Enough About Bondo to the Bullpen

With the upcoming return of Bonderman to the Tigers, Dombrowski and Leyland are faced with the task of deciding what to do with our rotation. Three of our pitchers are clearly safe with the kind of success they've had so far this season so the question comes down to which of the following 3 are going to the bullpen: D-Train, Gallaraga, or Bondo. The answer has to be one of the first two. I know its been awhile since he has pitched, but Bondo is oftentimes horrendous over his first two innings of work before settling down. It has really been the only thing keeping him from becoming a dominant pitcher over the years, his achilles heal if you will. How many innings does a relief pitcher usually pitch? I think the answer is one or two but I could be wrong. Anyone else see a problem?

Wings Fans, Fear Not!

So I've heard a lot of people in the D worryin about the upcoming series against the Pens. Lets be smart about this for a second guys...Yea the Wings are a lil banged up but still, this is not going to be a series, its going to be a beat down. I hear a lot on talk radio about Crosby, Malkin V. Datsyuk, Zetterberg or if Datsyuk is hurt, insert Hossa. Thats all well and good but neither of those players are the best player on the Wings roster. The Wings defense is ridiculously better then that of the Pens, led by one of the best defensemen and overall players of all time, Captain Nick Lidstrom. Top that off with one of the clutchest goalies in the history of the game, Chris Osgood, who happens to be 8-2 in Stanley Cup play and in the top ten in overall playoff wins, and fear not.

On top of the differences between the defenses, yea if you wanna take our top 2 and match them with their top 2 thats fine, its a wash. Now lets look at our depth. Who on the Pens matches up with Hossa? Franzen? Who on the Pens is going to do what Holmstrom or Helm does? Helm put on a show for the ages in game 5 single-handedly killing an entire penalty and then scoring the game winner in overtime and he plays on our FOURTH line. I'm sorry Pittsburgh, this is not your year. You can talk about how much better you've gotten since last year all you want, but you aren't the only team thats gotten better over the last year...Oh and Lets not forget we have your best player from last years finals run. Wings in 5

You could be my favorite player

If you're a major league player you could supplant Tolbert if you have the balls to rick roll an entire stadium with your AB music. Mega bonus points if you get them to play the music video too!

My New Favorite Baseball Player

Minnesota Twin, Matt Tolbert, come on down, you are my new favorite player! Anyone who'sat bat music is Zombies by the Cranberries has to be awesome.

Armando may be coming back to Earf

After his stellar first year many wanted to claim that Galarraga was going to be an ace for the Tigers this year. There was even whisperings on talk radio in the D that he was a possible 20 game winner or even a guaranteed 17 wins. That is clearly not going to be the case. As stated in a previous post, Galarraga was one of the luckiest pitchers in the league last year in regards to runners stranded and average on balls in play. While some of this can be attributed to pitching, much of it was luck. These numbers are coming back to earth. Combine that with teams having more experience hitting off Galarraga and he may be in for a long year. Here's hoping he can turn his last 3 starts around, otherwise the English D is in some trouble.

Man Ram

As in my recent post about AROD, I still don't care about steroids and find it laughable that all these sports writers who looked the other way during the McGuire/Sosa home run race now act all high and mighty. Plaschke is a joke. Let Man Ram play, I want to see long, towering home runs.

Best Haircut Ever?

At least 1 Prediction Im willing to say I was completly wrong about

Well two, but they involve the same thing. The Royals are for real. I know its early but they have the pitching to stay in the race and win the AL Central. Greinke is a beast. If he does not win 20 games this year I'd be shocked. Thats easy to say when hes chilling at 6-0 with a cool .4 era but hes makin hitters look silly as he goes 9 on a regular basis. The only person who has a miniscule chance of challenging him for the Cy if Greinke stays healthy is Halladay and I put that somewhere between 0 and 5 percent.

On top of Greinke, the Royals are getting solid outings from their other starters and they have a lights out closer in Soria. Their lineup is below average, but with the pitching they are getting they will win a lot of games with 2 and 3 runs. If Gordon can come back and make an impact, all the better for them. Another factor benefiting the Royals is the weakness of the Central. The rest of the teams are hovering around .500 and none have been particularly impressive. The Indians are already dead as I previously discussed. The Twins are slightly dangerous with the return of Mauer but to this point they have been the least impressive of the "live" teams in the Central. The Tigers will be interesting if Guillen and Maggs start to hit but who knows if Inge will be able to continue his hot start and obviously there is going to be a small falloff for Cabrera who is hitting almost .400. This could finally be the year for the Royals.

