MLB season prewiev....Remaing divisions

I know i know we are already deep into the season i haven't written the rest of divisions so you will get them all at once with my notes for each team instead.

NL WEST prediction.

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Diego Padres (Wild card)

Colorado Rockies

Los Angeles Dodgers

San Fransisco Giants

Notes for the NL WEST:
By far the hardest division in all of baseball. Pitching is the name of the game in this division and all the teams except for the Giants have that. Obviously having the reining NL champs in this division would make the rockies favorites but they only went to the world series based on that amazing run in September when the lost one game of their last 23. That will not happen again and that is why they loose out on the playoffs this year. They are tho all still young and cant be counted out in no way. The Dodgers are starting the Joe Torre era and he will obviously have a great effect on the ball club and i see them creating some real havoc but they will fall down the stretch. Then the Diamondbacks and the padres remain. And my reasoning for putting the diamondbacks first is their youth will play to their advantage. The padres are simply a bit too old for my likening. And finally we have the giants who now start the post Barry Bonds era. They have young pitcher in Tim Lincecum but he wont be able to carry them.

AL Central predictions.

Cleveland Indians

Detroit Tigers (Wild Card)

Kansas City Royals

Chicago Whitesox

Minnesota Twins.

Notes on the AL Central:
This division is gonna break into two halves by the all star break. It will be an endless battle between the tigers and the Indians. And then the rest of the clubs will have to battle for the remaining spots. I have Cleveland winning based on the fact that they are a better all round ball club than the tigers. The pitching duo of Fausto Carmona and C. C. Sabathia is once again gonna be dominating and i easily see both of them making a push for the Cy Young award this season and they are gonna be a vital part in putting the Indians in the World Series in 2008. The Tigers are without a doubt the most improved club in baseball in 2008. Getting Miguel Cabrerra and Dontrell Willis is gonna make i huge diffirence but while that greatly helps them they are still lacking in the vital area of relief pitching. I say that by the trade deadline you will see the Tigers despretly needing in that area. whether they will find it is another question. The Royals are obviusly still rebuilding but i think it will be the year the royals will get out of the mold of being the laughing stock of the league and turn into the potential that this ball club has. Years of petty and cheap ownership has seen a shift beginging last season and in turned out in the way they for the first time since 2004 avoided loosing 100 games. This will continue in to this year and with the emergence of Alex Gordon and Billy Butler the royals seems to be set for years to come. The Whitesox will try to rebound from a pathetic showing in 2007. They didn't really make an offseason splash move and therefore i don't consider them to do much better than in 2007. The Twins will begin the 2009 season in a new out doors ball park. That ball park was supposed to be the House that Johan built but as we all know there is no Johan in Minnesota any more. Mr. Santana went to New York for the money and the big market. In return the Twins got some prospects and Carlos Gomez is already during really well. The concern in the Twins in the rotation and even tho they added Livan Hernandez to the rotation it's just to young and too unproven. So instead the 2009 park will be known as the place that Mauer Build.

NL Central Predictions

Milwaukee Brewers

Chicago Cubs

St. Louis Cardinals

Houston Astros

Cincinnati Reds.

Pittsburgh Pirates.

Ok another tight division. I have the Brewers winning by no more than 2 games over the Cubs. The Brew crew is young it has good hitting and solid pitching. The only problem for the crew is their closer Eric Gangé of Red Sox infamy. I think a nuclear device is more stable than Gangé. And the same can really be said for the closer in Chicago. Kerry Wood is just as fragile as Gangé and it's gonna be fun to seem between them and Joe Borowski (Cleveland) who is gonna blow the most saves. The Cubs lineup also added some Japanese flavor with outfielder Fukadome he is an exciting player and has already proven that he is clutch when he hit a three run homer off Eric Gangé in the bottom of the ninth on opening night. He will be a good player but the cubs wont win this year either even tho they have waited a 100 years now. The Cardinals is hitting wise one of the most feared teams in the league but their pitching is cause for concern. They will stay in the hunt for a long time but eventually fall short. The Astros are still in rebuilding mode but should be able to make some noise. Behind the likes of Carlos Leee, Miguel Tejada and young phenom Hunter Pence they should be able to tease the big 3 in this division but not more than enough because the pitching staff is abysmal at best. I cant even name a single pitcher and i had to look at their depth chart to see who it is and that is bad.
For the Reds it will be more of the same even with Dusty Baker as manager. Dont count them out tho. Joey Cuoto is an emerging pitching star but still it wont be enough in a tight division.
The ever rebuilding pirates once again fall to last place in the central. Pretty much the same as the astros. Pretty decent hitting with Xavier Nady and Nick Mclouth. No real pitching.

