Every site has a predict-the-division-winners-and-playoffs challenge (including this one).
Here's our annual step off the beaten path to get your predicitions regarding 2011 individual award winners.
Bedazzle your friends! Shock the world! Accumulate points and win an as-yet-unnamed prize! (A cuttlefish? A Batter's Box No-Prize? A song written in your honor? What could it be?)
Just cut and paste my predictions, below, into your reply, change the names to reflect your predictions (warning: mine will be way wrong, they always are) and impress us all with your wisdom, daring, cunning and knowledge! (Entries accepted through April 15.)
No matter what anyone else does, Seattle Mariner rookie Tom Wilhelmsen should run away with AL Comeback Player of the Year.
What? A rookie can't win that award! Yeah, that's probably true, but it shouldn't detract from your enjoyment of this classic story from former Torontonian Geoff Baker for the Seattle Times.
My trip to spring training is done and now that I am back at home I thought I would try and summarize what I have seen and add to my scouting reports on some players.
I also have more video to share of Aaron Sanchez and Deck McGuire.
Update: Also, almost immediately invalidating my headline, the Jays have acquired Jayson Nix from the Indians for cash considerations. Corey Patterson to the DL. Nix is terrible, but plays/has played 2nd, 3rd and corner outfield.
I've written the Yankees preview for Batter's Box every year since 2005, the first year we started doing team/dkvision previews here on Canada's Baseball Leader. And every year, I pick them to win the division and usually to win the World Series.
- And why not? Every year since 1993, except for an aberrant third place disappointment in 2008, the Pinstriped Wonders have finished either first or second, and have made the playoffs every year but '08 since 1995. In that relatively short time, they've appeared in seven World Series and have won six titles. (Pretty good, even by NYY standards!) So why should this year be any different?
Why? Because, unlike past years, the Yankee pitching suu-uuucks. Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies might prove to hurt the Yankees more than the Rangers, and could ultimately decide the fate of three 2010 playoff teams -- the Yanks, Rangers and Phils -- in the coming season.
It hurts me to write this. And I hope I am wrong -- way wrong. But to start with the big news, to avoid burying the lead, let's be up front with it ... the 2011 Yankees are a team that looks like it could well finish ...
Here's a potentially fun discussion point based on a Web factoid. According to today's update from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ...
Today's Date in Baseball History: March 28, 1976 - Media sources report a potential blockbuster between the Mets and Dodgers involving two future Hall of Famers. The deal would send Tom Seaver to LA in exchange for Don Sutton. Mets fans respond negatively and perhaps influence the deal. The trade is called off and Seaver will remain in New York until 1977 when he is sent to Cincinnati.
Oddly, I have no recollection of this rumor from the time -- then again, I was only nine! Sutton (155 wins at the time, 169 more yet to come) for Seaver (178 wins at the time, 132 more yet to come)? It would have made the earlier-in-the-decade "$100,000 Bobby Swap" (Bonds for Murcer) pale in comparison!
So, given that, what are the biggest trades -- that never happened -- that you remember hearing about?
For me, it's easy ...
Day three in Dunedin was an inter-squad day. Two games were on offer, Las Vegas vs New Hampshire and Dunedin vs Lansing. There was a Syndergaard sighting; another home run by a hot hitter; some hot hitting by a big dollar player; and some surprising base running.
Check the link below for video of Syndergaard.
Today was day two of my trip to minor league spring training. On this day the AAA and AA teams played the Phillies. I saw a two home run day, a solo home run, and in general good hitting by a number of Blue Jay prospects.
I also have some video of Mike McDade doubling to the wall from the right side (McDade is a switch hitter).




