Baseball Season Is Coming

Pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training, so what will this season bring us in baseball.

The Toronto Blue Jays are the early favorite to win the World Series. First off, the early favorite to win the World Series almost never wins the World Series. But they have an opportunity.

I can specifically remember watching Joe Carter blast a game-winning home run in the 1993 World Series, the last time Toronto was relevant in baseball. Oct. 23, 1993. Now, nearly 20 years later, the Blue Jays boosted their payroll by almost 50 percent in the offseason in an attempt to regain relevance. 

Signing the reigning National League Cy Young Award Winner, R.A. Dickey, is a very important step for them. Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera are also huge steps for a team that wants to be relevant. Oh yea, and they have Joey Bats. 32 years young Jose Bautista has a knack for the home run. The all-star outfielder hit 54, 43 and 27 the last three season’s respectively. Last years shortened because of an injury. This guy can hit the ball. The key factor however will be actually playing the games and doing so successfully.

(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

More news from the American League came on Tuesday when King Felix completed an extension to keep the ace in Seattle long enough to become a SuperSonics fan again.

The San Francisco Giants of the National League will look to repeat as World Series Champions, something that hasn’t been done since the Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. The Giants won three seasons ago and have won eight out of their last nine in the World Series. San Francisco does have the talent to win it, obviously, they are the champs. The question will be, can they repeat? It seems extremely hard to do.

No talk of baseball is complete without the mention of the New York Yankees. This may not be exactly true for every baseball story, but this is definitely what makes opponents of the pinstripes despise them even more. Why talk about an aging team that may or may not win half of their games? 10,000 simulations done by ESPN have the Yankees winning less than 90 games, which is actually more than half, but not the same as their 95 wins a year ago that won them the A.L. East.

Alex Rodriguez provides an interesting storyline as he often does but personally I’m over A-Roid and all that comes with that. More importantly, for the Yankees, the greatest closer in the history of baseball is preparing to make a comeback from a devastating knee injury. Mariano Rivera tore his ACL last season while fielding fly-balls in batting practice. The 43-year-old closer has 608 saves and may have retired after last season had he not been injured.

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

And then there is the captain. Number two. Derek. Jeter. Almost to 2,600 games played as a Yankee, Jeter will turn 39 in mid-season. This actually brings up the biggest question mark for the Yankees. Can the old guys win?

Whether or not they can is irrelevant. Can they? Yes. It's a game played between to teams, somebody has to win. Will they? Probably. Is this year’s version of the Evil Empire strong enough to endure the next nine months and get hot at the right time and pull out an amazing postseason run and topple some much younger more athletic team who is favored to win? Absolutely.