We are delibretly skipping the AL East.

NL East predictions.

New York Mets

Philadelphia Phillies

Atlanta Braves

Washington Nationals

Florida Marlins

The Mets and the Phillies were last year neck and neck all year until the Mets made an epic collapse which allowed the Phillies to move into first and win the division. The Mets added one Johan Santana to the rotation and that will be a huge boost. He will be an unstopable force on the mound and he is the reason the mets win this year. The Phillies are led by Ryan Howard and last years MVP Jimmy Rollins. Their pitching staff is anchored in youngster Cole Hamels and old timer Jamie Moyer. Speaking of old timers in pitching....Tom Glavine and John Smoltz on the same team in Atlanta i mean combined they must be 150 years old at least....I kid I kid. Again the Braves are a good team but they are missing the last pieces to reach the two top teams. The nats are still rebuilding and it's gonna be some year before we see them in the top but it's at least looking up for them unlike the Marlins. That team is a Mess. The Cheapness of the owners were once again on display this off season when then traded away Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit for a bunch of prospect. A disgrace of a trade and they should be lucky if the loss column doesn't reach triple digits.

AL East prediction

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees.

Tampa Bay Rays

Toronto Blue Jays

Baltimore Orioles.

The red sox will be presented in a separate post.

The Yankees start year one of the Joe Giradi era. Also new in the Yankees organization is owner Hank Stienbrunner. The old Stienbrunner (George) is now too weak and has retired to Tampa but that doesn't mean we wont get good quotes from Hank. Hankenstien has already made some outrages claims and he is gonna be a fun addition to the rivalry. The team on the field is one filled with stars more specifically 209 million $ worth of stars. Complementing the best 3B/SS duo in baseball is a outfield headlined by Johnny $ellout and eternal prospect Melky Carbrera. The pitching staff is good but i am concerned with the youngsters Kennedy and Hughes. The team in Tampa Bay is less Devil and more rays this season. The team is good and loaded with young talent but the pitching staff is lacking and the race for third will be between them and the Blue Jays. In that race i have a feeling this is the year the Rays make the push and be the third team. Toronto is in for another good year and could be up there with the Yanks and Sawx but then again they could also collapse. If their pitching can hold up they have a chance to stay in the mix but i dont think it will hold up and they drop to fourth. Rounding out the East is the Orioles they are still rebuilding and it will be some years till they can contend for third.

World Series prediction.

Red Sox over Mets in 6.

MLB season prewiev....AL WEST edtion.

Ok we are now mere days away from the start of the MLB season start in Tokyo, Japan where the Boston Red Sox will face off against the Oakland A's in the highly publicised opening series. We will return to that series in a later post but now we set our sights on the AL West.

2007 Final Standings:
Name: W-L GB
Los Angles Angles of Anhiem 94-68 ---

Seatle Mariners 88-74 6.0

Oakland A's 76-86 18.0

Texas Rangers 75-87 19.0

Offseason moves by team

Angels: The biggest signing was without a doubt Torii Hunter. Hunter brings incredible defence and a above average bat to LA. He has in previous seasons shown his power potentiel. The only real concern with Hunter is that he is Injury prone but after he missed only two games in 2007 he should be ready to go. In the pitching department the Angles accuired Jon Garland from the White Sox for shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Garland isn't a top of the rotation guy but he should be able to eat up around 200 innings.

