AL East

Standing at 6 feet 7 inches, 290+ pounds, hurling a horse-hide sphere at 96 miles an hour straight at you, it's safe to say, you're not safe when C.C. Sabathia's on the mound. But for how much longer will Sabathia be able to maintain this level of pitching?

An offseason acquisition brought him to New York, where good players go to die.

So the 28 and overweight Sabathia was a perfect candidate to play in NY: a pitcher who's had mediocre-to-terrible statistics against the division he recently joined.   

Is anyone else pumped up about the upcoming 2009 season? Or is it just me?

So much has gone on this offseason for the Baltimore Orioles; it's difficult taking it all in. We've seen trades, extensions, free-agent signings, International exploration, etc. Let's just say it's been a fun few months.

This is gonna be a little experiment driven by necessity.

I'm borrowing the idea of joint and several liability from law to solve an irritating little glitch. The idea is to write a single article, lop it in two, and have the two parts work autonomously. More accurately, it's to write two articles at the same time that are the product of a single thought process.

It may work or I may thoroughly confuse myself and end up writing about the National Football League by the end. We'll see.

With all due respect to the Tampa Bay Rays, the two favorites are finally in the building—the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

I feel a little bad about doing this because it's one of the primary reasons people really hate these two franchises—they get all the hype no matter how recent and thunderous their failures.

Boston lost the American League East and the AL Championship Series to Tampa in 2008. New York failed to even qualify for the playoffs. Yet, here I am, touting both as the kings of the hill with no reason except offseason headlines.

It seems like everyone is making their picks for who wins the AL East. I'm going to take it one step further and look at both the AL and NL East, arguably baseball's best divisions.

Lets start in the National League. The East is a powerful division. Will the defending World Champion Phillies again take the top spot? Will the Mets suffer another late-season collapse? Can the Marlins overtake them both? Will the Nats actually look good this year?

Barring major injuries and some fluky miracle season, here are my picks for the NL East.

According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, Bobby Crosby of the Oakland A’s has been playing third base since they signed shortstop Orlando Cabrera. A couple of teams, including the Yankees, have taken notice.

According to John C. Rodriguez of the Sun Sentinel, the Florida Marlins have cut 24-year-old left handed pitcher Zach Kroenke, who they drafted in this offseason’s rule 5 draft, and returned him to the Yankees.

Yankee players Robinson Cano and Damaso Marte both participated in the World Baseball Classic and both came back with injuries.