Selena Robers and AROD

Speaking of things nobody should be talking about. This steroids business is getting slightly out of hand. First off, its already been reported that AROD has done steroids, and its generally accepted outside the Rodriguez family that AROD is a sleezeball liar who should not be trusted so what is the point of this book. Clearly to make money off of a dead horse because for some god awful reason people will buy this. This makes Selena Roberts a sleezeball (possible) liar who should not be trusted. I have no problem with this though. Everyone is looking for a quick dollar and to throw her under the bus would be irresponsible. What I'm trying to say here is I dont care if people did steroids. If they want to risk there bodies for millions there more then welcome to, but thats their thing. The only thing I care about are results and if I am entertained. Baseball tends to be entertaining when the ball goes a long way and is hit hard. Do I like AROD? No. Would I cheer for him if he was on my team? You bet.

Something Nobody Should be Talking About but are

When Josh Smith attempted a showboaty dunk in a playoff game that was in hand, it turned in to a media frenzy. Some people say there was nothing wrong, others say that he was trying to show the Heat up and that it was going to be major motivation for the next game. The fact of the matter is, if you don't like it, do something about it Miami. If you hadn't let the game get out of hand and ya know, had a lead, this wouldn't have happened to you. The most laughable part about this whole ordeal is many members of the media going crazy about how selfish it was of Josh Smith because it provided bulletin board material for D-Wade and the heat. If the Heat need bulletin board material to get psyched up for a game in the playoffs where they face elimination, then its a little bit late for them to be caring about their playoff lives. I always get a kick whenever someone brings up something being bulletin board material. Your a professional athlete fighting for the most coveted prize in your sport while getting paid millions. If the prize isn't enough motivation for you, the cash sure as hell should be, not someone trying a pretty cool looking dunk. Instead of whining about Smith's attempted dunk, we should be giving him some credit for having the balls to try something a lil different on a national stage.

Chris Osgood Deserves Some Respect

Wings goalies and Lions quarterbacks have always faced a tough run in the city of Detroit. There is one that has earned our respect and is not being given his due, and that man is Chris Osgood. Chris Osgood has brought this city two cups and a ton of wins, but yet before these playoffs started there were still calls for Conklin to be our starter. I have no doubt these people will reemerge the moment the Wings lose a game in this postseason. What does this man need to do to get a bit of respect around here? He is going to the hall of fame when all is said and done, but yet even while bringing in cups for the Wings, fans are calling for his head and management is bringing in other goalies such as Dominik Hasek to make him look over his shoulder. Osgood is in the top ten in wins all time, top five in playoff shutouts, and will be well within the top ten in playoff wins after this season. These are no doubt hall of fame numbers in my book when combined with his two cups. A third would cement him as one of the ALL-TIME greats in the game.

A lot of people in Detroit want to talk about how he is a product of being on the Red Wings, and without the team around him he wouldn't be very good. Would they say that about Steve Yzerman? Zetterberg? Great players make great teams, they are not a product of them, and there is no doubt that Osgood is a great player. Also, while in St Louis and New York its not like he had poor seasons. All three of those years he led his team to the playoffs even if they were unable to get past the first round. Guess he was just a product of those teams too. Sure he had a bad regular season. The Wings still took the two seed in to the playoffs and he looked like a brick wall in the first three games of the Columbus series.

Pac 10 QBS

This post was brought up by a conversation today on the Valenti and Foster Show about Carson Palmer as a Quarterback. He was referred to as a "stud" quarterback and while I will not argue that he is indeed an above average quarterback in the league, I think stud should be reserved for people who win playoff games. While much of the burden falls on the rest of his team sucking, you gotta win when it matters to be a "stud". That being said, this got me thinking about Pac 10 quarterbacks in the playoffs and a whole. I couldn't think off the top of my head of the last won to win a game in the playoffs. After a bit of research it turns out that the last playoff win by a Pac 10 QB came from Jake Plummer in 2005. For as many top picks as the Pac 10 produces at that position, this is shocking. Just think about that when you hear people talking about how much better Sanchez is then Stafford. I feel bad for whoever drafts Sanchez because they are going to waste a lot of money and a lot of time on a bust.

