Opinion

I’m getting dizzy from all the spinning the New York Yankees are doing on catching prospects Jesus Montero and, to a lesser extent, Austin Romine. In case you missed it, both were dismissed to the minor leagues after each failed miserably during spring training.

Wondering who the next great MLB star will be? Well navigating through such as question is not just par-for-the-course, but also a very debatable topic that pretty much leaves an open door for several mentions, for several reasons.

I have comprised a list of who I think will be the next set of MLB superstars, and I tried to mix in both players who have begun carving their name into the history books (players with no more than five years of service prior to this season), as well as, players just about to begin making their mark (rookies).

As the Oakland A’s get set to open the season at home against the Seattle Mariners, everyone in the A’s organization is excited about the potential of this team. Many will agree that with the Anaheim Angels, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers all either not improving their rosters or losing players to free agency, the American League West Division is there for the taking if the Oakland A’s choose to take advantage of their situation.

After being drafted in 2008, Daniel Hudson made his way through the minors quickly, reaching the majors a mere year later. His name skyrocketed to the top of the White Sox top prospects list.

With barely any of a trial period in the majors, Kenny Williams sent him off to Arizona for RHP Edwin Jackson last year. This left many Sox fans wondering if this was the right move at the time.

Earlier in the offseason, I was very cautious about the Braves and their playoff chances. The Braves were losing Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito, as well as key bench players. 

I was pleased with the Dan Uggla move, but that was only one player and the two relievers the Braves signed struggled lasted season.

The future for the Braves was looking a little foggy, but in the past month the news has been getting better. The first of this news is about Chipper Jones and his recovery.

It's time to call a spade a spade with the state of Jonathan Papelbon: He either soon finds a way to get the "giddy-up" back on his fastball or his struggles on the mound will likely cost him his job during the 2011 season. With setup relievers Daniel Bard and Bobby Jenks available, the team is unlikely to let Papelbon keep imploding like he did last year.

If you are a New York Yankees fan and see that the team has a losing record this spring, are you worried? 

Does a winning spring mean that the Kansas City Royals are finally going to have a good season? 

Is there any correlation between spring training wins and losses and regular season wins and losses?

Many baseball experts have looked at spring training results to see if they are a good indicator of what will happen in the regular season. The bottom line is they are not.

With their first winning spring training now in the books, the Washington Nationals today finalized the 25-man roster that they will take north to Atlanta for Opening Day.

Here are the important pieces of that roster and my predictions for how they’ll do in 2011. Of course, they do not take into account injuries, demotions, promotions and guys named Stephen Strasburg returning from Tommy John surgery.

Position Players

“The development was done last year... It’s time to play to win every day. That’s our mentality, and our expectations are that: building on the way we played in the second half of the season. We’re expecting to win.”

That quote from Indians manager Manny Acta, while a bit old (quoted in the New York Times on March 3), stands in stark contrast to the outlook of most Indians fans. Most of us are a jaded, bitter bunch expecting another flirtation with 100 losses.

There was a time back in the days, when the Cubs were lovable losers, when the team was managed by a succession of genial incompetents who routinely traded away their best prospects for has-beens and hired equally incompetent field managers who were generally long-suffering and sympathetic counterparts of the players they directed.