BT'S AMERICAN LEAGUE PREDICTIONS

Welcome to BesTalk's 2010 predictions for the Major League Baseball season. We're going to split this up between myself and Seung. I'll tackle the AL, he'll do the NL, and do them in our own way.

Here now are my AL Predictions...

AL EAST

1-New York Yankees (98 wins)

Well, this wasn't a stretch. Yes, the champs lost two of their clutch players, but they gained a more youthful slugger in center with Curtis Granderson, and a #4 starter that received Cy Young votes last year. Add to that an on-base machine in Nick Johnson, and you have some great elements to be able to repeat for a Division title.

2-Tampa Bay Rays (92 wins)

Having lived through their disappointment last season after reaching the World Series one year prior, the Rays are poised to make a jump in the AL East over Boston. They have youth on their side, and more experience now. They added Rafael Soriano to close out of their bullpen, giving them their first real threat out there since they began their rise. They've tasted the glory, had their comedown, but now are ready for more, too bad the Yanks stand in their way.

3-Boston Red Sox (89 wins)

The Sox solidified their rotation with John Lackey and added Mike Cameron, Adrian Beltre, and Marco Scutaro to help their defense, but I believe their offense won't be as potent as it once was. Maybe I'm blind to the fact that the defensive additions aren't actually that bad offensively, but Jason Bay was brought here to replace Mannywood for a reason, and now he's gone, too. To me, that alone will allow the Rays to move ahead.

4-Baltimore Orioles (80 wins)

Here's a team on the rise, but in this division it'll take a meteoric one to compete with the top three. Their offense is getting better, and may be a piece or two away from really competing. Their pitching is young, but ranked well among prospects, and the addition of Kevin Millwood will deflect pressure off of them. This isn't their year, but they will be a team to watch.

5-Toronto Blue Jays (69 wins)

The Jays have a lot of talent coming, but right now that talent needs to grow-up. Roy Halladay kept them afloat for a long time, but now that he's gone, the next few seasons may be tough.

AL CENTRAL

1-Detroit Tigers (89 wins)

Not much love for the Tigers, but they have enough weapons to take this three team horse race. I like their rotation for one, with Verlander being the best pitcher in the division, Porcello is going to be better, and I'm predicting Willis to make a comeback. They also have an interesting mix of vets sprinkled with youngsters in their line-up. I love rookie Austin Jackson followed by Johnny Damon at the top, and with Miguel Cabrera behind them that's the start of a good offense.

2-Chicago White Sox (88 wins)

Sure, they have the best rotation in the division, possibly the league, and possibly the entire MLB, but I just have a weird feeling that this team will fall short. I'm not a big fan fan of their offense, though, aside from a few players. So can their pitching carry them to at least the Wild Card? Not in this league.

3-Minnesota Twins (86 wins)

The Twins have a fantastic line-up, a very decent, if unsexy, rotation, but the loss of Joe Nathan may be hard to overcome. Jon Rauch takes over, but for how long? Who knows. If they can pull off a trade for a legit closer by the trade deadline, then maybe this team can take this division.

4-Cleveland Indians (73 wins)

Cleveland will be an interesting team to watch this year, a year after getting rid of two of their three major stars. They still have Grady Sizemore, and Shin-Soo Choo may become a star, but they have a lot of question marks and a weak rotation anchored by Jake Westbrook, who hasn't pitched in two years!

5-Kansas City Royals (66 wins)

That said, they are still better than the Royals, who, other than Zach Greinke and Joakim Soria, are a pretty bad team with no real depth. I don't see them climbing out of their hole for a while.

AL WEST

1-Seattle Mariners (94 wins)

Yes, this is the sexy pick of the year, so I'm sorry if I agree with it. I love the combo of King Felix and Cliff Lee even though the rest of the rotation is rather suspect. I like their bullpen with Brandon League now in the mix in front of David Aardsma. Their offense is much better, too, with the speedy catalyst Chone Figgins running after Ichiro, and Milton Bradley adds a bit of pop to the middle of the order. Franklin Gutierrez is getting better and better on both sides of the field, and they also added a good fielder in Casey Kotchman. Why wouldn't I pick them?

2-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (93 wins)

Well, I'd guess the Angels will have something to say about that, but losing Lackey, Figgins, and Vlad are big blows. I predict Joel Pineiro to be a bust, and Matsui, who I love, to decline somewhat; especially if he plays the field. If neither of those happens, then they will still be good, but I still think Seattle pulls it out.

3-Texas Rangers (84 wins)

This team can bop, but can they pitch? Scott Feldman will open with Rich Harden following, but we shall see. They do have a lot of depth there, but they are all unproven kids. Once the pitching matures, this team may cruise to the top. Even now they're going to give it a go.