Thames Injury may be a Blessing

Thames has done a lot of great things for the Tigers in his time in their uniform. Unfortunately, Thames appears to be a 1 trick pony with that trick being long home runs. While these are fun to watch and can be very helpful, it is no longer the way to win in the Major League Baseball league. This isn't to say Thames cannot help a team, I just do not think with the Tigers roster he will necessarily help the Tigers.

Josh Anderson is the reason. Anderson should be the Tigers everyday left fielder with Guillen hitting from the DH slot. With the injury to Thames this should happen on a much more frequent basis. Anderson is a much better defender then Guillen based strictly on speed alone. Combine that with Guillen moving to a new position and having legs that are going to pot and Anderson is clearly the right answer. Defense isn't all that Anderson brings to the table though. Anderson will hit for a higher average then Thames and once he is on the base paths, watch out, cuz he will be running. Speed does not go in to slumps in baseball because speed will turn infield outs in to infield singles. Speed will turn base hits in to doubles. Speed combined with a well placed bunt will yield a hit. These are all things Anderson can do, and has already done in limited playing time early in this season. The Tigers are a better team with Anderson than Thames.

Wild Thing no More

Much has been made about the struggles of Justin Verlander over last year and the beginning of this year. Clearly someone with his stuff should not be posting a 5.00+ ERA last year and so far a 9 ERA this year. Nobody quite knows what is wrong. Some say he is tired after throwing more innings then he ever has and they may be right. Some say he is hiding an injury and there's no way to be certain unless your a trainer in the Tigers club house on that. One other possibility that I have not heard thrown around is that maybe Verlander is trying to hard to be a pitcher and not a thrower. As an analogy, take the Major League movies. Wild Thing Vaughn's game was all about overpowering hitters with his nearly unhittable fastball. When he started to try to throw other pitches to preserve his arm and become a pitcher not a thrower in ML 2, he couldn't get it done. What we have seen from Verlander is a decrease in velocity from 98 to 99 which he rarely hits nowadays to working in the 94 to 96 range. Tigers announcers write this off as Leyland being in his ear telling him his fastball works better with movement at 94-96. I beg to differ. His fastball doesn't have a lot of movement no matter what speeds he is working at and his fastball is a lot more hittable at 94. On top of this, his breaking ball becomes much more hittable because there is no longer as much of a speed differential between the two pitches which is much of what makes breaking stuff so hard to hit. Verlander needs to, if hes healthy, start going back to what worked for him when he was rookie of the year and was the ace of this staff and start uncorking triple digit fastballs that leave batters in their dust.

End of an Era

With the pending sweep of the Pistons at the hands of the Cavaliers, we are witnessing the final nails being placed in the proverbial coffin. With that being said, I would like to take a look back and reflect on the run of this group of Pistons. Obviously, the title they won over the Lakers in the 5 game sweep series will be what they go down in history for, but after fond memories of that title, we will think about what could have been. Titles are the only thing that matters in sports. Nobody remembers who got beat in the finals, nor do they care. While the runs to the conference finals that the Pistons made were very impressive, and should not be belittled, in the end they don't amount to much. So when I think about the Pistons there are a few things I wonder...What if Rasheed had not left Horry wide open in the finals? What if we had somehow stopped LeBron from scoring infinity billion points in a row to avoid elimination? What if we were the team that got to play the Mavs instead of the Heat? And the most controversial of all, What if we had drafted Carmelo instead of Darko.

The reason this last one is controversial is because we won a title with Darko on the bench and there is no guarantee we win one with Carmelo there. This is valid in that I believe we would not have traded for Sheed if we had Carmelo on our roster. I do not think this would have cost us a title inn the long run. We have gotten a glimpse of how Carmelo and Chauncey work together this year in Denver albeit with Carmelo being much more matured. This does not take away from the fact that they managed to grab the number 2 seed in a Western Conference that puts the Eastern Conference of past memory to shame. There is no doubt in my mind that the Pistons with a superior supporting cast for Melo and Chauncey would have won MULTIPLE titles with RIP, Chauncey, Carmelo, Ben, and Tay. Instead of going to the Eastern Conference Finals every year they would have been going to the NBA finals. Even with the apparent lack of any semblance of effort that the Pistons showed after they won their first title, they wouldn't have needed it until the finals and no matter what a basketball player will turn it on in the finals and that would have been enough to net at least one more title.

