First blog ever so lets give it a try. I live and breathe for sports. I really dont know what I would do without them. Enough about me, Im just gonna get right into it. First of all I'm so glad its baseball season again. Like I said, I love all sports but baseball is my favorite. I think this year is going to be an awesome year. So many great storylines. Manny Ramirez is back. Not sure how well he will perform but I applaud Billy Bean for this signing. Yes he has to sit out the first 50 games, but they only had to pay 500,000 grrr (as Rome would say) for him. Thats a steal. The risk/reward factor is perfect. If Manny comes out and just lays eggs everywhere, oh well. 500,000 grrr is nothing to an MLB team. But if Manny comes out and hits even 15 or 20 bombs with 50, 60 RBI's, Bean looks like a genius. I think Manny still has a little something left in the tank I just dont think Oakland is going to be able to compete with the Angels or the Rangers in that division. They've got a couple nice players in Coco Crisp, Jonny Gomes and hopefully Yoenis Cespedes can live up to the hype but all in all I see a sub par 500 team here. We all though should be looking forward to see Manny being Manny! Ozzie Guillen goes to the new and improved Miami Marlins. Im very excited for this. Ozzie is arguably the most entertaining manager along with Lou Piniella. He joins the Marlins as they have a new stadium along with a new star player in Jose Reyes. If Hanley Ramirez can play a solid third base they might have the best left side of the infield in the MLB, offensively and defensively. Also, its about time that the Marlins finally start getting some people to come to their games. Their attendance in previous years has been outright pitiful. Im talking like less than a state HS girls basketball championship game. The Marlins also added the controversial Carlos Zambrano from my Chicago Cubs (I was glad to see him go). Him and Ozzie are going to make a great pair. As long as they take their anger management classes they should be fine (joke!). But seriously, Ive got an over/under of 18 games that Ozzie gets toss and Im taking the over. What do you think? With Albert Puljos gone from the Cards and on to the Angels Im interested in seeing how these 2 teams will do. I feel like the last few years the Angels have had very high expectations, but havent really amounted to much. This year their roster is stacked, pitching and hitting. They should win the division and I would think could make a deep run in the playoffs. Will they? Only time will tell. The Cardinals however I think are in a good position. Yes, they lost their Mr. Everything, but if they have a terrible season can't they just blame Puljos? I think, however, that they are going to have a good year. In a semi-weak division they don't really have a best player but up and down their lineup is still pretty damn good. Furcal is still a solid leadoff/shortstop, the middle of the lineup has Holliday, Berkman, Freese and even Yadier Molina is a solid option at catcher. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention they still have Chris Carpenter who when healthy is one of the best pitchers in the league. Not sure yet if it will be a surprise or not but I expect to see the Cards past the first round of the playoffs. Last but not least, for now, can my Cubbies finally make the playoffs? Probably not, but I really feel like we do have a good roster. As depressing as they have been for the last 103 years, we do have some good young talent mixed with some veterans. Starlin Castro has quickly become a name people know and OSU star Darwin Barney isnt too shabby himself. Both young studs hit around .300 (Castro was at .307) last year and even though Castro had way too many errors last year they make a good up the middle combo. What sucks for the Cubs is that we dont have consistency anywhere. With the lineup we have, scoring runs should not be a problem, but when we do score it seems like our pitching goes to crap. Hopefully Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol can have solid years out of the bullpen and also Im waiting for Randy Wells to have a breakout year. With being in a pretty competitive division the Cubs are gonna need at least 85 to 90 wins to have a chance at the playoffs. If you're a big baseball fan like I am, we're hoping for a healthy and exciting season with plenty of late game drama and nail biting playoff races. Maybe someone will hit 60 home runs or get to 30 wins. Im also hoping for a couple perfect games and even some bench clearing brawls. Most importantly, go Cubs and booooooo Yanks (yes I am a Yankee hater).