Preview/Prediction

Last Year: 81-81, Third in AL Central 

Manager: Jim Leyland 

PROJECTED LINEUP 

C- Alex Avila (L)

1B- Miguel Cabrera (R)

2B- Will Rhymes (L)

3B- Brandon Inge (R)

SS- Jhonny Peralta (R)

LF- Ryan Rayburn (R)

CF- Austin Jackson (R)

RF- Magglio Ordonez (R)

DH- Victor Martinez (S)

2B- Carlos Guillen (S) (start season on DL)

With opening day only three days away, the Cincinnati Reds roster is looking more like the Walking Wounded than a defending champion.

A pitching rotation of Edinson Volquez, Bronson Arroyo, Travis Wood, Mike Leake and probably Sam LeCure will not strike fear into the hearts of the collective sluggers of the Milwaukee Brewers. Their combined ERA is 6.45.

The MLB season is less than a week away, and at this point we are all making our preseason predictions.

Some of the most popular predictions are the major awards, MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, etc. 

There are favorites, hometown heroes and dark horses in every race.

The question facing the players is: “who’s taking home the hardware?”

Ever wonder why only two teams (New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays) have won consecutive World Series championships since 1993? Ever wonder why only one team (Boston Red Sox) has won multiple World Series championships in the last decade? If you had to ask these questions, then the answer is that there is parity in baseball, and any team can rise up and take the prize.

Last year, the San Diego Padres went from worst to first, then first to second in the same year. The San Francisco Giants made a few deadline moves here and there, and BOOM! World champs!

After a flurry of moves today, the 25-man roster heading north with the parent club has become as clear as it's been all spring. Justin James and Mike McClendon were optioned to the minor leagues and once GM Doug Melvin traded minor leaguer Cutter Dykstra for OF Nyjer Morgan, Brandon Boggs was placed on waivers.

Catcher:

Catcher and first base are the only two positions Cardinal fans should feel comfortable with defensively. Yadier Molina is easily one of the best defensive catchers in the game. I won’t bore you with stats, but suffice it to say Molina’s defensive numbers at the end of each season consistently rank among the top 10 in the league.

It's hard to believe, but the regular season is less than a week away. Teams in both the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues are preparing to pack up and head home for a long season.

While the mainstays of each team's roster spend the spring honing their skills and preparing for the season, many rookies look at camp as their opportunity to prove that they belong at the Major League level.

With less than one week to go, every team has questions, concerns and confidence heading into the new season. 

After one month of watching the MLB channels and reading various magazines, here are some points/predictions/questions that come to my mind:

National League

Arizona Diamondbacks

Until the recent wave of new-age statistics were introduced to baseball fans around the globe, the only way fans could decide what type of season a pitcher had was by looking at wins, ERA and WHIP.

Over the last decade, however, stats such as batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and home run-to-fly ball ratio (HR/FB) have allowed fans to get a better glimpse into which pitchers were plain bad and which were just having some bad luck.

So which five pitchers are the best bets to bounce back in 2011? Let's examine the numbers.

Last Year

85-77, 4th in AL East 

Manager: John Farrell 

PROJECTED LINEUP

C - JP Arencibia (R)

1B - Adam Lind (L)

2B - Aaron Hill (R)

3B - Jose Bautista (R)

SS - Yunel Escobar (R)

LF - Travis Snider (L)

CF - Rajai Davis (R)

RF - Juan Rivera (R)

DH - Edwin Encarnacion (R)