4-Oakland A's (76 wins)

The kids in Oakland are growing, but they have awhile to go. They have some offense and some pitching, but not enough of both just yet, or rather, not enough with the proper seasoning. So this team will continue to experience growing pains for awhile.

WILD CARD

For once, I think the AL Wild Card comes out of a different division than the AL East. My pick is the Angels. While the Mariners will beat them out, the Angels will win a lot of games and will continue their post season love affair.

MVP

He bludgeoned his post season demons last year, and now seems poised for another MVP. Yep, I'm talking about AROD. This man has gone through all sorts of things in the past year, and as this spring has proven, it's never really quiet for him. He's proven, though, he knows how to shut everything down, and concentrate on baseball. When he does that, he's one of the best in the game. I predict this will be one of those years.

CY YOUNG

I'm pretty in love with Justin Verlander. The guy is a strike-out machine, and just like the Tigers, I think this could be his year to move to new ground. He has the tools to do it, and I can see Greinke and King Felix stepping back a tad this year. If Cliff Lee is healthy, he'll give Verlander his biggest competition.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

My ROY prediction will be Austin Jackson of the Detroit Tigers. The starting CF and lead-off man has the opportunity to literally run away with this award, and show the Yankees the error of their ways. I've looked forward to this kid's debut for a long time, and I believe he will not disappoint.

PLAYOFFS AND WORLD SERIES

A Yankee-Angel rematch seems to be on tap for the Division Series, but once again the Yanks should advance. A Mariners-Tigers match-up could yield some fantastic results, to which I give the nod to the Mariners. So is this the year the Mariners get to the Series? Nope, the Yankees are still too strong, and look to be poised for return to the Series.

As for the NL, as much as I love the Phillies' squad with Roy Halladay leading the staff, I think this is the Rockies' year overall. They have the most complete squad, and a return to the World Series is imminent. I see a Rockies-Yankees series coming, and while I'll be hard-pressed to give Colorado the nod over my Yankees (and definitely not rooting for that), I will go ahead and give it to them. They just remind me too much of the D'Backs and Marlins, both of whom shocked the Yanks.

ADD ANOTHER PLAYER TO THE LIST

According to David Lennon of Newsday (something I don't read regularly, so I'm surprised I caught this article early), Daniel Murphy's right knee injury has been diagnosed as a grade one MCL sprain. Apparently, he will be out for the next 2-6 weeks.

Mike Jacobs and Fernando Tatis (or Chris Carter or Ike Davis. Ike Turner for all I care) are supposed to platoon in his absence. I like Jacobs, but that's from experiencing his amazing first week as a Met. 4 homers in his first 4 games as a Met is pure Captain Awesome. As Ian constantly reminds me, he is no Carlos Delgado (although Delgado himself right now would be no Delgado) He's a low average, decent obp hitter with power. He's a legitimate #6 hitter.

His defense is suspect. Then again so is everyone else mentioned in this article. So, in the end, I must say. . .

Daniel who?

REALIGNING A NEW WILD CARD SYSTEM

In my last Report Card, I touched upon the subject of moving the Astros to the NL West, and moving one of those teams to the AL West. This was in an effort to give every division 5 teams each. I never understood why the NL Central had to have 6 teams, and the AL West, 4, no matter what the reason. Yesterday, we found out, through the great Tom Verducci, that MLB has started preliminary talks about a floating realignment system that would allow teams to leave divisions from season-to-season "based on geography, payroll and their plans to contend or not." This doesn't fly for me at all, too many variables, and much-too-much left up to the owners. Then, today, I heard Don LaGreca of the Michael Kay Show give a realignment scenario that included an AL Northwest that had Seattle, Minnesota, Colorado, and KC. Huh, what?!

My first thought of Astros to NL West and let's say the D'Backs to AL West is simpler and easier than all of that, but if you do want to complicate things, I'll offer up an extended scenario that could be completely exciting. Starting, of course, with the aforementioned 2 moves.

Ladies and Gents, I offer up a new MLB Wild Card and Super Seventh Division. Ah, the Wild Card race, such big topic of debate each and every year, and rightly so, as it offers such a unique aspect to the playoffs. The concept of the Wild Card now is that the team with the best record in each league that is not a division leader at the end of the season becomes the Wild Card team. A variation of that should should stay put, but not as the Wild Card, but as the MLB Super Seventh Division. Why the name change? Because, let's face it, often times this team has a better record than some of the division leaders! That, to me, isn't necessarily a wild card, but another great team deserving of a playoff spot. A seventh super team to add to the division leaders. The variation now would be that all major league teams would be lumped together here to determine this one team, with the winner entering the playoffs of what ever league it came from. It certainly would make inter league play more important!

