Roy Halladay

Roy Halladay was absolutely dominant last season.

He had a 21-10 record (which would have been higher had he received more run support), a 2.44 ERA, and 219 strikeouts. He pitched a perfect game on May 29 against the Florida Marlins. He pitched only the second postseason no-hitter ever on October 6 against the Cincinnati Reds.

Las Vegas has posted its odds for the World Series winner, and to nobody's surprise, the Philadelphia Phillies are 3-1 favorites to win it all. Next come the New York Yankees at 5-1, the Boston Red Sox at 6-1 and the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants at 10-1. 

While it's still cold out, and the ground is covered in snow wherever you are, a sure sign of better weather ahead is the start of Spring Training.  Pitchers and catchers for each team are set to report to camp on Monday, and the storylines will emerge soon after.

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Dear Giants Fans,

Congratulations, the Giants won the 2010 World Series. They narrowly edged out the Padres in the final series of the season and rode the momentum to a World Series Championship. Nobody can deny the Giants were the best baseball team during the 2010 postseason. They have the hardware to prove it. Now let’s come back to reality and understand why the Giants are not favorites to repeat in 2011.

As MLB Spring Training approaches, predictions are being thrown around like snowballs in winter.

For the Phillies organization, losing a big offensive star in Jayson Werth was met with the arrival of pitching ace Cliff Lee.

When the opportunity arose for me to make some wild predictions of my own for the upcoming season, I couldn’t resist.

The following slideshow is my five wild predictions for the 2011 MLB season pertaining to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Heading into the 2011 season, the Philadelphia Phillies are widely believed to be the favorite in the National League East, and maybe even the National League. 

However, to say that a team is without holes is unreasonable; in the case of the 2011 Phillies, there are indeed many questions that remain as they head to Clearwater to begin training.  On Friday, the Phillies packed up their trucks and sent the team's gear down I-95 to Florida.

Here are the top 17 questions that remain going into Spring Training.

The Phillies have pulled off some trades for some top pitching talent over the past few seasons. 

In 2008, the Phillies traded Josh Outman, Adrian Cardenas and one other to acquire Joe Blanton. 

In 2009, the Phillies traded Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Jason Knapp to acquire Cliff Lee. Then, in the offseason that year, the Phillies traded Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis D'Arnaud for Roy Halladay.  

During the 2010 season, the Phillies traded J.A. Happ, Anthony Gose and another player for Roy Oswalt.

Will we have another year of the pitcher? Which guy will rule his team and help carry them to the playoffs? 

It's never too early to start thinking of baseball. Football is just about to end so everyone should start gearing up for spring training. In 2010 we saw a dominance of pitchers. There were six no hitters last year, and two of them were perfect games. It should have been seven but someone blew the call. 

With all of the hype about the Phillies starting rotation, we all want to know how they are going to fair together.  This collective unit has been deemed the best in baseball, and with that title, they will need to live up to the hype.  Anything short of magnificent will be a let down for baseball fans.