As Tiny Purple Fishes Run Laughing Thru My Fingers (MLB Notes)

The NFL for lack of a better term is sexy. Now that it’s back with the start of preseason games MLB, despite its myriad of tight pennant races, takes a bit of a backseat.

To put it another way if the TV show Modern Family were a metaphor for sports MLB is Julie Bowen in something revealing and Sofia Vergara (NFL) just entered the scene. I guess this makes College Football the oldest daughter, but we can work out the logistics on that deal later…

Right now we want to trot out our thin and dirty (just how I like my women) version of the rest of the baseball season thru the World Series so we can kick off our indepth NFL/Fantasy coverage next week…So here’s what we got:

We’ll do this in a Power Rankings order then make our Playoff picks below…

NATIONAL LEAGUE

1. LA DODGERS- Solid rotation at the top in Kershaw/Greinke/Ryu, but after that it’s shaky even if Josh Beckett comes back. The offense is the same way with Puig playing a less dominant Kershaw. Their best shot is to shake San Fran so as to set up Kershaw for the most possible usage, but with Ramirez and Beckett on the DL and Puig resting his back it could be dicey. They still win the West.

2. WASHINGTON NATIONALS- Same boat as the Dodgers. Nobody has an OPS over .837, but the Big 3 of J. Zimmerman/Strasburg/Fister is tough. Gio Gonzalez though has turned into a train wreck and Asdrubal Cabrera is no replacement for the bat of Ryan Zimmerman. Fortunately Atlanta has tanked at just the right time for these guys and ESPN now has them as having the best odds to make the playoffs in the NL.

3. MILWAUKEE BREWERS- Everything about this team screams solid, not spectacular. In the NL that’s good enough. I already picked them to win the Central and I’ll stick by it. There’s no Kershaw or Puig, but Jonathan Lucroy is the best guy a lot of folks never heard of at the toughest to fill position on the diamond. Scooter Gennett and Khris Davis have earned their Big League stripes and the staff does enough to get by. If K-Rod and the pen holds out nothing says we won’t see a replay of Harvey’s Wallbangers sans the Gorman Thomas moustache in October!

4. ATLANTA BRAVES- This is not your father’s Braves…in fact it’s fast becoming the Bizarro Braves where the back of the rotation is carrying a feeble offense with the help of a strong bullpen. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The offense led by J. Upton/Freeman/Heyward/Gattis should better than 3^rd worst in the NL in Runs Scored. Bonifacio over B.J. Upton is kinda addition by subtraction, but doesn’t solve the problem of Chris Johnson and Andrelton Simmons dragging down the back end. If Teheran and Santana don’t wilt, 23 YO Alex Wood and Aaron Harang keep over-achieving and Bonifacio and the return of Gattis spark the lineup they could runoff a win streak to match the losing one they just came out of. A dangerous team, but we’ll stick with the more consistent Nats to win the East.

5. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS- Love the John Lackey move. Justin Masterson…uh…not so much. I always thought Masterson was a 2-pitch reliever type and now with less control than Courtney Love at an Open Bar he offers little, but it’s worth a shot for a team that’s had reclamation success before. Lackey shut down Milwaukee in his first start then got bombed by the Orioles. I think he’ll be good vs. the unfamiliar NL teams and if Michael Wacha and/or Yadier Molina can return the Red Birds could make a big final push.

A quick pallette cleanser and now for the…

 

6. PITTSBURGH PIRATES- This squadron could easily be as high as 4 or 5, but I just can’t believe in Vance Worley, Edison Volquez, Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton throwing meaningful October innings. Gerrit Cole is tearing up rehab and how he comes back will be critical. Oh yeah the Kirk Gibson drive by on Andrew McCutchen is troubling…especially when it forces Ike Davis into the cleanup spot…egads! Would’ve been nice to see Clint Hurdle and his staff get some help from management, but we all know how that goes on the banks of the Monongahela.

7-SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS- There’s Bumgarner/Hudson…Pence, Posey and Panda…otherwise everything else is falling apart by the Bay. But if Angel Pagan returns to form, if Ryan Vogelsong continues his 37 YO (who knew?) magic, if Brandon Belt gets healthy, if Adam “Lonesome Dove” Duvall provides a spark…well, if the Queen had balls she’d be King…but they are gritting it out and that’s something.

