NL West: ( Dodgers and D-Backs battle it out to the end)
1. Dodgers: Manny in the line the entire year helps young hitters Kemp, Loney, & Ethier Improve to win a overall mediocre division.
2. Diamondbacks: Good pitching, but need a little more hitting to compete with LA.
3. Giants: Best pitcher in baseball, and I think their line up will be less crappy then last year but still pretty crappy.
4. Rockies: They lost their best player (Holliday) and their pitching is still weak.
5. Padres: No Offense and Peavy will be pitching for someone else by the end of the year.

NL Central (No other team is close to the Cubs talent)
1. Cubs: 7 guys can hit 20HR in their line up and 4 pitchers that can get 15 wins
2. Cardinals: Larussa & Pujols always seem to manage to get the most out of this team.
3. Brewers: Their window might have closed last year.
4. Reds: Young talent like Votto, Cueto, & Volquez lead an improving team. If Harang can bounce back they could contend in this division.
5. Astros: This team is actually pretty decent, but they bore me so I have them 5th.
6. Pirates: The Pirates spend more time on the bottom then Sienna Miller.

NL East (Top 4 teams are all playoff contenders)
1. Marlins: Johnson and Volstad have break out years and a really strong offense helps them become this year’s Tampa.
2. Mets (Wild Card): Putz and K-Rod help prevent late innings collapses this year.
3. Phillies: World Series hang over.
4. Braves: A pretty good team in a tough division. D-Lowe wins 17 games and spends over a million dollars at strip joints.
5. Nationals: I will be shocked if they win 60 games. Worst team in baseball.

AL West: (worst division in baseball)
1. A’s: Good young pitchers and Holliday leading an improved offense puts them back on top.
2. Angels: Too many players with injury questions
3. Rangers: Same old story, they will win games 12-8 and lose games 12-8.
4. Mariners: A poorly constructed team.

AL Central:
1. Twins: I think their young pitching led by Baker a healthy Liriano
2. Indians: Shin-Soo Choo puts up huge numbers (.300 30 100) and becomes a the break out star of the year.
3. Royals: They will be better, but still don’t have enough for a Tamps style breakout year.
4. White Sox: A solid team, but not enough to win the division this year.
5. Tigers: Their young pitchers already seem kind burnt out. Because of the economy they could have a fire sale that will help a contender.

AL East: (The most talent in one division since the wild card realignment. Epic is one of the most overused words of the past few years, but it is the operative word to describe what is going to go down between the Sox, Yankees, and The Rays this year. You could create an All Star team just from those 3 teams that would beat an All Star team made up from the teams in the rest of baseball. I think Baltimore has some up and coming talent and the Blue Jays have the most consistently great pitcher in baseball in Holladay.)
1. Tampa Bay: Upton, Longoria, and Crawford all put up better numbers then last year and Burrell gives the offense some veteran power. Price will start in the minors, but should be in the majors giving strong starts soon)
2. Red Sox (Wild Card) I love our pitching this year. Beckett’s history is to have a great year after a down year. Lester has the stuff, poise, and experience to win the Cy Young this year. Dice-K will continue to do his 6 innings, 5 walks, 2 hits, 2 runs victories. Wakefield does his thing. Penny looks like he might be recovered from his injury and Buchholz who showed great stuff in the spring is waiting in the wings. The Bullpen still has Papelbon in the end and about 5 guys who could be solid set up men. I am a little worried about the offense relative to past year. A lot depends on how healthy Ortiz, Lowell, and Drew are and if Jacoby can improve his OBP at the top of the line up.
3. Yankees: I admit that this team could easily win a 100 games and the World Series if everything goes right, but there are too many things that can go wrong. For one, their best player A-Rod is trying to come back from a serious injury and he is getting older and presumably won’t have PED to help him recover. Unless A-Rod can get healthy and be A-Rod numbers again, their offense even with Teixeira is not as solid top to bottom as the Sox or Rays. Also in general, players usually don’t have their best year when they first come to N.Y. In The end, They will win 90+ games, but be the odd team out.
4. Orioles: Nick The Greek has a break out year.
5. Blue Jays: If they are back by a lot of games at the All Star break, they may start trading key players before the deadline.

NL Playoffs:

Cubs over Mets: The Cubs eventually have to put it together in the playoffs right?
Marlins over Dodgers: Marlins have too many power bats and power arms

Cubs over Marlins: The Cubs have the money to get a player in a trade during the season like Peavy to help put them over the top

AL Playoffs:

Tampa Bay over A’s: Any team from the west is getting crushed.
Red Sox over Twins: Sox too much offense and pitching

Tampa Bay over The Sox: I hate to predict that, but baseball is becoming a young mans game and I think Tampa’s bats will have more pop left in them at this point in the season then the Sox bats.

World Series
Tampa Bay over The Cubs: Dick Vitale and dozens of die hard Rays fans rejoice at the Trop as thousands of Cubs fans who made the trip down from Chicago cry.


National League Awards:
MVP: Hanley Ramirez
Cy Young: Tim Lincecum
Rookie Of The Year: Cameron Maybin, Marlins
Manager Of The Year: Fredi Gonzalez (FL)

American League Awards:
MVP: Evan Longoria
Cy Young: Jon Lester
Rookie of The Year: David Price
Manager of The Year: Trey Hillman (KC)