Alright, here are my ten brave predictions for the coming MLB seasons. I'm assuming I'm gonna get seven of these at least partly right, which in my mind makes me an expert, even if some of them are things like "the Cardinals will win the NL Central!"
1. The Seattle Mariners are wildly overrated and will not win the AL West.
2. Brett Anderson will put up monster numbers in his second season and finish in the top-5 for Cy Young voting.
3.The Red Sox will sputter through a solid month this spring and look completely disoriented. Fans will panic, but they'll put on the jets over the course of the summer and finish with 95 wins.
4.The Rays will be the third-best team in the American League and possibly baseball, and will still find themselves out of contention and make at least one "looking to the future" trade, most likely involving Carl Crawford or Rafael Soriano.
5. Out of Nick Johnson, Javier Vasquez, Joba Chamberlain, and Chan Ho Park, at least one Yankee will flame out in spectacular fashion.
6. Comeback player of the year: C.J. Wilson. Close second: Lance Berkman.
Breakout years: Billy Butler, Gordon Beckham, Garrett Jones. Still not having a breakout year: Grady Sizemore, Alex Rios.
Not going to have an impact his rookie year, hype or not: Aroldis Chapman. Who will: Jason Heyward, Stephen Strasburg.
Severly underrated: Rajai Davis.
Not a fluke: Ben Zobrist.
Change of scenery would do him good: Corey Hart.
7. Not dead yet: David Ortiz, Rafael Furcal, Jermaine Dye, Bronson Arroyo, Brad Penny, Orlando Cabrera, Orlando Hudson, Daisuke Matsuzaka.
8. Dead: Huston Street, Mike Gonzalez, Milton Bradley (left), Brad Lidge, Melky Cabrera, Pedro Feliz, Matt Lindstrom, Johnny Damon's outfield-playing days.
9. The NL playoff teams will be Phillies, Cardinals, Rockies, and Braves. None of these races will be particularly exciting, though none of them will be insanely out of reach.
10. The AL playoff teams will be the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and... Angels. The Twins will remain in the hunt all season, and Texas will look frisky but deeply flawed. They'll be 2011's "look out for this team coming on!"