8. CINCINNATI REDS- Hey at least the Sabermetricians can’t blame Dusty Baker anymore. And maybe they were right since Bryan Price has done a marvelous job of keeping this club only 2.5 GB in the WC despite no Votto/Phillips and a middle relief crew shakier than a Yugo at 90 MPH. The key is a staff that is from top to bottom rock solid. That’s what has them with the best run differential in the NL after the Division leaders, but will it (plus Aroldis Chapman) be enough? Votto’s ESPN page is like Michelle Shocked’s new album…silent (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/michelle-shocked-releases-silent-album-names-songs-after-music-execs-20140729) on a timetable for his return, Phillips is still 7-10 days away, Alfredo Simon has pitched in 5 straight losing efforts and they just lost a game to Brad Penny, looking like a poor man’s Rick Rueschel, in Miami. None of this bodes, as they say, well.

9. MIAMI MARLINS- As we said before just having Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Fernandez alone makes one a WC contender in the forgiving NL. When Fernandez returns next year and how they flesh out the back of the staff, the pen and the infield will be telling. Suffice it to say Jordany Valdespin is not the answer, but the NL East could be fun in 2015 because…

10. NY METS- Yes Virginia the Mets can contend. Even with their young ace out all year and the bullpen a guessing game they’ve managed to play to a zero run differential. Matt Harvey’s return (farther along than Fernandez) and help at SS, closer and an OF corner could make them very viable for not just a WC, but 1^st in the East next year…well, you know, barring something Mets-ian happening in the interim.

11. SD PADRES- San Diego is only 7 GB in the WC. San Diego signed and is liberally using Jeff Francouer in the middle of their lineup. As the lady used to say one-eighth of a second after we finished drunkenly ordering at the all-night White Castle, “Next Please!”

So we’re gonna go Wainwright over Teheran in the Play-in Game. Then Dodgers over Cardinals, Nats over Brewers, Nats over Dodgers, Nats to the World Series, but hey, I’m not married to it…AL next then Football!

Life Is Full Of Disappointment...And I Am Full Of Life (MLB Idiocy)

--Woke up Sunday Night to the MTV Awards somehow on my TV...so when did they get rid of Martha Quinn, anyway?...Alan Hunter? Nina Blackwood? Mark Goodman? Don't even tell me Triple J is gone? Not to mention 7 versions of MTV on my system and not one music video airing? Have I been asleep/drunk that long?

--From the deserts of Algeria to the valley of Dienbienphu, from the Maginot Line to the Ardennes Forest depending on the French in any contest of agression is hardly a recipe for success. On the other hand when it comes to fries, toast, kissing and, surprisingly, overtime series clinchers between the Rangers and Devils Franco-phoning it in ain't a bad way to go. So as the cries of "Matteau, Matteau" are replaced by "Henrique, Henrique" and the potential TV ratings darling New York Rangers are off on the golf course here's hoping Derby/Preakness winner I'll Have Another has been on his most careful behavior over this week as Belmont-airing NBC can seemingly turn viewer gold into ratings garbage without even trying.

--And in other non-MLB news it appears former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield is headed to jail for owing over $350K in child support on 11 children. I can't help, but think if Mike Tyson had only bitten him a little lower a lot of these problems could've been avoided.

--Now it's hard to believe one old man could take down an entire multi-million dollar operation, but just like Modern Family would be little more than an annoying bunch of whiney Yuppies plus Sofia Vergara's breasts without Ed O'Neil so too, it seems, are the Atlanta Braves but a shadow of themselves sans Chipper Jones. Over the last several seasons the Farewell Tour-ing Jones has been yo yo-ed between the starting lineup and the DL so often you'd think Tom Smothers had a string up his ass, but at no time has the effect been as stark as at the beginning of the 2012 campaign. So far the Bravos are 19-6 in games in which Chipper has batted more than once and an astonishing 9-19 in all other contests. So there's your problem, right?

