• Opening Day should be a national holiday. Keep the kids out of school. Take them to the ball park. Call in sick. Do what you have to do to support your team.
• The start of the season means unending optimism. At least for one day your squad gets to say it’s in first place (even if you happen to be rooting for Baltimore, Florida, or San Francisco this season)
• No more regular season games in foreign countries even Canada (just kidding…about the Canada part)
• Start the season on the same day at the same time. The season did not start last week in Japan or last night in Washington. It started today.
• Boston is the most talented team in baseball, but the Sox still won’t win the title.
• Baltimore is the worst team in baseball driven into the ground by management (which is a true shame)
• Albert Pujols will remind everyone just how good he is even with a torn ligament in his elbow. His team however, is another story.
• Russell Martin is the best catcher in the Majors. He will lead the Dodgers to the NL West crown.
• Derek Jeter is the most overrated player today.
• Chase Utley is the most under-appreciated (he was the best Philly in 2007, not Jimmy Rollins)
• It will take a few months, but Francisco Liriano will remind fans why two years ago people thought he just might be better than Johan Santana. It might not show in his numbers however as Minnesota will be one of the worst teams in the American League.
• Speaking of Santana, he will win 20+ in New York and lead the Mets to a division title
• Evan Longoria will be more Ryan Braun than Alex Gordon
• I believe Alex Gordon is a nice sleeper pick at 3B (would 20 HR/15 SB help your team?)
• Ervin Santana finally gets over his extreme home/road split and helps make up for the loss of Kelvim Escobar
• Kerry Wood will make it to the All-Star break as the closer in Chicago before being replaced due to injury by Carlos Marmol
• Lastings Milledge will begin to fulfill his potential in Washington (he’s only still 22)
• The Rays will win 75 games (an incredible feat considering the franchise has never won so much as 70 times in a season)
• Mark Hendrickson is the Opening Day starter for Florida. It’s going to be a long year for the Marlins (but I’ll still watch because of Hanley Ramirez)
• The Braves will return to the playoffs powered by Mark Teixeira’s bat (it is a contract year after all)
• The Angels should stop pretending to play in Los Angeles and become Orange County’s team (or go back to being the California Angels, isn’t a state a better market than just one city?)
• Even while rebuilding on the fly Oakland will remain competitive in the weak AL West
• The Tigers will score runs, but with injury issues to Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney (not to mention Todd Jones still closing) the team is still two relievers away from being truly dominant