MLB Baseball 2013 Season

[GL]

So, with today being the day for the first reports to camp, time to start this up again. And do we have a lot to talk about this time around:

The new steroid scandal out of Florida
The continuation of the new playoff formats
Wheelings and dealings of the off-season

And of course, the realignment of the divisions and year-round interleague games. We've got plenty to go on, so let's get it going.

[GL]

Well, nuts. You guys busted that one pretty well, (only 8 views in two months?) so I guess it's time for predictions instead with opening day occurring this afternoon:

AL West-Angels
AL Central-Tigers
AL East-Orioles

NL West-Dodgers
NL Central-Cardinals
NL East-Nationals

AL Wildcard teams (in order of their magnitude): Rangers, Blue Jays
NL Wildcard teams (in order of their magnitude): Giants, Braves

[HNT]

I like your pics, except I think you have the AL East wrong. I think the BlueJays win the division and the Rays are an wildcare team. I have the Orioles finishing in fourth, behind the Sox but slightly ahead of the Yankees

[GL]

The East is tricky, no doubt about it, but I have my reasons:

1. For once, I don't like the Rays' pitching. You have Price, Hellickson, then a bunch of question-marks. I'm not impressed with Moore so far as he's a bit too uneven for me to think of him the way I do the top two, Archer was effective in spots last year but this'll be his first full year in the league and I don't think he'll stay, and I never heard who was the five-hole starter when they broke camp so that's another question for me. On top of the pitching questions, they struggled with defense in the spring in the few games I checked out (and had a similar problem last season) which was a hallmark of this team, and with Upton gone the offense is Longoria and a bunch of roll-players and utility guys. Not exactly a threatening, play-off challenging group there. (for the record, though, I see them third and cracking 90 wins, but I like other teams better).

2. Boston looks good so far (and judging from yesterday's game pretty good against the Yankees) but I think it's still a transition period. True, Farrell's been there before but I see this year as the season they all settle down from the chaos of last year and get back to what they're capable of, but I don't think they have enough to overcome the O's and Jays.

3. The Jays indeed look like a power-house, but I just don't like that bullpen a lot less than I don't like the O's starters. I think the O's have a better, deeper pitching staff, plus I like what Showalter's doing as a manager over there. This was a gut-feeling pick, not a paper pick.

And congrats on your game yesterday. Saw some of it yesterday and you kept the greatest opening day record in tact, pretty cool.

[GL]

So, HNT, looks like you guys are world-beaters right now. 19 runs in two games, quite impressive so far despite the minor scare last night. Still, I'd love to open the season that way instead of the way we have so far, but Day 1 was still pretty nice.

And congrats CT on your walk-off win yesterday. Still got a better record than me, so it looks like I'm on the bottom of the three of us.

[HNT]

Yeah, as usual the Mets look great in April. Rather than the all time best opening day winning streak I'd much rather have the all time best October winning record.

[GL]

Well, I haven't seen much of anything since I've been gone, but by keeping up using MLB Network, congrats to Roy Halladay for win #200 in his career and to Felix Hernandez for win #100 in his career while I was gone.

[GL]

Congratulations to Homer Bailey for throwing a No-Hitter yesterday against the San Francisco Giants!

[GL]

Tin Lincecum's no-hitter, meh. :golf-clap:

[GL]

So, congratulations to Henderson Alvarez for throwing a No-Hitter against the Detroit Tigers on the last day of the season!

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays and the Pittsburgh Pirates for moving on in the post-season.