The National League West was probably the most competitive division in MLB in 2007.  The NL Wild Card came from the Western Division last year, and those Colorado Rockies went on to win the pennant.  The Padres won 89 games and missed the playoffs altogether.  The D-Backs won the West with a young team and added another very good starting pitcher.  Also, the past two Cy Youngs play in the West.  Everyone will be watching to see if Joe Torre can succeed in the biggest market on the west coast as well.  And in the city by the bay, the Giants’ terrible offense will be even worse without Barry Bonds, but youngsters Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain will pitch well.

Check out the preview:

http://thebigleaguebeat.com/2008-nl-west-preview/

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Ok let’s try a prediction contest for the 2008 season.  Prize to be named later.  Probably www.thebigleaguebeat.com apparel.  Cut and paste the text and post your answers.  How many will have the Tigers winning the American League?  How many for Johan Santana as the NL Cy Young the year after Jake Peavy won the Pitcher Triple Crown?  Should be fun.  Let’s make the deadline Opening Day. 

1.    AL East:

2.    AL Central:

3.    AL West: 

4.    AL Wild Card:

5.    American League Pennant:

6.    AL MVP:

7.    AL Cy Young:

8.    AL Rookie of the Year:

9.    AL Manager of the Year:

10.  NL East:

11.  NL Central:

12.  NL West:

13.  NL Wild Card:

14.  National League Pennant:

15.  NL MVP:

16.  NL Cy Young:

17.  NL Rookie of the Year:

18.  NL Manager of the Year:

19.  All-Star Game Winning Team:

20.  All-Star Game MVP:

21.  World Series Champion:

22.  World Series MVP:

Tiebreaker:  How many homeruns will A-Rod hit in 2008?

Ok, here is one for all you Cubs fans.  The Carlos Marmol player comparison is interesting.  So is the theory on Kerry Wood’s development (or lack thereof).

http://thebigleaguebeat.com/cubs-closer-job/

Closers may get saves, but they aren’t necessarily saviors.  Only Arizona of the National League playoff teams had a start-to-finish legitimite shutdown closer (and to show how much they appreciated him, they traded him to Houston this offseason).  The window of opportunity and shelf lives of these guys are very slim.  So who is going to be the Cubs’ closer?  100 years is enough already.  Let’s hear from the aww-shucks, woe-is-me Cubs fans on this one.

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ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning has a weekly contest called Just Shut Up where they designate which sports personality should “just shut up”.  Gary Sheffield should get the Just Shut Up Lifetime Achievement Award.

Now Gary Sheffield is saying that Scott Boras is “a bad person”.  Tell me something I don’t know, Gary.  Sheffield famously fired Boras before his negotations with the New York Yankees in the offseason before 2004.  Sheff sat down one-on-one with The Boss himself to negotiate that 3-year contract.  Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that conversation… 

It turns out Jose Canseco knew what he was talking about after all in regards to his steroid accusations.  Also under the it-takes-one-to-know-one rule, Gary Sheffield now calls Boras like he sees him:  a bad person.  But Sheffield says once his greivance against Boras is complete, he will really sound off about his former agent.  That should make great comedy, if nothing else.  Oh, and Sheffield says Boras tried to “tarnish” his name.  Sorry, Gary, I think you did that on your own.  It’s probably not a coincidence when a certain Hall of Famer–an absolutely terrifying hitter–plays for seven teams in his career.  In 1992 Sheff took a triple crown lead farther into the season than anyone in the last 25 years playing for San Diego.  They traded him the next season.

The 2006 National League MVP made less than a million bucks in 2007 ($900,000), but he will be getting a nice raise for the upcoming season.  Ryan Howard won his arbitration case today.  The three-judge panel decided that Howard deserves the $10 million he was seeking for 2008 and that the Phillies’ request of $7 million was inadequate.  Take a look at Howard’s numbers since he’s come into the league.

Ryan Howard

Howard wasn’t quite as good in ‘07 as he was the year before, but his MVP season was monumental, and he definitely looks like he will post monster numbers for years to come.  The arbitration panel thinks so as well.

http://thebigleaguebeat.com/2008-al-east-preview/

It’s more of the usual in the AL East.  The Red Sox are good–real good.  So are the Yanks.  The Blue Jays are average.  Baltimore is rebuilding, making way for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, err…Rays to get out of the AL East cellar.  2004 was the only other year Tampa Bay finished higher than last.