    Well not really...You see despite Jones' abscence, Freddie Freeman's Mr. Magoo impression and the Sub-Replacement Level Homesick Blues of Juan Francisco at 3B Atlanta still ranks 3rd in the NL in runs scored. Conversely they rank 10th or worse in ERA, Runs Allowed, HRs Allowed, Walks and Ks as they struggle to find anyone beyond Brandon Beachy who can give them consistent, quality innings. With Triple-A banished Jair Jurrjens velocity having dropped like that of a Smart Car on Lombard Street, youngsters Mike Minor/Randall Delgado seemingly overmatched to this point and the Tommy Hanson/Tim Hudson inconsistencies hinting at possible nagging injuries the return of Chipper Jones seems moot.

    Up to this point the Braves have far outplayed their run projections so that even with Chipper they are likely to drop back to somewhere closer to their #10 finish of 2011. That means unless one of the aforementioned under-achievers turns it up, Kris Medlen becomes the greatest swingman since Aaron Small circa 2005 http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smallaa01.shtml or the Noc-A-Homas find help at the trade deadline it could be but a mediocre sunset Chipper Jones rides off into this fall. And with each passing day those Washington Nationals NL East pennant tickets I picked up in Vegas are looking better and better.

--But, as I always remind myself, things could be worse...you could be a fan of the Oakland A's. I mean not that anyone thought the Athletics were going anywhere this season. Still it's always nice to at least see some entertaining baseball when you come to the park or turn on the set, but this version of the A's features all the excitement of a Bill Pullman Film Festival...or do I mean Bill Paxton...wait, umm...well actually I guess that makes my point right there.

    But if you need more evidence consider May 22nd when the A's were 1-hit by a combination of C.J. Wilson and Ernesto Frieri while putting forth a lineup that packed less punch than the drummer for Def Leppard. With Yosenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick dinged up the Oak-ies trotted out an order of Crisp, Cowgill, (Seth)Smith, Gomes, Donaldson, Pennington, Rosales, Barton and Recker in a veritable "Who's That?" of Triple-A lifers. In fact this clout crippled crew reminded us of nothing so much as an Amish Prince impersonator in that they batted like it was 1899. With 5 of the 9 spots manned by swingers below the Mendoza line the group sported less wood than the placebo control group in an Erectile Dysfunction drug trial and the highest batting average (.250 in 4 ABs) belonged to Adam Rosales a dis-utility infielder coming off a season in which, forget Mario Mendoza, he batted 1 point below the Barbara Feldon (Get Smart) Line at .098. Meanwhile bringing up the rear was LF Colin Cowgill (in the Dirt) who was at .128 in both batting average and slugging percentage. Since then things haven't got a lot better and presently Oakland stands dead last in the AL in every triple slash category. So to Billy Beane one has to ask...how's that Moneyball thing working out for you now, huh?

--Years ago after attending the movie Indecent Proposal with a girlfriend she asked, "Would you let me sleep with Robert Redford for a million dollars?" To which I replied, "Let's be serious...where would I get that kinda money?" Or in other words I know a little something about mis-speaking. In fact, the only difference between my ill-timed statement and last week's rants by Indians closer Chris Perez about lack of fan appreciation in Cleveland is that Perez had a litany of reporters/microphones/cameras in his face when he mis-spoke...well, that and he still had a chance of getting laid afterward.

    Still I understand, to a degree, where Perez was coming from. His comment on the Indians being in first place in the standings, but last in attendance does seem to accord him latitude along the lines of "righteous anger", but that's taking the short-sighted view of things. So let's take a quick stroll back through time to see just how a fanbase may have reached this point of epic apathy and, what the heck, point out why Chris Perez is such a Mullet-headed moron in the process.

    Now in the cult Sid Vicious biopic Sid & Nancy (didn't see that coming I bet) there is a scene late in the film where a completely strung out Vicious and girlfriend Nancy Spungen beg a supplier to get them more heroin as the grovel in their own refuse on the floor of a disheveled room at the Chelsea Hotel. After teasing them a bit the pusher finally grabs the money then quips sarcastically as he exits, "now you two don't go nowhere while I'm gone..."

    From a career path pointing toward Rock God popularity to murder and finally misplaced martyrdom Vicious' story is a cautionary tale of the perils of addiction. One that baseball fans in 1981 did not heed (and considering the movie didn't come out until 1986 it woulda been difficult) when 72,086 of them poured into Cleveland's cavernous Municipal Stadium to celebrate that year's All-Star Game put on by a group of owners and players who had held America's Pastime hostage for 48 days in a strike that lasted from June 12 to July 31 and forced the splitting of the season into two halves.

