Preview/Prediction

As the NBA All-Star weekend comes to a close and the Raptors get back to the grind, I find myself thinking more about the upcoming MLB season. The time until spring training can be measured in days and before we know it opening day will be upon us.

For baseball fans in Toronto, the first pitch will begin a season-long question and answer period. Even though we have little chance to make any kind of push, I will enjoy watching to see how everything turns out.

Last season was gutrenching, not just for me, but for Mets fans everywhere. This off-season, I expected some sort of shinning light or hope and all I found was a lame excuse for why the sun didn't shine. Time and time again, I always tell myself that "oh, the Mets will be fine this year, you gotta believe!" but other times I start to wonder what happened to the 2006 Mets I loved so much.

I was very high on Jason Bay last year. I figured he would drive in a ton of runs with Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia at the top of Boston’s lineup.

He did not disappoint with 36 HRs and 119 RBI despite missing 11 games.

He’s moved on to the Mets this year, and he still figures to have plenty of opportunities hitting behind the likes of Jose Reyes and David Wright.

Bay has reached 100-plus RBI in four of his last five years, with nearly four of those years coming in Pittsburgh, so I don’t see him having a problem reaching that figure.

On March 24, 2008, Claudio Vargas was a member of the Milwaukee Brewers and competing for a spot in the starting rotation. On March 25, 2008, Claudio Vargas lost that competition and was cut from the team altogether.

In reality, there were too many starters for not enough spots in that rotation...on March 25. Shortly after, Chris Capuano was injured and hasn't thrown a pitch in the Majors since. Thus is the tenuous nature of pitching. One day you can have an apparent surplus and the next you can have a severe dearth.

With pitchers and catchers due to report to Spring Training this week, the race to find the next ace for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is about to heat up.
Typically a strength in Anaheim, it was the Angels' pitching staff that set an ominous tone at the start of the 2009 season.
John Lackey injured his shoulder just weeks before Opening Day. Ervin Santana was sidelined after straining his forearm early on in Spring Training.

To celebrate my 50th article here on Bleacher Report, here are the top three things I'd like to see from the Oakland A's in 2010.

1. A's Stay Healthy in '10

A little more than a month ago, Red Sox Nation learned that starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka told a Japanese magazine that he suffered a leg injury early last year while in training for the World Baseball Classic, and that he kept the injury hidden from the team.

When Trevor Hoffman signed with the Milwaukee Brewers prior to the 2009 season, there were some people out there that actually weren't excited about it.

Hoffman is Major League Baseball's all-time saves leader, a sure-fire Hall of Fame member, and one of the best closers of all time, if not the best. After the debacle that the Eric Gagne signing turned out to be...shouldn't it have been sheer relief if nothing else from the fan base?

Even still, there were skeptics. Hoffman had no problem proving those people wrong.

2009 Record: 87-76
2010 Prediction: 88-74
Predicted Finish: 2nd

Offensive Projections:
http://www.fan-exchange.com/mlb/teamhittingpredictions.asp?userid=53&franchid=MIN&yearid=2010

Aside from sharing a name with one bad ass Canadian '80s pop singer (kidding), Corey Hart also saw a promising career dry up. Of course, the baseball version can be attributed to injury, and a successful comeback is more than likely.

Hart quietly was one of the better all-around fantasy outfielders in 2007 and 2008 with the following lines: