On the Diamond

Sure it's two weeks into the games already, but now is as good a time as any to start writing about the baseball season. We've had a few interesting storylines, some exciting debuts and my fantasy team is already shot to hell. Here are some random thoughts:

* Going into the season I was pefectly fine with all of the noise about the Yankees and Red Sox. After all, Boston's win meant that it had turned into a real rivalry, rather than just a fan- and media-based feud. But with the rivalry dwarfing coverage of all other teams and every Sox-Yanks incident being hashed and rehashed on PTI, I've had enough. The Sheffield fiasco on Thursday was most ridiculous for the fact that nothing really happened. The fan never ended up affecting the play and Sheffield never actually struck the fan. But the media simply can't restrain themselves when it comes to wall-to-wall coverage of Yanks-Sox.

* I'm not worried about the Giants at all. Even if Barry is out of the lineup for another month, the team is balanced and deep enough to tread water in the weak NL West.

* It's great that baseball is back in Washington and I'm glad to see that the Nationals have been embraced by the city. But the one thing nagging me about the Nats is thier uniforms. To me, their home unis make them look just like the Angels and their road jerseys are just like the Giants' jerseys.

* As for my aforementioned fantasy team, everything looked blissful after my draft. I had a lineup stacked with sluggers like Tejada, Ortiz, Blalock and Matsui. But as a rotisserie novice, I didn't pay enough attention to creating a balanced lineup. For example, none of my guys can steal bases and my pitching staff is severely struggling in the ERA and strikeouts. The good thing about baseball is that each season lasts about three decades, so there's plenty of time to wheel and deal.

* The fact that two players have already been busted for steroids tells me that the problem isn't going to disappear nearly as quickly as baseball would like. Players still have the mentality that even though there are tests, they won't get caught. The implementation of new testing policies are admirable, but it's going to take several years before players view the tests as a deterrent.

* Speaking of steroids, remember when Juiced was released on Valentine's Day and everyone was dismissing Jose Canseco? "This book is trash!" we all cried. "You can't take anything he says seriously because he's obviously just a sellout who's looking to throw his teammates under the bus. Don't pay any attention to him- he has zero credibility."

Well, two months later and Canseco has gotten substantially wealthier, initiated a Congressional steroid crackdown and successfully torn Mark McGwire's reputation to shreds. So I guess Jose Canseco was given a lot more credibility than anyone intended.

Mr. Predicto

NL MVP: Albert Pujols
NL Cy Young: Tim Hudson
NL Manager of the Year: Frank Robinson
AL MVP: David Ortiz
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
AL Manager of the Year: Tony Pena

Playoffs:

Angels over Yankees
Red Sox (Wild Card) over Twins
Angels over Red Sox

Marlins (Wild Card) over Cardinals
Giants over Braves
Marlins over Giants

World Series: Angels over Marlins