    And from that point on the powers that be in the game knew they had a blank check to tell the ticket buying public to "don't go nowhere" while they ushered in the era of parking fees, cable-only telecasts, multi-millionaire utility men, $6 hot dogs, $9 cans of beer, taxpayer funded stadiums, seat licenses and any other udder they could grab on to milk more out of the willpower-less Diamond Dependent.

    So 30 years later is it any wonder that a mouth-breathing moundsman like Perez feels a sense of entitlement so great that he doesn't just want to get paid millions for his 3-4 innings pitched a week, but also wants a large contingent of unconditional cheerleaders on hand to stroke his ego as well.

    It reminds me, many years ago, of the complaints by Doctors who said Health Insurance Companies were squeezing them by only paying say $250 for a procedure that they previously charged $500 for. What these Hippocratic Hypocrites failed to realize is that the price of everything whether it be a Box Seat ticket or a Colonoscopy is determined the same way...by What The Market Will Bear. When Doctors priced themselves beyond the market they forced patients into the arms of the Insurers and once the Insurers became ubiquitous the balance of power shifted. The Healthcare carriers had the knowledge of what procedures were necessary, how often they should be administered and what was a fair price with an eye toward protecting their client (the patient) and their own bottomline. If the White Coats so chose they could refuse to accept Health Insurance, watch their appointment books go blank and seek a job as Mitt Romney's Personal Physician, I guess.

    But that's Capitalism. Unlike the one Perez' teammate Fausto Carmona was caught going the wrong way down prior to his DUI it's a two-way street. Everyone loves it when the flow is going their way, but when the traffic turns against them they cry foul...or Socialism...or some such thing. For the owners and players the idea that folks would just keep turning out no matter the cost has almost never been challenged. But even in a town that once gave as idiotic a promotion as Nickel Beer Night there is no Loaves and Fishes Day at the ballpark.

    So perhaps it's the down economy or more likely it's the lack of commitment/poor planning by the Tribe's front office, but no matter the reason the fans of Cleveland have seemingly shaken the horse-hide monkey off their backs and lapsed into a Missouri State of Mind. Demanding that the Indians "Show Me" their turnaround is serious before they turn over their ever-decreasing paychecks and increasingly clogged hearts to the team this time.

    And based on recent events in Tribe-dom who can blame them. Since their improbable run to within one game of the World Series in 2007 they've jettisoned two Cy Young Award winners (Lee/Sabathia) for the Quadruple-A likes of Matt LaPorta, Jason Donald, Lou Marson, Michael Brantley and Zach Jackson. When that hasn't worked they flipped the equation and sent prospects like Drew Pomeranz and Alex White to Colorado for the diminishing returns of Ubaldo Jimenez or tried to pretend there were any missed bats left in the sinkerball stylings of the carbon-dating required arm of Derek Lowe. And if all else fails ownership cries injury pointing to the lamentable tales of Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner and now the cranial traumatized Carlos Santana.

    At this point they've almost run out of ways to distract the fans from the fact that they are paying Kellogg's Frosted Flakes prices for $1 Store Frosty Flake entertainment. By the time kids like Lonnie Chisenhall and Jason Kipnis become stars (if they do) monetary concerns could take Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-soo Choo and others away as the interminable cycle of rebuilding feeds on itself and the big market clubs go veteran-ly rolling along.
   
    And maybe that's why I can't recall any of the Cleveland brass publicly reprimanding Chris Perez or discounting his words. They've run out of excuses to fool asses into the seats so they hope angry words might shame folks back to the ball park. Too business savvy and without the athletic credentials to get away with it they were more than happy to let their erratic and easily replaceable closer do the dirty work for them.

    Attendance figures indicate it hasn't made much difference so far particularly in the face of the Tribe getting knocked out of first by the red-hot White Sox. But that's alright there's always one last trick up the proverbial ownership sleeve. And when Clevelanders hear the idea of the Charlotte/Jacksonville/Vancouver Indians bandied about in the near future they should take it with a smile, after all, they'll be reminded, it's only Capitalism.