With this scenario the Pistons would not be in nearly as bad a situation as they currently are either. With a few titles under his belt, Carmelo would be unlikely to leave in free agency, the Billups trade would not have been necessary, and we would not be waiting until the big free agents hit the market in the hopes of luring one to Detroit (hah). Joe D did a great job making basketball relevant in Detroit again, but this was an inexcusable move that cost our great city titles. Wouldn't it have been great to see both of these guys in Pistons uniforms together?

April 21

Tigers continue their successful road trip with another win.
White Sox beat up on Bergeson in his first start
Red Sox stay hot
Cleveland gets the better of the Royals
A's
Blue Jays
Mariners
Nationals get win 2!
Philly
Marlins
Cubbies
Dodgers-lock
Rockies
Padres

An update to the Rod Allen drinking game

Game originally posted at motownsports.com

1 DRINK:

When Rod says “Mario” or “pardner.”

3 DRINKS:

When Rod says “elevated.”

When Rod says “skipper.”

5 DRINKS:

When Rod says "it is good to see good things happen to good people"

When Rod makes any kind of reference to a player or his ability being “special.”

When Rod says the phrase “Oh no he didn’t.”

When Rod says the phrase “from time to time.”

When Rod says “cheese.”

When Rod says “features,” “featuring” or “featured.”

When Rod refers to Jim Leyland as a “beauty.”

When Rod says “filthy.”

When Rod repeats a statement or point he made earlier in the game.

When Rod says "that should be a crime."

7 DRINKS:

Whenever Rod says he talked to someone at batting practice.

When Rod says the phrase “professional hitter.”

When Rod says the phrase "country strong."

8 DRINKS:

When Rod makes reference to his coaching/broadcasting career in Arizona.

When Rod makes reference to the pitching coaches influence on the pitching staff.

Whenever Rod makes the statement “some kind of _____.” (IE: Some kind of smooth)

Whenever Rod talks about the benefit to a defense when a pitcher works quickly.

When Rod mentions that Porcello is one of the youngest active players in the majors

10 DRINKS:

When Rod asks Mario if he worked out today. » Drink double if he asks this during a home game.

When Rod makes reference to cotton candy. » Drink double if he makes reference to pink cotton candy.

When Rod makes reference to how much fun Cabrera is having. » Drink double if it is anyone else.

When Rod makes reference to the Carlos Guillen, Polanco, Anderson, or Cabrera trade.

When Rod says the phrase “game within the game.”

When Rod says the phrase, “the unintentional, intentional walk.”

When Rod makes reference to how “smooth” any of the Tiger middle infielders are. » Drink double if it is anyone else.

12 DRINKS:

When Rod makes reference to his playing career. *Rod only had about 50 career ABs, 20 with the Tigers.

20 DRINKS:

When the footage of Rod charging the mound in Japan is shown.

General Silliness: 2 drinks may be had when Rod displays general silliness. This optional rule can be applied in group or individual play and can be declared before the game or invoked when the silliness occurs. General silliness can be loosely interpreted as that’s why it’s not technically part of the rules. Experienced players will recognize this activity which can include stepping over the play by play with yelps, screams or any array of noises, use of non-words, abundant laughing or appearing overly giddy. HEEHAHAHA!!!!

April 16 (late games)

Angels
Twins
White Sox
Cards
Nats
Pads
Dodgers

April 14th

Well after the scare KC gave me yesterday, locks are up to 7-0.

Tigers, Porcello gets it done, Tigers get to Danks through the middle of their lineup.
Angels, Silva isn't very good. Griffeys return home is spoiled
Rays, Burnett gets rocked (LOCK)
Rangers big bats get it done
Royals, like Silva, Pavano isn't very good, Royals take the series.
Twins
A's?
Marlins ride Volstad past the Braves
Brewers start to turn things around against the Reds
Carpenter dominates as the Cards win it

Dead teams walking

While it is only a little over a week in to then season I would like to send my condolences to the fans of one team, and a hearty laugh to the fans of another. These two teams are teams that many thought had a chance to contend in their divisions this year and are sadly (or happily) dead after just one week of play. This may seem like an overreaction, but these two teams will not be in the postseason. Indians fans, come on down, your team is done. Too many holes in the rotation and your offense is not getting it done. This goes deeper then your slow start. Pavano is a god awful pitcher and does not belong in the majors. He showed this with 9 earned in 1+ inning pitched in his first start. Ditto for Richmond. Anytime your pitcher being on the team can be described as despite struggling in the spring to an 8+ ERA and posting a 1-3 record, Richmond has made the Indians rotation, you are going to have a long year.

