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I just thought to start a 2010 MLB thread to follow our teams throughout Spring Training and the season.
What I think for the Braves:
They might make it to the playoffs this year, because of an enriched bullpen w/ Saito and Wagner and because of some new additions like Glaus, because he'll bring some more power to the lineup. Overall i think the Braves will do pretty good this year, in Bobby Cox's last season.

I'm an Indians fan. We are always horrible so my hopes aren't high.

Life long, die hard White Sox fan right here. We made some decent additions and I am really looking forward to this season. i think it will be a good one for us. **Here's hoping anyways** lol..

Mets fan here, and pretty divided on my team.

On one hand, there's a potentially dangerous offense (Reyes, Wright, Bay, Beltran and Francoeur) and good depth. On the other hand, we have the worst offensive 1B in baseball, four backup catchers but no starting catcher, questionable starting pitching beyond Santana, health issues (Beltran will be out awhile, Reyes always a risk) and no one's sure if Wright can hit 30 home runs again. We also have one of the worst GMs in baseball.

This isn't a championship team, but they might make the postseason.

bellicosejason wrote:I'm an Indians fan. We are always horrible so my hopes aren't high.

Try being a Pirates fan! 17 years in a row with a losing record... But I have high hopes they will finish at .500 this year.

I'm also a Red Sox fan. They tease and beckon but in the end they almost always break your heart.

What makes you think the Pirates will finally break .500 this year?

Tigers signed Damon.. can't imagine that ending too well.

I'm just not that impressed with Damon. I don't think he was worth the 8 million. Just my opinion..

I don't think he is either. He can still hit decently, probably somewhere along the lines of .280, 12 homers, 15 sb next year, but he can't play defense anymore and will probably spend some time at DH. $8 mil is too much.

dfreely wrote:What makes you think the Pirates will finally break .500 this year?

Just plain stupidity -- I mean optimism.

Two reasons:
1) I think they are done trading away players with value for prospects. This should mean better team chemistry this year. Last year the guys hardly knew each other. That also means that the farm system has been pretty much restocked, and that there are some guys available if needed in the long run.
2) The few players they acquired during the off-season seems to be geared towards giving the starting rotation more confidence. Just about all the starters are ground ball-type pitchers and they shored up the infield a bit, and brought in some decent relievers.

Seems like the only thing the Pirates have done correctly last year is actually trading away all those players at the same time - Nyjer, Snell, McLouth, etc, to stock up on prospects. It seems like for most of the 2000's, they'd only trade away one big player a year, which made no sense since it completely prevented them from competing, and at the same time, prevented their farm system from developing at a correct rate.

Still hard to imagine them breaking .500 this year.. sure they've made some improvements, but so have other teams. The Pirates aren't really pulling ahead, they're just keeping up.