From last Friday’s Pirates season preview… Burning QuestionAndrew McCutchen has taken the next step towards superstardom. Will Neil Walker, Jose Tabata, and Pedro Alvarez follow him this season? OK, so everyone knows that Andrew McCutchen is a superstar. The newly-extended superstar posted a career high 5.7 fWAR last year, highlighted by an .820 OPS and […]

After a year of tumult with the status of the Dodgers ownership, the team finally has ownership in place in the Stan Kasten/Magic Johnson group. With that issue settled, all of the focus can turn to the on-field product, where the Dodgers return NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw and NL MVP runner-up Matt Kemp. […]

The Oakland Athletics had a difficult year last season, and how did they respond going into 2012? Simple, they blew up their team (again) and gave it another whirl. Nearly the entire starting rotation is new, and a good bit of the lineup is too. The A’s don’t look like contenders in the loaded AL […]

From today’s season preview of the Colorado Rockies… Burning QuestionHow much of an improvement will the Rockies rotation overhaul be in 2012? Let’s do a quick recap of the Rockies rotation. IN: Jeremy Guthrie, Drew Pomeranz,Tyler ChatwoodOUT: Aaron Cook, Jason Hammel, Kevin Millwood, Esmil Rogers, Alex WhiteINCUMBENT: Juan Nicasio, Jhoulys Chacin The five starters no […]

From today’s season preview of the Los Angeles Angels… Burning QuestionShould the Angels just be willing to cut bait on Bobby Abreu and Vernon Wells in order to give younger, more talented players more playing time? Bobby Abreu started at DH for the Angels last season, and managed a .718 OPS. He made $9 million, […]

From last Friday’s season preview of the Milwaukee Brewers… Burning QuestionCan Mat Gamel come close to adequately replacing Prince Fielder at first base? It’s not really possible to replace a player as good as Prince Fielder. He has a career .930 OPS and 230 homers, and he doesn’t turn 28 until May. He has five […]

When you’ve got two franchise cornerstone players like Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki, you expect to win more than 73 games. Yer, that’s what happened to the Rockies last season. In July, they traded their ace Ubaldo Jimenez to the Indians. However, that trade will help them out a ton in 2012, and the Rockies […]

The Angels have played second fiddle in the AL West for the last couple years after the back to back AL pennants won by the Texas Rangers. This offseason, Los Angeles set to change that trend, by signing both first baseman Albert Pujols and former Rangers starting pitcher CJ Wilson. Combine those two with their […]

From this morning’s season preview of the Arizona Diamondbacks… Burning QuestionWho is a better comparison for Paul Goldschmidt: Ryan Howard, or Mark Reynolds? These three players share two similar traits: a lot of power, and a lot of strikeouts. Reynolds and Howard are both abysmal defenders, while the jury is still out on Goldschmidt after […]

From today’s season preview of the Cardinals… Burning QuestionCan a rotation headed by Adam Wainwright returning from injury still be one of the top staffs in the National League, even if Chris Carpenter misses an extended period of time? Before blowing his elbow out last spring, Wainwright was one of the best pitchers in baseball. In […]

From last Wednesday’s season preview of the Astros… Burning QuestionHow is Brett Myers going to respond for being moved into the closer’s role for the first time since 2007? The Astros traded their 2011 closer, Mark Melancon, to the Red Sox in exchange for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Wieland. Lowrie is already the starter at […]

The Diamondbacks completed a miraculous transformation from 2010 to 2011, going from last in the division to first. Their attack was led by a good, young starting rotation, and a potent offense led by MVP candidate Justin Upton. GM Kevin Towers tinkered with his team this offseason, and manager Kirk Gibson has an extremely talented […]

Heading into September, it didn’t look like the St Louis Cardinals would be playing October baseball. But the stars aligned for St Louis  in September. They went on a crazy run and stole the NL’s wild card slot away from the Atlanta Braves, who collapsed in horrific fashion over the season’s final month. In the […]

As we pitted each bracket winner against each other in the quarterfinals, we expected the results to be a lot closer than they were. Shows what we know. We now have our Final Four, featuring three movies I absolutely adore, and one I’m not a huge fan of (but that has gotten a relatively easy […]

From my season preview of the Tigers on Wednesday… Burning QuestionIs Detroit’s offense going to be the best in the American League this year? Let’s look at this question statistically. The Tigers return most of their offense, but have a couple of change. Victor Martinez will miss the season, and will (essentially) be replaced by […]