Carlos Beltran

For as long as most of us can remember, the Dallas Cowboys have been America's Team. 

A lot of that has to do with the teams locale, the dearth of professional teams that existed in America's heartland when the 'Boys broke onto the expansion scene in 1960.

This point may be moot, due to a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme (I'm still rooting for a, "Bernie Madoff Made off with My Team's Payroll and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt" promotional day) but if there is a choice for the Mets between going for it or rebuilding, they should rebuild.

It may be just a spring training exhibition match, but the opening game of the season could set the tone for the entire year. 

We may never know if the Wilpon family, principal owners of the New York Mets, benefited or lost as a result from dealings with Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

However, we will soon know if the Wilpons' involvement with Madoff will cost their beloved Mets on the field.

The recent lawsuit against the Wilpons will cost them millions. It's not relevant if they win or lose in the courtroom.

There isn't a lot to look forward to when it comes to the New York Mets in 2011. There are more questions than answers surrounding this team right now, and with the lawsuit stemming from the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme hanging over their heads, fan morale is at an all-time low.

Well cheer up Mets fans! It's Spring Training, and with it comes a clean slate. Will the Mets win the World Series this season? Probably not. Can they win the World Series? Sure they can; any team can. That's why it's a clean slate.

2009 was a disaster for the New York Mets. It seemed that if something could go wrong, it did. 2010 wasn’t much better for the Mets, but at least David Wright (.283-87-29-103-19) and Jose Reyes (.282-83-11-54-30) rebounded.

2011 is going to be an interesting year for the New York Mets. They definitely have talent in the lineup and potential on the mound, but who knows what's going to happen with this team. They seem to build us up every year only to let us down. But, unlike a lot of people that I'm seeing on this site, I'm going to keep having faith in this team. The grades in this article are not based on the players' 2010 seasons, but on the players themselves looking forward to 2011. Here's a look at the 2011 roster.

So far, I've taken quite a beating on my predictions for the American League.  Choosing the Rays to finish last in the AL East stirred up a little bit of debate.  But, hey, it's all part of the game.  Everyone makes their bold predictions, and that's mine for the upcoming season.

Will I be correct?

Probably not, but it never hurts to make a bold prediction. 

Although they have always been overshadowed by the Bronx Bombers, the Mets have possessed their fair share of baseball's greatest, especially in recent time. The Mets offense struggled during most of the 1960s until it all of a sudden became clutch in 1969 when they won their first World Series. The offense was better, but still inconsistent during the 1970s. When the Mets won, they were hitting, but during the latter years in which they were a losing team, the hitting was not the same. In the 1980s, the Mets were consistently hitting well, probably their best offensive decade.

There is a media circus brewing in baseball. It has just begun and will continue to build and grow into an unstoppable force in the months of the season to come. I am not talking about the Mets finances. Not immediately anyway.