This would be in play for all but six teams.

See, I want a new Wild Card division that is really and truly made up of wild cards! Let's get to it.

In devising this second new division, I first look to certain other sports around the world (say Italy's Soccer League) where the last place teams in the A division are dropped to the B division each year. Technically that would be equivalent to say the Royals being dropped to Triple A, but we'll just use it as a basis.

Under my new system, every last place team in MLB would be dropped into this new Wild Card Division as a separately aligned division. Six total teams would compete here, more than the others which would now all have four teams (four better teams). Simply, the first place team at the end of the season is declared the Wild Card with a chance to play in the playoffs. Now that would be a true wild card. From last to playoffs! Certainly would make it even more interesting, and I'm sure low-tier owners would salivate at this.

To further it past year one, each season the records of the WC teams are compared to those of the divisions from where they originated, and if these WC teams have better records than those of the last place teams, then they move back to said division and the new last place team moves to the WC.

Let's line it up based on last year's records as an example. What you don't see at the bottom is that I first moved the Astros and D'Backs as planned, but in doing so they became the bottom two teams of their new divisions, and so they are moved to the WCD.


So what would have been different was that the Astros would've made the playoffs and the Rockies would have stayed home. Pretty interesting. You might say, "but the Astros totally don't deserve to be there!" To which I would counter that with, "but they beat 5 other teams to do it, while every other playoff team (save the Super Seventh) only had to fend off three!"

I think this is a much better realignment scenario than what has been "floated", and utilizes the Wild Card system in a new and unique way, not to mention gives fans of even the most bottom feeder of teams new hope that they too can see a World Series in their lifetime!

Well, that's what I've got. Now, I'll wait and see what MLB really does. At least put five teams in each league already! Sheesh!

COPING WITH REYES' THYROID IN 5 EASY STEPS

5. Jose Reyes sucks ___________ (fill in appropriate sphere shaped object here).
In Reyes' career he's had 3 healthy years, and 3 injury plagued ones. . His ankle (2003), his hamstring (2004 and 2009), his calf (early 2009, separate injury) and now his thyroid (2010) have caused him to miss playing time. Since his legs are most often injured, and his value lies mostly in his speed, (and add that he often seems to be playing without his brain) the Mets have a pretty serious liability in the middle of the infield.

For fantasy purposes, if his condition is serious, I'm going downgrade his health from D (injury prone) to F (Rich Harden).

4. Do we blame the steroids?
No. While the thyroid secretes hormones, they aren't the common hormones associated with muscle or athletic ability. And let's not go there. A thyroid problem is serious.

Worst case scenario: If he has thyroid cancer, he'll have to undergo treatment that will take him out for awhile. It's unlikely that thyroid cancer would be life threatening, but it would mean that his body will have difficulty regulating hormone production, which he will then have to regulate with medication. Permanently. And since it affects energy level, it would probably affect his ability to play.

For once, I'd be curious to know how Reyes has been feeling. I'm assuming that he's feeling 'fine,' which is why I haven't read anything about his condition. If he's overly lethargic, it's more likely that there is something wrong. It's Reyes, though, so lethargic for him may be the level of an average 2 year old.

Thyroid cancer is considered common, with about 40,00 cases reported each year, but it's not THAT common, since there are a dozen other forms of cancer that occur in people more frequently. Oddly enough I don't know more than one person with any other form of cancer, but I know three people in NYC who have a thyroid condition.

Should we blame the water?

3. It's probably not that serious.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. All that was diagnosed was a thyroid imbalance in a blood test. One blood test. They did a follow up and he was fine. Minaya was just being cautious.

See #2 for why if I were Minaya, I'd probably err on the side of caution.

2. Fire the medical staff, already!
You know another reason why I'm not too worried right now?

Because I, like most Met fans, have absolutely zero faith in the Mets training staff. After their abysmal performance at identifying and treating injuries last year, there should have been a reorganization similar the Yankee management response to the flurry of pitching injuries in '07.
Mets management should have, if only to encourage some level of consumer confidence. They didn't. Shocking, I know.

So, if the the Mets medical staff actually figured out that something may be wrong, it's likely that nothing is.

1. David Wright suffers career ending surgery after dislocating his shoulder and tearing back muscles after suffering a freak accident sneezing while carrying deer meat up the stairs of his hotel room. After driving a motorcycle. From a pickup basketball game.
At this point, nothing would surprise me.

Weird stuff has happened to lots of baseball players. The Reyes one isn't funny. But some of the ones I bring up here were. Good luck trying to figure out all the real life freak accidents to MLB players that I pulled from to generate this headline.