Mariners: The big new guy in Seatle is pitcher Eric Bedard. Bedard is comming off a 13-5 3.16 season in Baltimore and should provide a good young boost to the Mariners rotation that also includes "king" Felix Hernandez. Also accuried to the rotation but under little less fan fare than Bedard is Carlos Silva. He will provide good solid inning eating but nothing spectacular. The loss of Jose Guillien to the Royals was adressed with the signing of Brad Wilkerson.

A's: The A's we saw last season is no more. The "moneyball" era of Billy Beane is offcially over. Gone is Mark Kotsay, Nick Swisher and Dan Haren and the list just goes on forever. The replacements are ventren guys that are on thier back end of thier carrer such guys as Mike Sweeny and Emil Brown. Of course both very capable guys but let's face it they played in Kansas City not exactly the baseball town of America.

Rangers: If the A's lost a lot of players the Rangers gaiend a lot of players although the quality of them is sketchy. No doubt that Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton have great qualities but the antics of Bradley that will hunt him this season will be a problem and also with the only pitching help accuried being Jason Jennings it will be another tough season for the ragners fans.

2008 prediction

Los Angles Angles of Anahiem

Seatle Mariners

Oakland A's

Texas Rangers.

The Mariners will be the only serious challenge to the Angles. if Ichiro turns in another great season and the pitching works out then it will be a close race all the way to September but ultimtly the Angles will prevail.

Random thoughts....

This post will be a little of this and a little of that.
I will have two sections one for politics and one for sports. If you don't care for my wievs on American politics then skip that section.
Politics section:
Gov. Spitzer of New York is in deep trouble after it was reaveled that he was involved in a prostitute ring. What can i say other than "Man you Fed up" (see what i did right there :-D) He will now resign and if i were him i would move far far away and never seek any public office ever again. Which brings me to a person that is seeking the highest public office in America that of President. Senator Hillary Clinton is looking more and more like a desperate power hungry maniac that will pull out every dirty trick in the book to try to win. I know that Obama also is hitting the dirty tricks but to say that the only reason Obama is winning is because he is black is just too low. I know it was only an aide but still it doesn't look good. There is now no more scenarios in which she can catch Obama and he looks more and more like the winner but let's wait and see. It will come down to the superdelegates and i think in the end they will realize that they cant go against the popular vote because if they do they will be alienating the young vote and that is basically giving the election in the hands of McCain.

Sports section:

First we turn our attention to the Beckett situation. I am of the opinion that a little rest will do Mr. Beckett well and he should not be let anywhere near the opener in Japan. I say rest the guy and then get him going in April. I mean we don't need him in April we need him in October. And the Red Sox are deep enough at starting pitcher to be fine. Now the other big news in sports (Ok i admit it Beckett is only news if you are an obsessed red sox fan like yours truly) involves Yankee stadium being used for a Hockey game in January 2009. As you all know the old Yankee stadium will be torn down in 2009 because the Yankees will move to a new stadium. Now baseball purist will tell you that it's blasphemy not to have the final event at Yankee stadium be a baseball game. So many other events have been hosted at the stadium so making the last event a hockey game shouldn't be a problem. I say that "The house that Ruth build" easily also can be "The house that Jagr tares down". Now i like the thinking by the NHL here that it would be the Rangers against one of the original six. If i were the one i would take the offer that currently is a home and home series with the bruins. So the first game is at Yankee stadium and then the year after that have the outdoor game at Fenway park. It will all be good for the NHL.
I will be back on the blog next week with my MLB season predictions.
Mathies

A legend walks away....

On Tuesday it was revealed that Brett Farve has decided to call it quits. The greatest quaterback in my life time has stopped. Nothing that is said or written will ever describe the career that Mr. Farve. whether it's the Passing record or the TD record. (or for vikings fans the Interception record.) There is nothing bad to take away from him. The way he played the game was special and the way he carried himself off the field he always seem to have fun with the game. The NFL has lost one of it's greatest and most durable players ever. In closing all i can say is thank you Brett.