Preview/Prediction

The New York Mets have had a very different offseason this year.  They are used to going after top free agents but due to their limited money available, they were forced to let the big name players go elsewhere. 

It must have been tough for Sandy Alderson coming to the Mets.  It was his first offseason with the team and he had limited resources to work with.  But he made the most out of it.

He's young, athletic, has a cannon for an arm and makes the game look easy. He has one of the sweetest-looking swings in the game and is as sure-handed a defender as they come.

It's time to show Robinson Cano some love.

For the past several years, Cano has been cementing himself as one of the elite second basemen in the league. Cano sports a lifetime .309/.347/.489 slash line in six seasons in the major leagues.

With the retirement of Andy Pettitte, the New York Yankees' fabled "Core Four" is now a "Core Three," which isn't nearly as catchy.

The Yankees locked up shortstop Derek Jeter for another four years and closer Mariano Rivera for another two, but Jorge Posada, who will serve as the team's primary DH this season as the Yankees move him away from full-time catching duties, is likely entering his final season with the team.

By this time next year, the Yankees could be down to a "Core Two" of Rivera and Jeter.

I’ll continue my previews of the upcoming seasons of each major league team with the Twins. I’m trying a different format for this one. My previews for the Reds, Phillies, Yankees and Giants were long, sprawling, analyses/rants/speculations that seem to read too much like research papers and not enough like journalistic pieces, so I’m going to go the slideshow route here.

The baseball offseason has all but come to a close and just over two weeks remain until the Atlanta Braves’ first spring training game against the New York Mets on Feb. 26.

No Braves player is itching to get back onto the field quite like Brooks Conrad.

This slideshow is going to run through the top 10 pitchers the Yankees should be looking at right now.  You will see, though, that some of these guys could be long shots.  The Yankees do need to look at some pitchers right now because of the absence of Andy Pettitte, who officially announced his retirement last Friday.  This creates a huge void, as the team needs someone outside CC who could become a surefire ace.

Begin Slideshow

A Giants/Rangers World Series?

Jose Bautista?

It’s sufficed to say that 2010 was a joke in terms of, well, everything. Fantasy owners and baseball fans shouldn’t stress–2011 will be nothing of the sort.

Last season in baseball was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie; you never knew what was going to happen next. This year should turn out like an Adam Sandler movie; same plot, same cast, a couple of laughs, same result, you go home.

Heading into the 2011 season, catcher is one of the last things that the Chicago Cubs will need to worry about, as long as Geovany Soto is lining up behind the dish.

Soto bounced back from a very poor sophomore season in 2010. After winning Rookie of the Year in 2008, Soto hit just .218 in 2009, with only 11 homers.

The 2010 season saw Soto bounce back from that sophomore slump, posting a .280 average and parking 17 big flies. 

Chipper Jones, who has been a staple in the Atlanta Braves lineup since 1995, will play this season under new management for the first time in his career.

How will this affect him? This is one of many questions that the aging superstar will have to answer in his 2011 campaign.

Whilst recovering from a career-threatening injury, the most prominent question on fan’s minds is whether or not he will be healthy enough to play, and play effectively.

It’s true: The Cardinals without Albert Pujols is like Corn Flakes without the milk. It’s like the Colts without Peyton Manning. It’s like Oney Guillen without his Twitter account. 

But it could happen. Pujols has set a February 19 deadline to strike an extension deal with the Cardinals, and reports say the two sides will need a lot of steam to iron out these differences.