Opening Day

Today is Opening Day or was it yesterday, there was a game played last night in Philadelphia. Well anyway today is Opening Day presented by SuperGurantee from superpages.com, since when has a day been sponsored? Opening Day is synonymous with Play Ball, Spring, wearing your favorite teams hat and jersey, hot dogs, cold beer and keeping up with your fantasy team. If this is the case then why was the Royals/White Sox game canceled for Monday on Sunday because of snow, or the fact that it is 41 degrees in Cincinnati right now for the Mets/Reds game. I am all for the baseball season to start up in April, hell I wish baseball was a year round sport but take a look at the Opening Day temperatures for the rest of games today; http://www.wunderground.com/sports/MLB/ 7 of the 14 games starting temperature is under 50 degrees, not so bad if you are playing in Houston, Toronto, Minneapolis or Seattle (they all have domes or retractable roofs). Well anyway baseball season has begun and here are my picks below.

American League:

• East: Always a competitive division in baseball and really you couldn't go wrong with the Red Sox or Yankees, but I am picking the Rays. The Rays are a young team with the average of 27.9 and the Yankees at 28.1 and the Red Sox at 28.7; now I know these numbers mean nothing when you take a look at the play on the field. The Rays have a team that knows they can win, the Yankees and Red Sox have teams that are expected to win.
• Central: I'll be honest with you here I don't really know who to pick because this division is deep, I mean the Royals even have a chance. I am picking the Indians to win this division as long as Fausto Carmona and Travis Hafner can return to their 2007 form. The White Sox seem to do nothing but win, but they need to stay healthy and with Bartolo Colon and Jose Contreras at the back end of their rotation that will be tough. The Twins are already banged up and the Tigers need to bounce back from 2008 so Leyland can earn that extension instead of asking for it.
• West: The Angels are the proverbial favorite and I am going with them hands down. I know K-Rod is no longer there, but Brian Fuentes will have plenty of save opportunities with the deep lineup and good starting rotation. Be on the look out for the Rangers though with their good young lineup and depth in their rotation.
• Wild Card: Who is going to be; the Red Sox, Yankees, Twins, Royals, Rangers? I would have to pick the Red Sox as the odds on favorite as they have a team that has been together for quite sometime.

National League:

• East: The Philadelphia Phillies are defencing World Series Champions and everyone loves the Mets with the moves they made in their bullpen, also the Braves and Marlins with their young talent. I believe the Phillies will take the East because who is going to put runs on the board for the Mets to use their new and improved bullpen?
• Central: The Cardinals have a good core of talent and the Cubs have 101 years on their side of excuses. The Reds have a good group, but I think they are a year away. I like the Cubs, as long as they can stay healthy and Carlos Zambrano enjoys pitching in Wrigley over Yankee Stadium as he told the Associated Press (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2009/news/story?id=4042580).
• West: Like the Reds the Giants are a year away, so I am going with the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez because he's back! I like the good young talent the Dodgers have as they all have a year under their belts and I like Clayton Kershaw a lot!
• Wild Card: I am going with a team that was only a year removed from the playoffs, the Atlanta Braves! I like what they have, they have returned to the early to mid 90's and revamped their starting rotation. Bobby Cox will remain in the ball game at least 150 games this year.

Playoffs:

• Indians over the Red Sox
• Rays over the Angels
• Rays over the Indians
• Cubs over the Braves
• Phillies over the Dodgers
• Rays over the Phillies

The Tampa Bay Rays would be your World Series Champion!