Yankees fans, start the crying and calling for Girardi's head, that money you spent is going to waste and I couldn't be happier. While I do not expect Wang's struggles to continue, there are serious issues with this rotation. Sabathia is not worth what he is being paid. Look at his numbers through much of the first half last year with the Indians in the AL and tell me you are still as confident as you were when you signed him after he dominated for the Brewers in the NL. Burnett was never that great a pitcher and age is becoming an issue. Damon, Rivera, Pettite, and Jeter are all gettin up there in age and Jeter didn't have any range to begin with at short. Combine that with ARod's injury and being in a tough division, and stick a fork in em baby! Unfortunately for Girardi, he will probably receive the blame for this when there's really nothing he can do.
Get used to seein images like this after C.C. gets yanked in the 5th inning

April 13

Tigers
Rays
Rangers
Royals-Lock
Jays
Red Sox
Pirates
Cubs
Phillies-Lock
Dodgers
Padres
Brewers
Cards

April 11

Detroit
Jays
Twins
Mariners-Lock
Angels
Orioles
Yankees
Reds
astros
Mets
Braves
Cubs
Phillies
Dodgers
Padres

April 10th

Well 5-5, meh. Onward to tomorrow.
Tigers beat benson in his return to the majors
Toronto-lock
Rays
Twins
Boston
A's
Cubs
Phillies
Reds
Marlins
Braves-lock
Houston
Dodgers
Sdg

Upset Special, KC over the yanks

locks 2-0 on the year

Porcello: The Tigers Only Hope

The Tigers pitching is awful as I have already addressed in previous posts. There are a few reasons for hope though. Bondo will be coming back and while at this point in Bonderman's career I think its safe to say that nobody really knows what we are going to get out of him, I doubt he will be worse then Miner. If he can pitch like he pitched against the Yanks in the ALDS he will get us a lot of wins. Gallaraga is another reason for hope in that he was the only starter to have a good year last year. Edwin Jackson may also turn out to be a bright spot. All of this is not enough for the Tigers to make the playoffs by itself.

As Brandon Lyon illustrated in game two of the season, our bullpen is going to blow some games for us. That being the case, are starters need to give them as many leads as possible to play with. Which brings me to the subject of this post, Rick Porcello. Porcello needs to have a Verlander type rookie seeason for the Tigers to be relevant this season. Without him I do not see them being a factor in the fall. Unfortunately once Bonderman is healthy he may get the boot in favor of keeping Miner in the rotation. This would effectively end the Tigers season. So please Jim Leyland, do not end are season, keep Porcello in the rotation.

April 9th

Well 9-6 yesterday but im kinda drunk tonight so I'm not exactly sure how this is gonna go!
Anywho here are the picks

Detroit wins in Porcellos debut
Twins
Yanks
Rays
White Sox
Rangers
A's
Mets
Dodgers
Giants
Cardinals are a lock

April 8th

Well yesterday could have been a great day for my picks. Had 3 picks lose on walk off hits, 2 of which had leads late in the game. Thanks Brandon Morrow and Lyon. Not a good day for pitchers with the name of Brandon. Brandon Inge even contributed to the weird day for Brandon's by first committing an error that led to Minnesota taking the lead, and then hitting the home run that retied the game. All in all was not a great day for me, another Brandon as I finished at 6-6

Marlins complete the sweet of an awful Nationals team while Volstad continues throwing solid outings for the Marlins.
Phillies avoid losing 3 straight to the Braves as their big lineup gets going for the first time this year.
Red Sox will win behind a strong outing from Lester who continues his regular season dominance of the Rays, narrowly edging out Tampa's ace in Kazmir
Toronto drops a 3rd loss on Detroit getting to Zach Miner early and often with a much improved line-up
Yanks win behind Wang
Texas builds off its powerful performance against Cleveland in their opener and starts 2-0
Dbacks take series from rockies
Volquez starts strong as the Reds take one from the Mets.
Twins beat up on Silva...or tap him slowly to death with their particular band of baseball. They have to be the fastest team in baseball
Cubs dont lose twice to Stros, offense gets going
Royals get a win over the White Sox
A's take out the Angels in the nightcap
Cards
Dodgers
and Milwaukee wins in my lock of the night.

Its Pedro Time!

