Preview/Prediction

The baseball world, and Boston in particular, is abuzz over the Red Sox bullpen this season.

Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt... What is and what isn't with the best 1-2-3-4 of the decade?

They're not going to win 80 games. They're not going to have the top three Cy Young vote getters. They're not all going to stay healthy.

They're not all going to win 20 games or make 30 starts. In fact, I bet they don't all make 25 starts.

They will be good enough to win the NL East. They will be very difficult to beat in the playoffs.

There is good news and bad news for the Tampa Bay Rays.  Most agree that there is much more bad news, considering that the Rays lost four pitchers who accounted for 226.1 of the Rays 454 relief innings: Rafael Soriano, Joaquin Benoit, Dan Wheeler, and Grant Belfour.

This is a sharp blow for a team that won the AL East last year, based almost solely on strong pitching and dominant defense.

Philadelphia may legitimately have the greatest rotation in the history of baseball. The law of averages says probably not, but the eye test certainly screams yes.

However, the Atlanta Braves have something that Philadelphia simply does not: a healthy, complete team. With injuries and key weaknesses spreading across their team, the Phillies look to be nothing more than paper champions.

Carlos Santana was only eight years old when the Cleveland Indians opened the doors to Jacobs Field in 1994. That team already featured Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and others, and they would add and subtract All-Stars throughout the next decade as fans poured through the turnstiles in record fashion.

A decade and a half later, the park goes by Progressive Field, but little progress seems to be occurring. Cleveland fans led the league in staying home in 2010. Meanwhile, the team itself had no breakout stars, saw its only big-name prospect arrive and get hurt and won only 69 games.

After being a San Francisco Giants fan since I was a little kid in 1962, and enduring so many disappointing failures, the 2010 season made it all worthwhile.  I was beginning to think the Giants winning the World Series would never happen in my lifetime. 

Although I am still basking in the afterglow of the Giants' first world championship in San Francisco, spring training is in full force.  The 2011 San Francisco Giants will be looking to defend their World Series title.

The Blue Jays have undergone great change the last few years and the franchise has taken on a new, fresher look for the 2011 season.

Gone are players like Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg, and, from a season ago, Roy “Doc” Halladay. In their place are a younger, cheaper players who are hopefully the long-term solution for the Jays going forward.

Here it is, a time preview that could eventually end up turning up as a reality throughout the duration of the 2011 MLB regular season.

The starting point is the American League's West Division. The smallest division in all of baseball contains four teams that will jockey for the top position. One of these teams is the defending-AL champion Texas Rangers. A big question mark here regards their ability to bounce back after a World Series defeat. 

One of the largest position battles out of the White Sox spring training camp is the starting third base job. Mark Teahen manned the hot corner for a majority of the season last year for the South Siders. He is no slouch defensively and has shown he can handle a bat. Through five seasons in Kansas City, he hit an overall .270 and 12 home runs a season.

9 Innings Blog will be bringing you previews of every Major League Baseball team for the next 30 days. This is in accordance with our 30 teams in 30 days series.

The second preview we are giving you today is the 2011 preview of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who are looking to climb back on top of the American League West division.

The Angels had a disappointing 2010 campaign, as they were favorites to win the AL West until the Rangers snagged LHP Cliff Lee from Seattle near the middle of the season.