Rankings/List

Baseball season begins April 4, so it’s time to predict the outcomes for every team in the NL. Look for your favorite squads and compare your picks to mine.

I’ve ranked the teams based on their predicted finish for the 2010 season. I’ve also ranked each squad’s batting and pitching on a letter scale, with a short explanation following.

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The New York Mets were blessed with one of the best defensive players to ever pick up a glove when they traded Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey to the St. Louis Cardinals back in 1983.

For all the nitty gritty, nuts-and-bolts of what to expect from shortstops and your upcoming fantasy baseball draft, you can check out our extensive shortstop composite and ADP rankings.

However, we know how valuable your time is. The significant other has a springtime honey-do list a mile long, and the MLB season is fast approaching. Don't worry, we have your back.

For much of the 1990's, the Milwaukee Brewers had one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball. Things began to turn around with former GM Dean Taylor and continued with the team of current GM Doug Melvin and former director of scouting Jack Zduriencik.

Over the last six years, Baseball America has ranked the Brewers farm system in their top 10 four times, including No. 3 in 2005. The Brewers have done a great job producing young hitters, but they are still waiting on young pitching to add to Yovani Gallardo.

Unlike other lists, you won't see Mat Gamel or Alcides Escobar on this list.

It happens every year.

An established veteran suffers from injuries or a heralded youngster isn't up to the task at hand. An overlooked rookie or a career benchwarmer gets some at-bats at the starter's expense and suddenly finds his groove.

A good game becomes two good games, and a few days later is labelled a bona fide hot streak. By the end of the week, he appears on fantasy rosters nationwide, and every baseball fan in the country knows the name "Ben Zobrist" or "Andrew Bailey."

There's no way to predict where the next big fantasy sleeper will come from.

This was an article I wasn't going to dare trying to include all 100+ years of A's history on, so I chose to just focus on the Oakland years. Ranking these moments was out of the question too, so I just listed them chronologically. Older A's fans who lived through the 1970's World Series runs, please correct me if I missed any significant moments there.

This is my third and final "Evergreen" assignment from bleacherreport.com as part of an agreement in becoming a featured columnist. I'm glad to have these assignments behind me so I can continue writing the articles I want to write.

Yesterday I took a look at which batters were ripping up the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues.

So naturally, today I will look at which pitchers are in midseason form.

Here are the spring training All-Star pitchers. Stats are through March 25, 2010.

SP: Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves—3-1 with a 1.35 ERA and 17 K’s in 20.1 IP

Hudson is fully recovered now from Tommy John surgery and could turn into the Braves’ ace as the season moves along. Last time Hudson was completely healthy, he did win 16 games.

As Phillies fans, we all remember Joe Blanton going yard against the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series.

Looking at the batting averages, however, Blanton is only a .111 lifetime hitter, so he musta been feed a real juicy fastball to hit.

Most Phillies historians remember that Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton was traded for Rick Wise.

Both however, were pretty good hitting pitchers.

In his presentation, I will pick the top Phillies pitching hitters.

Criteria includes that they played for more than one season for the Phillies and unless they had an awesome display of power one game,

The name of the Cubs spring training facility, HoHoKam, literally means "those who vanished". That is appropriate as we embark on a journey of past Cubs spring training stars and "can't miss kids" who did.

The current spring star is Tyler Colvin, who is ranked third in the National League in hitting this spring, at .440. While this is great for the kid, and Paul Sullivan has Colvin making the Cubs' roster, let me remind you of one thing:

Spring statistics mean nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. As predictors for regular season performance, that is.

Some say that "play ball" is the greatest phrase in baseball.

While I would tend to agree, there is another phrase that carries equal greatness in the game.

"If."

It qualifies every statement that people tend to make when talking about their team at this point in the season.

And for Cleveland Indians fans, such as myself, we've been throwing the "If" word around a lot. Actually, a lot seems like a little. The word has been thrown around a whole heck of a lot more than you can imagine.

I've made no bones about my overall feeling for this beloved Cleveland fan base.