This is finally the year!

Just not for Cleveland.

Well, I hope so (obviously). But I don't think it's in the cards for the Tribe. Here are my predictions for the 2009 MLB season.

AL EAST
1. New York Yankees. Spend, spend, spend. Steal, steal, steal.
2. Tampa Bay Rays. Entertaining team. Dump of a stadium.
3. Boston Red Sox. Welcome back to reality, chowds.
4. Baltimore Orioles. Could be the Rays with pitching help.
5. Toronto Blue Jays. Time to deal Halladay and rebuild.

AL CENTRAL
1. Minnesota Twins. Sweet pitching but losing Mauer hurts.
2. Cleveland Indians. Enjoy Sizemore while we have him.
3. Kansas City Royals. No longer a disgrace.
4. Detroit Tigers. Wish they had Maybin instead of Dontrelle.
5. Chicago White Sox. Unlikeable team deserves cellar.

AL WEST
1. Oakland As. Surprise team will ride Holliday.
2. Los Angeles Angels. Their last shot with these vets.
3. Texas Rangers. Another year and no pitching.
4. Seattle Mariners. Perhaps Trey Griffey could help them.

NL EAST
1. New York Mets. Will hold off Phillies this time.
2. Philadelphia Phillies. Strong team but no repeat.
3. Florida Marlins. 2010 could be their year. Again.
4. Atlanta Braves. No longer an exciting team.
5. Washington Nationals. Best move was impeaching GM.

NL CENTRAL
1. Chicago Cubs. Clearly the team to beat.
2. Cincinnati Reds. Youngsters shock the NL.
3. St Louis Cardinals. Albert could carry them further.
4. Houston Astros. Clearly in decline.
5. Milwaukee Brewers. Last year was their chance.
6. Pittsburgh Pirates. Bad karma deserved in steel town.

NL WEST
1. Arizona Diamondbacks. Young team ready to explode.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers. Jeff Kent is finally gone.
3. San Francisco Giants. Best pitching in the NL.
4. Colorado Rockies. No pitching and not enough hitting.
5. San Diego Padres. No talent once Peavy's traded.

AL Wildcard: Cleveland
AL Champion: New York Yankees
NL Wildcard: Cincinnati Reds
NL Champion: Chicago Cubs

World Series Champion: Chicago Cubs

Gabe Paul Rosters

Well, I'm a total baseball geek.

I have created a spreadsheet with all our rosters, salaries and total money spent. You can download the spreadsheet by clicking here. Please let me know if you see any errors. Feel free to make any modifications.

With that keeper roster, it looks like the Buggy Boys are well prepared to defend his title. Hope everybody's gearing up for the Saturday draft.

Baseball Cards

When I was a kid, I was totally hooked on baseball cards. And, to be honest, this habit continued well through my teenage years.

But after moving from state to state over the last twenty years, lugging around those boxes of cards became less and less convenient. Over the years, boxes have been sold, consolidated, dropped off at Goodwill or flat out thrown into the trash. (Goodbye 1990 Score!)

Perhaps the part I miss most about baseball cards is the thrill of discovering this year's new offerings from Topps, buying a pack or two, then slowly savoring the pack, thumbing through them one by one. Since I wasted countless hundreds of dollars on baseball cards in the past, I find it particularly difficult to spend $2, $3 or even $5 on a pack of cards today. Gone are the days of fifty cent packs of baseball cards.

Imagine rifling through some old boxes and finding this treasure trove. Somewhere, hidden for decades in a warehouse, priceless unopened boxes of baseball cards and other cards from the 1930s have been discovered. Yes... UNOPENED! Can you imagine throwing down a couple thousand dollars then opening up that pack of cards? With my luck, I'd get doubles of Harold "Stone Hands" Lightenwalker and nary a Cobb in sight. (After you click that first link, here are more images from that amazing collectible find.)