mlb predictions

With one week of Spring Training left, it's time to get the crystal ball down from the attic, dust it off, and see what the future holds for baseball in 2010.

Last year this was a lot easier. Just pick the Yankees to win it all and be done with it.

While I was tempted to do the same thing for 2010, I just don't see it that way for this season. Not to say that the Yanks won't win the American League, but things will definitely be a little tougher for the game's richest team this
season.

Hopefully after reading these next few pages you will know exactly where your team stands for 2010.

If nothing else, the Omar Minaya era certainly hasn’t lacked drama.

At first he looked like another Frank Cashen in the making when he rebuilt a floundering Mets franchise. His ability to lure Hispanic marquee free agents, coupled with his ability to find diamonds in the rough (John Maine for Kris Benson?! What a steal!), seemingly appeared to trigger an era in which the Mets would be a force for many years.

Today we are completing our quick tour of the NL East with our favorite team: the New York Metropolitans!  2009 was a tough year for the Mets as they were beset by a plague of injuries and ended up finishing fourth in the NL East ahead of only the lowly Nationals.

If there is a team that could be considered the polar opposite of the juggernaut-like Philadelphia Phillies that team would be the Washington Nationals . The Nationals are a team on the rise under GM Mike Rizzo, in his short tenure he has added the best defensive OF in the game and made some moves to prepare the Nationals for contention in the not-to-distant future.

With just over 90 games remaining in the regular season, it’s much too early to praise or condemn players for their play thus far, but a few have definitely stood out and not only made names for themselves, but majorly impacted their teams as well.

Below is a short list of players who have far exceeded expectations, based on a combination of the past history with an emphasis on their 2008 performance.

1) Matt Cain—SF (9-1, 2.39 ERA)

I analyze Gil Meche starts as much, maybe more than starts by Zack Greinke.  Gil Meche is my favorite Royal right now and let me tell you, whoever that was wearing his jersey yesterday was NOT Gil Meche.

Actually, it was Gil Meche, but not the Gil Meche we have known for the past two seasons.  It strikes me that Meche is simply out of sync: kind of like you get on a bad day on the golf course.  You know your swing is wrong, but you can't get it fixed. 

My 2009 predictions based on the 2008 season article unleashed a plethora of insults (some community....).

Basically, 2008 was a wild season because of the Rays going from the worst record in baseball in 2007 to the World Series in 2008.

And because the Washington Nationals had the worst record in 2008, the system had them going to the World Series in 2009.

Time to go West, my friends. I don’t think we are going to find the best baseball out here this year. Lately, for some reason, the East Coast is dominating things in sports. In the NCAA’s, it was something like two or three teams from out west were one of the top four seeds, 16 overall. The only recent World Series winners from out west were the Angels and Diamondbacks, the latter's championship dating back to their Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling years.

I don’t see the trend changing this year.

Sorry for the delay but without further ado.

Cole Hamels’ evaluation came back relatively clean.  There was no structural damage after having an MRI and an ultrasound on his elbow and Philly fans can take a collectively sigh of relief.  He’s diagnosed with tendinitis, but Opening Day is still doubt.  The concern I have is the extreme jump in innings last year and the link to injury.  Additionally, I think you can get similar production much lower in the draft.