The Tigers starting pitching is a huge question mark. Even assuming Porcello can fit in nicely we are looking at a Bonderman whos starting the year on the DL for major contributions, an ace who pitched abysmally last year, someone who has never thrown a pitch in a Tigers uniform and someone with a .247 against him on balls in play as well as one of the higher baserunners stranded rates in baseball at 75.6%. While pitchers do have some control over those last numbers, for the most part these statistics come down to luck. That means Armando Gallaraga may be coming back down to earth this season. As a Tiger fan I think its about time we buy some discounted insurance. Pedro Martinez pitched well during the WBC and appears to finally be healthy. While Pedro would prefer to go to a National League team, the Tigers should extend an offer to him and see what happens. Pedro wants to play and if he isn't getting bites from the NL its worth a shot. Worse comes to worse were a mill or two in the hole, or about 4 million less then the hole we are in from Nate Robertsons's contract or 12 million less then Sheffs. Plus, he hates the Yankees!

The Season

So as some of you may have noticed, that is if people actually read this...I have picked every MLB game so far. This will continue through the entire season. Hopefully at around a 60 percent clip. I will add comments to many of the games as to why I picked a certain way and may even add confidence levels at some point. So, Play ball!

april 7th picks

Well yesterday I went an average 7-5 including the phillies-braves game so heres another effort.
Tigers- Ill take Jackson over some no-name
White Sox- Buehrle>Meche, White Sox>Royals
Bosox
Mariners, expect a bounce back from Bedard
Angels again
Giants- Lincecum starts the defense of his Cy on the right foot
Braves- Moyer's arm is bound to fall off eventually, expect a bounce back year from Francouer
Marlins, Nationals are flat out bad with or without Adam Dunn
Cubs, Astros look abysmal
Pirates, Pirates win an early series before falling back to earth
Dbacks, Rockies will miss Holliday
SDG, bounceback year for Young hides lack of Padres offense at least for this game.

Day 2 Picks

Toronto over Detroit
Bosox over tampa
Indians over Rangers
God damn yankees over orioles
Twins over Mariners
Angels over A's
Mets over reds
Dbacks over Rockies
Marlins over Nationals
Pirates over Cards
Stros over Cubs
Padres over Dodgers

Game 1

Predictions for game 1 of the MLB season.
Braves 6 Phillies 3
Braves will take this game. Myers had a slow start last year and while he really came on in the first half I do not think that will continue against his propensity for slow starts. Lowe is coming to a new team and will make a good first impression. Also, it is banner day for the Phils and they will be in the perfect spot for a 1 game let down after there world series victory. With a win tonight and Jurrjens throwing tomorrow, the Braves will have a good opportunity to start the year 2-0, win a series, and turn there fortunes from last year against the Phillies (14-4).

Baseballs back!

Baseball season starts today so time for some predictions.
Al Central-Twins
Al East- Bosox
Al West- Angels
Wildcard-Rays
ROY-Porcello
MVP- Crawford
Cy- Liriano

Reasoning...The Rays come back with much of the same team they had last year. They were a young team so many of those players may still be improving. The loss of Edwin Jackson will hurt them but I see Longoria taking another step forward after his stellar first season and them edging out the 2nd place team from the central whoever that may be for the wildcard. The Yanks, while spending enough to compete will not. Joba is going to take a step back. CC had a rough first half before moving to the NL and will not be an ace and Burnett is an avg pitcher who got overpaid and will probably be injured before the all star break. They have major holes in the field at shortstop annd question marks at 3rd with Arod.
The Central will be the most interesting division in baseball. I see 4 teams with a chance to win it and a 5th that is up and coming but is a year away from having a real shot at it. Next year once the royals get a little more experience, they may even be in the mix. I think the Twins have a team built on speed that can survive the year playingn small ball and whiddling away at teams.

NL
East- This is the Mets year
Central- Cubs
West-Dodgers
WC-Cardinals (if Carpenter stays healthy)
ROY-Maybin
Cy- Santana
MVP-Wright

The Mets with there shored up bullpen will take advantage of the Philys world series let down. Rollins and Utley up the middle will keep this division interesting until the last day but the Mets will edge them out. Cubs will continue to be solid especially with the loss of the brewers as major competitionn and the Dodgers annd Man-Ram will return to the playoffs.

World Series, Dodgers vs Bosox 4-2 dodgers. Man-Ram wins 1 last WS and cements his place as onen of the clutchest hitters of all time taking home world series mvp honors. Torre laughs at the Yankees who miss the playoffs for the 2nd year.