Preview/Prediction

When the Brewers cut ties with veteran catchers Jason Kendall and Mike Rivera this winter, it appeared they were poised to turn the catching reins over to their top two prospects at the position: Jonathan Lucroy and Angel Salome.

That's both a scary and dangerous risk for an organization to take, so Brewers' GM Doug Melvin went out and signed George Kottaras and Gregg Zaun.

Why do so many writers in the baseball universe refer to Kevin Youkilis as over-rated or predict that his career will start to backslide?

Many of these pundits point to the fact he had a bad back throughout much of last year, and that back issues tend to linger and never go away—especially for a 31-year-old.  They assume that his back condition will be chronic, and with less time on the field he'll have fewer opportunities to produce runs.

Previously, I touched on ten National League rookies to keep an eye on. Let's shift our attention over to the American League.

Last year Andrew Bailey took the closer role in Oakland. Bailey finished the season with 27 saves and a 6-3 record, earning him AL Rookie of the Year honors.

The White Sox called on Gordan Beckham to take over at third base. Beckham answered by establishing himself as a consistent hitter with sneaky power and speed.

Matt Weiters stepped in as Baltimore's everyday catcher in June.

The NL East has been dominated by the Phillies the past couple years. This year isn't going to be any different, as the Phillies will be just as good, if not better, than last year. Although, 2nd place is up for grabs between the Marlins, Braves, and Mets. I could easily see the Braves taking that spot, and the Mets getting 3rd. Here are my predictions:

1. Philadelphia Phillies (97-65)

This continues my 2010 MLB preview. I intend to touch on every team in the major leagues in installments by division. The lineups I provide will be what I predict will be the most productive for each team for the MAJORITY of the season (e.g., Jason Heyward will be listed as the Braves RF even though he may not begin the season as the starter).

I will also provide the stereotypical letter grade to each team's lineup, rotation, bullpen, and depth/bench. Though it is trite, I think all baseball fans can identify with the letter grade system.

These aren't the Cleveland Indians from a few years ago.  This team has been gutted by trades, from Cy Young winners C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee to dealing Victor Martinez to the Boston Red Sox.  The 2010 edition of the Cleveland Indians will be very young and not very deep.

Pitching

Single-game tickets for New York Mets' regular season home games go on sale on Sunday at 10 a.m.

Among the games on offer for 2010 are 30 games against NL East rivals (including nine games against the Philadelphia Phillies), matchups with five of the six division winners from 2009, and three sets of much-anticipated interleague matchups.

I've already taken a look at the strong bullpens of Seattle and Oakland. The Angels' bullpen is less set than either the Mariners' or the Athletics', however.

Candidates I'll be analyzing include:
Brian Fuentes
Fernando Rodney
Scot Shields
Kevin Jepsen
Jason Bulger
Brian Stokes
Matt Palmer
Rafael Rodriguez
Fernando Rodriguez
Francisco Rodriguez
Rich Thompson

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In yesterday's Spring Training game against the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees fans got what was, for many, their first look at two young catchers in the Yankee organization.

Austin Romine took over behind the plate for Jorge Posada. Romine looked very steady behind the plate in his set up and how quiet he was receiving pitches.

He also showed good agility, blocking several balls in the dirt even though there were no Phillies runners on the bases.

There is a widespread consensus that the Red Sox starting rotation was significantly improved this winter.

But while most of that improvement is attributed to the signing of John Lackey, there is more to it than just that.

Lackey will no doubt improve the Sox rotation. But in addition to adding the best free agent pitcher on the market, the Red Sox improved their rotation through subtraction.