Both the National League and American League are underway...we're just waiting for Opening Day for 26 more teams.
We might have to wait another day for the Brewers to get started though. It's rain, rain, and more rain in Chicago today. You know, I'm not sure if anybody has thought of this before, but is it possible to build a baseball park with a roof? Maybe even one that can be removed on nice days?
You can scroll down to see what Cubs blogger Byron Clarke has to say about his team. For my answers to his questions about the Brewers, check out the entry here.
TheJay noticed this David Pinto division preview, in which he picks the Brewers to win. Interestingly, he isn't down on anything about the Cubs--in fact, he's probably too optimistic about the rotation. He likes everything about the Crew though, and seems to expect a big improvement from 2007.
The Hardball Times is going to include outfield arms stats along with all of their other numbers this year. Cool, huh? I'll be curious to see how Braun stacks up.
At Two Fisted Slopper, Nate looks at some unheralded factors in the division race. It's especially important to look at that interleague schedule. I wrote a program a while back that does a quick-and-dirty strength of schedule estimation; maybe I'll have to dig that out and see how the Brewers and Cubs fare by that measure.
The Marlins have a $21MM payroll. This guy thinks that's insulting. I think it's kind of cool. Granted, I don't care if the Marlins win or lose, and I like seeing youngsters and I like rooting for underdogs. But even apart from all of that, it's an interesting experiment, isn't it? While the Marlins ownership is hardly the classiest bunch in the game, what this writer ignores is: what good would a bunch of free agents do for them? They could've kept Miggy and Dontrelle and won 80 games. They could've coughed up the dough for ...I don't know, Hideki Kuroda, and maybe won 82 games. All of that would've put them in a position to not win the division, then win 75 next year or the year after...which is where they'll probably be now.
Our own Eric Johnson (battlekow) is writing a weekly column for the fantasy site Creative Sports. Check out his first installment here.
Juan Pierre is now a $9MM per year bench player. I love it.
23 games in the University of Miami's season, Jemile Weeks is hitting .400. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that he won't last until the 8th round in this year's draft.
That's all for today folks. Keep your eye on the weather channel and remember, as Prince would say: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.