2008 National League East

OK, spent a lot of time thinking over the NL East. Just some quick picks, was actually tough to decide. I went back and forth on first place several times Fifth Place: The easiest pick for me. The Washington Nationals open a new ballpark but again will struggle to win games. Fourth Place: The Florida Marlins traded away their star pitcher and position players to Detroit. They still got a decent young team, but there's too much talent above them in the east. Third Place: The Philadelphia Phillies will be right there at the end of the season battling for the division and wild card. This could be so close that a three way regular season tie is possible. Second Place: One of the National Leagues best teams last year, the New York Mets collapsed in the closing days of the season and watched as the Phillies passed them at the line. 2008 bring another year with another battle and again they will fall short. Division Champion: The Atlanta Braves will return to the throne they controlled for over a decade. Another World Series appearance is possible, another World Series loss likely.

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2008 National League Central

Another tough one to pick with a decent battle between Milwaukee and Chicago as a strong possibility. Sixth Place: Once a proud team in the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates have struggled since Barry Bonds left town and headed west. 2008 will be no different for the perennial doormats of the NL Central. Fifth Place: The race for third through fifth will be a tight battle, Pittsburgh could even stay near this group. In the end the Houston Astros will find themselves in the fifth slot. Fourth Place: Can Ken Griffey Jr. stay healthy? That will be a big must for the Cincinatti Reds in 2008 if they want to be competitive through September. Third Place: Just a couple years back the St. Louis Cardinals were the powers of not only the NL Cenrtal, but Major League baseballs regular season. This year they battle to hold onto third place. Second Place: Last season the race for the division crown came down to the last days of the season and the Cubbies pulled it out. The Milwaukee Brewers are hoping to be on the other end of that result this year but the Cubs will have a lot to say about that. Division Champion: Not since 1908 have the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, they will make another run towards it in 2008, the 100th anniversary of their last title. They could advance to the World Series, but a win is unlikely.

2008 American League Central

Two of baseballs best teams call the American League Central home and they will battle it out in 2008 for the division crown. The Central could also find it self with the 2008 American League Wildcard entry to. Fifth Place: The Chicago White Sox have fallen so quickly since their 2005 World Championship and 2008 will mark the bottom as they will finish last in the AL Central. Fourth Place: Johan Santana has moved on and the Minnesota Twins will begin to rebuild for future runs at the AL Central crown. They have a good core of young players however an uncertain pitching staff will hold them back. They will need a big year from Liriano if they hope to even be competitive for the mid part of the division. Third Place: The Kansas City Royals will take a step forward this season as they continute to build a decent young team. Gil Meche will need a strong season to help the Royals claim third place. Second Place: Many have tagged the Detroit Tigers as American League favorites, but they won't quite beat out the Indians for the Central crown. Division Champion: The Cleveland Indians will repeat as AL Central Champions and attempt to advance past the AL Championship where they had a 3-1 lead in 2007. Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner will need to have MVP caliber seasons and C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona will need to replicate their 2007 seasons for the tribe to hold off the Tigers.

2008 American League West

Much like the National League West, this division is hard to pick, though not as hard as the NL West. Los Angeles seems like the pick to make, though Seattle will be right there. Fourth Place: The Oakland Athletics are going to have a long season that was made even longer with that trip to Tokyo for the kickoff. Theres not much to really say about this team, they will struggle for wins all season. Third Place: After trading away their best player last season, the Texas Rangers look to improve in 2008. They could add a few wins to the total over last year, but it maybe another year before they are ready to make a giant leap forward. Second Place: After being swept out of the playoffs last year the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are hoping to take the next step in 2008, however the team will take a step back of sorts. We can't blame it on the team playing poorer, but rather on the Mariners making a huge leap forward. Division Champion: The Seattle Mariners return to the top of the division behind a solid front end of the roation. Add in one of the top closers in the game and you can expect a solid season for Seattle.

Did Anyone Notice There Were Two Teams In Tokyo?

