NL East

The Marlins will have a lot of young help this year, with the returning Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Jeremy Hermida, and Cameron Maybin looking to make significant contributions.

They also acquired third baseman Emilio Bonifacio from Washington for pitcher Scott Olsen. However, Florida did lose closer Kevin Gregg, who had 29 saves last year. Replacing him is Matt Lindstrom.

The reason why I have the Marlins in third place is because they will not compare to the Phillies or the Mets in terms of their pitching staff.

Get ready, Miami. The Marlins are coming. Or at least they will be. 2012!

ESPN.com:

"The Florida Marlins will soon have a home of their own.

The team on Monday cleared the last political hurdle in its decade-long quest to get its own ballpark in Miami when the Miami-Dade County commission voted to approve the multi-million dollar deal.

After the Tampa Bay Rays halted the New York Yankees' bid for a ten-game winning streak yesterday, the Phillies handed Chien-Ming Wang his second loss of the spring.

Aaron Heilman is next up in the Pinkie’s series of season outlooks for the Chicago Cubs.

Heilman was originally drafted by the New York Mets as the 18th overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft. He spent his college years at Notre Dame, and grew up in Logansport, Indiana, which is only about 134 miles away from Chicago.

Our friend over at MetsGrrl.com put together possibly the most comprehensive preview of Citi Field you'll find online. It's like she made her very own episode of "Cribs"—Mets style—as she takes you through the ins and outs of the new home of our beloved New York Mets.

Back in 2001 the Mets had a pitcher named Steve Trachsel. Through his star-crossed career Trachsel had become what one would call an inconsistent pitcher; one who at times could look really, really good, and times where he could look really, really awful.

On one late April night against the San Diego Padres at Shea Stadium, Trachsel got bombed by the Padres and had to be pulled out of the game by then manager Bobby Valentine. It appeared that the Mets had had enough of Trachsel, who was getting blistered every time he touched the mound.

I remember jumping up and down in front of my dad one evening in 1997. 

The Florida Marlins, Cleveland Indians, and a sour apple lollipop my mother reluctantly gave me after literally an hour of begging, which in turn probably made jumping up and down a bad idea. 

The stage was set.

Matt Stairs will forever be remembered for the game-winning home run in in a 7-5 win against the Los Angeles Dodgersin Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS.

That being said, when the season opens, or shortly thereafter, he could be gone.

I watched my first full exhibition game today against the Minnesota Twins (a 2-1 loss) and noticed a few things. Matt Stairs was playing left field and Raul Ibenez pinch hit. Geoff Jenkins played right and John Mayberry, Jr., shown above, played center.

While the majority of my fellow hardball junkies are busy overdosing on the latest, most obscure stat that quantifies the number of sunflower seeds consumed by Ross Gload per at-bat (adjusting for park factors), I’m staring at a map.