a lot of mileage on that arm already. A's - I like the young guys they picked up this offseason, and everyone should be healthy for the first time in awhile. Even if Beane has a Trade Deadline firesale, I think they'll finish ahead of the Rangers... Rangers - ...that's how bad they'll be. No starting pitching, no bullpen pitching. They'll probably score runs with the best of them, but they'll need to score 6 or 7 a night to have a chance to win. It'll be another long year. WILDCARD: Detroit MVP: Miguel Cabrera, DET Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia, CLE (Contract year!) ROY: Evan Longoria, TB or Clay Buchholz, BOS PENNANT: Boston, again NL East Mets - But I don't think they'll run away with the division as easily as everyone thinks. They still have some bullpen issues to iron out, and they really don't have anyone to be their 5th starter...they're looking at Jorge Sosa starting again. Phillies - If Hamels can stay healthy he'll be a legit Cy Young contender, Howard will mash a ton of home runs again, and they still will struggle in the bullpen. Blown saves will probably be the difference between them and the Mets this year (and they likely won't beat the Mets 9 straight times or whatever they did in September last year). Braves - A full year of Teixeira and a healthy Chipper Jones gives them a pretty scary lineup. Glavine's probably not going to do too well in his return to Atlanta, but Rafael Soriano should be good in the closer's role. Nats - Slowly building something up in DC, but they still have no starting pitching...maybe revenues from the new park will make them players in the FA market next offseason. Marlins - Basically losing on purpose this year, but they still have some nice young talent, especially in the pitching staff. Hanley Ramirez will probably go unnoticed again this year, which is a shame. NL Central Cubs - By a game or two Brewers - Wildcard. Reds - Finished last year strong, but Dusty will probably mess with a good thing and keep them in a distant third. Astros - If Tejada can bounce back to his old offensive form, their lineup might not actually stink too bad. Too bad their rotation is basically Oswalt and hope for 4 days of rain. I don't like giving up Qualls for Valverde, but I think I'm one of the few. Cards - Long year for La Russa...I wouldn't be surprised if he calls it quits after the year. They could fall into last if Pujols' elbow causes him to miss time this year. Pirates - Nice young rotation but not much going on with the bats...Bay should bounce back, but they'll probably end up trading Xavier Nady for nothing and I've been seeing LaRoche rumors already. NL West Diamondbacks - I think they'll run away with the division this year. I really like the Webb-Haren combo, and if they can get a good half season out of Randy Johnson before he breaks down they'll be tough to beat. They'll score more runs this year, which should mean no more crazy Pyth. Records throughout the year. Dodgers - Assuming Joe Torre is sane and plays Ethier ahead of Juan Pierre. Even then, I think they'll finish second...they were going strong for most of last season before falling out of it late. Rockies - Not quite a believer yet...let's see them do it without a crazy September run. Padres - Barely behind the Rockies, IMO...these two could easily be flipped depending on how the Padres pitch beyond Peavy and Young. Giants - When Bengie Molina is hitting cleanup, you have some issues. WILDCARD: Brewers MVP: David Wright, NYM (Prince somewhere in the top 3) Cy Young: Cole Hamels, PHI ROY: Geovany Soto, CHI (although he's like 26) or Justin Upton, ARI (although I don't know if he still qualifies as a rookie)

This isn't all that surprising to me -- they got what they wanted from him, which was the extra attention and cash from the home run chase. They were curiously quiet throughout Bonds' last few years there, and like you said, this all points to them washing their hands of him as soon as they could.

I don't see how the A's are anywhere near .500 this year when they're a worse team than last year. As for the M's, they've vastly improved this year, and they were in it all year last year. I think they're a .500 team at absolutely worse. I think that this is the M's division without Escobar. Harden was hurt for most of last season, though, as was the rest of their team (Chavez, Street, etc.). This year, they at least have him healthy (for now). Harden's like the AL version of Ben Sheets, though, so they really shouldn't be counting on him to do much this year. I like their young players, though, and with such a weak division and the bottom of the rest of the AL being pretty pitiful, there's a lot of chances for easy wins this year. If guys like Cust and Chavez can stay healthy, they shouldn't be too bad. I don't hate the M's, I just think that they won't be able to score a lot of runs. In my (completely baseless) opinion, they might have been better off keeping Adam Jones and putting him in the lineup than adding Bedard when they already have Felix Hernandez. Bedard's an outstanding pitcher, but their starting rotation was the least of their worries. I think they're really going to miss Jones, especially if he does well in Baltimore this year. Their offense lacks much pop...Beltre had their high HR total last year with 26, and they lost Jose Guillen's 23 HR. Sexson was next with 21, but that was while slugging .399 with a .295 OBP. Other than Ichiro, their lineup is scattered with some pretty bad OBP's...they don't get on base enough to score many runs. They're going to have to win a lot of 3-2 games, which doesn't happen often in the AL. Put the M's in the NL West, and I think they run away with the division. But in the AL, their style of play isn't always going to work.

Seattle can't score runs, Oakland will probably hover around .500 if Harden can stay healthy, and the Rangers will stink. I think the Angels still have a pretty good grip on that division.

Having Ryan Braun to your right and Rickie Weeks to your left is going to make you look a lot worse than you actually are. That's not to say that I think Hardy is a Gold Glove shortstop, but I do think that he's a bit better than he showed last year when he was trying to cover for two bad defensive players.