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There is a remarkable thing happening in Major League Baseball right now.  The household names and certain Hall of Famers from the previous generation are retiring.  Bonds, Clemens, Maddux, Smoltz, and Randy Johnson are at the ends of their careers.  But Miguel Cabrera, Cole Hamels, Jake Peavy, Brandon Webb, and Jose Reyes already have began compiling the numbers to make their own cases for the Hall of Fame.  With better scouting and development (and better college programs), many youngsters are making an immediate impact in the Majors–and they’re doing it for cheap.  Soon, the youth movement in this incredible time of turnover in MLB will become arbitration eligible.  This offseason, we have seen more guys and their clubs avoid the abitration process than in recent memory.  Curtis Granderson.  Robinson Cano.  Kevin Youkilis.  Brandon Phillips.  Troy Tulowitzki.  And several more.  Ian Kinsler is the latest, signing a 5-year contract with the Texas Rangers worth $22 million. 

Ian Kinsler has provided pop from the second base position for the Rangers in his first two seasons.  He raised his 2006 totals to hit 20 homeruns, collect 61 RBIs, and steal 23 bases in 2007.  However, his slugging percentage and batting average dropped during the same time.  Kinsler has had a problem staying healthy as well, playing in 120 games in 2006 and 130 games in 2007.  If he develops and stays healthy, Kinsler could very well become third player ever to go 30-30 from the second base position behind Brandon Phillips last season and Alfonso Soriano before his position change.

The Cincinnati Reds locked up their second baseman for four more years. The deal is worth $27 million, a good raise from the $407,500 Brandon Phillips made in 2007.  He won’t win a Silver Slugger award as long as Chase Utley is playing second base in the National League, but Phillips is finally reaching the potential of his once-elite prospect status. He built on a solid 2006 with an even better 2007. Too bad he plays in a middle-class market on neither coast. Get this little-publicized fact: Brandon Phillips made the 30-30 club in 2007. Expect the 26-year-old Phillips to continue to prove that he is one of the best second basemen in MLB in 2008.

Yesterday’s report that said Barry Bonds tested positive for steroids only a month after his 73-homerun season of 2001 was wrong.  It was just a typo.  They meant to write “Novemeber 2000″ instead of 2001.  While it may be an admission of steroid use by Bonds (see: flackseed oil), the Feds already knew about it.  Unless there is a paper trail or the Feds get to Greg Anderson (which clearly isn’t happening), it seems very difficult to prove that Barry knew he was lying.  Plausible deniability.  Look it up.  That’s Barry’s story, and he’s sticking to it.

As for baseball side of it, this is true:  Barry Lamar Bonds is 65 hits short of 3,000 for his career.  He is 69 runs scored away from being the all-time leader on that list (he is currently third behind Ty Cobb and Rickey Henderson).  He is four runs batted in from having 2,000 RBIs for his career, and only 14 games away from playing in 3,000 MLB contests.  Oh, and he’s the best hitter since Ted Williams.

The Angels always seemed the best fit, even more than Oakland because the Athletics weren’t going to compete even before their firesale.  This was before Anaheim overpaid for Torii Hunter, but here’s how it would work:  Barry needs to be the DH, but can only probably play 120 games anyway.  Vladimir Guerrero’s body (knees, back, shoulder) is wearing down.  Look at his numbers from last season.  He hit under 30 homeruns and posted the lowest slugging percentage of his career.  Guerrero could be the designated hitter in the 40 or so days that Bonds could not play, giving him the opportunity to rest but continue to be in the lineup.  Plus, Guerrero has never had a big, respected bat either in front of or behind him in his MLB career and the Angels much-needed pop in the middle of their order.

By the way Barry Lamar Bonds can obviously still hit.  As he himself once famously said, “I can barely walk, but I can still rake.”  Last season he turned 43, but also posted a 1.045 OPS, which would have ranked 3rd in MLB behind Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz had Bonds had the 3.1 plate appearances per team game required to be eligible.  His .480 on base percentage would have led all of Major League Baseball.

For five MLB teams, pitchers and catchers report to spring training today.  The Seattle Mariners, the Chicago Cubs, the Oakland Athletics, the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants are all loosening up their arms.  Of course, the biggest story is that Erik Bedard will report as the new ace of the Mariners’ staff.  Also showing up for Mariners camp today is their new pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre.  Stottlemyre was, of course, the pitching coach for the Yankees during their most recent championship years and could very well be the most imporant coaching change this offseason.  Oh, and he won 164 games in 11 seasons for the Bronx Bombers as well.  

Spring training is an inspirational thing, filling everyone with hope.  Here is a link to some spring training haikus.  Feel free to come up with your own.  For all you meatheads, a haiku is a poem written in three unrhymed lines of five, then seven, then five syllables.