Preview/Prediction

The St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright will have Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and will miss the entire 2011 season. 

While this puts a major damper on the Cardinals playoff hopes, last year's Major League Baseball playoff participants are faced with questions of their own.

Whether it's the New York Yankees or the World Champion San Francisco Giants, each of these teams will have to address major concerns if they hope to play deep into October for consecutive seasons. 

While the Atlanta Braves didn’t win their division in the last year behind manager Bobby Cox, they were able to end the year second in the division and grab the wild card spot with a record of 91-71.

Is this the smartest move for the St. Louis Cardinals to make?

Moving Carpenter throughout the league would open up viable cap room ($15 million), but his contract expires this year, meaning if he hit the dirt, they would just not re-sign him.

Former Philadelphia Phillie Jayson Werth signed with his former division rival Washington Nationals for $126 MM over seven years, which allowed Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. to offer a contract to the much-coveted Cliff Lee.

In a deal that shocked baseball where Lee left millions of dollars on the table, he decided to return to a team where he enjoyed the city, the team and the fans.

Lee decided that his comfort and the chance for history and a championship was more important than the money the Yankees offered him.

There isn't a lot to look forward to when it comes to the New York Mets in 2011. There are more questions than answers surrounding this team right now, and with the lawsuit stemming from the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme hanging over their heads, fan morale is at an all-time low.

Well cheer up Mets fans! It's Spring Training, and with it comes a clean slate. Will the Mets win the World Series this season? Probably not. Can they win the World Series? Sure they can; any team can. That's why it's a clean slate.

With all the talk surrounding King Albert this spring training and Jose Bautista signing a five-year extension, Bleacher Report has decided to look at the next group of MLB stars that are looking at potential long-term contract extensions.

With the economy not bouncing back like "experts" have said, teams are being more careful at handing out lucrative, long-term deals with their players and opting instead to spend money on player development. However, there are those players who are essential to their team's success and they will be paid accordingly. 

Spring Training reminds us why we love the game of baseball.

Like a beautiful plant, it sprouts in the spring, blooms in the summer and is put to rest in the fall.

The beginning of camp always brings the promise that this is the year that we can go all the way. Milwaukee Brewers fans have added hope this spring after years of frustration. GM Doug Melvin rebuilt the starting rotation with two major offseason acquisitions.

He first traded one of the Brewers top prospects, Brent Lawrie, to the Blue Jays for Shawn Marcum.

The San Francisco Giants had a magical ride in the 2010 season to win their first World Series title since moving to San Francisco in 1958.

Team owner Bill Neukom looked splendid in his bow ties. General manager Brian Sabean made some excellent moves throughout the season to bolster the team. Manager Bruce Bochy guided the team down the stretch flawlessly, and the players performed.

2010 was indeed a magical season and will live on in my memory forever. As a lifelong Giant fan, I have now been able to cross this item off my sports fan bucket list.

Philadelphia assembling their four aces over the last seven months they are early favorites to win the World Series this season.  Considering that Oswalt is 33 and turning 34 in August he is getting up there in age for a pitcher, and he might be going on the decline soon.

Be honest, at this time last year, was anyone picking the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series? In a sport that many will argue lacks a competitive balance, baseball has produced more than its fair share of surprise success stories of late.

Out of the previous eight World Series winners, five of them did not make the playoffs the previous season. That means 62.5 percent of recent World Series winning teams can be considered sleepers. The numbers are exactly the same for the runners-up over the same span of time.