Here we go, less than a week away. Larger predictions on the season:

AL East - Boston
AL Central - Cleveland
AL West - Seattle
AL Wildcard #1 - New York
AL Wildcard #2 - Anaheim

NL East - Washington
NL Central - St. Louis
NL West - San Diego
NL Wildcard #1 - Los Angeles
NL Wildcard #2 - Chicago

ALCS - Cleveland at Seattle
NLCS - Washington at St. Louis

World Series - Seattle/St. Louis

World Champ - whoever has home field advantage based upon the All Star Game winner.

I usually post my predictions here and I'm rarely right about the overall winner (I think the last time it happened was with the Yankees back in 2009), so I really don't want to jinx Seattle.

Regarding my "controversial" picks:

Cleveland is the team on the rise in the AL Central. Miggy and V-Mart are already showing signs of being unhealthy over the next six months and Dombrowksi did nothing to shore up their horrible bullpen. Chicago really won't have a shot at winning the division either with Sale starting the year without being healthy/Spring Training and their pen sucks too. Robertson won't be enough. Melky Cabrera and LaRoche are nice additions, but they still have holes all over that lineup. Like a lot of pundits, predictions, I think KC falls back into the high 70's for overall wins this year. Baseball Prospectus actually has them slated for 73 wins.

Everything went completely wrong with the Yankees last year and they still won 84 games, so I think things bounce back for them this year. McCann and Beltran are better and they won't have the liability of having to play a 40 year old Derek Jeter five times a week. I actually think them signing Garrett Jones was a huge deal for them. He can probably hit 20 HR, 60-70 RBI's for them at that stadium just platooning at DH/1B/OF spots.

San Diego over Los Angeles. The LA rotation as it stands is vastly superior, but Ryu is already hurt and trusting McCarthy and Anderson to stay healthy is scary. However, the San Diego bullpen blows away the Dodger's pen and Bud Black knows how to manage in tight games after managing the last eight-nine seasons with teams with anemic offenses. And I really think that'll be the difference. I also think all the San Diego outfielders will play out of their shoes with a lot to prove (Kemp, Myers and Upton in his free agent year).

I have the Cubs winning a Wild Card spot which seems out of bounds, but The Sporting News picked them to win the World Series! They've got seriously amazing talent on the field though with Rizzo, Baez, Soler and Bryant (whenever he comes up). If Lester and Arrieta can perform as they did last year, they'll be a credible #1/#2 tandem that should be enough to get them the 85-ish wins it'll take to get that second Wild Card spot. There are gonna be a lot of really bad NL teams for them to beat up on (Philly, Atlanta, Cinci, Arizona, Colorado).

I don't feel strongly about any of these picks.

AL East - Boston
AL Central - Detroit
AL West - Anaheim
AL Wildcard #1 - Toronto
AL Wildcard #2 - Seattle

NL East - Washington
NL Central - St. Louis
NL West - Los Angeles
NL Wildcard #1 - Pittsburgh
NL Wildcard #2 - San Diego

ALCS - Detroit vs Anaheim
NLCS - Washington at Los Angeles

World Series - Anaheim vs Los Angeles

World Champ - Anaheim

King Buzzo previews the LA Dodgers season:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/fea ... e-20150331

Ervin Santana suspended for 80 days. Josh Hamilton, to the Angels chagrin, not going to be suspended at all.

Really excited for baseball season to begin....but it really sucks right about now not having cable.

al east- toronto
al central- KC
al west- mariners
wildcard1- anahiem
wildcard2-boston

nl east- nats
nl central- pirates
nl west- san diego
wildcard1-st louis
wildcard2- florida

pirates over the mariners in the world series.

I don't see any way the Cubs get a wild card. 2016, perhaps. I just think they're a piece or two shot to be any kind of threat.

It's great having baseball back.

Mariners are staging an 8th inning comeback against Anaheim!

Really sucks for the Twins, losing the largest free agent signing in franchise history (hard to believe really) for half a season before the season even starts. The Tigers destroyed them 11-0 today to boot. Long year in Minneapolis. Sorry guitarvis!

I guess the Angels' statement being disappointed about Hamilton not being suspended really rubbed a lot of the Angel players the wrong way. Pretty funny that you'd rather suspend a guy and not pay him than have him play mediocre OF and be on the hook for whatever his salary is (I'm thinking $23MM, so a 30 day suspension would save them $2MM give or take).

M's leave the bases loaded. Ugh.

Can't be a baseball season without a Met getting suspended for PEDS. I don't what it is with the Mets organization but they have to be responsible for more PED suspensions than anyone else (between both majors and minors). It's ridiculous.

On a more positive note, Nolan Arrenado has been tearing things up so far in '15. Quite the small sample size but I am all in on him. I am hoping Cargo can demonstrate some good health this season, Dickerson shows my faith in him is deserved, and the Arrenado keeps this up so that Rockies can trade Cargo and use the $$$ savings on deals for Arrenado and Dickerson that buy out a couple years of free agency. Now is the time....they will likely only get more expensive as time winds down.