    Yes I promised less verbose postings, but had to clean out the last of the notes before we moved to the new format. Within the next few days we plan to move on from the pithy titles and long-winded rants and move on to date-stamped MLB commentary on a bi- or tri-weekly basis. Also we hope to have full blown Fantasy Football advice here soon. Become a Follower at the top right, find us on Facebook at "Bowling Til' It Hurts" or on Twitter @sprtcom102...and now to find out what this whole "Bath Salts" thing is all about....

Will Good Time Charlie (Manuel) Get The Blues? (NL East Preview)

    If a guy like me is ever gonna hook up with a woman again, let's face facts, I gotta try...hard. Dinners, movies, conversation and even, good God, caring are a prerequisite if I'm gonna get a female to stand even 5 minutes in my presence. The problem is I just can't muster the strength to give a crap anymore. Not about your cat, your friends, your job or anything to do with vampires and/or zombies. Thus I'm always looking for pickup lines as a form of weaseling my way in without all the heavy lifting. In the past I've borrowed from Kevin James' King of Queens character, "I don't know if you ladies watch Professional Roller Derby, but I'm Doug Heffernan" and comedian Doug Benson, "My penis just died can I bury it in your ass" with, as you might expect, widely varying degrees of success.

    This year I've decided to go with the line Arnold Poindexter used in Revenge of the Nerds on an Omega Moo sorority sister, "So would you rather live in the ascendancy of a civilization or it's decline?"; or as I'm paraphrasing, "So who do you like in the NL East?"

    The teams on the ascendancy here are the Braves and their young arms (Hanson, Beachy, Kimbrel, Venters) and the Nationals with the dynamic duo of Stephen Strasbourg and Bryce Harper creating perhaps overly lofty expectations. The team in decline would have to be the Phillies due to an aging and increasingly brittle infield. Though bringing the talents of Halladay, Lee and Hamels to the hill 3 out of every 5 days hardly makes this the Last Days of Rome. Meanwhile the Marlins play the part of the suddenly resource rich former third world country. A wild card that has to be taken seriously due to the money they've brought to the table. And as for the Mets in this analogy, well, one conjures up images of those African tribes that are discovered living untouched by civilization for thousands of years. Best just to pull closed the curtain and leave them blissfully unaware of just how bad they've got it.

    So here now is our NL East predictions with overlooked, but potentially key players noted in bold. Thanks for participating...

NL East (in order of finish)
Philadelphia Phillies-When a multi-millionaire, rock star, horn-dog like Mick Jagger tells me "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" it's a little hard to believe. Like Huey Lewis singing "I Wanna New Drug" (shut up and get back in your minivan Yuppie scum) or Gloria Gaynor saying "I Will Survive" (yeah, whatever happened to her?). But one look at Sir Mick's creased and craggy visage of late does at least lend some authenticity to the singing of "Mother's Little Helper"...Indeed it is a drag getting old.



    We were very tempted to put the Braves here, but the aforementioned starters coupled with a strong, shored up bullpen headed by Jonathan Papelbon and nasty Antonio "You Magnificent" Bastardo is enough to give them the nod. Still despite all the mound magnificence there seems to be some trepidation surrounding this team because of an aging and increasingly brittle everyday core.

    The entire right side of the infield will be on the DL to start the season. Ryan Howard being out until June and Chase Utley dealing with another nagging injury the likes of which have sent his once consistent numbers into a spiral the last two years. Throw in 36 year old Placido Polanco another player plagued by declining production and DL time and you have a growing problem in Philly which is only compounded by a pair of backup infielders in Michael Martinez and Freddy Galvis whose work in the batter box often evokes cries of "nice job, does your husband play?" from the Broad Street Phaithful. Mix in probable regression from 2011 surprise stars Shane Victorino and Carlos Ruiz and it seems possible even this killer staff could be wasted by a few bad breaks...or sprains...or hyperextensions.

