Preview/Prediction

With the beginning of Spring Training now a week gone, the focus shifts to opening day. What will the roster look like? How will the team avoid injuries during Spring Training? Who will be the opening day starter?

And most importantly, how will the team do this season?

All the other questions pale in comparison to the last one. How will the team perform? Will they be contenders or pretenders?

The A's, as always will depend on their pitching, and while the fifth starter spot is probably going to take a while to determine, the first four are already a certainty.

MLB Spring Training has only just started, but the MLB buzz is continuous. There is already buzz about mid-season trades to come. There's also already buzz about the free agents after this season.

Albert Pujols and C.C. Sabathia will probably continue to dominate the MLB buzz. There are some other buzz stories past Pujols and Sabathia, though.

Here are some of the latest buzz in the MLB world.

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With spring training knocking on the door and snow falling outside my window I can't help but dream of baseball. To get ready for the 2011 season I am going to break down each team in each division and give you my predictions for the winner, MVP, and breakout player from each division starting with the National League Central.

Cincinnati Reds

The Kansas City Royals lost some viable starters in their rotation over the past offseason.

Veteran Gil Meche retired, Brian Bannister left for the Japanese league and former Cy Young Award-winner Zack Greinke was traded to the Brewers.

With all of this recent turnover and many familiar faces gone from seasons past, this year's starting rotation will be full of question marks.

The following is how I see it shaking out for KC in 2011.

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Albert Pujols set a deadline to talk extension with the Cardinals, and they offered him less money than he wanted (reportedly in the $21 million per year range).

That's a lot of money, but being that he is the best player in the history of baseball he wanted more. I'm backing him especially after seeing the contracts that Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford got this offseason.

He deserves to be the highest paid player.

C.J. Wilson has been named the opening-day starter, Brandon Webb is being set back and Neftali Feliz is getting his crack at the rotation. In the first week of spring training, there's already been a lot of movement among the starting rotation candidates. Its time for a look at what the Rangers themselves will be looking at in regards to starting pitching options in Surprise, Arizona.

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During the offseason, the Milwaukee Brewers made perhaps the biggest move this side of Cliff Lee by dealing four players for former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke and shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. Combine that with locking up Rickie Weeks for another four years and signing free agent relief pitcher Takashi Saito, and it's fair to say the Brewers have been busy this winter.

With catchers and pitchers reporting to camp and spring training just around the corner, anticipation for the baseball season is at its highest. With the season a little more than a month away, it is the perfect time to make predictions for the 2011 MLB season.

A team is only as good as the last player on the bench.

The Padres bench in 2010 was good, but there was room for improvement.

Gone are the likes of Scott and Jerry Hairston, Matt Stairs, Yorvit Torrealba and probably Oscar Salazar. This is not a bad thing; after all, the Padres have Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus and Trevor Hoffman back...

What? Retired? All of 'em? When? Dang it.

Loretta was rolling for me in fantasy when he was a Padre a few years back; then he broke his wrist and screwed me over at second base for the rest of the season.

What a difference one week makes. Last week at this time, I knew everyone by name walking around the Nationals Spring Training complex in Viera, Florida. Today, I hardly knew anyone. The Washington Nationals' first official day of full roster workouts were met with hoards of media and many fans.

The National media, the local DC media and everything else in between were there for basically one reason: to see the spring training debut of the 18-year-old baseball phenom known as Bryce Harper.