....as I typed that I remembered that Arrenado is managed by Boras(s). That puts a wrench in my plans. Though I do believe Cargo is represented by Boras(s) as well and he signed a similar deal. So maybe there's a little hope.

The M's are still in the thick of it in their division, but it's scary to think where they'd be right now without Nelson Cruz bailing them out. I hope the rest of this team starts getting on the stick pretty soon.

I guess Ackley has been pretty good but yeesh.

Kind of surprised to not hear from you Adam after the Mets tie their best record for their first 15 games of the year. They're off to a real tear! Really surprising, but I haven't really followed what they've done. I know they had a real strong opening series against DC and I guess they've basically stomped on Miami and Philly since then?

Also put Atlanta in the WTF? column, but I just don't see what they're doing as being sustainable.

I don't expect the Mets to win the division, but they've at least extended the race to probably August with this start. I might be wrong though. Terry Collins always seems to get the best out of the players he has, when they aren't on the DL, which is pretty frequent for them.

Yeah, been a nice start for the Mets but not having cable makes it hard to follow right for the most part. Only time I have access to MLB and baseball in general is when I am at the gym.

I saw them play a couple games the opening week against DC and they seemed... lucky. Didn't figure that "luck" would last three weeks, but good on them so far.

I managed to only see about 30 minutes of baseball today and it was the entire KC/ChiSox brawl tonight, so I feel very lucky in that respect! I think Samardzija cemented an extension with Chicago the way he went at it tonight. Ventura, the KC pitcher, seems to be a bit of a douchebag, although Adam Eaton was being kind of annoying getting ready in his own right. Pretty fun hearing Hawk Harrelson's call on that. It did seem like KC were the instigators (the Bad Guys) on that incident.

How to deal with the shift.

http://gfycat.com/EmptyInsignificantIndri

what happened to the mets is matt harvey. the moment he beaned utley the whole perception of the mets changed. all of a sudden they became hard nosed. i think that i was wrong about the mets. they have the best team in the NL east. their weakest link is their 3rd basman

Speaking of early season phenoms, someone break up the fuckin' Astros! Man, I figured they'd be decent this year, but not 13-7 out of the gate! Their O/U of 75.5 looks like a laugher now.

Chicago and Baltimore are playing a game tomorrow in front of NO FANS. That'd be kind of weird to see a telecast of it. I guess it really wouldn't be much different than the day games you see in Chicago (White Sox) though. It all seems like kind of a bad idea to me. Kind of doubly thumbing the nose at the people of Baltimore, by playing it now and not letting anyone in. I'd be pissed at least.

Nelson Cruz has been my early season surprise. Already at 10 home runs. Crazy.

I was watching PTI yesterday at the gym and Tony K mentioned how the 10 run, 15 hit Baltimore-CHS game was only 2h 3m long, half joking how that its the fans that are the variable that extends games into the 3 hour range. Probably some truth to that. But that was weird seeing the clips of that game.

Lenny Dykstra vs. Mitch Williams on a recent roast of Dykstra. Holy shit. About as ugly as it can get. Dykstra is one of the biggest trainwrecks of all time.

Goddamned unbelievable.

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/11493214/v113057883

The Red Sox are a complete mess. The natives are already starting to call for John Farrell's head. I don't think it's his fault. All that money spent on hitting in the off season, but their starting rotation is borderline AAA quality. And I don't think Cole Hamels is gonna be enough to fix it.

It's nice having a Cubs team that is fun to watch again. The last several years have been less than enjoyable more times than not.

Im still not convinced Starlin Castro is on this team when they really begin to compete.

Ian Desmond has been quite the bust so far this year. Playing for a new contract he has not done himself any favors. Or me, my fantasy team was counting on him too. And speaking of Nationals, Bryce Harper has certainly been the man this year.

Mark Trumbo traded to Seattle.

This is really embarrassing. Man, talk about grasping for straws. I was actually suckered into believing this team could do something this year. Tough to imagine how bad they'd be without Nelson Cruz and his 18 HR this year (which projects to like another 54 HR for the year,,, GOOD signing!). Even with Iwakuma being healthy in the rotation, you're only talking about a couple extra wins, at the most.

Really tough situation. Stuck with 8.5 years of Cano at $25MM/per year (although we never get Cruz without signing Cano). "Homegrown talent" like Miller, Zunino and Ackley (#2 overall pick!) can't hit their weight. Sad thing is that Trumbo is an improvement of the bums we've had playing everyday for the most part (including Cano).

Oakland brought up their ambidexterous pitcher tonight and he got outs throwing with both hands. Pretty fun.

What St. Louis has been doing consistently has been madcap! I watch them a lot and they have seemingly 15 come-from-behind, winning-one-run games this season. They did it to the Dodgers in LA tonight. They are pretty easily the best run franchise in the business right now. They're on pace to win like 110 games without their ace (Wainwright) and seemingly bring up a budding super-star every year (latest being Kolton Wong).

ian desmond isnt going to be with the nationals by the end of the season. tre turner has been tearing it up.