Opinion

The baseball season begins tonight with arguably the best rivalry in sports.  With the Red Sox and Yankees both making major changes to their team over the offseason, it's time to take a long at what differences the fans will look at this season.  With that in mind, here is a look into who made the right moves and who made the wrong moves.

Boston Red Sox

Whoa, look what happened to the American League West when nobody was paying attention.

As usual, eyes were focused on the ongoing turf battle in the beastly AL East and for good reason—the two best squads and possibly the three finest call it home.

First off, I would just like to wish everybody a very happy, secular, non-denominational day of spring and painted egg collecting.

But for most of us, the most special part of this day is the first night of baseball in America.

Tonight at 8pm (or probably 9pm because of ESPN’s commercials), the New York Yankees will take on the Boston Red Sox in what will be the first day of baseball for the 2010 season. As die-hard a hockey fan as I am, nothing feels like Opening Day baseball, especially when the fate of your team is unknown.

April 4, 2010: A day marked on my calendar since November.

And while some will be celebrating Easter and others observing the final days of Passover, an unofficial holiday takes place that you won't find on your calendar. I speak, of course, of Opening Day—the most wonderful day of the year.

Drafted: First Round, 2008 (Sarasota, FL)

Height: 6′3″; Weight: 195 lbs

Born: Oct. 4, 1989

It seems pre-ordained. It seems like only a matter of time before pitcher Casey Kelly develops into a star. When the Red Sox talk trade with other major league clubs, opposing GMs ask Theo Epstein to include the 20-year-old right-hander in the deal. Epstein declines and declares Kelly untouchable. He and Ryan Westmoreland appear to be the ONLY prospects who cannot be had in a deal. Period.

The New York Mets will start the 2010 baseball season with two of their most influential hitters on the DL.

Carlos Beltran will not resume any baseball activities until April 10 at the earliest, and even then it could be anything between four and eight weeks until he's back in the everyday lineup.

Jose Reyes, meanwhile, will be on the sidelines until at least April 11, after the Mets put him on the DL retroactive to March 26.

Give FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal credit—before reaching for the Chicago White Sox as his prediction to win the 2010 World Series, he prefaced it with (probably real) editor guidelines.

The first two essentially prohibited him from tabbing either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.

Fine, the powers-that-be wanted him to zig when everyone else zagged.

Originally published at TwinsMVB.com .

I participated in a Twitter debate last night that spanned several hours.

The topic? “Who should start the season as back-up catcher: Wilson Ramos or Drew Butera?”

While very intense, it also cast an illuminating light onto how badly the regular season is needed so we can all move on to more meaningful discussion topics.

MLB.com's Barry M. Bloom reported that Cubs skipper Lou Piniella had this to say following the team's win over Arizona is the final game of the preseason on Saturday:

"I think the Cubs, their time is coming to win the World Series. Hopefully, it's very, very, very soon."

As someone who's been waiting for 40 years, I sure hope it's soon, too, Lou.

I actually like Lou's World Series chatter. For too long, the club has been careful to avoid that talk, saying instead that the goal is to "win the division" or "have a winning season."

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had what may seem like a less-than-stellar Spring Training.

They finished two games under .500, good for middle of the pack in both the American League and the Cactus League action.

Batters swung at collectively mediocre .274 clip with 27 combined home runs, at or below the halfway mark in the AL.