Rankings/List

Baseball is finally here. No more predictions and projections—we can finally get some real numbers to chew on. There's really no better feeling than Opening Day.

There were six games on the Opening Day slate:

Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees: CC Sabathia vs. Justin Verlander

Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals: Derek Lowe vs. Livan Hernandez

Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds: Yovani Gallardo vs. Edinson Volquez

LA Angels at Kansas City Royals: Jered Weaver vs. Luke Hochevar

Another baseball season has gotten underway with a smattering of baseball games on Thursday, and once again spring is here...figuratively, if not literally.

Baseball, of course, is driven by statistics more than any other sport, and the game is filled with wonderful statistical milestones that set apart the mortals from the immortals.

The 2011 season promises to see many players crossing significant career milestones, with Derek Jeter crossing that holiest of holy marks, the 3,000-hit barrier.

Let's have a look at 20 significant milestones that we may see in 2011.

Opening Day is finally here.

Aside from the beautiful smell of fresh hot dogs and sausages simmering on an open fire, it is the mark of another calendar year where the Chicago Cubs have another shot at ending their 102 years of championship futility.

Every team is hopeful that this year is their year.

But for Chicago Cubs players and fans, this slogan has been said so much, that it has lost all of its meaning.

First of all, let me state that I have nothing against GM Brian Cashman or the New York Yankees organization. I know Cashman does his best to keep a playoff-contending team year in and out. 

What this is for is to just lay out the possibilities that "could have been," as the Yankees' goal towards 28th championship has officially started today.

Now, the following prospects are very hyped ones—or at least they used to be. 

One of the most storied franchises in the world, the St. Louis Cardinals have captured 10 World Series championship trophies.

Recently awarded a Medal of Freedom by president Obama, Cardinal for life—Stan Musial—is a champion in baseball and in life.  Considered one of the best hitters ever in the majors, he's ranked somewhere on my list of all-time Cardinals rippers. 

Zip along for the ride to find out where.  Rip camera one...

New York Yankees (2010 record: 95-67)

The Yankees entered the offseason expecting to sign LHP Cliff Lee to a lucrative deal, but a funny thing happened on the way to the ballpark—the Philadelphia Phillies signed Lee out from under their nose at the 11th hour. Hey, turn about is fair play, right? The Yankees did the same thing to the Boston Red Sox a few years ago when they stepped in and signed Mark Teixeira at the last minute. Karma can be a real bitch!

Opening day is finally here!

These 10 rookies have made it one step further to becoming an MLB mainstay by breaking camp with their big league squad, so look for them to capitalize on every opportunity they get.

Capturing Rookie of the Year honors with a spectacular 2011 season as their main goal and here are the 10 rookies to watch on Opening Day weekend.

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These are the five reasons/ways the Pirates will make the playoffs this season.

If the Pirates make the playoffs, the city of Pittsburgh will go crazy. This is a city that is deserving of a great baseball team.

I have no doubt that if the Pirates were good, the seats would be full. They had a better attendance a year ago than the Rays, which is absurd.

A lot of Penguins fans jumped on the bandwagon of Sidney Crosby and the new-look Penguins.

I have no doubt that the same thing would happen if the Pirates were good.

Before the start of the season, I wanted to see which pitchers statistically had the best fastballs, curveballs, sliders, cutters, changeups and splitters of the 2010 season.

Here are a look at the top curveballs of the 2010 season. A few notes:

The Pitch Value data was created by Fangraphs.com. I will be using the statistic, wCH, which denotes the runs above average for a particular pitch—in this case a curveball.  

Well, now that most of our NCAA brackets resemble the Libyan Air Force, we can move onto something that can provide some much needed optimism: fantasy baseball. What would the start of the season be without a rankings list?