I would think that the Rangers are just content with keeping Laird behind the plate and playing Salty at 1B. That's why Teagarden wouldn't be a bad idea, but considering catching doesn't come cheap, it might not be worth what the Brewers would have to give up in return.

In my opinion, I don't see this as being much different than the Expos playing some of their home games in Puerto Rico during their last year in Montreal. The travel to Japan is certainly rough, but we're going to have to come to terms with baseball expanding outside of the US and Toronto in the near future. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me to see MLB teams with permanent homes in Latin America in the future. I don't have much of a problem with the games being played in Japan regardless of the time of year, but I don't think nearly as many people would be upset if it wasn't "Opening Day".

Watch the Cubs sign him and he'll throw a no-hitter against the Brewers sometime this season. And I'm only half kidding. Losing the depth stinks, but the Brewers could probably find someone of equal caliber elsewhere...the only downside is that the Brewers will likely have to give up something of value in a trade if they don't decide to go the waivers route.

I realize that it is the general consensus on this board that Prince won't sign a long term deal because of Boras, but there is always a chance because the decisions are ultimately made by the player, not the agent. While it's true that the agent ultimately works for the player, when you see Prince's comments about negotiating a long-term deal ("I'll let my agent handle all that"), it doesn't seem like he's interested in having an active part in the negotiations.

Yeah, I'd probably try to take the train to Shea, especially with CitiField being built right next door. I don't know how that's affecting the parking situation at Shea, but I'd assume it's going to make things a bit tougher than usual.

For all we know, the guys that aren't hitting HRs right now are focusing on doing other things at the plate -- just like you can't really trust pitchers' spring training numbers because they're working on location and pitch development, you can't really trust batting stats in spring because a lot of guys are focusing more on taking the ball the other way or timing their swings. If we had proof that the guys were consciously trying to hit HRs and were still putting up goose eggs, I'd be more inclined to get worried. I wouldn't even bother to get worried until there's about a week before the start of the season when there's more continuity in the lineups.

I don't have a problem with a player trying to get noticed by the coaching staff by going all-out in a spring training game...obviously the guy doesn't want to be just another camp body. Look at preseason football -- the hits aren't any less hard even though the games don't count towards the standings. You're not going to get noticed by the coaching staff in preseason football by shoving a guy out of bounds, and you're not going to get noticed in spring training by just getting tagged out.

If that's the case, that makes a lot more sense. I think I can sleep tonight after reading that. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Did Gabe Gross kill Ned Yost's cat or something? And would Yost seriously start Gwynn against lefty Ted Lilly if the Cubs really are bumping Zambrano from his Opening Day start? I don't see what's wrong with going Braun-Hart-Dillon in the OF on Opening Day if Lilly is starting.

I think they're only doing it to break up the lefties in their rotation -- Zambrano ®, Lilly (L), Dempster ®, Hill (L), Marquis ®. I'm in favor of any rotation move that has Ryan Dempster starting against the Brewers, even if it means missing another lefty. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif Looks like the Brewers played well today...it seems like Cameron's having a crazy good spring.

To be honest, Seattle's "real" lineup isn't much better. That offense is brutal. While spring training outings can't really be judged because there are a lot of minor leaguers still around, I think it's nice that Ben was able to get some K's today after not getting any in his first start.

I do find it pretty funny that a Cubs fan is saying the Brewers shouldn't exist because of their futility. Even the Brewers have been in the World Series more recently than the Cubs have.

The MLB draft is the world's biggest crapshoot. In any other sport, you're hoping your first round pick becomes a star someday. In baseball, you just pray that your first round pick can make some kind of contribution at the major league level. I have a hard time blasting Billy Beane for his draft choices when the MLB draft is such a crapshoot and when he has often had to find guys who will sign for slot money. If anything, the decline of the A's can be blamed on the MLB Draft being broken in that teams like the Tigers can go into the draft every year and pay over the slot amounts with no penalty -- they really have no business having guys like Verlander, Andrew Miller (spun for Miguel Cabrera), and Rick Porcello. If Beane/Melvin/Any other small market GM didn't have to worry about guys refusing to sign for slot money, I think they'd have more success in picking players.

I agree...with a gun to my head, I'd probably say the Cubs have the better chance at winning the division this year. To this point they haven't made as many changes to their team as the Brewers have, but they didn't have to. Barring injuries, I'd say the Cubs are slightly better than the Brewers, but they're very similar teams with similar talent levels...I'd be surprised if the division was decided by more than 2 games this year. I do think the preseason love for Fukudome and Soto is a little ridiculous, though...people predicting them to contend for the ROY award, become instant all-stars, etc. is a little crazy when there's only a handful of MLB at-bats between them. Soto had a great year at AAA last year, but it was his third year in the PCL and it was the first year in his minor league career with an OPS above .760. I'm not exactly buying him as an offensive force at catcher yet, but who knows..maybe he magically learned how to hit for power at the age of 24.

With Prince being the more patient hitter, I definitely don't mind him batting 3rd. Let pitchers pitch around him if that means Ryan's going to get more baserunners to hit in.

I'm sure Yost will screw it up with the JV lineup this afternoon.

40 saves means way too many close games for my liking. I'd prefer it if Gagne only had to have 30 opportunities all year, and the rest of the Brewer wins were by more than 3 runs. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Braun's Block? That's about all I can come up with.