Baseball

Last year, I did a ridiculously early playoff prediction.

I picked the Blue Jays and Mets to meet in the World Series... The Blue Jays started off the season on-fire and I got excited, but then failed... and the Mets were riddled with injuries.

However, I did get five out of the eight teams right -- the Rockies, Dodgers, Cardinals, Yankees, and Twins.

In an offseason where mediocre catchers have received some fairly sizable contracts (Jason Kendall and Ivan Rodriguez, just to name two), there are some teams who could be looking from within to fill their voids. 

While everyone’s mind instantly jumps to Buster Posey, the Astros have their own catching prospect who could emerge before 2009 comes to a close.

When it comes to the Mariners and Cubs, I’m fairly split in terms of my opinions. I’m a fan of each team, and it’s hard for me to distinguish my fandom. The two teams have played only six games against each other outside of spring training, so there hasn’t been a lot of reason to root for one over the other.

Actually, the Cubs and Seattle hold some history together, as Lou Piniella managed the Mariners for several years, and Ryne Sandberg, the Cubs' Hall-of-Fame second baseman grew up in Spokane, WA.

I'm a member of the "new school," that typically looks hard at sabermetrics as a form of player evaluation and takes issue with those inside the game who don't.

Dayton Moore and Ed Wade are the two easiest targets in baseball front offices for sabermetric scorn, but the Mets' Omar Minaya is pretty close.

Then again, nobody likes Minaya these days; at least, I don't think many Mets fans do (as an A's fan, I wouldn't know). Heck, I just blasted his Rule 5 pick, Carlos Monasterios, in my last article.

But, for one night, I'm going to give the man some props.

How do you think that conversation went?

Cubs GM: "I'll give you a career .277 hitter with average power and average fielding ability."

Mariners GM: "Alright. We could use an outfielder to fill a hole in our team. Never hurts to have a decent bat."

Cubs GM: "What could we get in return?"

As one of B/R's resident minor league experts, I often like to share my knowledge of the minors with those of you who don't have the desire and/or the time to keep up with all this stuff, particularly outside of your own favorite organization.

Few times of year in the baseball world call for such a transfer of knowledge as the Rule 5 Draft, which occurred at the Winter Meetings last week.

I thought I'd do a brief writeup of the 17 players selected in the draft.

This marks the third edition in my new series in which I am attempting to name the top ten players in the history of each MLB franchise. This one will take a look at some of the Rockies greats.

With as prolific an offense as the Rockies have had through the years, it only makes sense that the top seven guys on this list would be hitters.

The Milwaukee Brewers recently signed catcher Matt Treanor to a minor-league deal, in hopes that he will compete for the backup role out of spring training.

Milwaukee already has its full-time catcher in 38-year old Gregg Zaun, who was already told that he will get the majority of the starts behind the dish.

Zaun was signed when Jason Kendall was let go to free agency and quickly signed with the Kansas City Royals.

The Brewers lost their backup catcher from the past few years when Mike Rivera decided to join the free-agent market as well.

Continuing with the theme of last night's position players article (see: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/310728-heres-a-thought-nathaniels-ext...), here is a look at who, among the current pitchers in the Oakland organization, is best served to break camp with the team in 2010.

As I said in the other article, a lot can happen between now and then, but this operates on an "If the Season Started Tomorrow" premise.