Tha fans that passed through the gates into the Tokyo Dome were largely sporting Red Sox gear. The cheering was loudest for the Red Sox it was almost as if the game was played back in Boston. Did anyone notice the Oakland Athletics were also in town? Major League Baseball scheduled the games at 6:00 AM ET which is a early rise for Sox fans on the east coast, but an even crazier 3:00 AM PT for those back in Oakland. If that wasn't bad enough at one point during the second game Wednesday the Athletics flag hanging along with the Sox flag, Japanese, American and MLB flags in center field fell from the roof and had to be retrieved by a groundskeeper. And to show just how little respect was paid to the Athletics, DirectTV in a statement apologizing for the outage of the game Tuesday morning said... "We experienced some temporary technical difficulties early this morning that resulted in some channels not being available to customers. The majority of our channels were not affected and we have since corrected the problem. In the case of the Red Sox season opener, we were able to bring the NESN channel back up at the top of the seventh inning. ESPN2 came back on later, after the game was over. (Customers who have NESN or ESPN2 in HD were able to see the entire game.) We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers - and particularly Red Sox fans. ESPN2 is planning to carry a repeat of the game at 2 p.m." So DirectTV was particularly sorry to Red Sox fans, but Athletics fans, not so much. Of course there's also the fact that this weekend, there wont be nearly as much talk about the resumption of the series with the Red Sox back in Oakland as there will be about the exhibition game between the Red Sox and Dodgers in Los Angeles on Saturday. In the middle game of a three game set, the teams will travel over to the Los Angeles Coliseum to play in front of a crowd expected to surpass 115,000 fans. What must the Athletics do to get some sort of respect? Their fans are certainly wondering.

Boston Red Sox + Los Angeles Coliseum =

The largest crowd ever for an American baseball game. 92,000 tickets sold out almost immediatly in February when the Dodgers placed the tickets on sale, this led the team to make available over 20,000 standing room only tickets for the game. The crowd will exceed the baseball record of 93,103 set at this very stadium when the Dodgers honored Roy Campanella, it could also exceed the Michigan/Ohio State attendance of 112,118. Outside of NASCAR, Saturday's game could draw the largest crowd in American sporting history. Fans should expect some scoring too. Manny Ramirez should be drooling from the batters box all game, the left field wall will sit just 200 feet from home plate. Picture of baseball layout in 1958 New York Times story on game

Red Sox Split Tokyo Series

The Boston Red Sox kicked off the 2008 season in Japan much the same as the previous teams to make the trip, with a two game split with Oakland. It took a ninth inning rally Tuesday morning with Brandon Moss' first major league homerun and a Manny Ramirez tenth inning 2-run double to pull off the opening day win. Wednesday's game had few highlights for the Sox as they scored just one run on a Ramirez solo shot. Both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Lester struggled, though Matsuzaka was very good his last three innings. Manny's big start could cause more hype to the talk of a monster year from the left fielder.

2008 National League West

This is by far the toughest division to predict in 2008. Four of the five teams can make legitimate claims at being the team to beat. There's defending National League champions the Colorado Rockies, defending division champion Arizona Diamondbacks, a strong San Diego Padres team and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colorado beat out San Diego with a dramatic final inning rally in a playoff game to decide the National League wild card last season. That was just part of their long run from September on that took them to the World Series where they lost in four games to the Boston Red Sox. Fifth Place: Without Barry Bonds the San Francisco Giants not only lost the face of the franchise, but the one legitimate offensive force they had. A long season can be expected for the Giants as they celebrate their 50th anniversary in San Francisco. Fourth Place: San Diego has a good team and a very good pitching staff, but playing in this division good and very good are no guarantees. They should have one of the better pitching staffs in baseball led by a great top of the rotation duo's in Jake Peavy and Chris Young as well as Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. That may not be enough to finish higher then this. Third Place: A team that seems to be among the conversation for the past few years, the Los Angeles Dodgers will find it difficult to win the division in 2008. They along with San Diego will be right their fighting for it into the final weeks of the season, but in the end they will fall just short of Colorado and Arizona. Second Place: Coming off a tremendous season not many expected, the Colorado Rockies will attempt to repeat as National League champions in 2008. The road back to the series may have to once again be run as a wild card entry as Arizona will win the division in 2008. Last year I may have been the only non Rockies fan in the world to actually predict them to play the World Series, they may wish I was making that prediction again... will I? well that will come shortly when I predict the playoffs, for now the Rockies settle for West Division runners-up. Division Champion: They added a top of the rotation starter Dan Haren to join Brandon Webb to highlight the rotation this season. The Arizona Diamondbacks are in great position to repeat as division champs and make an attempt to return to the World Series for the first time since they won in 2001.

BREAKING: Sox Release Mirabelli

According to Boston.com the Boston Red Sox have released Doug Mirabelli. Kevin Cash is the presumptive backup catcher now entering the 2008 season.