Opinion

Only a parking lot separates Paul Brown Stadium from Great American Ballpark, but it may as well be an entire time zone.

One organization is owned by a man who rarely talks, but when he does, I get about as much joy from it as being placed on hold while waiting to speak to someone from a credit card company.

He offers nothing but excuses for the failures of the organization.  Excuses, half truths and simply laughable justifications when asked why he does things the way he does.

The Cincinnati Reds were able to sign the 2010 N.L. MVP Joey Votto to a three year $38M extension.

It allows both sides a chance to avoid the arbitration process and it gives fans peace of mind that Votto will be a Cincinnati Red for the near future.

Ok that's great, but what's going to happen in 2013?

That's the question that Reds nation is wondering about in wake of the new deal. We'll get to that in a bit, first let's try and figure out who got the better end of the deal.

There are a large number of baseball players who have spent years, or even an entire decade, in the major leagues without ever reaching the playoffs or being able to win a championship.

Some get lucky with a trade deadline move or waiver claim that places them directly in the path of a ring. Cody Ross was one of the lucky ones this past season, collecting his World Series ring with the Giants after playing in San Francisco for only a few short months.

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Ryan Braun is a very good player. According to the MLB Network, he's the top left fielder in the game today.

In fact, Braun's numbers have been so good for the Brewers since joining the team in May 2007 that the argument can easily be made he's off to a Hall of Fame start to his career.

However, Braun's numbers have declined steadily since winning the NL Rookie of the Year award that season, and he needs a strong bounce-back in 2011 to re-establish himself as one of game's best players.

As a typical fan, you always wonder what if? What if my favorite team made the postseason? What if my favorite team made a move to sign this hot name off the market? What if the team I hated had it's franchise player suffer an injury like a torn rotator cuff?

Well it goes to show you we live in a world of what ifs and we always seems to wonder, what if.

It's been said over and over from the moment the 2010 baseball season ended: No one expects anything from the New York Mets in 2011.

Many of the so-called "experts" at ESPN have the Mets finishing behind the Washington Nationals in the NL East, which probably means the Mets will win the World Series next season.

At the conclusion of the 2010 season, which saw the Mets finish 79-83 and fourth in their division, the one thing on every Mets fan's mind was change.

Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane is still playing "Moneyball" to this day.

The team that used to perennially contend for the playoffs finished just exactly .500 last season, and was nine games out of first place behind the American League champion Texas Rangers.

Beane looks to compete more aggressively in 2011, as he has made quiet moves this offseason.

Pitchers and catchers report in a little over three weeks. It's been a short offseason for the Rangers and the Giants, but for everybody else, Spring Training can't get here quick enough. In this latest installment of MLB Predictions, we will look at players that we think will make a huge impact on their respective teams this upcoming season.

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

On long road trips, children love to ask that question, leaving frazzled parents who don't understand why their children have no sense of time or direction to say, "No!  Stop hitting your sister!  We still have a long way to go!"