Major League Baseball Pre-Preview

With opening day tomorrow, and our first game being played tonight, it is time for me to make my baseball picks. This blog post isn't actually my picks, but my preview to my preview. I will let you know that this is my first time making picks since 2010. Yeah, it really has been that long. Three years. Previous to 2010, baseball was all I knew. It was my favorite sport, and my favorite sport to write and talk about. Then for a couple years I started to lose interest in it. I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't care much about what would happen. Perhaps it was because my beloved Cubbies were struggling and were clearly on a downward spiral. All the sudden, checking the box scores of games every day on my iPod wasn't that interesting. It meant nothing to me, because the Cubs weren't winning. There was also a time over that stretch where I wasn't following or watching all sports as closely as I used to. Some time during the 2011 season, my interest started to kick back in. I witnessed the Cubs' division rival Cardinals go on a remarkable tear at the end of the year to not only make the playoffs, but win the World Series. It looked like they were done in August, and then out of nowhere made this incredible comeback, made the playoffs, and took down a great Texas Rangers team in the World Series. This run they went on inspired many and reminded me why I love sports. 

Now, I'm no Cardinals fan. They are the Cubs' biggest rival and give the Cubs the toughest time in the summer. But I had great respect for what the Cardinals were doing and they truly were a great underdog story. I entered last year's season with my love for baseball back but I didn't make any picks. I'm no expert. I know more about the NBA and NFL, and maybe that's because it's covered my more on ESPN. I don't know. But I was trying to pick right up where I left off with baseball, trying to learn more about the game and its players. Then all the sudden, my other favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates started to dominate in June. Previous to this season, the Pirates hadn't had a winning season in 19 years. The Pirates were playing great ball and I thought they were gonna make the playoffs. And then... they collapsed. They became the first team to ever be 16 games over .500 with two thirds of the season complete and still finish the season with a losing record. The term "heartbreak" came to mind, something I've known way too much about as a sports fan.

Are the Cubs or Pirates going to win the World Series this year? Definitely not. However both teams are doing a good job of putting the pieces in place for the future. In 2015 we could see both teams battling it out for the NL Central Division Title. 

This year is going to be interesting. We had some huge deals in the off-season and the Astros are moving to the NL West to finally balance out the league. Seriously, how come we've had 30 teams in the MLB, with 16 in the National League and 14 in the American League? Six teams in the NL Central and four in the AL West? Makes no sense to me. We still have the problem of the designated hitter. It's no fair that the AL has a designated hitter for their pitchers while the NL doesn't. When the two teams meet in interleague play or in the World Series, whoever has home-field advantage has the game played their way. People will argue over whether or not the designated hitter is a good thing for the game... that's not what I'm talking about. The people in favor of the designated hitter will say it's good because it protects pitchers from getting injured when they aren't pitching, while old school thinkers will say that all nine players on the field should hit in the lineup. I don't side with either of those arguments. However I do think that if you're going to have a designated hitter, it should be in both leagues. Some will say that the NL has a bigger advantage when the two teams meet because the pitchers are used to hitting. I disagree. All pitchers have hit at some time in their life. Chances are some of those pitchers were the best hitters on their high school teams. It's not like you're taking a punter on a football team and putting him in on offensive line to get pummeled. The NL has no advantage. The AL has a huge advantage because they have to sign someone as their designated hitter because they'll be playing there every day during the regular season. The NL has to take someone off their bench and put them in at DH. It simply isn't fair. There are other problems I have with the MLB, specifically the salary cap which allows teams like the Yankees and Angels to spend big money on free agents when small-market teams like Tampa Bay are haunted by the thought of free agency because to them it means they won't be able to pay their guys and they'll lose them. I won't dive too much further into my problems with the league, however the fact that the Astros are moving to the AL is a good thing and it certainly is a step in the right direction.

This off-season we also said goodbye to the third-to-first pick-off move, which will now be ruled as a balk. That rule change won't only affect MLB, but everything below it. From college, to high school, to little league. That move wasn't used very often in the bigs, however it is interesting whenever the rules change. This off-season showcased Los Angeles' ability to lure big name players to its city. While the Yankees normally are the heavy spenders, we didn't hear much from them. The Dodgers gave Zack Greinke a massive deal and my favorite player Josh Hamilton fled the Rangers for a division rival. The Blue Jays jumped in on the Marlins fire sale and completely reloaded their team, also trading for NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey from the Mets. It will be interesting to see how things shape up this year. Will teams that spend big be rewarded? Or will small market teams like the A's and Rays be the favorites in October. I will preview it all in my MLB Preview, which I will post tonight or early tomorrow. Got any questions you would like me to answer in post? Comment and let me know. Or as always you can hit me up on twitter @vellvita7. Thanks for reading guys, hope to make this MLB preview a good one!