    So for our key player we're going to create a three-headed monster of Laynce Nix/Domonic Brown/John Mayberry, Jr.. Ty Wiggington can suffice at 1B in the short term, Polanco is currently healthy and Victorino and Ruiz are expected to regress slightly not nosedive per most projections. That means the one big question mark, assuming Utley is not out longer than expected, is in LF where Mayberry will platoon with Nix/Brown. As the short side of the platoon Mayberry, who tweaked his stance last year and finally delivered on some of the power potential his lineage hints at, should be fine. Thus either Brown or Nix needs to step up in what is expected to be a very competitive division. Nix provides veteran pop, but also brings an abysmal .288 OBP to bear so the Phillies are hoping the 24 year old Brown starts to live up to his can't-miss prospect projection. Last year D-Bro turned around a poor K/BB ration first in Triple-A and then in 210 ABs at the major level. If Mayberry maintains most of the gains he made last year and Brown begins to flower it could be Party-Time at Pat's Cheesesteaks come October...then again it could...aw Hell we won't even say it.

Yes, it should be a tight one in the NL East race this year.

Atlanta Braves- An edition of the soon to be obsolete print edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica mentions that after retiring from politics ex-President John Adams liked to spend his days "admiring his prodigious manure pile which grew incrementally by the day." Many Atlanta fans have compared the 2011 Braves season to a pile of manure, but not because they admired it or it grew incrementally.

    In fact the Braves season more resembled the "Drunkards Walk Theory" which states that things like the stock market or a baseball season do not move in a straight line, but rather lurch forward and pitch backward like a drunk trying to make it home down a city sidewalk. The idea being I...er I mean...the drunk will eventually reach his destination, but in an irregular path of progress and decline. For the inebriated Bravos it was a positive looking 3 steps forward, 1 step backward until with 30 games left and a 9.5 game lead in the Wild Card the final round of Jello shots apparently kicked in and they didn't just stumble backwards, but off the curb and into a speeding bus eventually losing in the 13th inning of the last game of the season to send eventual World Series winner St. Louis to the playoffs and themselves to the golf course.

    The problen, of course, was the bats. ATL finished 23rd overall in runs scored and broken down sabermetrically they wound up an even worse 26th in True Average (TAv). Combine that with a middling defense and a young and talented, but overworked bullpen and you can see how a few bad bounces could skew short term results and lead to such a collapse. In short, the Braves had little  margin for error due to their offensive ineptitude and paid an unlucky price.

    This year it could be more of the same as the Braves thanks to the range challenged and Roberto Duran Hands-of-Stone duo of Freddie Freeman and Dan Uggla appear to be the worst defensive club in the division. Combine that with the fragility of the already DL-ed Chipper Jones, who's still arguably their most productive bat when healthy, and it could be another tight-rope walk to reach the playoffs.

    That said the guy who has to deliver is Jason Heyward. He may not be under the radar, but his precipitous decline from 3.9 WARP to 0.5 last year was more than enough to cost Atlanta the Wild Card. Good news is it was partially manifested by a decidedly low .260 BABIP. With even average luck on balls in play Heyward should add 1.5 to 2 wins to his total from last year. Now the question is will it be enough to not only catch the Phils, but hold off the hard charging Nats and Marlins.

The Braves used to play in Boston...right?

Miami Marlins-I can still remember my Mom sitting at the dinner table and proclaming that "beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes right to the bone"...then she turned away and started talking to my sister. In short you can slap a coat of concealer and a pushup bra on any Hollywood starlet and look good in the short term, but time will eventually seperate the timeless Christie Brinkley's and Jane Seymour's from the in seclusion for a reason Melanie Griffith's of the world (if only Antonio Banderas had such foresight). And that brings us to the new and supposedly improved Marlins.

    The key additions in Miami this year are Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle who combined with new manager Ozzie Guillen and the excitement over the grand opening of a state-of-the-art ballpark have led to expectations perhaps getting out of hand. After all this is essentially still a team that lost 92 games last year, hasn't made the playoffs since 2003 and plays in far and away the toughest division in the National League. Breaking the hype down further Reyes is arguably the biggest non-pitcher injury risk in all of baseball with a hammy that's been glazed so often you may as well toss a pineapple ring on top of it at this point and at 34 with a declining K rate, a ready to regress .269 BABIP and a move out of every pitcher's favorite park in S.D. is Heath Bell really that much of an upgrade over The Closer Formerly Known As Leo Nunez?

