Preview/Prediction

The 2010 baseball season is upon us and that means it's prediction time.

The consensus on the Cincinnati Reds is sleeper status. They have the potential to make a run with their abundance of young talent. On the other hand, a injury here or there and the Reds will be lucky to break the horrid streak of nine straight years finishing below .500.

The problem is there are too many questions.

What if Aroldis Chapman and his 100 mph fastball are called up in June and he takes the National League by storm?

Adam Wainwright is coming off a season where he posted career bests in wins, earned run average, strikeouts, games started, and innings pitched.

The scary thing for opponents is that Wainwright didn’t just beat his career bests last season—he shattered them.

His previous best in wins, 14, was replaced with a National League leading 19; his best ERA, 3.12, was replaced by a 2.60 ERA; his career best strikeout total of 136 was upped to 212, and his previous career high of 202 innings pitched was increased to 233, which was also tops in the NL.

The 2009 Philadelphia Phillies team hit 10 home runs more than the year before and scored 21 more runs and had 26 more RBI.

The offense led the team to its second straight National League pennant. They fell short in six games to the New York Yankees, but heck, Chase Utley tied Reggie Jackson's record of five home runs in a single World Series.

You ain't seen nothing, yet.

Monday's 11-1 thrashing of the Washington Nationals on Opening Day was no mirage.

Sure the team will go into funks, but no more less than 10 runs scored in a week.

Opening day and has come and gone, and while it’s clear guys like Jason Heyward will make a fantasy impact this season, it’s also important to keep an eye on the lesser-known sleeper candidates. With that in mind, I present to you the Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ 2010 All-Breakout Team!

Check out the 2009 All-Breakout Team , which featured Billy Butler and Matt Wieters.

The air is sticky sweet in Atlanta.

Thick with the buzz from a thawed-out spring, this summer breaks entry to a group of men who will have the inhabitants of this great city by the heartstrings.

This collection of great men, some young (too young to go to the bar, in fact) and some old (old enough to call it quits at 68), will take Atlanta deep into September and maybe, just maybe, show the four-year starved city what October baseball feels like again.

This article is the final part of a five-part series of articles breaking down the Cubs' roster. You can view part four, which covers the starting lineup, here.

In the first four parts of this series, I laid out the Cubs' roster as it currently stands and projected out many of the different decisions that will need to be made during the season.

Although the 2010 Jays offense has already been discussed there is much more to an offense than just those who start the game. In fact, who is on the bench or in the system can be just as important as who makes opening day.

This year the Toronto bench has taken a new approach cleansing and avoiding the talent past its prime, such as Frank Thomas or Kevin Millar, and opted for youthful zeal. The Jays bench is certainly not the best in baseball, by a long shot, but it does contain most of the pieces that a bench in the American League needs.

The Bench:

That familiar smell is in the air. The smell of freshly cut grass, water soaking the once hard packed dirt that sat dormant for the past few months, the brand new bats being taken out of the bags and being stacked for each individual player, and the anticipation of a new season to come.

In just a few short hours, players from both the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays will make their way to the Ballpark at Arlington and begin a six-month marathon to the World Series.

It's pretty clear that the 2010 MLB Draft is going to be pitcher heavy. Aside from catcher prospect Bryce Harper (aka the second coming of Stephen Strasburg in position player form), who is practically a shoe-in to go No. 1, you have to drop down to the 10-15 top prospect range to find a legit position player who is a can't miss player.

I profiled hard throwing right-hander Jameson Taillon a few days ago as a prospective future Oriole prospect, and today it is Anthony Ranaudo's turn.

Ready for the first pitch?

The Chicago Cubs open up the 2010 campaign facing the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field at 3:10 PM CST today for the first time in the club’s history. Only four other times have the Cubs and Braves met in an opener.

The most recent matchup was at Wrigley Field in 1993, when Greg Maddux pitched his first game as a Brave and shut out the Cubs, 1-0, in 8 1/3 innings of work. Maddux went on to win the Cy Young Award in ‘93, and in ’94...and in ’95.