    Still there's plenty here to suggest that Miami will close the gap on the Braves and Phillies considerably and even vie for a WC spot. While not spectacular Mark Buerhle is as consistent as they come and could even see a bump in his numbers this year with a new league full of hitters who have yet to be baffled by his off-speed stuff, Hanley Ramirez is due for a rebound of sorts after providing no value in 2011 and the starting 4 at least is set and solid with Buehrle, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson.

    Thus the key is the core that contributed to those 92 losses playing better. Giancarlo nee Mike Stanton is a monster, but may have trouble living up to his breakout 2011 so we'll call our key player LF Logan Morrison who needs to build off his 23 homer, .798 OPS season to compensate for any decline by Stanton and cover the Emilio Bonifacio/Chris Coghlan/Scott Cousins mess that will handle CF. Projections are that Morrison overshot his power last year, but the new park is expected to be left-handed power friendly and at 24 he's still young enough to build on prior success. In the end, though, we're not buying the hype coming outta South Beach and think the Marlins, while still worth a roll in the hay, are not the full season beauty some are making them out to be.

Washington Nationals-And speaking of hype...it is almost always a bad thing to get caught up in especially if it surrounds something new and unproven. Start believing every new flavor that comes out is the next great thing and before you know it you're wondering why you're sweating pit stains in your t-shirt carrying another milk crate full of Flock of Seagulls and Spandau Ballet vinyl records three flights up to your new apartment. As they say in Missouri "Show Me" and while we like the direction this team is going there's still a lot of speculation and only a smattering of proven substance.

    The pitching trio of Stephen Strasbourg, Jordan Zimmerman and Drew Storen coupled with the eventual first coming of the Savior Bryce Harper has things moving along in the right direction, but the buzz surrounding these guys tends to deflect attention from several shortcomings. First off the middle of the field is weak with only 2B Danny Espinosa's glove projecting as a real asset when taking into account the potential value of Espinosa, SS Ian Desmond, and CFs Roger Bernadina and Rick Ankiel. The Sage of the Second Division First Basemen Adam LaRoche unexcitingly mans one corner and while Ryan Zimmerman in the hotter of the two corners is a true star the recently back from being kidnapped C Wilson Ramos and LF Michael Morse look like regression candidates in 2012. That makes our key player RF Jayson Werth. No he's never going back to the 5+ win player he was in Philly, but nagging injuries and a 62 point BABIP drop last year suggest better things at the plate this year. If Werth can adequately fill a 3-4-5 hole and things break right there could be meaningful baseball into the fall in D.C. But until Strasbourg shows he can handle an extended workload and Harper proves himself vs. MLB pitching we're taking a Costco type approach, that is we'll sample the hype, but we're not buying just yet.

New York Mets-Two words: Sandy Alderson...alright that's one name, but the point is clear. The Mets are done with the free spending, Hispanic-fication of the roster as attempted by Omar Minaya and into a full-fledged rebuilding mode. And Alderson appears to be as good a man as they could get for the job.

    From 1983-97 GM Alderson's Oakland A's went to 3 World Series (winning one) and one ALCS after slowly rebuilding a team that had lost 94 games in 1982 and restocking its farm system. At his next stop in San Diego he put together 2 Division winners in 5 years. By no means is his record spotless, but after Minaya and the chubby chasing likes of Steve Phillips it's nice to know there's a guy with some proven success calling the shots at Citi Field.

    The Mets aren't gonna win this year or even next so we're not going to go into particulars, but if you want a key player try Johan Santana on for size. Already Alderson has cleared the multi-million dollar likes of Carlos Beltran, K-Rod, Luis Castillo, Jose Reyes and...God help us all...Oliver Perez off the books and getting someone to take Santana off their hands would be a bonus. He's signed through 2013, but the problem is coming off a year lost to major surgery no one knows what to expect. He'll be 36 by the time the Mets figure to contend so the idea of dropping all or a portion of his salary while getting some young talent in return is one that plays into the overall scheme here. Santana was ready to go Opening Day so things are starting off right. And who knows maybe this time that light at the end of the tunnel in Flushing Meadows isn't the D-Train.

And one to temporarily distract you Mets fans...

Done. We'll try to update once a week with our insights...and yes more pictures...so stop on back. Beer...what a good idea!